A derelict Stalin-era labor camp ⋆ Russian Urban Exploration

Once I had a chance to visit one of the derelict Stalin-era labor camps. The camp is located about 100 km (62 miles) away from the city of Nadym, on the road leading to the Yarudeiskoe mines, which is to the north.

Apparently, the prisoners’ labor was used for construction of a railroad from Nadym to Salekhard ( also referred to variously as Dead Road, and Stalinbahn, is an incomplete railway in northern Siberia). The railway tracks are still there in the tundra as well as bridges.

This landscape is typical of the region.

A railway bridge.

The small forest where the camp is located.

Security watchtowers.

The barbed wire fence.

An office building.

Everything looks rickety. The same building.

The prisoners’ barracks.

The inner space of the barrack. Everything is very simple. There are no walls.

The visitors leave cigarettes, coins, sweets and bread here – apparently, to pay homage to the prisoners.

The bunks. Just woodboards and nails, nothing more.

A general view.

Another building.

And another one.

The traces of time.

Here is the only well-preserved building on the site. This is the isolation barrack.

Inside the barrack.

The bars in the isolation barrack. Flattened bars and holes made with nails.

This is the last photo. While I was walking around the site, I was thinking that if I had ever become a prisoner here, I would probably have died very soon.

The temperatures reach -50 degrees Celcius (-58 degrees Fahrenheit). The housing is made of wood splits and clay. Moors all around.

The living conditions are simply non-human.