During the years of the Cold war military equipment was manufactured in this country in huge quantities.

Fortunately, no global war happened, but the equipment stayed. As years went by, the machines and the equipment became outdated and started breaking down.

As a result, the machines were either taken apart or put under preservation. For reasons unknown to me, sometimes military bases with this kind of equipment just stopped functioning or still carry on in a very inefficient manner, while time is merciless on the equipment and the machinery.

1. Surprisingly, it was extremely easy to get into the territory, as the watchtowers that stood around the periphery were empty, and the fence was partly nonexistent.

In the second and the third inside perimeters the alarm had probably conked down last winter, when some trees fell down on it.

2. There was dead silence and after walking through the woods for a little while I found myself in front of some abandoned vehicles.

3. The machines are scattered around randomly, and various vehicles can be seen in the bushes here and there.

4.

5. Some units have been partially dismantled.

6.

7. On the outer rims of the base the machines are in a really bad condition.

8.

9. A “dead” ZIL vehicle.

10. After taking some pictures at the periphery and making sure that no one was there, it was decided to go deeper.

11. I moved further following the railway tracks because they must be leading somewhere after all. There were multiple “dead” vehicles in the forest along the way.

12.

13.

14. The military personnel’s art.

15. And finally the tracks led me to the station. After seeing the crane, I couldn’t help visiting it.

16. Here you can see the scale of this military machinery graveyard. It is worth noting that you can only see a small part of it here.

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18.

19.

20. I wondered who had crumpled their roofs.

21.

22. And this one didn’t make it to the small “flock”.

23.

24. I started to feel bored up there and I thought it was time to go inside the vehicles.

Some of the vans were sealed, while others were open. I decided not to rip the seals off.

25. An antenna in service.

26. There was a dismantled antenna lying on the ground nearby.

27. When inside, you can see that the machines are well preserved.

28. A toy for grownups.

29. The documents are in place as well.

30.

31. A box with something inside it.

32. I don’t know what this is.

32.

33. The van next to it is pretty much identical to this one.

34.

35. A pile of tanks.

36. The hermetic cabins are not empty either. There is various equipment inside them.

37.

38. There were also “bukhankas” (literally “loaves of bread”, a colloquial name for this type of vehicles) apart from Urals and ZILs.

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40.

41.

42. The machines were put together very densely in places, and one had to either climb under them or over them to go further.

43.

44. This one does not look well at all, apparently it has been here for a long while.

45.

46.

47. The night is coming, but there is still no one here.

48. A TA-57

49. There was an armored carrier among the vehicles. We’ll get in there later. It’s better to take some more pictures from the outside while it’s not completely dark.

50.

51.

52.

53. There is a star on the steering wheel, you can’t do without it.

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55.

56.

57. It’s time to get inside the armored carriers.

58. The driver’s seat. By the way, there is very little room inside these vehicles, and it was very difficult to take pictures. Moreover, various equipment for the crew were stacked up inside.

59. A tank periscope, which is a very curious device. There are a lot of holes in the armored vehicles made for using it.

60. There are also multiple optical surveillance systems.

61.

62.

63. By pressing the buttons and turning some handles I caused the equipment to start making an unpleasant buzzing noise.

64.Unliftable tripods.

65.

66. Another Ural vehicle

67. It is almost empty inside, but there was something in nearly every box.

68. For example, in one of the boxes there was another box, which in its turn was empty.

69. Standard subsitute items. They were dated 1990.

70.

71. The woods also have lots of mushrooms.

72. To be continued.

Images by Saoirse-2010, reproduced with permission