Comments on: Back in the USSR

Back in the USSR

drezdn — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 19:53:54 -0800

Beautiful decay pictures of Russia in decline.

By: S.C.

S.C. — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 20:03:51 -0800

Absolutely gorgeous. I know it's passé and all, but: Best of the Web.

By: 327.ca

327.ca — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 20:08:30 -0800

I know it's passé and all, but: Best of the Web. Seconded.

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 20:25:34 -0800

How come I never find stuff this cool? Thanks!

By: tellurian

tellurian — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 20:32:50 -0800

Nice stuff - thanks drezdn. Does everyone else just see a bunch of accented vowels for the descriptions?

By: languagehat

languagehat — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 20:46:12 -0800

Very nice. (Try changing your character encoding to Cyrillic for Windows, tellurian.)

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 21:04:16 -0800

ahhh, rich, wonderful images. Neat FPP drezdn, thanks. The Russian esthetic is deliciously, mysteriously complex and decomposition adds a piquant depth. Those images reminded me of this old post apocalyptic Russia.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 21:11:10 -0800

Thanks languagehat - now I can see the Russian characters. What I really wanted to do was find out what this place was (aquarium, fish farm)? Google doesn't do Russian and Babelfish returned an error.

By: clevershark

clevershark — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 21:13:28 -0800

In Soviet Russia, building takes picture of you! (sorry, couldn't resist)

By: Mr Mister

Mr Mister — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 21:28:30 -0800

Nothing says decay like having your space shuttle destroyed by the roof caving in on top of it.

By: Pontius Pilate

Pontius Pilate — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 21:46:01 -0800

Tellurian, that is an abandoned summer camp for pioneers (young Communists).

By: bardic

bardic — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 21:48:48 -0800

This is great. And sad in a good way.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 22:42:43 -0800

Thanks Pontius Pilate (by the way, how do you come off in Judas' new book?)

By: Pontius Pilate

Pontius Pilate — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 23:31:20 -0800

Rehabilitated, I could only hope. :) (Really interesting link, by the way. Neat stuff.)

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 00:55:29 -0800

Cute to look at from afar, sucks to live in it.

By: terpsichoria

terpsichoria — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 02:16:25 -0800

Wow, those are beautiful and mysterious and sad. Thanks, drezdn.

By: Acey

Acey — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 05:33:41 -0800

Lots of quality photos = great post.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 06:01:53 -0800

Tellurian, that is an abandoned summer camp for pioneers (young Communists). It's an abandoned Pioneer camp for deaf-mute children. Заброшенная, но охраняемая территория пионерского лагеря для глухонемых детей

By: amro

amro — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 06:09:19 -0800

I'm pretty sure this train is looking at me... Many of these are really fantastic - thanks.

By: Faze

Faze — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 06:21:23 -0800

These incredible pictures speak the unutterable. Breathtaking. For a gorgeously color version of decaying Russia, taken with a 4X5 camera, check out the work of Mr. Andrew Moore. These pictures make Russia look like an abandoned stage set -- which maybe it is.

By: tellurian

tellurian — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 06:28:48 -0800

[Pontius Pilate] Tellurian, that is an abandoned summer camp for pioneers (young Communists). [languagehat] It's an abandoned Pioneer camp for deaf-mute children. Oh! Pontius, You're not looking good come that Easter publication.

By: fleetmouse

fleetmouse — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 06:59:19 -0800

This is fantastic. When I have some alone time I'm going to queue up Harold Budd's 23 minute piece Abandoned Cities and have a nice long melancholy browse.

By: carter

carter — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 07:47:47 -0800

Excellent, thanks!

By: Pontius Pilate

Pontius Pilate — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 09:51:38 -0800

Oops. I just saw the title (Заброшенный пионерский лагерь, подмосковье), and missed the full caption below. Mea culpa. (Also, apparently even though the camp has been abandoned, it is still guarded - "Заброшенная, но охраняемая территория пионерского лагеря для глухонемых детей.") I'll get that "Most Misunderstood Politician" award yet, damn it.

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 09:56:16 -0800

Russia has a net-loss of 1 million people a year due to declining average lifespan - 1 million people a year - that's a lot of decay. It's a modern post-apocalyptic scenario in slow motion.

By: caraig

caraig — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 12:26:28 -0800

Great pictures. Ditto theme. Believe it or not, New York City is guilty of wanton abandonment of old buildings. In their place, soul-less towers.

By: Zack_Replica

Zack_Replica — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 17:21:03 -0800

Flagged as a fantastic post, thanks drezdn! I followed the Ring Hub link at the botom of the page and found many more pages of beautiful ruins, too. Examples: 1, 2, 3.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 23:06:05 -0800

caraig wrote, soul-less towers. I call those blank faced glass boxes Darth Vader summer palaces.