Did you have a great week? I’m glad we’re going into the weekend, and I can get some things done around the house.
Today’s photo is from the abandoned Jupiter Factory in Pripyat Ukraine, which sits a few miles from Chernobyl and is within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The Russians claimed the factory made cassette recorders, but in reality it made semiconductor components for their military. We spent a couple hours exploring this site during our 2018 Chernobyl trip.
On this Sunday, I have a photo for you that I took inside one of the many abandoned schools within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. This specific school was in the city of Pripyat (the town right next to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant). We explored this school and took a ton of photos of it and frankly everything else we explored during our 4 days within the Zone.
I took this photo these Soviet Statues under the People’s Friendship Arch in Kiev back in 2018. The Arch, you can see a portion of it on the right side, and these Hero’s Statues were constructed in 1982. They are supposed to depict friendship between Russian and Ukrainian peoples (soldiers - left statue and workers - right statue).
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian government announced plans to dismantle the arch as part of their 2016 decommunization laws.
Here is a mural I captured inside an abandoned building in the city of Pripyat. Sorry I can’t remember which building. Maybe some of my travel companions will remember. I think it was the Post Office in the town square….maybe????
To view a larger version, click HERE
I found these old Soviet propaganda signs at the back of the Pripyat Cultural Center. Pripyat had over 49,000 people before it was abandoned after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The Cultural Center building was a great explore.
To view a larger version, click HERE
I’m not sure why I didn’t share this photo in the past. Regardless, here it is!! I captured this in Pripyat, Ukraine a few miles from Chernobyl nuclear reactor number 4. The entire region is abandoned and will be for decades to come. There was a carnival setup for a village celebration, which of course never happened, with the nuclear reactor meltdown. The carnival rides are some of the most popular tourist attractions within the Exclusion Zone.
To view a larger version, click HERE
I really wanted to return to Chernobyl in 2020, but like all good things this year, COVID messed that up. Let’s hope that trip can happen in 2021. Here is a photo I took from 2018 at the Soviet Nuclear Missile Detection site.
To view a larger version, click HERE
I finally got around to editing some of my Chernobyl videos…… some of them. I probably have dozens left that I haven’t even looked at yet since our trip last year. I put this video together with drone video and photos I took during our time at DUGA which is an abandoned Russian early warning ballistic missile system.
During our time inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, we got to explore this DUGA site. DUGA was a Soviet over-the-horizon radar system used as an Soviet Union missile defense warning radar network. They used this to watch for and track potential NATO missiles. They had two of these in Ukraine (Chernobyl & Chernihiv) and one in eastern Siberia.
It earned the nickname of Russian Woodpecker because it would make sharp, repetitive tapping noises across shortwaves. So amateur radio operators would have to deal with the tapping noise.
This thing is huge. I couldn’t find a size via the Internet but trust me with I say it is very big…. It has two sections. I think the taller section was maybe 200 ft tall and the entire thing was maybe half a mile long….. give or take a little. If anyone knows the actual size, please let me know.
Anyway, as you can tell, we finished our day here and I captured it at sunset.
To view a larger version, click HERE
I honestly can’t remember where within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone I took this photo. I think it was inside a factory building, but I’m not sure. Regardless, after I finished processing this a couple of days ago, I knew I had to post it. I loved how simple and powerful this scene is within the photo. I liked the shadows, the single push cart in the room, etc….
To view a larger version, click HERE
This massive statue sits on top of the National Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945)…we know it as World War II. This stainless-steel statue is 203 feet tall. Counting the museum building it sit on, the entire structure is 335 feet tall and it weighs 560 tons. The sword in her right hand is 52 feet long by itself and weighs 9 tons. That’s a huge statue by any comparison!! The State Emblem of the Soviet Union is on the shield. Even though this war ended in 1945, they didn’t start the construction of this statue until 1979 and it was completed in 1981.
In Kiev, Ukraine where this is located, the statue is controversial due to Ukraine’s complicated and currently rough relationship with Russia. Blair and I spent a few hours walking around this national park photographing the war monuments, tanks, etc…. If you’re wondering, the blue and yellow tank in the foreground is painted the Ukrainian colors.
To view a larger version, click HERE
