Living in a Ghost Town

We all know that there are many ghost-towns on the planet. And if you think that these are abundant places where nobody lives, you are wrong. Today we’ll go to one of the military ghost-towns of the Moscow region which doesn’t exist officially but is inhabited by people.



A great deal of military objects that were security-guarded in the Soviet times are located in the Moscow region. Even now there is not much information about them on the Internet. Meanwhile, the places are inhabited by real people who suffer from the high-security.

Local people inhabit a place that lacks water, heating and properly functioning WC facilities. The local military unit was disbanded in 2000. People were promised to be given permanent homes, but were forgotten in fact.

They inhabit the place on legal grounds. At the same time the building is not suitable for living. In 2007 the court decided that the people have to be provided with other houses. In spite of the fact they are staying in the old hostel till now.

‘Those who bang doors are handless asses’.

Around 50 people stay in the hostel. Many of them have small kids. Some of them came here accompanied by parents who had been invited to the place to work. They are neither soldiers nor officers. They are builders. Most of them came here from Central Asia. They were invited here to participate in construction of defense facilities. The people say that they don’t insist on resettlement. They ask at least to repair the hostel.

Vyacheslav has been living here since 1992. He was promised to be given a prominent house in 2 years after he moved in.

An attempt to resettle the people was made in 2003 as awful living conditions attracted attention of mass media. 27 million rubles were allocated to make repairs of the hostel. Two other adjacent hostels were successfully repaired.

Many apartments in the newly repaired buildings were given to soldiers and the builders had to stay where they were.

Authorities are saying that they need to supply soldiers and officers with houses first. When people came to the hostel they had no registration. All they had were certificates of forced migrants. Later they were registered at the military unit.

So, the people are registered at the place that does not exist officially. No housing department or a management company provides services to them. ‘Kitchen’

In winter temperature falls to 12-15 degrees Celsius. Kids are often sick. When it’s too cold, they go to relatives and friends.

There is a fire hydrant in the basement. Citizens of the ghost town use it to get water which is impossible to drink. They buy water in bottles for nutritive purposes.

Every room here is supplied with stoves used for cooking.



WC facilities function only when it’s warm in the street. In winter they are covered with icicles. Wastes go to the local river.



They wanted to repair the roof at their own expense but they made a conclusion that it is not subject to repairs and must only be changed totally.

‘Best granny’


It’s dark in the corridors as leakages spoil the electric wiring. Walls of the building are covered with fissures.


The place had been on fire many times.








Raining outside is accompanied by raining inside.

Inside a room.





Inhabitants dream of the day when they can get another place for living just like some of their former neighbors who moved to the adjacent repaired house.


VIA :  englishrussia.com