Soviet – Listorati https://listorati.com Fascinating facts and lists, bizarre, wonderful, and fun Fri, 28 Jul 2023 18:09:28 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://listorati.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/listorati-512x512-1.png Soviet – Listorati https://listorati.com 32 32 215494684 Top 10 Horrifying Facts About The Soviet Union https://listorati.com/top-10-horrifying-facts-about-the-soviet-union/ https://listorati.com/top-10-horrifying-facts-about-the-soviet-union/#respond Fri, 28 Jul 2023 18:09:28 +0000 https://listorati.com/top-10-horrifying-facts-about-the-soviet-union/

The Soviet Union was one of the most brutal regimes of the 20th century but given the significant timescale of its existence and subsequent collapse, many details have faded from public memory. Moreover, terms like dictatorship are often used casually in political debate without full appreciation of what real tyranny actually looks like. This is why it is important to analyse the specifics of why the USSR is considered one of the darkest periods in human history.

10 Reasons Why Communism Sucks

10Pseudoscience was endorsed by the government


While Soviet socialism (typically referred to as communism) was viewed as scientific by its followers, science was unquestionably subject to ideology.

Trofim Lysenko was a Soviet scientist who backed an alternative theory to genetics which would become known as Lysenkoism. He was hostile to the idea of genetics which highlighted unchanging traits. This was at odds with his Marxist beliefs, which stated that with the right conditioning, society and ultimately humanity could be perfected.[1]

The Soviet government eagerly embraced Lysenko’s ideas and his theory was installed as the only acceptable viewpoint within agricultural science. Any scientists who challenged this were removed from their positions and publicly smeared. Many were imprisoned and executed. Not only was science handicapped in the Soviet Union for decades, these bogus theories worsened the famines of the 1930s.[2]

9Psychiatry was exploited to silence political dissidents


Political dissidents were imprisoned for years in mental asylums and forcibly given mind altering drugs for challenging Marxist doctrine. It was claimed that anyone who lived in a socialist system but was still opposed to socialism had to be insane.

The Soviet authorities even invented a new psychiatric term; ‘sluggish schizophrenia’. Its symptoms included obsessing over philosophy or religion, having ‘delusions of reform’ and having inflated self-esteem. But of course, the disorder was completely made up and deliberately vague so it could be attached to dissidents when useful.[3]

What made this method particularly effective was that once someone’s sanity was called into question, they were not subject to the same due process compared with a criminal case.[4] This gave the State even more power than it normally had as it wasn’t required to inform the accused of basic details of their case. Approximately 20 thousand people were institutionalized under such claims but the total is believed to be significantly higher.[5]

8One of Stalin’s top henchmen was a sexual predator


Lavrentiy Beria was a Soviet politician and state security administrator under Stalin. He began his career as the chief of police in Georgia and eventually became the head of the secret police, overseer of the Gulag prison system and Central Committee member. Stalin warmly referred to him as “my Himmler”.[6]

Aside from being responsible for the murder, torture and false imprisonment of millions of peoples, he was also a well-known sexual deviant. During his freetime he would prowl the streets of Moscow and identify young women for his henchmen to kidnap and transport to his private accommodation where he would sexually assault them. After his death Beria’s villa was turned into an embassy and during refurbishments the bones of dozens of young women and teenage girls were discovered buried on the property.[7]

Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore notes that Beria’s depravity was well known amongst the Soviet leadership. While Stalin tolerated Beria due to his reliability, in one instance, when Stalin heard his daughter was at Beria’s house, he frantically called her and ordered her to leave immediately.

7The Gulag was a key part of the Soviet economy

The labour camp system was originally created by Lenin but was at its worse under Stalin. These camps, which would become known as the Gulag, were used to imprison those accused of political crimes. The conditions in the camps were appalling. Abuse and mistreatment were commonplace, and it’s estimated up to 2 million people died within them.[8]

These camps operated as a tool of political terror and also facilitated what was essentially slave labour. The Soviet authorities saw the Gulag as a way of helping the economy and believed it could produce a significant amount of income.[9]

Gulag prisoners were frequently put to work in mines, forests, oil fields and large construction projects. Huge amounts of the resources were produced from the forced labour, creating an entire industry in itself. At Kolyma, a region in the far east of Russia, there were 80 Gulag facilities, all dedicated to mining its significant gold deposits.[10]

However, the Gulag turned out to be an ineffective economic model because unsurprisingly slaves don’t make good workers. The labour camps ultimately became a massive drain on State finances.

6Starvation was used as a weapon

Several famines occurred within the USSR as a result of farm collectivisation. This was largely due to the fact that this policy simply does not work, but what is also true is the Soviet authorities knew that access to food could be used to control the population.

This strategy was used in one of the most infamous man-made famines of the 20th century, the Ukrainian famine of 1932-1933, known as the Holodomor. What was particularly cruel about this famine was that it wasn’t solely caused by incompetence, bad policy or denial. Rather it was deliberately manufactured and worsened by Stalin as a means of wiping out the Kulaks, peasant farmers who were economically more successful than the rest of the population and thus, class enemies.[11]

Historians have also speculated that the famine was targeted at Ukraine in order to weaken its national identity. Ukrainian nationalists had put up fierce resistance to Bolshevik rule during the Russian civil war and Stalin was not willing to risk the region rising up. After seizing crops and livestock, Soviet forces closed off the borders and arrested- or just shot- anyone that tried to flee. It’s estimated that four million Ukrainians died as result of this famine but the true figure will never be known as there was a coordinated effort to cover up the death toll.

10 Bizarre Ways The Soviet Union Controlled Its People

5Initially the Soviet Union was happy to work with the Nazis


While it is true that Nazism and Communism were bitter enemies, the two ideologies saw they had more in common with each other than their non-authoritarian rivals. After all, both are, fundamentally socialist systems.

Their uneasy but mutually beneficial association peaked in August 1939 with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Officially, this was a neutrality pact but in reality it was also an agreement on which areas of Eastern Europe the two regimes would take over. Poland was the main target of this deal, and within two weeks of each other, the two powers occupied the nation in September 1939. As the Nazis rounded up Jews in their half of the country, the Soviets systematically murdered Polish intellectuals and military officers in their sector.[12]

Even years prior to this agreement, the secret police of both regimes, the Gestapo and NKVD, had been cooperating by exchanging political dissidents who had fled their respective countries. More bizarrely, the NKVD handed over numerous German communists to their Nazi counterparts. Many of those who were traded between the two agencies would meet their end in either the Gulag or SS concentration camps.[13]

4Terror and violence were central parts of Communist regime from the beginning


When the atrocities of the Soviet Union are discussed, much of the focus is put on Stalin. However this means the crimes of other earlier revolutionary figures are overlooked, in particular with the USSR’s founder, Vladimir Lenin.

Lenin strongly believed that there could be no peaceful transition from capitalism to communism. The wealthy elites could only be removed from power by force, not to mention they had to be punished for their crime of exploiting the people. Even after the Bolsheviks had achieved control of the government violence and specifically terror were used to control the population and eliminate any perceived threat to its power.

Hundreds of thousands, potentially millions of people, were executed and imprisoned during the ‘Red Terror’, a campaign of violence against those labelled as class enemies. Additionally, during the early years of the Bolshevik government, numerous uprisings were brutally put down.[14]

All of this was organised and endorsed by Lenin. It was under his leadership that the secret police, initially called the Cheka, and the Gulag were established. Moreover, he explicitly stated that the goal was to terrify the population into submission.[15]

3‘Fake news’ was the brainchild of the KGB


The KGB was the institutional successor of the Cheka and NKVD, operating from 1954 to 1991 and was responsible for state security. Abroad, its primary goals were to foster political unrest and promote Marxist ideology.

One of the KGB’s most well-known activities was planting false stories in Western media and spreading conspiracy theories with the intent of destroying trust in institutions and inciting conflict. Today this is widely known as ‘fake news’ but its origin can be traced back to the Communist intelligence agency who referred to it as ‘disinformation’.[16]

One of the most famous cases of a successful disinformation campaign was in 1984 when the US media covered the supposed scandal of the AIDs virus being created by the American government. This was in fact a lie that had been carefully crafted and strategically inserted into foreign news sources by Soviet intelligence until it reached Western journalists.

Within Russia, while the KGB was officially disbanded, its influence and tactics can still be observed today and have undoubtedly been boosted by the emergence of the internet.[17]

2The Great Terror was fuelled almost exclusively by Stalin’s paranoia and sadism

Historian Stephen Kotkin describes the Great Terror as “an episode that seems to defy rational explanation.” Between 1936 to 1938 Stalin carried out a sweeping political purge of his administrative, military and diplomatic ranks. Hundreds of thousands of people were arrested, tortured, imprisoned and in many cases summarily executed based on imaginary political offences.

Again, there was no rational reason to inflict this chaos on the country. Historians have been baffled for decades over Stalin’s actions in this period as his position as leader was arguably stronger than it had ever been and there were no obvious internal threats to the Soviet Union. While several theories have been put forward, Kotkin suggests that the most creditable explanation is that Stalin wanted to psychologically destroy his inner circle so they would never try to undermine him. Alongside this twisted motivation was Stalin’s paranoia towards the influence of his exiled rival, Leon Trotsky, especially after Trotsky published books severely criticizing Stalin.[18]

Not only was the Terror completely unnecessary, it was also damaging to the regime. With many of the Red Army’s most experienced and competent officers purged during the Terror, Soviet forces were severely weakened in their ability to fight back when the Nazis invaded in 1941. This resulted in extraordinarily high casualties for the Soviets.

1There was institutional anti-Semitism


Soviet anti-Semitism was inherited to a large degree from the Tsarist era, and arguably communist anti-Semitism can be traced back to Karl Marx himself, who firmly associated Judaism with greed and exploitation.[19]

Bigotry towards Jews was also closely tied to the Soviet anti-Zionist campaign. It even had an official organisation called the Anti-Zionist Committee of The Soviet Public which explicitly stated that Zionists had been collaborators with the Nazis, enabled the genocides in Eastern Europe and had deliberately exaggerated Jewish victimhood during the war.[20]

Though publicly the government claimed to make a distinction between Zionism and Jews, in reality there was institutional discrimination. Jews were prevented from holding certain jobs and were often scapegoated in political witch-hunts. Additionally, as part of the Soviet’s anti-religion campaign, the Jewish faith was subject to, alongside other religious faiths, State oppression in various forms.

Following the Six Day War in 1967, any Jewish-Soviet citizens who applied to immigrate to Israel were denied permission and considered enemies of the people. These individuals, the ‘Refuseniks’, faced severe social and legal consequences, with many being imprisoned for years.[21]

10 Biggest Secrets of the Soviet Union

About The Author: Sam is a freelance writer living in London. His interests include history, science and MMA. You’ll likely find him at the gym or at a cafe reading a book.

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10 Amazing (and Heartbreaking) Stories of the Soviet Space Dogs https://listorati.com/10-amazing-and-heartbreaking-stories-of-the-soviet-space-dogs/ https://listorati.com/10-amazing-and-heartbreaking-stories-of-the-soviet-space-dogs/#respond Wed, 28 Jun 2023 13:53:16 +0000 https://listorati.com/10-amazing-and-heartbreaking-stories-of-the-soviet-space-dogs/

Before the 1969 Apollo 11 mission put U.S. astronauts on the moon, hundreds of missions preceded it. The whole reason for the space race was for both sides, with tensions high due to the Cold War, eager to test missile capability and distance via space exploration. While the U.S. was the first to land a man on the moon, the Soviets were the first to put a living creature into orbit and the first to put a human into space, which they did in 1961.

But before man was sitting in a rocket, all manner of other living creatures were forced to take the lead. The U.S. favored chimpanzees for their close genetic structure to humans, but the Soviets preferred dogs. Some 36 different dogs were used over a 15-year period, and many of them died or have been forgotten by history: these are 10 of their stories.

Related: 10 Historical First Images Captured Of Space

10 Dezik, Tsygan, and Lisa

It’s important to remember that in the 1950s, neither the Soviets nor the U.S. spaceflight teams knew if life even could survive in space, nor did they know for sure that firing something into orbit, let alone it coming back safely, was possible.

By the dawn of the ’50s, the Soviets were already playing catch up. In 1948, three years before Russian testing on live animals began, their American rivals successfully launched a rhesus monkey named Albert into sub-orbital space, followed by three others and a mouse, all of which died.

Dezik and Tsygan were selected as the first Soviet space dogs, and they traveled 68 miles high on August 15, 1951 (beating the American monkey Yorick by a month), returning unharmed. Continuing from this success, the Soviets sent Dezik up for a second flight, this time pairing her with a dog named Lisa. This one, however, ended in disaster as both dogs died when the module crashed. Not wanting to lose both of the first dogs in space, Tsygan was swiftly retired and adopted by a Soviet physicist.[1]

9 Bolik and ZIB

All the dogs used by the Soviets were strays, usually picked off the streets of Moscow and kept in a compound, where they were trained and prepared. For every dog that took part in a mission, there were countless others that either died during training, escaped, were used as backups for Earth-based control groups during missions, or simply weren’t up to scratch.

Although the training and preparation varied depending on the mission, the dogs were generally placed on centrifuges to prepare them for the high speeds. They were also put in cages getting progressively smaller and smaller to prepare them for the cramped, motionless conditions of space flight.

All of this was too much for Bolik, who, just a month after the failure of the Dezik and Lisa mission, ran away a few days before his scheduled flight. The craft and equipment had been designed around Bolik’s size and weight, and no other dog on site would suffice. Luckily for the Soviets, they found a stray running around outside their compound. Untrained but the perfect dimensions, she was dubbed ZIB: an acronym for the Russian translation of “replacement for missing Bolik.” Thankfully, this mission was successful, and the untrained, unsuspecting ZIB returned safely.[2]

8 Laika

On November 3, 1957, the first celebrated achievement on either side occurred when the Sputnik 2 Soviet spacecraft was fired into space. It was planned to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, so pressure was high, and deadlines were short…and on board the craft was poor little Laika.

The tight deadline imposed by the Soviet Premier meant that the flight couldn’t account for a return, so everyone knew going in that Laika (translated as “Barker”) would not be coming back. The plan was to complete multiple orbits of the planet and then crash back to Earth, with Laika expected to run out of oxygen after seven days and die painlessly.

For PR reasons, this was how her fate was recorded for some time, but now we know that she actually died just hours into the mission after temperatures rose to unexpected levels inside the craft during launch. A cruel and tragic way to go, but she became a hero in her time as the first living creature to fly into orbit. Her legacy lives on today, and she is honored in various monuments, in the Cosmonaut Space Museum in Moscow, and in popular culture all over the world.[3]

7 Bars and Lisichka

Riding high on the success of the Laika mission (from a technical perspective), the Soviet spaceflight team was still remorseful over the dog’s fate. No other mission before it was a suicide mission like Laika’s. They made improvements to the capsule, making it capable of returning from orbit, thus ensuring the same thing never happened again.

Bars and Lisichka were selected for this test mission, which launched in the summer of 1960. The latter of the two, Lisichka, was a favorite of Sergei Korolev—the lead rocket engineer and spacecraft designer for the Soviets (LINK 11). However, the preparation, training, and design of the craft would all be for nothing, in the swiftest failure of the spaceflight missions. Just 28 seconds into launch, the capsule exploded, killing both dogs. Much more work was apparently needed.[4]

6 Belka and Strelka

Three years later, the Soviet spaceflight team was scurrying around the streets of Moscow once again, looking for new candidates for its next mission. This time the hope was to send living organisms into orbit and have them come back alive.

The dogs chosen were Belka and Strelka (“Whitey” and “Little Arrow”), who were accompanied on Sputnik 5 by 40 mice, 2 rats, a rabbit, and some fruit flies and plants. On August 19, 1960, the launch occurred and went off without a hitch. After 17 orbits, they returned to Earth as intended, completely unharmed, becoming the first living creatures to reach orbit and return safely. Their success was reported worldwide, and both dogs retired and never flew again. A gigantic propaganda success, Soviet Premier Krushchev gifted a puppy of Strelka to the American First Lady Jackie Kennedy during the height of the Cold War, who grew up to have puppies with an American dog: a true Cold War romance.[5]

5 Pchelka and Mushka

During the space race, advancements, targets, and technology were kept secret from the public on both sides to keep their enemies from gaining the upper hand or profiting from their hard work. This was evidenced in the Pchelka (“Little Bee”) and Mushka (“Little Fly”) mission, which launched in December 1960. It was the first mission for Pchelka, but Mushka had played an important role in Laika’s flight three years earlier, acting as her control group on Earth.

After a successful launch and a day in orbit, an error occurred during reentry when rockets failed to switch off as planned and the capsule veered off target. Rather than allow it to land in foreign hands, the spaceflight team made the decision to self-destruct the capsule, killing both dogs. While happy to go worldwide with their successes, the Soviets still valued their secrecy first and foremost.[6]

4 Shutka and Kometka

The very next flight was another failure. Launched on December 22, 1960, the dogs Shutka and Kometka (“Joke” and “Little Comet”), accompanied by mice, were scheduled to complete an orbital flight but only got as high as 133 miles before the upper stage rocket failed. Two ejection seats were fitted in the event of a disaster, but they were unable to deploy them, trapping the two dogs inside. The crew attempted to self-destruct the capsule, but this also failed to work, so they rushed to the craft.

It crashed 2,175 miles away, still within Soviet borders, sitting in a snowdrift in -42-degree-Celcius (-45-degree-Fahrenheit) temperatures. Unable to disarm the backup self-destruct mechanism (which had a 60-hour timer) due to the freezing temperatures and fading light, they were forced to wait until morning. The glass on the capsule was frosted over, and no signs of life were detected inside. However, as the sun rose the next day, the scientists heard dogs barking and disarmed the mechanism, pulling the dogs out of the module. Miraculously, they were unharmed, albeit in shock.

Both dogs fully recovered, but with the Soviets banning Korolev from telling the story of their survival publicly, they were forgotten. Thankfully, they were both retired, and Kometka was even adopted as a pet by Oleg Gazenko—a leading scientist who selected the dogs for many of the missions— and living a long and deservedly more relaxed life.[7]

3 Chernushka

To double up on research, the trend had been for the Soviets to use two dogs in missions, but with technology and understanding improving, they switched just one dog: a subtle hint that their intentions and future plans were changing. Behind the scenes, officials began setting their eyes on the first human spaceflight, but further tests were required.

Having tested their equipment and technology, as well as the effects of space, on small living creatures in tiny capsules, now the question was whether a craft large enough to fit a human could produce the same results. Test dummies were sent to find out, but the need for a living creature to test for livability meant the dogs’ missions weren’t over yet. Chernushka (“Blackie”) completed one orbit in March 1961 and returned safely. It was the first flight of its kind, and the success of which ramped up the plans for the first human flight the following month.[8]

2 Zvezdochka

The final test flight before Yuri Gagarin’s planned mission was one of the most important tests the Soviet team had yet undertaken. A failure here would result in a launch delay or disaster for Gagarin. After the Chernushka mission, one final success was required for the spaceflight team to be satisfied everything was safe enough for Gagarin.

The dog selected went through the usual training; however, there was one issue: its name. The dog was called Udacha, which means “luck,” which Gagarin insisted on changing. Gagarin was extremely superstitious, and many of his rituals on his launch are still carried out today by Russian cosmonauts. The team was happy to go along with this and allowed Gagarin to rename the dog Zvezdochka (“Starlet” or “Little Star”). Whether this superstition had anything to do with it or not, the mission was another success, returning the dog unharmed back to Earth.[9]

1 Veterok and Ugolyok

For many, Gagarin’s flight marked the end of the space race. The Soviets had roundly beaten the Americans at every major hurdle along the way. But over in the USA, JFK swiftly changed the goalposts, publicly setting his country’s sights on the moon. Not to be outdone in this propaganda war, the new race began, but this one would require more time in space than any of the Soviet’s previous tests.

At this point, the record for continuous time spent in space (without death) was just five days, but it would certainly take longer than that to get to the moon and back. So in 1966, Veterok and Ugolyok were selected in what was to be the final dog-space mission. They were launched aboard a new craft and flown in orbit for a whopping 21 days before returning to Earth and landing safely. The dogs were paraded on television for a while and went on to live long ordinary lives. Ugolyok produced a litter of six puppies, and Veterok befriended a scientist working on the spaceflight team and lived to old age.[10]

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10 Eerie Ghost Cities Left Behind by the Soviet Union https://listorati.com/10-eerie-ghost-cities-left-behind-by-the-soviet-union/ https://listorati.com/10-eerie-ghost-cities-left-behind-by-the-soviet-union/#respond Wed, 01 Mar 2023 02:11:32 +0000 https://listorati.com/10-eerie-ghost-cities-left-behind-by-the-soviet-union/

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, it left behind many remnants of its existence. The ex-Soviet states are dotted with abandoned villages, mines, factories, and sometimes even whole cities.

Here are 10 of the most interesting ghost cities the Soviet Union left behind.

10 Kadykchan

Kadykchan, once a thriving coal mining town, is now a collection of burned-out houses. The city was founded by gulag inmates in the 1940s. The town was soon discovered to have coal, which made it a desirable site for a settlement. The town grew, and by the late 1970s, it had a population of over 10,000.

Unfortunately, the decline of the Soviet Union had a devastating effect on the coal industry, and the town’s population dwindled. At its peak, the town housed nearly 11,000 people. But after the 1990s, coal prices began to decline, forcing it to close its mines. In 1996, a mine explosion killed six people, decreasing the population to under 300. By the early 2000s, the town was only home to a handful of residents. Visiting Kadykchan in winter can feel like a visit to a lost world. The ruins of decayed Soviet apartments and abandoned children’s playgrounds still stand on the town square.

When a huge coal deposit was discovered in Far East Siberia, the Soviet government used gulag workers to build the town and a highway, which became known as the Road of Bones. Kadykchan is completely isolated from both eastern and western Russia, and it takes at least three days to reach the nearest city center. In addition, the Kolyma highway is impassable for most of the year.[1]

9 Skrunda-1

The abandoned Skrunda-1 military complex was once a thriving community. Unfortunately, it has fallen into ruins over the years. Several attempts have been made to repurpose the site for tourism, such as developing an industrial park. However, the site is currently under military control, so it is not possible for civilians to visit.

Skrunda-1 was first built in 1963. As a secret military installation, it was a site with a vast array of buildings and underground bunker networks. At its height, the area was home to over 5,000 Soviet soldiers and a thousand civilians. It contained two massive radars that scanned the sky to detect enemy intrusions. The complex included many buildings, including schools, factories, and barracks.

Skrunda-1 has now slipped into complete isolation. After Latvia received its 7.5 billion euro bailout from the European Union in 2008, the government was forced to auction the property. The government paid €12,000 for the town, which was significantly less than the price at previous auctions. The local government unanimously approved the purchase.[2]

8 Neftegorsk

The quake that ripped through Neftegorsk on May 28, 1995, was the worst earthquake in modern Russian history. The quake’s magnitude was 7.6 on the Richter scale, and according to official statistics, at least 2,040 people died—more than half of the town’s residents. The city was decimated, with nearly everything destroyed; only the chapel, a cemetery, and a memorial remained.

The city was once thriving. But as the tar sands were sucked out of the earth by the prospectors, it deteriorated. Thousands of people were displaced.[3]

7 Mologa

The relocation of the city of Mologa was a four-year project. Earlier, two nearby regions protested, imposing delays. As a result, the central government’s funding for the project dried up before the town could be relocated.

The historic town of Mologa was flooded by Stalin in 1935 to make way for a hydroelectric power station. The city’s history goes back to the 12th century, and it was an important trading post between the Baltic Sea and Asia. But the Soviet Union had other plans. They wanted to build the Rybinsk Reservoir, a hydroelectric power station. As a result, more than 130,000 residents were forced to relocate from the city, and there are reports that over 300 of them drowned.

Today, the town’s residents still gather in the nearby town of Rybinsk in mid-August to celebrate the Day of Mologa. The town’s ruins occasionally appear when the lake’s levels are low. Aerial photographs show streets emerging from the lakebed.[4]

6 Wunsdorf

The Wunsdorf complex is located about 20 miles (32 kilometers) outside Berlin. Originally, the area was a Prussian shooting range. Later, it became the headquarters of the German armed forces. During World War II, the Nazis also used the complex as a military command center. The 60,000-acre 242-square-kilometer) complex became one of the largest military bases in Europe. When the Soviets took control of the town in 1945, Wunsdorf was closed. It then housed up to fifty thousand Soviets. Wunsdorf was the largest Soviet military camp outside of the Soviet Union. There were schools, shops, hospitals, and leisure facilities. Wunsdorf became known as “Little Moscow,” as there were daily trains to and from the Soviet capital.

By the time of the Berlin Wall collapse, the town’s population had fallen from 60,000 to just six thousand. The Soviet troops stationed in the town were called home after the fall of the Wall. The resulting chaos was exacerbated by the uncertainty of the soldiers, who had no idea where they were heading or whether they would be able to find housing. Some of them even bought buses to use as shelter.

While Wunsdorf-Waldstadt is now a thriving town, it’s still a strange post-apocalyptic landscape. Some buildings have been swallowed up by the forest, while others have been refurbished and used as homes. There is a real struggle to keep the structures that remain in the town usable. Now, a local government company is looking for investors who want to restore the buildings to reuse them for educational purposes.[5]

5 Veszprem

The city of Veszprem was captured by Soviet troops during the Vienna Offensive during World War II. During the Cold War, Veszprem served as a major base for Soviet helicopters. The buildings at the airfield were built in the 1930s and were expanded by the Soviets during the 1980s. They have not been restored to their former glory, but you can still see the massive buildings that once filled the base.

Veszprem was home to several Soviet units, including a tank division and an armored training regiment. There was also a paratroop battalion, a chemical defense battalion, and an SGF NCO training school. In all, there were 10,400 Soviet troops stationed in Hungary at the time.[6]

4 Irbene, Latvia

A Russian astronomer and his wife traveled 186 miles (300 kilometers) from Riga to Irbene, Latvia, to visit the largest radio telescope in Northern Europe. On their way, they discovered that the city was now a ghost town. Cafes and power plants stood abandoned. However, the buildings of the abandoned Soviet town were still in good shape when the Russian military left. There were still a few Soviet buildings, and the utilities and sewers were still functioning.

The Soviets abandoned the town in 1993. However, the radio telescope remains there, and you can even climb up near the huge dish, which is the largest in Northern Europe. But you can only visit the facility if you have a special permit.

The secret military base was more than 494 acres (200 hectares) and was used by the military unit 51429. The antennas were used to listen to phone calls in a wide area and even to communicate with enemies of the Soviet Union. The smallest antenna measured a diameter of 32.5 feet (10 meters) and was used to listen to incoming calls.[7]

3 Klomino

Klomino, Poland, is a former Soviet-era ghost town. Though the town is currently abandoned, it was once a Soviet prison camp. Today, the town has a population of only five and no rail or bus connections. There are also no shops and no place to eat. The town has mostly been looted.

The Soviet Union occupied the village in 1945 and renamed it Grodek. Though the village did not appear on Polish maps, it was home to over 6,000 Soviet soldiers. In 1993, after the Soviet Union collapsed, the Polish military took over and began the process of selling the village. However, the Polish military was forced to leave the town after just one year because nobody wanted to purchase it, and the local authorities lacked funds for its upkeep.

Today, the only numerous residents of Klomino are the local ghosts. It is possible to walk through the empty buildings of the former Soviet Army. There are no tourist shops and no buses in the town. While it may be hard to imagine living in such a place, the few human residents are very happy despite the isolation.[8]

2 Vozrozhdeniya Island

In 1948, Vozrozhdeniya Island, once an unassuming island in the Soviet Union, was turned into a top-secret biological weapons research facility. The island’s former village of Kantubek was turned into the military town of Aralsk-7, and laboratories were built on the island’s southern side. In this facility, scientists tested out the most lethal pathogens ever created.

In the southern part of Vozrozhdeniya Island, the Soviets built an open-air test site to study the dissemination of bio-weapon agents and methods to detect them. The testing grounds were equipped with detectors spaced at 0.6-mile (one-kilometer) intervals. The tests included anthrax, brucellosis, the plague, and typhus.

The Vozrozhdeniya Island test site remained operational even after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Eventually, the evacuation of the remaining Russian military personnel took place. In the years since, the site has fallen into disrepair and has been taken apart by scavengers. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. and Uzbek governments joined forces to thoroughly clean up the island and ensure no residual pathogens remained. As the Aral sea continues to dry up, Vozrozhdeniya Island has now become a peninsula shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.[9]

1 Tskaltubo

Tskaltubo was once a fashionable Soviet destination that drew party elites, military personnel, and even Joseph Stalin himself. The decaying hotels, bath houses, and sanitoriums that dot the landscape now appeal to new, more adventurous visitors. The resort’s past is reflected in its ruins, with many buildings depicting Georgian motifs and patriotic symbols.

Tskaltubo has a radon spring that is believed to have healing powers. Stalin ordered the health resort to become the largest balneological center in the Soviet Union. In fact, the Soviet Union built 19 sanatoriums in the city between the 1930s and 1950s. These sanatoriums would become a symbol of the Stalinist style of architecture.[10]

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