These photos show the abandoned Soviet Union, which includes a fairground that was reclaimed from nature and a pool empty. There are also crumbling buildings like a former USSR palace.
These haunting photos, which are from Ukraine, Russia and Latvia, depict remnants of the Soviet Communist regime that were abandoned after 1991’s collapse.
Photos show an abandoned Baroque Palace in Ukraine and a bizarre configuration of tubes that were installed at a Moscow-based secret research center. Also, you can see an iron fountain that is the sole remnant of an Armenian University after it was destroyed by a 6.8-magnitude earthquake.
It includes portraits by former Soviet Union Premiers Stalin & Lenin as well as statues of unidentified soldiers. The images also include odes to Communism, including depictions Missak Manouchian, a French-Armenian poet as well as Karl Mark and Friedrich Engels who jointly wrote the Communist manifesto.
The photos have been released as part of the publication of a new book from Jonglez Photo Books about the Soviet Union by Terence Abela, titled Abandoned USSR.
The fairground in Ukraine’s “dead town” Pripyat was home to abandoned bumper cars. It is located 3km away from Chernobyl. Following the nuclear accident of April 26, 1986, the entire town was evacuated. However, the fairground which had been built to celebrate May Day celebrations, was never opened. As a temporary distraction, residents were allowed to enter the park April 27, but the scale of the Chernobyl catastrophe began to be obvious by the end the month. Authorities evacuated the city and left the fairground to nature.
Built in 1970, the Azure swimming pool was still in use by the Pripyat after it was evacuated from the city in April 1986. It also had basketball courts. The centre was used by people who worked in the zone of exclusion until 1998 when it was shut down. Today, the area’s derelict interior and peeling walls make it a favorite tourist spot.
This photo shows an iron fountain which was once at the center of the Polytechnic University of Gyumri. All of the remaining buildings at the university were destroyed in the earthquake which struck western Armenia in 1988. Residents who were forced to move from the earthquake erected temporary homes and later permanent ones. The fountain, which was once the University of Armenia’s home, now stands as an iconic Soviet monument in Gyumri.
The photograph depicts the Salyut Pioneer Camp, which was built in 1966 outside of Kiev to house the children and employees at the nearby radio station. This camp was just one of many across the USSR that children could visit during their summer or winter vacations to learn Soviet propaganda, participate in sports, harvest food and help with other tasks. In 1991 the site was converted to a youth camp and operated until 2004 when it was shut down.
The photograph depicts a room at the Sharovka Estate located 60km away from Kharkhov, eastern Ukraine. The house, which was built in 1836 by Savva Olkhovsky as a reward to him for his services from Catherine II, is now occupied. Three families, the Olkhovskys (Gebenshtrains) and the Koenigs, accumulated more than 21,000 hectares of land in the area to create the estate. In 2008, it was demolished.
The Sharovski family owns a room which is situated in a large area of land that’s privately owned in Eastern Ukraine. The building, which had been used for years as a hospital in the area, fell into ruin in 2008. A project to restore the estate to its former glory, a blend of neo-classical style with Russian baroque, was launched in July 2018 with a budget of £36,000 and a further £42,000 for emergency work. At least one feature of the estate, the Church of the Annunciation, has not survived
This grandiose, baroque-style home is a former Soviet-era orphanage. The site was converted from its glory days as an emblem of wealth and opulence in the Communist era. You can still see some original Tsarist decorations through cracks in the paintwork, which has remained untouched since it was removed.
This photo shows the shop floor in a Serpukhov textile plant. The factory was located just outside Moscow. The factory, constructed in the 18th century, is housed in a red brick building with the traditional Soviet hammer and sickle hanging over the entrance and surrounded by a huge concrete fence and mountains of disused pallets
Unfinished room from a Textile Factory in Serpukhov in Moscow. The factory made linen and cloth during its early years. But, in World War One, they were repurposed for bandages, gauzes and cotton. The factory later returned to textile manufacturing and was featured in the 1978 Paris World Exhibition.
This strange configuration of tubes was a Marx generator installed at the Istra High Voltage Research Center, 40km west of Moscow. Often mistaken for a prototype of a Tesla coil, the generator was used to test lightning insulation for vehicles, airplanes and electronic equipment. Although the Soviet-era structure has remained largely intact, it was not abandoned. It was last turned on August 2014.
This photo depicts a gigantic Soviet-era Marx generator that was placed at an underground facility called the Istra Hi Voltage Research Centre, located 40km west Moscow. It was built in 1970. The futuristic structure was erected by the Russian Electrical Engineering Institute and never officially decommissioned, last being used in August 2014. The tower’s peak is said to have the power capacity of producing the equivalent amount as all other generating plants in Russia.
In the basement of an Armenian university, pictures of Missak Menouchian (Franklin Engels), and Karl Marx were found. The trio are all Communist figureheads – Manouchian a French-Armenian poet and communist activist, Engels a philosopher who with Marx wrote the Communist manifesto
His photograph depicts the Pripyat cafe, in Ukraine, which was where builders commemorated the launch of Chernobyl’s first nuclear power plant in 1977. This establishment was decorated with stain-glass windows and a mosaic, which isn’t visible in this photograph. It was used as a place for residents of Pripyat to hold holiday parties or stage parties. The establishment was destroyed in 1986 when Pripyat, the capital of Ukraine was evacuated following the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
This photo shows the abandoned Naval School in Riga in Latvia. It was demolished in 2014. This school was used to teach divers and sailors, before being joined by the Latvian navy. It seems that it was abandoned abruptly. There are still books, maps and other materials scattered about the school, while motion sensors have been removed from walls.
The Naval School in Riga (Latvia) was quite well preserved, but it was abandoned abruptly around 2014. This establishment contains a large inventory of books about navigation and diving. It was also where the naval recruits were trained. In 2019, it still houses desks, chairs, and books, but work materials are scattered about the classrooms. It was one of several naval schools located in Riga, with the Nakhimov Naval School which was operated from the building that now houses the Latvian War Museum
Unknown location, Soviet-era Russian spa. It could be part the Tskaltubo Spa in western Georgia. This was once a lavish community that attracted Communist party leaders such as Joseph Stalin, who was believed to have visited the luxurious site because of its natural springs. The entire spa community was demolished in 1991 following the collapse of Soviet Union. Photograph of a thermal bathhouse, one among hundreds that were used by Russian elites from 1920 to the collapse of the USSR.
Partially underground spiral staircases from an Soviet-era hotel. They were abandoned after 1991’s collapse of USSR. The stairs have been slowly being reclaimed and refurbished by nature. These images, which show relics of former USSR, were published in the Abandoned USSR publication.
Soviet-era theatre featuring two medallions of gold-coloured metal on either side, showing Stalin and Lenin. This site was part of an asylum. After the 1991 collapse of Soviet Union, debris clogged the entrance to the theatre. However, paintings of Lenin are intact.