Pyramiden- Russia ghost town on the north pole

Located in Svalbard, an archipelago situated between Norway and the North Pole, Pyramiden can be reached by boat from about mid-May until the beginning of October, when waters bordering the town are free from sea ice. But throughout the cold winter months—three of which are engulfed by 24-hour darkness.

The city was originally built as a model for the ultimate communist city, much like a soviet union. There is not much of it left, only a handful of buildings that are still inhabited. Everything else around there is now abandoned. Nature reclaiming the terrian, and it’s a town from the soviet era truly frozen in time. People have to carry a weapon because it’s basically in wilderness, you can expect the bear encounter at any moment.

The set of island of Svalbard are a one-of-a-kind territory ruled by something called the Svalbard treaty created in 1920. It ruled that although this land is supervised by norwegian law, any country that signs the treaty has rights to come build mine and extract however much they would like. 46 countries have signed the treaty around the world including Russia, the US and even North Korea. First Barsburg which still has a small act of operation and then Pyramiden today completely abandoned. Russia’s presence in the arctic is much more strategic than some coal operations, but rather to ensure that as the north pole is sadly melting and a new ocean is created that they can have claimed and controlled for the new and immensely valuable trade routes in the arctic.

The unique thing about the ghost town is that people actually wanted to live in Chernobyl and in Russia. The only business in this town was the mining. Living in this town was not easy and only economically possible with the support of the mainland soviet union. In 1970, things took a sour turn. A large and uncontrollable deadly fire broke out inside the mine killing several miners. A fire that is still lasting to this day, and required significant costs annually to localize. Over the years, several other fires broke out of the mine leading to financial hit after financial hit. As years went by and the city continued to struggle, the soviet union callapsed and the country entered a devastating economic crisis which led to the support to Pyramiden to dry up and the economic opportunities to slowly disappear.

The final nail on the coffin that led the fall of this town is that in August of 1996, a plane traveling from Russia to Svalbard crashed and killed 141 people on board, a big portion of this town’s population. They were all workers and families from the two Russian settlements of Pyramiden in Barsburg. And so on the 31st of March in 1998, the last tons of coal were extracted and the mine was closed forever. With all job prospect lost, everyone left overnight leaving this city literally frozen in time.

                                        Written by Sybil on the 17th of May, 2022

Pyramiden - 北极的俄罗斯鬼城

Pyramiden 位于挪威和北极之间的群岛斯瓦尔巴群岛，从大约 5 月中旬到 10 月初可以乘船到达，那时与该镇接壤的水域没有海冰。但在整个寒冷的冬季——其中三个被 24 小时的黑暗所吞没。

这座城市最初是作为终极共产主义城市的典范而建造的，很像苏联。剩下的已经不多了，只有少数仍然有人居住的建筑物。周围的一切现在都被遗弃了。大自然重新占领了这里，一个来自于苏联时代的小镇真正停留在了时间里。在这里人们必须携带武器，因为它基本上是在荒野地带，你可能随时会遇到熊。

斯瓦尔巴群岛是一个独一无二的领土，由 1920 年制定的《斯瓦尔巴条约》统治。它规定，尽管这片土地受挪威法律监管，但任何签署该条约的国家都有权建造挖掘并攫取他们想要的任何东西。全世界有46个国家签署了该条约，包括俄罗斯、美国，以及朝鲜。最先是 Barsburg逐渐没落，还有些许人烟，之后是 Pyramiden 到今天已经完全被废弃了。俄罗斯在北极的存在比一些煤炭业务更具战略意义，主要是为了确保在北极正在融化并创造出新的海洋时，他们可以声称并控制北极新的和极其有价值的贸易路线.

鬼城的独特之处在于人们实际上想住在切尔诺贝利和俄罗斯。这个镇上唯一的生意就是采矿。在这个小镇生活并不容易，只有在大陆苏联的支持下才有经济上的可能。 1970年，事情发生了转折。矿井内爆发了一场无法控制的大火，造成数名矿工死亡。一场至今仍在持续的火灾，每年都需要大量成本才能将其本地化。多年来，该矿爆发了其他几起火灾，导致经济遭受一次又一次的经济打击。随着岁月的流逝，这座城市继续挣扎，苏联解体，国家陷入毁灭性的经济危机，导致对 Pyramiden 的支持枯竭，经济机会慢慢消失。

导致该镇真正消亡的最后一颗钉子是，1996 年 8 月，一架从俄罗斯飞往斯瓦尔巴群岛的飞机坠毁，机上 141 人丧生，占该镇人口的很大一部分。他们都是来自巴尔斯堡的两个俄罗斯定居点 Pyramiden 的工人和家庭。在1998 年 3 月 31 日，最后一吨煤被开采出来，煤矿永远关闭。由于失去了所有工作前景，人们一夜之间离开了这个城市，使这个小镇真正的停留在了时间里。

                                作者：Sybil，2022 年 5 月 17 日