The most-enduring conspiracy theories tend to be those that focus on a powerful elite pulling the puppet strings of the world to manipulate it to their liking. For an entity as powerful as the European Union, it is pretty much inevitable that such theories will form. From military might and monetary policy, to language and culture, the EU oversees almost every aspect of European life and, depending on what you believe, they know exactly what they’re doing.

See Also: Top 10 Reasons The European Union Is Doomed

10 The Kalergi Plan

Also known as the Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan, this theory is based on the work of Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, an Austrian-Japanese politician who also had Checkoslovakian and French citizenship. This diverse background, along with living through two world wars, undoubtedly helped shape the political opinions that have made him such a large figure in conspiracy circles.

Kalergi’s “plan” is really the views he expressed in several books, where he states he believes the world will move towards continental-based federations, where Europe would function as one entity, the Americas another, and so on. He also believed that, as “space, time, and prejudice” disappeared, humanity would evolve into a single race.

As you can imagine, this has been seized upon as proof that European elites are trying to wipe out European cultures and ethnicities. Although most theorists have no issue referring to the Kalergi plan directly, it has also been repackaged as Le Grand Replacement, and as a plan for EU officials to use the current migrant crisis to create an Arab Europe—Eurabia.

9 New World Order

Another reason certain conspiracy theories persist longer than others is that they are more adaptable. For example, it’s easy to convince people that something new being added to your water is bad, but when people have been drinking fluoride their whole lives, they’re not as scared of it. But theories about people having ulterior motives to seize control will always be relevant, which makes it easy to apply theories about a New World Order to anyone.

Although he was far from the first to do so, leading Brexiteer Nigel Farage came under fire for applying that theory to the EU in an interview, when he asked “what percentage of the UK actually believe in the United States of Europe, actually believe in this New World Order?”. Along with the Kalergi plan, the theory of the New World Order has long been associated with anti-semitism, so it didn’t help when he described Jewish billionaire George Soros as “the biggest threat to the entire Western World”, or said that banks like Goldman-Sachs want to “take down our democratic systems” and see the EU as “the forerunner of global government”. The difficulty with theories such a this is that, unlike the effects of fluoride on the human mind, it is impossible to definitively prove that people are not conspiring together, meaning the theory is free to continue ad nauseum.

8 No Scots Allowed

Most people are probably aware of the parallel pushes for independence in both Scotland and Catalonia, the key difference being that the Scottish lost a legally binding referendum, while the Catalonians won an illegitimate one. Since then, Catalonian leaders have been arrested, while Scottish leaders have called for a second referendum, due to the fact that they are being taken out of the EU, despite 62% voting to stay.

While there is no precedent for a part of the EU declaring independence from an EU member state, the general consensus is that any newly formed states would have to reapply for membership, and this is where the conspiracy comes in. Since all EU member states have to approve any new additions unanimously, it is easy to prevent any nation from joining. So if Scotland declared independence, Spain would want to keep it out of the EU, so that Catalonians would be too fearful to declare independence for themselves, as Spain could just veto them too. Obviously, the existence of that threat also serves to deter Scotland from declaring independence in the first place.

Instinctively, most Spanish politicians will oppose Catalonian independence; not many people sit around hoping part of their country breaks away. But Spanish government policy has always been that it will not veto Scottish independence or EU membership. In reality, having Catalonia as a non-EU country right on their doorstep would be terrible for Spain, and the EU, not to mention that most people on both sides would expect free movement. Similarly, the EU would rather work with Scotland than against it, and would probably even use Scotland to show the rest of the UK “what it’s missing” by not being a member. So although the threat of a Spanish veto is a very effective talking point, it will never be much of a walking point.

If you think that’s just wishful thinking, remember that Spain was willing to veto any Brexit deal that cut them off from Gibraltar. Even though a hard border in Gibraltar would have no effect on the Spanish economy, but would devastate Gibraltar and make it more likely to rejoin Spain, they still wanted access. So if the Spanish government was willing to fight for 300,000 Brits, they’ll fight for 7.5 million Catalonians and 5.4 million Scots.

7EU Army

In the lead up to the Brexit vote in 2016, there was much discussion about the creation of an EU army, one that would see EU citizens aged 16-25 conscripted for service. Additionally, there were fears that state militaries could be deployed on behalf of the EU, without the government of that member state having the final say. And that’s where the theory falls down.

Like most big decisions in the EU, defence policy is decided on a unanimous basis, which means that any member state has the power to completely prevent an EU army. Even if national leaders wanted to hand away their military authority, it is so easy to stop a policy like this in its tracks that it is unlikely to be tabled at all. Instead, what we see are policies that promote greater cooperation in order to streamline EU defense and save costs, such as PESCO (Permanent Structured Cooperation). This opt-in policy has been taken up by 25 out of 28 member states, and involves projects like building shared hubs, and establishing a single cybersecurity network.

The only time an EU member state’s army is obliged to be deployed is if there is an attack on the soil of another EU member state, in which case the rest of the EU must come to its defence.

6 Aachen Conspiracy

On January 22 1963, French President Charles de Gaulle and German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer signed the Elysee Treaty on behalf of their two nations. The treaty was designed to promote cooperation, rather than rivalry, between Europe’s two biggest economies. The actual text of the treaty itself is quite sparse, essentially stipulating that leaders of both countries should meet regularly, coordinate on foreign policy, and promote each others’ cultures.

On January 22 2019, 55 years after the treaty was first signed, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met in the German city of Aachen to sign an updated version. In the lead up to this, Eurosceptics like former Presidential candidate Marine LePen used the summit to push what has become known as the Aachen Conspiracy.

One of the main claims was that France would share its seat on the UN Security Council with Germany, as France is a permanent member while Germany is not. Obviously, that’s not how the UN actually works, and France can’t just “share” its seat with another country (plus, Germany has a temporary seat now anyway). But the conspiracy plays into historical French fears of a “German-occupied France”, harking back to the days when the Nazis had taken over. Theorists also claimed that President Macron was about to cede control of Alsace-Lorraine, a sizeable chunk of land between France and Germany, with almost 2 million inhabitants. The area was originally ceded from France to Germany in 1871, then back to France in 1919, then Germany in 1940, and then France in 1945. Currently, it is primarily German-speaking, but with the Aachen summit having come and gone, it seems Germany will have to wait at least a few more years before it’s their turn again.

5 Trump’s Theory

It wouldn’t be much of a list of conspiracy theories without a mention of everybody’s favourite current President of the United States, Donald Trump. From Birtherism to 9/11, Trump has long been associated with conspiracy theories. Usually, these are established theories that he hears and repeats, but occasionally, he floats his own original ideas, such as the EU being set up as a way to take advantage of the US.

Trump first made these claims on the Fox Business show “Mornings with Maria”, in which he stated that Europe was treating the US even worse than China, and that “European nations were set up in order to take advantage of the United States”. Obviously, most European countries are much older than the US, but Trump clarified his theory at a rally a few days later when he said that it was the European Union, not nations, that was set up to take advantage of the US, stating “We love the countries of the European Union. But the European Union, of course, was set up to take advantage of the United States”. Although it is true that the US runs a trade deficit with the EU, the original intention for the establishment of a European community was to stop European countries bombing each other, a tactic that has proven quite successful. While a trade surplus with the US certainly adds to the economic advantages of not being blown up, it was far from the driving factor behind the formation of a coal and steel market 70 years ago.

4Rothschild Family

Since the Rothschild family allegedly owns so many banks and media outlets across the world, it is pretty easy to tie them into any conspiracy that involves either money or news. Theories involving the Rothschilds and their fortune famously go all the way back to the Napoleonic wars, and basically boil down to them using their influence to steer the world in the direction they want. According to the “mainstream” conspiracy theories, the Rothschilds aren’t literally choosing winners and losers, but can offer tremendous financial support to anything they approve of, while turning the media on anything they do not.

But according to some lesser-known theories, the family is doing a lot more than simply nudging things in the right direction; they are straight-up choosing who will lead what governments or international bodies. In France, President Emmanuel Macron is the subject of one such theory, based mainly on the fact that he spent four years working at Rothschild & Co. investment bank. Similarly, an Egyptian news anchor used a photo of a young Angela Merkel with two friends, allegedly future Prime Minister Theresa May and future CIA Director Gina Haspel, as evidence that the Rothschilds had been grooming these women for office their whole lives. Unsurprisingly, many of Europe’s top politicians have some link to the Rothschilds, making this a theory that will likely endure well into the future.

3 Eurozone Crisis

The Eurozone Crisis perfectly encapsulates the EU’s main hurdle of balancing integration with independence; intended to facilitate business and encourage cross-border movement, it was brought down by the lack of fiscal alignment across the market. But despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that the reasons for the Euro crash are quite boring and complex, several conspiracies have popped up claiming to know what really caused the crisis.

Two theories involve rich members of the British elite conspiring with the US media to affect investment, which have been floated by the likes of the then Prime Minister of Greece, as well as many high ranking officials in the Spanish government. One theory claims the British manipulated the Eurozone to both profit personally, and cover up their nation’s deficit. Another states the plan was to bring down the Euro to discourage future EU projects.

As you can tell, those theories sound like they originate from the pro-EU side, but there are those in Britain and beyond who believe the EU are to blame. These theories claim that the crisis was manufactured as a way to get countries like Greece under the EU’s thumb, as a way to dissolve all nations in the EU into one, and even as a way to introduce socialism to Europe (although the two have already met).

2 Esperanto

As you may already know, Esperanto is the most widely spoken auxiliary language in the world. Created by Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof in 1887, Esperanto was made with elements from various languages, and was designed to be as easy to learn as possible. The hope was that, while it may never be anyone’s first language, it could bring the world together by being everyone’s second.

While many people loved the idea, immediately learning the language and publishing material, others were suspicious that Zamenhof had an ulterior motive. Since Zamenhof was Jewish, many claimed Esperanto was a Zionist attempt at world domination. Hitler himself even made reference to this theory in Mein Kampf. It’s hard to judge just how much of an impact this theory had on the spread and use of Esperanto, or whether a language with no native speakers would always have its limitations. All we do know is that whatever the plan was, it didn’t work.

1Finland?

For most people, conspiracy theories are usually just a bit of fun. Not many people genuinely believe that the Earth is flat, or that the Queen is a shapeshifting lizard. They’re just not realistic theories, and believing them would require you to completely change how you view the laws of the universe. But every so often, a theory comes along that is so chilling plausible it makes you question everything you think you know. Such as the theory that Finland does not exist.

This theory claims that the concept of “Finland” arose from a joint Japanese-Soviet plot during the cold war. The two nations agreed to pretend that there was a country along the Baltic sea, so that they could claim fishing rights for the area. Using parts of Sweden, Estonia, and Russia, the Soviets tricked people into thinking they were living in Finland, and built the Trans-Siberian railway as a way to smuggle the fish to Japan. In exchange for their silence and a small cut of the catch, the Japanese could fish in “Finland” as much as they liked. Some may scoff at this theory and never give it a second thought, but maybe you should take a moment to ask yourself: how confident are you that Finland really exists?

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.

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]