Abandoned Russian City
Thanks to an article on Boing Boing, I checked out a website called English Russia specifically a photo essay about an unidentified abandoned city located somewhere in Russia. Apparently the city was created during the days of the Soviet Union and when the USSR collapsed, this city, apparently maintained mostly by the Soviet military and USSR financial backing, was abandoned. It has several haunting yet interesting photographs taken around the ruins with some commentary from the blog’s author.
The English Russia blog is interesting in of itself. It’s self-described thusly:
English Russia is a daily entertaiment blog devoted to the events happening in Russian speaking countries, such as Russia (Russian Federation), Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, etc. Everyday something interesting happens in the countries occupying 1/6 of the populated world. We are here to inform you about it.
I recommend exploring the site. It’s an interesting glimpse into life over there with some humor thrown in for good measure.
UPDATE: Some comments left on the abandoned Russian city entry on English Russia indicate that the name of the city is either Promyshlennyy or Vorkuta. Both are described as being north of the Arctic Circle. Both are described as having coal mining as their main industry. Therefore it has been logically speculated that as the need for coal declined, the city lost its main source of support and collapsed. A parallel can be drawn with the many boomtowns of the 19th century in North America based upon various metal and mineral mines that eventually closed causing the town in which they were located to eventually decline and in most cases, abandoned.