Russian North. Abandoned village

Hello, friends!

You, of course, have heard about dead abandoned cities, abandoned villages, villages and towns, of which there are a lot, not only in the post-Soviet space, but all over the world: in the USA, China, Japan, Germany and so on.

Yes, today I want to talk about ghost towns in Russia. And not those that, due to their tragic (or not so tragic) fate, have become part of tourist trails, but those that are not so known to the general public, but are no less interesting.

So, friends, if you are here hoping to find information about Pripyat, which, frankly speaking, has already set the teeth on edge. Or about the tragic fate of Kadykchan or Kurshi, then I will disappoint you - they are deliberately ignored in this article. There are several reasons, and one of them is that it is better to share information and impressions about such cities after visiting them.

Dead cities and tourism

The relatively new genre of “post-apocalyptic” has gained wide popularity over the past half century. This is reflected in films, books, and games. More and more photographers, directors, people of other creative professions, and just thrill-seekers are visiting abandoned buildings.

Some people look for inspiration there; for others, dead cities are a blank canvas on which to create. And someone wants impressions and new emotions. It is now clear that this, whatever one may say, is another direction for tourism. It may not be the most popular, but it is certainly very interesting. Such cities allow you to see another life, to touch something mystical and creepy.

Abandoned settlements of the Central Federal District

Most often, such an unenviable fate occurs in small settlements whose residents worked at one, city-forming enterprise. If it closed, the settlement “closed.” Sometimes everything can be much more tragic, a vivid example of this is Pripyat.

My list is more likely to fall into the first category. These towns and villages "were the victims of an economic recession" rather than natural or man-made disasters. Below are 20 dead settlements in Russia, which are located in the Central Federal District (photos attached).

Not quite a ghost, some houses still have a glimmer of life. The history of this military town is eerily typical: the military unit was disbanded and everything was abandoned. The barracks, hangars, canteen, and so on, all of this is slowly crumbling.

The object is quite well known in certain circles of abandoned junk lovers.

Remember the forest fire in central Russia in 2010? So, this village stood in the path of the destructive power of fire. The private sector burned out almost completely; the boiler room, garages and vegetable gardens burned down. People fled for their lives, leaving their property behind.

Only high-rise buildings remained virtually untouched by the fire. As of 2015, Mokhovoye is a completely dead village.

This is Belevsky district. Chelyustino has been allegedly abandoned since 1985. There are 24 houses left in it, no people.

Well preserved. In some houses, even closets with clothes were found.

But this is a residential village. I don’t know what’s sadder - a ghost town or THIS.

Glubokovsky has a typical fate for a working mining village. After the closure of all the mines, approximately 1,500 people still lived in it, but in the 90s of the last century people gradually began to leave.

The proximity of the regional center saves the village from complete extinction, but... how much effort does it take to live in it? After all, this is not even a small town.

Kostroma is a completely extinct settlement in central Russia, of which there are hundreds. This village is not the only one here, there are several more similar ones nearby.

There are several houses left in it, all in disrepair.

The once large village is now living out its life. Some houses are well preserved, this can be seen both from their carved frames and from their internal condition (there are household items in good condition).

Over the past few years, this settlement has been completely deserted. Nowadays Korchmino is a ghost village.

Another of the many dead villages in the Yaroslavl region. Everything that can be taken from there has already been stolen, everything that cannot is slowly rotting.

The once rich village, with large houses and courtyards (in almost every courtyard there is a barn, bathhouse, outbuildings) is slowly dying.

The exact name is unknown; there is a possibility that this village has a different name. There is another similar village nearby. It is difficult to find them, since the main mentions remain on old maps.

Inside, everything is as usual: several looted, destroyed houses, in which you can still find household items.

“This strange place Kamchatka” has been empty for about 10 years. Once upon a time this settlement belonged to the collective farm. Chapaeva. The collective farm collapsed, and the same thing happened to the village.

You can’t get to this village (except by tank), so it’s better to go on foot. At the moment, several houses in poor condition remain in Dora, but before, life was in full swing.

The village was connected to the outside world by a narrow-gauge railway built in 1946. At the moment, what remains of it are several destroyed bridges in the surrounding area.

A small village with 10 houses, now only 2 have survived. The village has been completely dead for 4 years now.

We were in the same house (pictured), on the table there was a letter from the mother from the “zone” from her son.

Another ghost village, but in the Belozersky region. Apparently empty since 1995.

Several houses and baths near the river have survived. The houses are of the North Russian type - on a high basement with a vestibule at the rear of the house. Inside are some pieces of furniture and household items. Everything is in bad condition.

A very old village in the Vologda region, founded on a water trade route in the 13th century. The settlement flourished in the 18th century, and in 1708 it became the center of the Charonda region and received the status of a city. The population at that time was approximately 10,000. This did not last long.

In the 1770s, the town of Charonda again became a village, and by 1917 less than 1,000 people lived in it. Nowadays there are a dozen houses left in the village, and the number of inhabitants is 2 (more in the summer). The village is extremely inconvenient: there is no road there by land, there is no electricity (all the poles have long since rotted and fallen into the swamp).

Khmelina is also an old ghost village in the Central Federal District of Russia. It was founded in 1626, there were 700 households, a mill, factories, a collective farm, a school and a store.

However, since the 70s of the 20th century, residents gradually began to leave. As of November 2017, no one lives in the village anymore. The houses are abandoned, only a few are used as country houses.

An almost dead village in the deep forests of the Kostroma region. The condition is average: there are several houses almost untouched by time.

Near the village there are 4 more abandoned villages.

A remarkable place. In the vicinity of this farm, a stone labyrinth several thousand years old was discovered in the late 1980s.

By the way, it is believed that this labyrinth is a place of power.

Some of the houses are mud huts with thatched roofs and look cool. At the moment, the farm is almost completely abandoned.

Ghost villages on the map

The map is very approximate. Firstly, not all villages were mapped onto it, and secondly, those that were mapped may not be entirely correct. You understand that abandoned cities in Russia, and not only, are not always easy to find.

But you can roughly get your bearings; all areas are correct.

That's probably all. I am finishing the list of dead cities and villages. But this is just one of many. I have not included many more areas of our vast Motherland.

P.S. All information about the once populated areas and photos are taken from the site urban3p.ru

Photo 1.

Russian north..
Looking out the window now and seeing -30 on the thermometer, you imagine endless snow fields and blizzards with blizzards.
But in the summer it’s completely different! ..

Photo 2.

Last time I finished with how we walked along the Transkenozersky trail, eaten by mosquitoes and drowning in mud.

Photo 3.

And we reached the northern point of the Kenozero National Park, the village of Vidyagino.
On the outskirts there is an old wooden church in the process of restoration.

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It looks kind of strange - on the left there is a dome with a cross, and on the right there is just a small short cross on the top of the bell tower. Maybe temporarily?

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The village of Vidyagino itself appears to have been abandoned for a long time, although the houses appear to be quite strong.
But we didn’t see any people, and the windows in the houses were boarded up.

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The most striking thing is the lack of roads and the fact that everything around is overgrown with grass and wild flowers.
And silence.. - only larks in the sky.

Photo 10.

They built powerfully, to last. The owner was probably not poor.

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I wonder if they board up the windows, does that mean they still hope to come back someday?
Although it may just be that the national park workers tried their best.

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But we don’t have much time; the boat should arrive soon, which we agreed on in advance with the management of the national park.
Besides us, there was another small group of pedestrians on the shore.
While we were waiting, we enjoyed swimming.

Photo 18.

Finally, here is the boat. We quickly load and set sail.
The bicycles barely fit on the bow of the small boat.

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Within half an hour we arrived in Tyryshkino.
We were dropped off here, there was a canopy at the pier - we decided to put up a tent right here.
For dinner - a beautiful view of the lake and fried mushrooms with potatoes. Video, 2 minutes:

Photo 21.

Here is our restaurant on the shore, here Zhenya was frying and steaming something all evening.

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People live in Tyryshkino, quite a lot of them.
True, from a conversation with them it became clear that they come here mainly for the summer.
Women dig in the gardens, and men fish.

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Zhenya and I refreshed ourselves with his delicacies and went for a walk around the village.
It’s such a nice village, with haystacks in the yards and fields, which means people keep livestock.

Excursions from Vershinino are brought here by boat - this is also a help and income for the locals.

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It’s beautiful here, I would even put it in a more sophisticated way - magnificent, peaceful.
Again... if it weren't for the mosquitoes.

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The next morning we were awakened by the noise of boat engines - the fishermen went fishing.
We got into a conversation with one of them - Sergei, he invited us to join him - to keep him company, he promised to take us to the other side to the village of Semyonovo while he was fishing near it.

Photo 33.

The village turned out to be residential, there weren’t even abandoned houses, although the only way to get here was by boat across the lake.
Two horses grazed peacefully in the water, hiding from annoying flies.

Seryoga left, and we went to see how people live in this village. I’ll tell you about this in the sequel.

Photo 34.

Would you like to live in such a village all summer?
I probably couldn't, it's boring. Every day in paradise is too much.
Although this is a paradise for us visitors here, and the locals have livestock, a vegetable garden, fishing, you won’t get too bored.

Photo 35.

Hello again! At the beginning of the year, my friends and I visited several abandoned and semi-abandoned villages in the Moscow region. In this regard, I present a new photo report. Here we will talk about the most memorable moments, abandoned houses, curious finds, rural household items and other interesting things.

By the way, I don’t write from places like this very often. There was a similar blog (just part 1) last fall, you can see it. Before this, there were a couple more blogs in 2009 and 2010, but now I won’t bother searching, it’s better to move straight to the new part. So, today's report is dedicated to a couple of villages and country houses in the Moscow region. All of them are located at different distances from the capital, but they have one thing in common - either the village is being actively demolished for development, only a couple of living houses remain. Or in a working village there are remote abandoned houses that no one has visited for a hundred years, the windows are partially broken, and there is no fence. This is not the case everywhere, but since the capital is growing quickly, many villages, falling within the boundaries of Moscow, are gradually degrading. Villages near highways are also unlucky, as well as, on the contrary, villages very far from residential agglomerations. For the most part, these houses are empty, homeless residents often live, and there is nothing interesting to be found. But sometimes you come across some rather interesting locations. You’re even surprised how so many ancient and rather rare things, interior items, old dishes and much more have been preserved. So, I’m posting the photos mixed up to make it proportionately interesting, otherwise some places are quite empty, and some, on the contrary. Go.

1. A typical house built before the revolution. No one lives inside, the door is wide open, the windows are broken. We came here in the cold winter. Not the most interesting, but still.

2. We move several tens of kilometers. We get to a more interesting house. Shall we sit down and have some tea? In the corner we find an old chest, Viennese chairs near the table. We lift the seats and find a pre-revolutionary label, a small thing, but nice) There are many clocks scattered on the table. By the way, there will also be a lot of hours in the report.

3. Another house is next. On the terrace we find a portrait of the great poet, clearly caught under the scythe.

4. In one of the houses we find an antique piano. The same company, by the way, as the piano that some freaks threw out the window of an abandoned school (see blog at the end). This, thank God, is still alive, but the keys are already sticking. At the top of the piano we find a Soviet domino set.

5. Another stopped clock. Ordinary plastic ones, Soviet ones.

6. Sometimes you come across houses completely destroyed; for example, this one’s roof collapsed after a fire. The sofa looks a little crazy.

7. And this is a house with Pushkin on the terrace. The ceilings are rotten, the floor is collapsing. For example, here, the closet fell down.

8. An old birdhouse next to one of the abandoned vegetable gardens near the house.

9. You can often find various curious things in the attic. In this house, for example, these are ancient items of peasant life (spinning wheels, rakes, pitchforks, wooden shovels, sieve, etc.), notebooks from the 20s and 30s, textbooks of the same time, newspapers, Christmas tree decorations, porcelain dishes, etc. In this frame you can still see a radio in very poor condition from the 1940s.

10. Typical kitchen in such houses. An old stove, a water heater, a beautiful but dusty mirror and various junk.

11. Children's dolls always look especially creepy.

12. Another interesting room. Here we find a pre-revolutionary Singer sewing machine, or rather a table from it and itself. The condition is very poor. Time and dampness take their toll. There are a lot of old and half-rotten clothes in the closets.

13. I will show you the foundation of the camp. Rusty letters "ZINGER" on the back.

14. Every village house should have a red corner.

15. On the way past residential buildings, you often come across local residents)

16. Rusty bikes were found on the terrace.

17. But in the room there is a curious clock lying on the floor.

18. A house in a village a short distance from the rest. Strange, by the way. In one room the ceiling collapsed, in the second it was barely breathing, there was virtually no fence, the windows were broken, and the light in one of the rooms was still working! Traces of destruction are visible inside.

19. This piece of paper really intrigued me. Teaching writing in the 20s. “Arise, branded with a curse, the whole world of hungry and slaves!”

20. In the kitchen of an abandoned house. There are letters underfoot, and an old radio on the wall.

21. All clocks show different times.

22. Cute wooden bookcase.

23. Header photo. The rug looks especially sad. Rus'-troika, where are you going? And really, where...

24. Soviet pinball. Curious thing, never seen before. Although I’ve seen a lot of Chinese 90s. The condition is terrible.

25. One almost completely demolished hut.

26. In the house from frame 18. Buffet in the kitchen. Surprisingly perfect preservation! It’s as if no one has been living for two or three years, but no one has climbed or beaten. Although the dishes are late Soviet and not rare, so it’s not surprising.

27. Notebooks from the 20s, 30s, this time closer. Decorated with portraits of Lunacharsky, Lenin, faces of peasants and pioneers. And of course, “Workers of all countries, unite!”

28. In the house from the 1st photo, we find such a wonderful chest right on the threshold

29. A little bit of May nature from village plots =)

30. And again we find pinball. The condition is not much better.

31. One kitchen. It's strange that everything is just abandoned like that. Despite the apparent order, the dishes were covered in a layer of dust, and the ceiling behind had already collapsed.

32. Nice pre-revolutionary buffet in the room with a piano.

33. The quality of the shot is not very good, but I’ll post it anyway. Interesting content. Geometry notebook from 1929.

35. I want to finish today’s photo report with this shot.

Such abandoned houses make a very sad and painful impression. It feels like part of our culture is going away. The metropolitan way of life is changing the old established way of life. Is it good or bad? How much progress is needed, and what are we striving for? But these are rather philosophical questions, and everyone will have their own answer. That's enough reasoning for today. Until the next reports!

There are thriving settlements, dying ones, and there are dead ones. The latter always attract a large number of tourists and extreme sports enthusiasts. The main topic of this article is the abandoned villages of the Moscow region. It’s very difficult to say how many there are in the Moscow region, and indeed in Russia in general. After all, new abandoned villages appear every year. You can also see photos of these villages in this article.

- Russia's problem

It is not for nothing that they say that this is the soul of the country and the people. And if a village dies, then the whole country dies. It is very difficult to disagree with this statement. After all, the village is truly the cradle of Russian culture and traditions, the Russian spirit and Russian poetry.

Unfortunately, abandoned ones are not uncommon today. Modern Russians increasingly prefer an urban lifestyle, breaking away from their roots. Meanwhile, the village is degrading and more and more abandoned villages are appearing on the map of Russia, photos of which are striking in their despondency and melancholy.

But, on the other hand, such objects attract a large number of tourists and so-called stalkers - people eager to visit various kinds of abandoned places. Thus, abandoned villages in Russia can become a good resource for the development of extreme tourism.

However, the state should not forget about the problems of the Russian village, which can only be solved through a complex of various measures - economic, social and propaganda.

Abandoned villages in Russia - reasons for the degradation of villages

The word "village" comes from "to tear" - that is, to cultivate the land. It is very difficult to imagine authentic Russia without villages - a symbol of the Russian spirit. However, the realities of our time are such that the village is dying, a huge number of once thriving villages simply cease to exist. What's the matter? What are the reasons for these sad processes?

Perhaps the main reason is urbanization - the process of rapidly increasing the role of the city in the life of society. Large cities are attracting more and more people, especially young people. Young people leave for the cities to get an education and, as a rule, never return to their native village. Over time, only old people remain in the villages and live out their lives there, as a result of which the villages die out. For this reason, almost all the abandoned villages of the Moscow region appeared.

Another fairly common reason for the degradation of villages is the lack of jobs. Many villages in Russia suffer from this problem, as a result of which their residents are also forced to go to cities in search of work. Villages can disappear for other reasons. For example, it could be a man-made disaster. Villages can also degrade due to changes in their economic and geographical location. For example, if the direction of the road changes, thanks to which a particular village has been developing all this time.

Moscow region - the land of ancient churches and estates

Moscow region is an unofficial name. The historical predecessor of this region can be considered the Moscow province, which was formed back in 1708.

The Moscow region is one of the leading regions in terms of the number of cultural heritage sites in Russia. This is a real paradise for tourists and travelers: more than a thousand ancient temples and monasteries, dozens of beautiful estates, as well as numerous places with long-standing traditions of folk arts and crafts. It is in the Moscow region that such ancient and interesting cities as Zvenigorod, Istra, Sergiev Posad, Dmitrov, Zaraysk and others are located.

At the same time, the abandoned villages of the Moscow region are also on the lips of many. There are quite a lot of them in this region. The most interesting abandoned villages of the Moscow region will be discussed further.

Such objects attract primarily extreme sports enthusiasts, as well as local historians and various antiquity lovers. There are quite a lot of such places. First of all, it is worth mentioning the Fedorovka farm, the villages of Botovo, Grebnevo and Shatur. These abandoned villages of the Moscow region on the map:

Khutor Fedorovka

This farm is located 100 kilometers from Moscow. In fact, this is a former military town, so you won’t find it on any of the maps. Around the beginning of the 90s, the village of 30 residential buildings fell completely into disrepair. At one time there was its own boiler house, substation, and also a store.

Botovo village

The old village of Botovo is located in the Moscow region, near the Volokolamsk station (Riga direction). Once upon a time in this area there was the estate of Princess A.M. Dolgorukova. The center of this estate was a wooden church, which was built in the 16th century (the church has not survived). The last owner of the estate in Botovo, as is known, gave it to the peasants at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Of the surviving objects in Botovo, you can only see the ruins of the Resurrection Church, built in the 1770s in the pseudo-Russian style, as well as the remains of an old park with an area of twenty hectares. There are still old birch and linden alleys in this park.

Village Grebnevo

Grebnevo is a 16th-century estate with a rich, interesting history and a rather tragic fate. It is located forty kilometers from the capital, on Shchelkovskoye Highway.

The first owner of the estate was B. Ya. Belsky, the armorer of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, then the estate was owned by the Vorontsovs and Trubetskoys. In 1781, Gavril Ilyich Bibikov became the owner, and it was under him that the estate acquired the appearance in which it has survived to this day.

Dramatic pages in the history of the estate in Grebnevo are associated with the beginning of the Soviet era. The nationalization of the complex led to the fact that the buildings gradually began to lose their historical appearance. First of all, all the interiors of the buildings were damaged. At first, a tuberculosis sanatorium was located within the walls of the estate complex, then a technical school. And only in 1960 the Grebnevo estate was declared an architectural monument of republican significance.

At the end of the 1980s, the estate seemingly received a new impetus for its development and preservation. A cultural center was formed here, and various concerts, events and exhibitions began to be regularly held on the territory of the estate. Active restoration work has begun to restore the complex. But in 1991 there was a huge fire, after which only the frames of the estate buildings and structures remained. The Grebnevo estate remains in this state today, increasingly turning into ordinary ruins.

Village Shatur

The old village of Shatur has been known since the 17th century. It is located on poor soils, so the main occupation of local residents has always been hunting. Perhaps it was for this reason that the village fell into decay in the mid-twentieth century.

Today the village is completely deserted. Occasionally, the owners of individual houses come here (several times a year). Among the abandoned village, the old brick bell tower, towering above the deserted village, looks great.

Memo for extreme tourists

Despite their gloom and decrepitude, old uninhabited villages and other abandoned places are of great interest to many tourists. However, traveling to such sites can be fraught with certain dangers.

What should so-called extreme tourists know?

firstly, before going on such a trip, you should notify your relatives or friends about your trip, its timing and route;
secondly, you need to dress appropriately; remember that you are not going for an evening walk in the park: clothes should be closed, and shoes should be reliable, durable and comfortable;
thirdly, take with you the necessary supply of water and food; your backpack should also have a flashlight, matches and a standard first aid kit.

Finally...

The old villages of the Moscow region amaze travelers with their desolation and picturesqueness. I can’t even believe that such objects can be located just a few tens of kilometers from the capital - the largest metropolis on the planet! Entering one of these villages is like using a time machine. It seems as if time has stood still here...

Unfortunately, the number of abandoned buildings is growing every year. Perhaps someday this problem can be solved. But for now, abandoned villages serve only as objects of interest for all sorts of extreme sports enthusiasts, stalkers and lovers of dark antiquities.

July. Heavy dew on the grass until late morning foreshadows a hot day. We walk along an overgrown road through a field. Now no one sows or mows here, and the neglected field is replete with various herbs.

4. No one has touched the haystack for several years.

6. Suddenly a village house appeared in the thicket. Abandoned.

7. And once upon a time, perhaps just recently, life was in full swing here, and the rural street looked completely different.

8. The door is open, despite the boarded up windows, but inside is ruined and full of rubbish.

10. In an abandoned house, objects from the previous household are scattered everywhere. It was clear that no one had moved from here, everything was simply left behind. A grasshopper is jumping along the shelves with dusty utensils, on the table in the room newspapers are stacked, it is unclear how they are still preserved, and even by the stove there are brushwood and kindling.

11. The red corner is empty.

14. Apparently labor veteran Ivanov used to live in this house.

15. Apparently, this house was abandoned several years ago; much in it has been preserved from its former life and little has yet been absorbed by time.

16. The village street goes further, and along it, in places making our way through thickets of nettles, we move. There was a moment when I even regretted that I didn’t have at least a stick at hand to clear my path.

17. It is noticeable that previously there were all kinds of buildings on the right and left of the road. Now the houses are very sparse. It can be seen that the decline and the process of desolation began a very long time ago, so that some houses have already completely disappeared, while others are still standing and crumbling. It seems that the stork himself is surprised to see people here again, breaking the silence.

18. The grass is taller than a person.

19. The next two houses are also empty and ruined.

20. Among the rubbish is a record with songs from the Soviet era.
The song “Your Whole Life Ahead” fits very ironically into the picture presented. Well, in the current situation, all we can do is “hope and wait.”

22. Not only in the Pskov region, but throughout Russia, abandoned villages and villages are now very common. In fairness, I would like to note that in neighboring regions the situation is no better.

23. The only "resident".

24. At the other end of the village there was only one more or less well-kept house. It is clear that people still live here, although the farm is in disrepair and the harvest is long overripe.

27. Another irony. If only everything were as simple as in a fairy tale, fix the clock and life in this place will resume.

29. It would seem that everything has left these places. But is it? No! Another stage has just ended, and life goes on. Life is energy. It only passes from one form to another, confirming the law of conservation.

30. Wild nature returns to the place of the departed man.

And the Russian village will resume in a different quality and in a different appearance in a new place. But what it came to in the 20th century will never be the same again.

However, is it worth regretting that the next stage is changing and life is moving forward? No!

But we should regret and pay attention to the fact that our new does not gradually emerge from the old, absorbing all the positive aspects, but each time is reborn again from the ashes of a bygone era, like a phoenix from its own ashes.