Tag: USSR
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Tianjin: The Kiev
I’m in Tianjin, China, visiting the Kiev, a legendary 1970s Soviet aircraft carrier. Once the pride of the Soviet fleet, it was sold off in 1996 and is now a Chinese Theme Park. 😞 At 45,000 tons and 273m long, it’s a little smaller than the USS Midway, which I visited in San Diego a…
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Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site
I’ve been visiting the old Soviet nuclear weapons test site at Semipalatinsk, aka “the Polygon”. The site isn’t nearly as bad as its rather dire historic reputation – the last 25 years have seen a lot of clean up and containment. The worst areas have either been scraped off and buried, or are fenced off.…
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Moscow: Vostok-1
To my gleeful amazement, I unexpectedly ran across Gagarin’s Vostok-1 capsule yesterday! I was out wandering in Moscow and at the VDNKh exhibition center I discovered a newly opened museum “Cosmos”. It turns out to be a big new Space Technology museum. And sitting in the lobby was the original Gagarin Vostok-1 capsule. Oh wow! …
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Perm-36 Gulag Museum
Perm-36 is the last surviving Gulag camp, now the “Museum of the History of Political Repression“, about 90km East of Perm. It was abandoned in 1988, became extremely dilapidated, then was reclaimed as a Museum in 1994 and partially restored. So what is visible today is a mix of original buildings and reconstructions. It is…
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Moscow’s Gulag Museum
Moscow’s Gulag History Museum has moved to a new, larger, building with new exhibits and a new narrative. The building’s exterior is deliberately stark and austere, even forbidding. The interior exhibition space has been given a distinctly prison-like style. It is mostly one large multi-level hall, with many side rooms for specific topics. The Museum…
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Ukraine: Soviet ICBM Base
You enter through the basement blast doors and then ride the tiny elevator 11 levels down into the armored control silo. You and one of your comrades man the launch control consoles. A quick consultation, then 1-2-3 you each turn your launch key and simultaneously push your launch button. And the SS-24 ICBM roars into…