The construction of the 5th unit of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant began in 1986. It was planned that the power unit would be put into operation in 1992.

However, in 1989, the construction was frozen because the 5th power unit was designed based on the use of the RBMK reactor (the type of reactor installed at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant).

explore the copy of the Chernobyl NPP

Tags: Abandoned · Kursk city

This greenhouse complex, consisting of dozens of greenhouses and located somewhere in the Moscow region, was opened in the 1960s. It was used to grow a variety of plants (annual flowers, perennial trees, shrubs) for landscaping of Moscow and several cities in the region.

Several years ago, the complex stopped working and eventually became an abandoned object with a crazy atmosphere of a post-apocalyptic world. Photos by: Lana Sator.

explore the greenhouse world

Tags: Abandoned · Moskovskaya oblast

Gamsutl is a picturesque Avar village located on top of Mount Gamsutlmeer, in Gunibsky district of Dagestan. This village is one of the oldest settlements on the territory of the republic.

Translated from the Avar, the word “gamsutl” means “at the foot of the khan’s fortress”, from what historians have concluded that once, in ancient times, Khan chose this place to build his fortress or tower. Gamsutl on Google Maps. Photos by: Olga Stanina.

explore the abandoned settlement

Tags: Abandoned · Dagestan Republic

Zaklyuchye Manor is located in the Tver region. You can reach it, if you drive on the M-10 highway from Moscow to St. Petersburg, and before reaching the city of Valdai and Lake Valdai take a turn to Borovichi. About 50 km from it, there is Lykoshino station. Nearby, hidden in the woods, on the bank of a forest lake, you will find this “castle.”

The estate appeared in the late 19th century. It was built for the St. Petersburg architect and artist Alexander Sergeyevich Khrenov. Many artists, architects and writers of that time tried to disappear in nature. Photos by: Dmitriy Gazin.

picturesque abandoned castle

Tags: Abandoned · Tver oblast

Shikotan, meaning “the best place”, is the largest island of the Lesser Kuril Islands, part of the Sakhalin region. Japan disputes Russia’s ownership of Shikotan; it sees it as part of Nemuro province, Hokkaido prefecture.

Until 1855, the island was part of the Russian Empire. February 7, 1855, according to the Russian-Japanese treaty of trade and boundaries (“Shimoda Treaty”), the island was given to Japan with the rest of the southern Kurils. In 1945, after Japan’s defeat in World War II, the islands were captured by the Soviet Union.

the island of tanks

Tags: Abandoned · Sakhalin oblast

In the late 1970s, after the closure of the Soviet lunar program and work on the super-heavy carrier rocket N1, the development of a new super-heavy rocket called “Energy” began.

The first launch was made in 1987, and, in 1988, the rocket put into orbit the Soviet space shuttle “Buran.” Photos by: Ralph Mirebs.

abandoned rocket

Tags: Abandoned · Soviet past

June 2, 2015, Baikonur Cosmodrome, the cradle of space exploration and the largest Russian spaceport, celebrated its 60th anniversary. Over the years, a lot of different space vehicles were tested on its territory, the apex of which was the system of “Energy-Buran”. But history has chosen its path and the project died in infancy.

More than two decades ago, heavy sliding doors of an assembling and filling complex were closed cutting off two orbiting spacecraft from the sky. How ironic that the birthplace of these spaceships became their burial place.

the remnants of the Soviet shuttles

Tags: Abandoned · Soviet past

In Soviet times, a very significant part of the budget was spent on various military purposes, including the construction of numerous defensive structures all over the country.

And here is one example. This artillery battery is located somewhere on the coast of the Kola Peninsula, in the northwest of the European part of Russia, in Murmansk region. Photos by: Ralph Mirebs.

get inside the battery

Tags: Abandoned · Murmansk oblast

Gorky nuclear heating plant is an unfinished station for the production of thermal energy for heating Nagorny district of Nizhny Novgorod (former Gorky). Construction of the station was carried out in the 1980s, a few kilometers east of the city limits.

By the end of the 1980s, the station was finished by 85%, but due to public outcry and a growing budget deficit, the completion of construction of the station in the post-Chernobyl period was impossible, and the station was abandoned. Photos by Lana Sator

explore the station

Tags: Abandoned · Nizhny Novgorod city

Dalniye Zelentsy village is standing on the shore of a small bay (Oscar Bay) of the Barents Sea in Kolsky district of Murmansk region.

In 1935, Murmansk Biological Station was opened in this place. In 1958, it was reorganized in Murmansk Marine Biological Institute. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, almost all people left this place.

picturesque abandoned base

Tags: Abandoned · Murmansk oblast