Category Archives: Soviet History & Architecture

How to Take a Nuclear Missile Base Tour from Kyiv, Ukraine

Ukraine Nuclear Missile Base Tour from Kyiv-13

There are many amazing day trips from Kyiv that one can embark on and every trip offers something for various types of travelers.  If you’re into USSR history and the history of Ukraine, you definitely don’t want to miss out on this nuclear missile base tour from Kyiv.  This is a guide that details how […]

Slavutych, Ukraine: The Soviet City Built for Chernobyl Refugees

Housing block in Slavutych, Ukraine

I have witnessed the Chernobyl disaster go from being a globally-recognized mass tragedy to a clichéd source of trite tourism where travelers go in with their cameras hugging their hips, all ready to shoot the perfect photo (which has inevitably been taken 3,790 times already that same month) for bragging rights about how they visited such a creepy […]

Ukraine Uncovered: The Kharkiv Metro System

The Metro Systems of the Soviet Union were elaborate and a source of pride for the now exanimate nation.  Coming from a nation whose public transportation networks are so undeniably terrible, I am always impressed with Soviet metro systems as they are fast, efficient, inexpensive, and have competently served numerous cities for decades. The Kharkiv […]

Issyk-Ata: A Soviet Sanatorium in Kyrgyzstan

Issyk-ata Soviet Sanatorium in Kyrgyzstan

My first experience with a Soviet sanatorium was back in Sukhum, Abkhazia in 2013.  I had booked a place on Couchsurfing to stay that ran me $1 (free accommodation was illegal at the time in Abkhazia so the hosts were mandated to charge something) and upon my arrival in the city, I was unable to […]

Inside the Abandoned Red Cross Hospital in Dnipro

I knew very little about Dnipro (formerly known as Dnipropetrovsk) before heading there despite trying to actively seek information about the Ukrainian city.   One thing I did know, however, was that the city was littered with abandoned buildings (in Russia and some of the CIS countries, they refer to urban exploration and the interest […]

11 Soviet Circus Buildings for USSR Architecture Lovers

Dnipro Circus soviet building in Ukraine

One of the most interesting pieces of architecture that I’ve come across in my travels are Soviet circus buildings. This post rounds up some of the circuses of the Soviet Union that I have visited throughout the years with a little bit of background on each. Foreword:  I don’t like circuses.  In fact, I can […]