The World Turns
I was always fascinated by the old U.S.S.R.
The entire country, as well as the satellite states that made up the rest of the Warsaw Pact, suffered in the iron grip of a totalitarian government. They were convinced that their odious social philosophy would eventually dominate all of humanity, just as they were convinced that they would have to destroy any society that opposed that domination. Added to this was the ongoing attempts to root out any of their own citizens who weren’t sufficiently enthusiastic about living under oppression.
Paranoid to the point of madness.
The Soviets built a number of secret cities. Towns that might house tens of thousands of people, but which never appeared on any map. Officially the roads which led to these cities never existed, and the residents essentially dropped out of human memory while they lived there. Most were built by slave labor, political dissidents and “enemies of the state” being worked to death. More proof of the paranoia that gripped the entire culture.
This news article relates the tale of how one of those cities has been purchased at auction. Abandoned at the break up of the Soviet Union, it has lain empty for more than a decade. The final bid was $3.1 million USD.
A whole town for three mil. Considering how shoddy Communist goods are, it probably is not worth the cash.
February 7th, 2010 at 6:02 am
[...] via Hell in a Handbasket | Information about the Secret Cities Program | Photo: [...]
February 7th, 2010 at 7:16 am
Here is video of the place:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFJN5wfosZQ
The one thing I would want to see, the huge radar array, they imploded in the video, probably so someone doesn’t get the coveted 30 year old technology inside.
So the question remains what do you do with this town in Latvia (my grandfather was from Riga, I might add!)? The only thing I could think of would be urban war training. Or perhaps a philanthropist bought it and wants to clean up the mess. I would imagine it is a huge mess. From the video there doesn’t look to be any power hooked up and the buildings seem to all be decrepit. Pretty eerie.
February 7th, 2010 at 10:52 am
[...] via Hell in a Handbasket | Information about the Secret Cities Program | Photo: adevarul [...]
February 8th, 2010 at 10:16 am
I visited the Soviet Union in either 1988 or 89. Such was the shoddiness of the place that whilst in the camera department of the most prestigious shop in Moscow one of the other customers tried to buy my camera off me due to lack of stock. Of course, the hard currency shops were well stocked.
February 8th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
At least the town isn’t in Russia, which hasn’t actually changed much since the Soviet Union “fell.”