Closed city Znamensk

According to statistics, every 115th citizen of Russia living in the closed city, get off, and that is possible only on a special pass. To date, the country has 44 such cities and are home to more than 1.2 million people.

Two weeks before the expedition we have handed over our passports to get the go-ahead to visit Znamensk. Here lives of 20 000 people who work at a military Kapustin Yar. The town is surrounded by several rings of checkpoints and, looking ahead, I will say that we have passed all four.
27 Photo © Sergey Dolya





Before the closed cities were classified, and all residents were given a subscription to disclose the place of residence. In the case of travel, for example, on vacation was supposed to answer the questions within the framework of the standard legend: for example, if a person lived in Znamenskoye was supposed to say that he is from the nearest towns - Akhtubinsk or Volgograd. Conscripts were forbidden to write a return address on the envelope indicated only the number of the military unit. For disclosure of information on the whereabouts of the city and the nature of the production plant could ...



Military Kapustin Yar, built in 1946, was designed to test the first Soviet ballistic missiles:

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Settlement is located in the space between the first and second check point, then it goes to the landfill itself and military facilities:

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Slipped through the second checkpoint went long on the field:

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The fourth CPT made a stop - we drew complex "Topol-M" on the honorable lot. The truth turned out to be pumped water carrier, where the military train drivers:

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Opposite the barrier, which seems to survive a collision with a tank, is a military road hedgehog imposing:

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An excursion into the history of the automobile. Here 1945:

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But in 2013:

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Sunset on the range:

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Monument to the first launch of ballistic missiles in the Soviet Union, which occurred in Kapyare October 18, 1947 (available on a pedestal this date). By the way, the rocket was assembled on the basis of units and units of the German A-4 (V-2). Of the nine successful launches were seven:

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From Kapyara sent into space the first dog in the world - and Deyzika Tsigana and Squirrel Arrow departed from Baikonur later. Of them, the military told a funny story: Belka and Strelka were prepared for six months, but before the launch of one of them escaped. The researchers ingeniously came out, picking up dog that rubbed near a military canteen:

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Launched quadrocopter, made a couple of shots at sunset and returned to the city:

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Contrary to expectations, a closed city was beautiful, open and friendly. Yes, and "closed" in the Soviet sense it can be called a stretch - we, in the end, managed to get there:

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On the main square of the town a fountain illuminated:

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People on the streets a bit. By nightfall, the area captured mosquitoes and displaced people in the cafe closed with a net and a shed:

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City Church:

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We only walked around the area and fought with mosquitoes, realizing that there are unlikely to find ourselves again:

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Victory Monument:

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Copter tried to run but were instantly devoured by insects:

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With the midge in the very trouble. Accompanying Astrakhan told us that we arrived at the peak - it's happening every year in early summer. They say that once the mosquitoes zakusali chelrveka death: the woman was attacked by a rapist, bound and tossed into the bushes. When we drove to the gas station on the border with Volgograd region, I thought that it seems to be true ...

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