Tiksi is an outpost of the Nothern Sea Route and a once prosperous village near the Laptev Sea.
Tiksi. Sea Gate. Respublika Sakha (Yakutia).
The inscription ‘Klava’s bi**h’ on the moorage welcomes its quests.
Grey sky, continual fog, lifeless streets and people, whose fates have been destroyed by goverment…
Coming up to the village…
It seems like there has been a war here!
This used to be a playground. This rocket stands here as a symbol of today’s aircraft construction.
In the streets there are a lot of stray dogs which look friendly, but serious.
One of the administrative buildings.
This man has been living here since 14. He says that the village had been developing and growing rather well up to the 90s. They would produce consumer goods and fuel, and would go fishing on weekends. He remembers that they would fly south on vacations… and then he just gives a deep sigh.
Most people left their homes leaving everything behind because they had no money to buy even some food in Tiksi. They escaped to Yakutsk. Those who had relatives there, stayed at their places and those who didn’t, lived at dormitories. The man says that at that time he had a good salary which allowed him to buy food for his family and pay bills, but buying clothes was a luxury for him.
Now he’s a retiree and has nowhere to go. Even if he had, he wouldn’t leave this village because he had given it too much. In Tiksi they are living to die.
The Tiski of today is a village which consists of just two streets, with a post office, a bank, a motel, and a lot of stores which have very little to offer but at outrageous prices. A two-litre bottle of Coca-Cola starts at 7 dollars! Can you believe that?
‘Glory to Work’.
The central street of the village looks more or less civilized.
A cross-country vehicle is driving along one of the streets.
It has brought some things from the airport because a couple of hours ago a plane from Yakutsk landed there.
Another smart-looking dog.
‘Our children are our future’.
Here they are!
One of the abandoned apartments.
They didn’t bomb their people, no. They exterminated them with no bloodshed.
They like talking about nanotechnologies a lot. What do they think this is?
Leaving Tiski just like everybody else does.
Location: Tiksi Village
via passajirlexa
The only way is to make this place a post-apocalyptic amusement park and sold tickets for the Amercians for heavy amount in $$.
That Detroit Red Wings shirt next to “Glory to Work” with completely decayed urban infrastructure in the background is brilliant! Talk about a great band cover!
Good eye, i overlooked the Detroit Red Wings jacket. And the irony of the “Glory to Work” backdrop, in a place where jobs are now in short supply and the infrastructural is decaying… it draws a surreal parallel between these two places that are half a world apart.
How much of Detroit looks like this ? Isn’t Detroit a ‘big’ city.
How much of Detroit looks like this you ask; only the really nice parts. Detroit largely looks far worse than this. I’m going to link a YouTube video of a tour of Detroit in case anyone is interested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6WKMNmFsxM
I believe Detroit will soon be America’s first major dead city.
It’s much bigger then this industrial outpost that’s for sure, but a better question might be how big WAS Detroit. So much abandonment of industrial and commercial properties there, and when the jobs left that in turn lead to the collapse of entire city neighborhoods that now stretch on in some surreal landscape. The city streets are still there but almost all the lots in those neigborhoods, that used to have houses on them are now empty. These neighborhoods fell into disrepair and poverty and most of the houses have since been demolished. There are areas of the outlying city that are grass, trees, dirt and streets grids with a few houses dotting the landscape, it’s surreal.
These aerial photos give you some idea of how much of the city has been lost since it’s heyday. Granted, other parts are doing somewhat better but…
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2009-10-26/news/30064482_1_industrial-city-citings-returns
http://www.somacon.com/p135.php
Thank you Matt thank you Hirsh. Wow that’s…….like you say, Surreal.
Wouldn´t mind go there. It seems like live is stopped there – contrast to fast-paced style of modern EU cities. Maybe it can be even relaxing for someone.
So it’s like Alaska then?
Such a shame to see something once so prosperous in disrepair. . .
“It seems like there has been a war here!”
Try extremely harsh weather conditions, you self hating “Russians” and look at similar places in Greenland Canada or Alaska f.ex…
I admire people who manage to settle under such conditions, try it yourselves and give us a reort afterwards.
This was the point of my other post.
People simply do not want to leave their homes, no matter how bleak it may be. It’s “home”, why leave it.
Impressive. Really looks like a sci-fi scenario.
What an utterly depressing place.
What is even more depressing is that there are many places like that. I feel for the people who live there and can’t get away.
Yes they can get away, the problem of such villages is that the infrustructure and industry there was created for the needs of the Soviet economy, now with capitalism these places, situated in extreme North are not needed anymore.
And another thing in the modern Russia: Big cities are developing and live well, little towns just live like they can, the villages (only if they are not situated in the rich agricultural regions) are dieing
It’s like Russia is going through a second industrial revolution, with people leaving the land for the cities.
The distribution of wealth, through the USSR’s controlled economy, created and supported many places like this. Unfortunately, capitalism finds a cheaper, and to a degree, better way.
The cost to the state of supporting unprofitable industry ultimately tips the scales. Here the scale went, “kerplunk”.
The benefits of a free capitalist economy are less obvious than this depressing town. Capitalism works well because it’s left to the individual to sink or swim. Greed but be regulated, how regulated is the great debate.
I think a second industrial revolution would benefit rather than hurt places like this. I imagine there is a lot of mineral wealth to be exploited. But yes, you’re right that the Soviet State “created” places like this and encouraged emigration to expand the State’s mineral/industrial/agricultural (fishing) base. Capitalism needs quick profit, which in an isolated area like this isn’t going to happen due to transportation costs. One “good” note: global warming models suggests a warmer Siberia which would spur redevelopment and repopulation.
For some people home is home, wherever they were brought up, and they can’t leave easily. Others find it less difficult to break away. Which category are you in? Only a minor point but those are two different cross-country vehicles. The commentary suggests it is the same one.
For some people home is home, wherever they were brought up, and they can’t leave easily. Others find it less difficult to break away. Which category are you in? Only a minor point but those are two different cross-country vehicles. The commentary suggests it is the same one.
So sad
Another interesting thing in the modern Russia is that the young people live better than their parents and much better than their grandparents, if they don´t find their place in their native town o village, they just go away, like in this case to Yakutsk, but the older generation just can´t find themselves and it´s difficult for them to leave the life they got used to.
Wow, you could talk all day about this one. Spend less on arms and weapons, invest in infrastructure/education/housing/re-location/tourism etc etc and away you go. Easier said than done though.