The highest temperature in the ghost town of the Soviet Union in the Arctic Circle is only 5 degrees, and life here was once very happy.

In the sea area 0/300 km away from the North Pole/KLOC-,there is a ghost town left over from the Soviet era, and now it is inhabited by more than 2,300 residents.

According to the regulations of the local government, the elderly, the sick and the disabled on the island must leave before giving birth, including pregnant women. The purpose of this is not unreasonable, but the island is frozen all the year round, and the highest temperature in the whole year is only 5. Buried bodies will not rot and bacteria will not die. However, ships entering and leaving here can only sail between May and 10. On June 5438+065438+ 10, the island will enter the polar night for several months, and the sun will not be seen until March of the following year. Isolated from the outside world, the island is the most extreme place in the world.

The island was first discovered by the Dutch navigator William Barents in 1596. At that time, he named it Spitsbergen Island, but due to various reasons at that time, it was not developed and used, and the island was abandoned 100 years ago.

/kloc-in the 0/7th century, the island was used by many countries as the foothold of whaling in the Arctic Circle, so there are many different names now. For example, the British call it Greenland, the Norwegians call it Svalbard, and the Russians like to call it the Pyramid. It is called this name because the peaks on the island are all like the pyramids of Egypt, and there are abundant coal resources found underground here.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the island was occupied by the United States, Germany and the Soviet Union. They came to the island for only one purpose, that is, to dig coal. Among them, the Soviet Union occupied an area called Pirami in the north of the island, the United States occupied Longyearbyen in the middle, which is also the most prosperous area of the island, and the German established a mine in a place called Barents Castle in the south. At first, due to the lack of resources on the island, most prisoners came here.

After the outbreak of World War II, Germany and the United States became enemies. As a result, Germany sent its navy to the island and destroyed all the buildings here. It was not until the end of World War II that Svalbard was rebuilt. Now the buildings on the island are all left after 1945. Because it was built according to military standards, more than 70 years have passed, and many houses are still well preserved, and the decoration inside is not outdated. From the pattern of their houses, we can see the residents of the island at that time.

In 1950s, when Stalin died in the Soviet Union, the prisoners gained their freedom and began to enjoy the due treatment of workers. In order to let the miners stay and work with peace of mind, the Soviet Union specially invited hundreds of unmarried women from Ukraine to the island for logistical support, but the women did not build a red building called "Paris".

In addition to daily life functions, a warm bar was designed in the lobby on the first floor. In the past, people could make friends with the opposite sex here after work, and if they got married on the island, they could get a 70-square-meter three-bedroom apartment for free.

Since then, Svalbard has become a capitalist society. Islanders never have to worry about housing prices. When sick, there is a free public hospital, children go to school, and all meals are free. In addition, the income level on the island is more than three times that of Moscow. The generous treatment makes it the happiest residential area in the Arctic Circle, and Lenin is the most admired idol of islanders.

The happy life lasted for more than 40 years. By 199 1, great changes had taken place on the island after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Russia stopped subsidizing mining companies on the island, the welfare of miners was greatly reduced, the maintenance expenses of mining facilities were minimized, schools and hospitals were forced to close, and all women and children left the island.

By 1996, the tragedy had come to an end. At that time, the flight from Vnukovo to Svalbard crashed near Longyearbyen, killing all passengers 14 1, most of whom were miners and their relatives on the island. 1997, due to the lack of maintenance of safety facilities, 23 workers were killed in a mine accident, which was the deadliest mine accident in Svalbard's history. After the two incidents, a large-scale strike occurred in the mine, and the families of the victims made huge compensation to the mining company. By 1998, Russia completely closed the mines on the island, and at this point, the pyramids became the most famous ghost town in the Arctic Circle.

At that time, about 300 miners were reluctant to leave the island, because they had lived on the island all their lives and didn't know where they could go, so they moved to two other bases, Longyearbyen and Barents Sea. Later, due to environmental problems, mines in Svalbard were closed one after another and replaced by local tourism.

Every June 1 1 until the end of February, Svalbard will enter a long polar night, which means that there is no sunshine on the island all day, dancing in the night sky with the Northern Lights. The rise of Aurora tourism has attracted more than 2,400 people from dozens of countries to open hotels, supermarkets and other commercial facilities on the island, making Svalbard the first choice for the Northern Lights tour.

In addition, there are more than 3000 polar bears living near these islands. They will roam among the islands in the Arctic. In summer, you can see polar bears at any time on the beach or in the valley here. They will try their best to find possible food sources in this desolate and barren land, and sometimes even invade human territory to get food, which leads to polar bear injuries from time to time on the island.

In the past 50 years, Svalbard has suffered more than 70 polar bear attacks, and more than 20 people died on the spot. Although it is very dangerous here, thousands of tourists venture to the island every year. They often camp in the wilderness to find the Northern Lights, and feel the simplicity and beauty brought by loneliness and desolation in the most arctic city in the world.