An abandoned Soviet ‘secret city’ near Skrunda, Latvia, once housed an advanced radar installation along with apartment blocs er, blocks for base workers.

Riga Mortis

They called it “Skrunda-1”… that is, when they called it anything. Back in the Soviet Era, it was customary for Eastern Bloc “secret cities” not to have actual names nor appear on maps. Instead, a numeral was appended onto the name of the nearest town. Thus the remains of Skrunda-1 lie 3 miles (5 km) north of the historic town of Skrunda, roughly 95 miles (150 km) west of Latvia’s capitol city, Riga.

Them Negative Waves

The former LSSR (Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic) was a puppet state established in July of 1940, following the Soviet Union’s invasion, occupation and annexation of the independent Republic of Latvia. The fall of communism in September of 1991 saw Latvia regain its sovereignty but subsequent negotiations over base closures and the withdrawal of thousands of Red Army troops stationed on Latvian soil dragged on for years.

Your Base Are Belong To Us

Skrunda-1 was one such base the USSR (and its successor state, the Russian Federation) was reluctant to relinquish. Opened in 1964 at the height of the Cold War, Skrunda-1 boasted a variety of advanced radar installations capable of monitoring air traffic across the width and breadth of Western Europe. Facilities there were continually upgraded over the years, right up to the time a formal base closure agreement was signed between Latvia and Russia in April of 1994.

Next Page - Click Below to Read More:
Radar Offline Abandoned Secret Soviet Base In Latvia

Tirana soars wrecks, anyone? The Kucove Air Base in south-central Albania houses dozens of historic Soviet aircraft dating back to the time of the Korean War.

Kucove Air Base, built in the Cold War years of the early 1950s, was quite advanced for its time. A trio of underground hangars carved out beneath nearby mountains and linked to the main runways by dedicated taxiways offered unprecedented security from potential NATO air raids. It’s no wonder dozens of Soviet- and Chinese-built jet fighters were based at Kucove… it’s definitely a wonder that in October of 2018, no less than 88 obsolete MiG fighter jets could still be found at the once state-of-the-art Albanian aerodrome!

Surely You Jets

In 1997 the base was captured by rebels during the Albanian Crisis (a civil war prompted by the collapse of nation-wide, government-sponsored Ponzi schemes). Both the aircraft and base’s infrastructure incurred damage and vandalism; as many as seven MiG jets were destroyed and their parts sold on the black market. Damage to the base was not completely repaired until the 2002-2004 renovation to NATO standards. The country officially joined NATO on April 1st of 2009… no foolin’.

Props For Good Defense

In 2005 the Albanian Air Force retired all 224 of its various MiG jets, including Shenyang J-5 and J-6 fighters (MiG-17 and MiG-19 jets built under license in China) and even a few propeller-powered trainers purchased in the late 1950s. The planes were mothballed but not immediately replaced, as Albania’s NATO neighbors Greece and Italy began monitoring the country’s airspace.

Capital Flight

From the time Albania retired its MiGs and MiG-variants, efforts have been made to auction the decommissioned airplanes, either individually or in batches. These images snapped by Flickr member Rob Schleiffert in April of 2007 show Kucove Air Base and its rolling (but not flying) stock in various states of completion.

Train in Vain

Many of the jets, including rare trainer versions, are in excellent condition considering their advanced age and the increasing difficulty of sourcing replacement parts. This may be a function of the corrosion-resistant aluminum alloys used in their construction combined with minimal actual hours in service – Albania withdrew from the Warsaw Pact in 1968 and as such, did not participate in the East Bloc’s frequent exercises.

Guerrillas in the MiGs

By 2007, Kucove Air Base was looking a tad rough around the edges as funding from Albania’s impoverished government was severely rationed. Retirement of the country’s air force (and the withering of support services) had a correspondingly deleterious effect on the region’s economy as well. Authorities began to explore a range of solutions that went beyond the sales of obsolete aircraft.

Scrapping Scrappy Fighters

Finally, in August of 2018, a deal was struck with NATO allowing the organization to modernize Kucove Air Base and subsequently use the base for training, support, logistics, drills, and supply storage. NATO’s footing the bill as well – someone tell President Trump – and the agreement will see an initial investment of 50 million Euros. “The base is the first footprint of NATO in the Western Balkans,” stated Albanian Defense Minister Olta Xhacka to Reuters, “as it will transform Kucova into the first NATO air base for the region.”

Go Red Wings!

“A NATO base there will boost the country’s defense capacities, and foreign investors will have more confidence in Albania,” according to Klement Alikaj, a 68-year-old retired Albanian Air Force commander. “It will also be good for employment in the area.” All well and good but the future doesn’t look quite as rosy for the base’s 88 remaining MiG, Shenyang, Yakovlev and Nanchang aircraft, however. Expect NATO planners to expedite the auctioning-off and scrapping of the old war-horses – there’s truly never been a better time to acquire a vintage Cold War jet fighter!

Some of Ukraine’s most stunning Soviet Modernist landmarks are at risk of demolition, including the State Scientific and Technical Library, better known as the ‘UFO Building.’ Grandiose and imposing, these concrete wonders may be fascinating to many of us who live outside of former USSR territories, but they can also be a reminder of a painful history, and to some, not worth maintaining. Many of these structures have already begun to crumble, nearly overtaken on all sides by slick modern malls and other developments.

A new short film called ‘Soviet Modernism, Brutalism, Post-Modernism: Buildings and Projects in Ukraine from 1960-1990’ takes a closer look at the Soviet-era gems found in cities like Kiev. Inspired by a book of the same name, which is due to be published this October, the film examines the architectural importance of these structures, particularly those built in the 1960s.

“They symbolize the global idea of the ‘60s – the youth of the world,” says filmmaker Oleksiy Bykov.

Ievgeniia Gubkina, co-author of the book, notes that “modernism is about the way of thinking. Ukrainian architecture of modernism of both waves, postmodernism and contemporary architecture in particular, I realized that there is no continuity in generations of architects. Each succeeding generation does not just reject the previous one, but does not notice it at all, is not even aware of its existence.”

Brief as it is, the film offers a unique analysis of architecture that may soon be lost to history, its removal shifting the cityscape just as dramatically as did its arrival decades ago.

Top photo by Rob Schofield/Flickr Creative Commons

The Russian embassy has taken a hard line in Bulgaria where Soviet monuments have been spray-painted to become iconic American fictional characters from Superman and the Joker to Santa Claus and Ronald McDonald.

According to the Moscow Times, Russia has continued to demand that measures be stepped up to clean and protect the statues. They also want Bulgarian authorities to identify and punish the criminals and do more to prevent future attacks.

The monument at the center of the controversy was sprayed with red paint around the anniversary of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, but some artists have had other ideas over the years as well.

Previously, this same monument in Sofia was painted bright pink to recall the Prague Spring — it later got covered in Ukrainian colors to show solidarity. They have been covered with masks as well.

Of course, this is all a bit excessive in context — these are memorials to a defunct regime and situated in a foreign country over which Russia has no control. One solution would be to simply remove them from public view, as has happened in other countries over the years, but, in the end, it’s up to Bulgaria, not Russia.

Russian freelance artist Andrey Tkachenko reveals the figurative swans hidden deep within the notoriously ugly ducklings of the Soviet automobile industry.

“General Motors is not in the business of making cars. It is in the business of making money.” So stated the late Thomas Murphy, Chairman of General Motors from 1974 thorough 1980. That mantra was turned on its head back in the USSR where state-run automotive “businesses” cranked out an astonishing variety of unappealing utilitarian conveyances that wouldn’t make their manufacturers money unless they were melted down and minted into kopeks.

That said, Soviet designers managed to express their creativity in very limited ways though such expressions always took a back seat to utilitarianism. Andrey Tkachenko, a young freelance artist and graphic designer based in the northwestern Russian Federation city of Nizhny Novgorod, looks beyond the limits of those stodgy soviet auto designs and extrapolates their modest aesthetics to heights the original designers feared to even imagine. Case in point: the GAZ-13 M13 “Chaika”, a soviet luxury car produced between 1958 and 1981 that falls stylistically between a Packard Caribbean and a Checker cab. Most Chaikas were painted black; the two-toned example above being a rare exception.

Putin Approved

We’re showcasing some of Tkachenko’s graphic renderings – “ciberconcepts”, as he calls them – along with images of their real-world inspirations. It’s an endeavor made possible though the artist’s trademark of captioning most of his works with the vehicle’s model designations. However, we must take issue with the “ZAZ-969 Coupe Japanese Style” above; it’s actually a ZAZ-968 similar to Vladimir Putin’s first car, a 1972 model. Being a judo aficionado holding a black belt, Vlad would likely approve of Tkachenko’s subtly Japanesque makeover.

Zuk On This

The Zuk (Polish for “Beetle”) was manufactured by the FSC Lublin Automotive Factory in Poland for a mind-boggling 40 years – from 1958 through 1998 – with few changes over the production run. Panel van versions were exported to the Soviet Union which is how Andrey Tkachenko knows of them. Tkachenko’s take on the alarmingly slab-sided Zuk transforms the rough & ready van into a Jagermeister-spewing “Time Attack Custom Project”. Can’t say it doesn’t look too shabby, with or without the aid of Jagermeister shots. Just below it is a real-world Zuk parked beside a late-production (between 1979 and 1994) ZAZ-968M.

Step On The GAZ

The GAZ-21 “Volga” was a so-called “executive car” manufactured by GAZ (“Gorky automobile factory” in English) from 1956 through 1970. Volga’s were desirable cars in their day, though one had to be in the KGB to order the hot V8-powered version with an automatic transmission. Exuding a 1952 Ford-ish vibe, the third series (1962-70) displayed a toothy chromed grill that features prominently in Tkachenko’s chop-topped, two-seater “Volgaster”.

Next Page - Click Below to Read More:
Russia Hour Traffic Andrey Tkachenkos Soviet Car Concepts