Chukhrai is a village in the Bryansk region. Today you can hardly find any information about it on the Internet and it is hard to believe that during World War II this place used to be a populous partisan center.
These photos are not only another proof of devastation, they are an echo of a once lively community with the people, whose life was much harder than today’s one.
The villagers were doing subsistence farming here.
Some of the houses are still in a relatively good condition but with locks on the doors.
Time spares nothing, no matter how strong it is.
Each village has its own peculiarities. Here people, for example, would build roofed gates.
The logs are numbered. Probably, the owner of the house wanted to move it to some place but he couldn’t make it.
These are two roofs – wooden and slated – which seem to be reflecting the two eras.
These are abandoned homes on the inside. There are almost no belongings left, however in some of them there are different photos hanging on the walls. Who are these prople? Are they still alive? Why have they moved leaving even their family pictures behind?
Some time will go by and the chimney will be the only thing left. But eventually it is going to fall down too.
On the windowsill there is a school photo of someone’s classmates.
In some villages they still use such locks.
A hospital.
In this room they performed all kinds of surgeries, including craniotomy.
This is a real plane’s screw propeller. The sign on the monument runs: a partisan detachment ‘For the Soviet Rule’ and some Ukranian partisan detachments were situated here during WWII. In Smelizh Village there was a hospital and a printing establishment which printed a newspaper called ‘Partisan Truth’. Every night planes carrying ammunition, newspapers, medicine and food, would land on its aerodrome and then took off to carry the wounded, kids and documents away.
Location: Bryansk region
via igorpodgorny
I love this site,!!!!
First class photograpy and the history of the former Sovjet Union is so impressive.
what a sad village.But this trend is continuing all over world.Millions of people leave their ancestral villages and settle in mega cities.
Is this village for sale?i might purchase it and meditate for entire life
Or spend rest of your life fixing it. I know what I am talking about, I bought a neglected farm as a summer house and the only meditation I do there on weekends is “Where is the god-damn chainsaw when I need it” or “OK, the Bosch hammer drill turned out to be a piece of trash, should I buy Makita or Milwaukee as replacement?”
I love my Makita, do not buy a cordless hammer drill if you intend to hammer drill into hard stuff, which is most stuff, lol.
Why they leave some photos?
Why was this village (and countless others) abandoned? Why does the Great Plains of the U.S. also have many abandoned villages? Economics.
You have hit upon a tragic consequence of the fall of the USSR. The USSR’s economy was a shambles, it tried to be all things to all people and couldn’t possibly sustain itself.
However, since making a profit wasn’t a primary motivation there were many enclaves and services supported on a small scale that gave people a life.
One similar example: The US Post Office.
The PO serves people with thousands of tiny offices around America, even though they don’t make money. And people make a decent living working for it in very remote areas. Unfortunately, the US government in its infinite wisdom, has started to dismantle this system because, why should the government give a damn about these people? It’s just another example of the soul sucking Washington DC mentality that may someday ruin this country. America, was founded on high principles, set in writing, that told people what they COULD do, not what they COULD NOT do. This definition of national principles was a first in modern world history. It was not perfect, but the goal was defined. I am afraid that America is evolving into a large sponge, and Washington squeezes and squeezes this sponge, until it is dry.
I would imagine the inhabitants may not have left on their own accord. They may have been taken away during a purge & never made it back.
The handwriting in that forgotten letter is beautiful. That town must have been filled with many stories at one time … but now there are only ghosts. Kind of sad.