Some strategically important cities and small settlements that were inhabited and flourished in the USSR, today remain only in the memory of people, having turned for a number of reasons into "ghosts". Despite the fact that they ceased to exist long ago, interest in them remained, especially among researchers of the past era and “photo hunters” who regularly visit these territories. Why did the once densely populated cities and towns become empty and ghosts?
1. Vologda region - Charonda village
This village is the only one located in the northern part of the region, on Lake Vozhe, on its western shore. There are several hypotheses regarding the name of the village. According to one of them, it came from the Nenets word "siroma", which means "icy crust on the snow", according to the other - from the Vepsian "cherendak", meaning "evil spirit". Some researchers are convinced that the derivatives were "bell", meaning coast and "charva" - compacted snow or "charra" - tundra overgrown with moss.
The settlement is located on a high bank, on which pine trees grow. There are a lot of fish in the lake, so the territory has been inhabited for a long time. It has already been proven that there were first sites here in the Neolithic. In the tenth century, it was a staging post during the movement of traders from Sheksna towards the White Sea.
It is officially believed that Charonda was founded in the 13th century. The population was engaged in trade, fishing, escorting caravans. In the fifteenth century, the village passed into the possession of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery. Fish and salt were transported through it, and over time, iron and furs were exported from the north abroad. The village expanded, living rooms and inns began to appear, and the number of the local population increased. In the seventeenth century, the counties became a separate area, which housed 1,700 peasant households and 11,000 people.
After in 1584 Arkhangelsk was founded, the status of the village was somewhat shaken, but it continued to flourish and even began to be called a city in 1708. Already in the 1770s, it returned to its former state and turned into a village in which the population was rapidly decreasing. During the years of the October Revolution, the number of residents was already less than one thousand, in 1921 it was - 450 people and seventy houses. The village gradually died out. In 2007 only eight villagers lived here. Nowadays, only 2 people are permanent residents.
Naturally, we are not even talking about electricity here. And you can only come here by the lake. In summer, these are boats, in winter - snowmobiles or skis. The fact that life once was in full swing here is reminiscent only of the erected in 1826. Church of St. John Chrysostom.
2. Nagorno-Karabakh - Agdam
The settlement, founded in the eighteenth century, is located 365 km from Baku and 26 km from Stepanakert. Aghdam in translation from the Azerbaijani language means "white roof".
Agdam received the status of the city in 1828. During the times of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, a creamery, a cannery, and a winery actively functioned here. The products of the latter were known throughout the USSR, namely, port with the same name. In addition, there were educational institutions, a drama theater, gardens and a railway station, a bread museum, in which exhibits of antiquity and the Middle Ages were kept. Excavations of an ancient settlement (Bronze Age) were carried out here in the fifties. In 1989, the city's population was 28,000.
Everything was changed by the Karabakh war, which lasted from 91 to 94 years. battles were fought in Agdam, in 1993 it was fired upon from the Grad and artillery pieces, which led to its destruction. Only the mosque of 1870 remained intact.
In November 2010 the government decided to include the city in Askeran in a quarter format and name it Akna. At this time, the population of the once large city numbered only 360 people. And today the mosque here is the only building that has not suffered from military operations.
3. Yaroslavl region - the city of Mologa
This city was built near Rybinsk, in the place where the Mologa River flows into the Volga. This settlement dates back to the twelfth century. Over time, the city became known for its delicious milk and butter. In 1935 g. the government decided to build the Rybinsk hydroelectric station. Accordingly, more than one hundred hectares of land, along with all the settlements located on it, fell under flooding. In total, seven hundred villages and a prosperous city with the beautiful name of Mologa were destroyed.
At the time of liquidation, life here was in full swing. Factories, factories, educational institutions functioned in the city, about six churches and cathedrals worked.
The beginning of the resettlement of residents of the city dates back to 1937. Then about seven thousand inhabitants were evicted from here. In the spring of 1941, the rivers flowing nearby began to overflow the banks. This phenomenon was provoked by the overlap of the last opening of the dam. Gradually, the city itself began to be destroyed, destroying industrial and residential buildings. Naturally, an urgent evacuation of people was organized. About three hundred indigenous people refused to leave their homes, so they were simply taken out by force. All of these events have led to a string of suicides by former city dwellers. Those who survived were quickly sent to the other end of the Soviet Union. The city itself, with its terrible and sad history, became a ghost, buried under the thickness of river water.
By the end of the Second World War, not a trace remained of Mologa, as the city was completely flooded. The only reminder is the bell tower of St. Nicholas Cathedral. It still rises above the reservoir.
Since the nineties, the reservoir has become shallower. Streets paved with cobblestones began to appear from under the water, as well as foundations of a number of buildings - churches and houses.
4. Komi Republic - Khalmer-Yu
The city was located near Vorkuta, approximately sixty kilometers away. In ancient times, the locals considered it sacred and used it exclusively for burying the dead. Most likely, it was this fact that became fundamental when choosing the name of the settlement. Translated from the Nenets language, Halmer-Yu means "river in the valley of death."
In the 42nd year, a K14 coal deposit was discovered in this area. During the Second World War, the breed was of great importance. Later, an exploration and production adit was laid here.
During the Soviet era, the city's infrastructure was quite developed. It housed a music and general education schools, nurseries and kindergartens, a hospital and a library, a home and a hostel, a cultural center, a bakery, and shops.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1995, the mine was closed, and the entire population was voluntarily and forcibly resettled to a larger city - Vorkuta. Halmer-Yu became a ghost who in 2000. began to be used as a testing ground for weapons.
5. Kamchatka - Finval
A strategic settlement in the Bechevinskaya Bay near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. In the bay, which was supposed to take on the attack of the attackers, there were Project 641 submarines, and after a while, nuclear ones.
In the early sixties, a base for the localization of submarines began to be built here. A village was built very quickly, the houses in which were numbered as they were built. Other facilities were immediately erected: headquarters, barracks, garage and galley. In addition, the village had everything for its autonomous functioning - a kindergarten and a school, a club, a shop, a diesel substation and a helicopter pad, a vegetable store and a bomb shelter. He defended himself with two anti-aircraft batteries. It was not on the map. Like many other similar objects, the village was named after the name of the nearest city with numbers, according to the number of the post office. In this case, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky-54 or Finval.
During the rearmament, more military personnel with families appeared in it, which became the reason for the construction of a new house and school. In total, up to 2000 people lived here. Irreversible processes in Finval began after the collapse of the USSR. The communications were gradually turned off, and the people were resettled. Today it is just one "ghost" of many others.
6. Komi - Industrial
This settlement was founded in the 54th year on the Izyuorsh River. It was built around two mines - "Promyshlennaya" and "Central". Constructions, residential buildings and other buildings were built by prisoners. The main population is people who went north to earn money. Most of the inhabitants, naturally, worked in the mines. At the best of times, the population reached twelve thousand. There was everything for life, in particular a sports complex and a restaurant.
In 1998, an accident occurred at the "Central", as a result of which twenty-seven miners died. The second mine had been closed three years earlier. A year later, families of miners began to be resettled from the village. And in 2000 at the "Central" mine, 3 people died, workers who were dismantling the building. It was officially decided to close the village in 2007, while there were only 450 residents.
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7. Abkhazia - Tkvarcheli
In Soviet times, it was a large Abkhaz industrial center and the second most populous after Sukhumi. At that time, up to 40,000 citizens lived in the city. But by the time the war began in the nineties, the number of people had decreased by almost half.
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The location of the city is the valley of the Galidzga river, 80 km from Sukhumi. This is not to say that this settlement is a real ghost town. The fact is that there are people here today. But according to the 2011 census, there were 5013 people living in it. Today it contains more neglected and destroyed structures than inhabited ones.
Continuing on the topic, read about the mystery of the disappearance of the ghost town of Iultin.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/120520/54478/