I’m fascinated by a scenario where future generations come across the Exclusion Zone, without knowing the nature of what it is or was. (This, of course, assumes some kind of cataclysm that destroys much of our historical record.) What would they make of the what was left behind? Of the vehicles and structures, perhaps still … Continue reading Goodnight, Pripyat
Westerners are puzzled by the recurrent nostalgia for communism that is found throughout the former Eastern Bloc. Apart from the fact that every generation looks back on the years of its youth with rose tinted glasses, there is a longing for the trappings of the old, failed economic system that can be hard to understand … Continue reading On the Merits of Authoritarianism
“Residents were given two hours to gather their belongings. The evacuation of Pripyat’s 43,000 residents took 3.5 hours, using 1,200 buses from Kiev. Residents remember that everyone was in a hurry, but nobody was panicking. The residents of Pripyat were asked to carry with them only what was required for two or three days, some … Continue reading Get Out
Whatever you may think of meditation, you might be surprised to know that almost everyone does some form of it at some point in their life. It may bring up images of yogis sitting crosslegged on mountaintops, but all meditation is, in essence, is bringing a calm but steady focus and concentration to a task. … Continue reading Reverie in Blue
Pripyat was built concurrently with the Chernobyl power plant as a company town; it would house mostly the plant workers and their families. Today, it is the largest abandoned city in the Exclusion Zone, and the most visited by tourists. It is a rare sight to see an entire town slowly returning to nature and … Continue reading Welcome to Pripyat
There are certain landmarks which, whatever their original purpose may have been, now serve primarily as totems of identity and placehood. The Eiffel tower is Paris, just as the Statue of Liberty is New York, and a trip to either of these cities would be incomplete without seeing them. The Pripyat ferris wheel falls, for … Continue reading Our Eiffel Tower
Within the Exclusion Zone, at the end of a long, rough road through dense forest, lies a curious relic of the cold war. Tucked away in this bit of wilderness, the Duga radar installation would have been a military secret, but for one thing: the staccato clicking noises it produced on shortwave radio frequencies. Shortwave … Continue reading The Russian Woodpecker
The Yaniv train station outside Pripyat isn’t very impressive. If you follow some rails into the woods, however, you’ll soon be greeted by the sight of railcars and locomotives rusting away among the pines. Since some of them are quite radioactive, they were allegedly derailed intentionally in order to permanently strand them in the Exclusion … Continue reading Of Rust and Rail
The Exclusion Zone has an eeriness to it which is heightened by the giant power plant looming at its center. An already massive building housing four reactors was made even more so once the Sarcophagus was slid into place over it late in 2016. This gleaming new dome, at over three hundred feet tall, is … Continue reading The Chernobyl Reactors
Continuing the theme of the previous post, these are more photos from the Exclusion Zone around Chernobyl featuring stunning overgrowth of the last three decades. This last rooftop shot really shows that “drowned’ quality of many of the buildings. Our guide had told us that winter can be a better time to visit, as … Continue reading Back Under
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