Stalking in Smolensk region

Stalking is a type of urban research and industrial tourism, with visits to abandoned industrial facilities, schools, hospitals, churches for the purpose of aesthetic satisfaction. Such researchers call themselves stalkers, and the objects of research are "abandoned".

We visited one of these abandoned sites as part of a group of 12 people in August 2023 in the Smolensk region.

So, first, about an hour's journey from Smolensk by bus, then about 20 minutes on foot through the forest and you get into an overgrown, but flooded with sunlight military unit. The location of the abandoned part is not disclosed in the hope of its revival.

A hangar in an abandoned part

Barracks

The condition of the buildings shows that the statutory military life has been gone from here for a long time, but graffiti on the walls and messages show that the object is periodically used for some military role-playing games, laser tags and other events. The one who stays overnight in one of the rooms gets a special thrill. The message "live, but don't break" says that this also happens here.

The culmination and peculiar highlight of this abandonment is the presence of a bunker, half-flooded with water, having many branches, rooms and storages. A few steps down and you get out of the hot thirty-degree summer heat into the saving coolness, where the air temperature contributes to the formation of steam from the mouth. Armed with rubber boots, jackets and headlamps, we went to explore the "dungeon".

Expedition to the "dungeon"

Dark corridors flooded ankle-deep with water, a peculiar smell of rot, high humidity, in some places the remains of furniture, boxes and piles of garbage in the form of gas masks, cartridges and cylinders – these are the main treasures of the bunker.

Being inside, you feel sad about how a once orderly environment could turn into such chaos. Especially strongly you begin to appreciate order, warmth, comfort and sunlight and realize how important it is to protect and store all this. The head is intuitively looking for a way out.