London-Based Photographer Captures the Ghost of the Soviet Empire

“The former USSR was once a living, breathing place, but with the fall of Communism, places now lie derelict, uninhabited, broken shells of a forgotten time. The collapse of the Soviet Union left haunting memories of ordinary people who once lived and worked there.”

Coming across as practically post-apocalyptic and steeped in dark, morbid glamour, Rebecca Litchfield’s photos from her book ‘Soviet Ghosts’ give you a glimpse into a world that few are privy to. Travelling to 10 countries in Eastern Europe, The Baltic’s, Ukraine and Russia, she has successfully documented not just the derelict state of the East European countries and occupied satellite states that were formerly a part of the Soviet Union, but also the glory of a bygone era that has long waned.

The London-based photographer harbours a self-confessed penchant for abandoned buildings, dark tourist sites and travel photography – all of which she manages to document through her trips to Chernobyl, Bulgaria, Hungary, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Lithuania, East Germany and other Eastern Bloc countries and countries that formed the USSR to capture the haunting decay of forgotten towns, factories, prisons, schools, monuments, hospitals, theatres, military complexes, asylums & death camps.

Litchfield writes about the experience:
”My aim with the book was to capture the crumbling empire of the former Soviet Union, before it is gone completely. The title Soviet Ghost comes from the ghosts and stories that are left behind after the collapse of the Soviet Union.”

Via Gizmodo