The World Through a Lens
Glimpses of a Deserted Soviet Mining Town, Preserved in the High Arctic
On the remote archipelago of Svalbard, a slowly decaying settlement offers visitors an intimate look at the not-so-distant past.
The dusty entrance to the chemical plant at Pyramiden, an abandoned settlement popular with tourists on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.Credit...
May 17, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET
Sergei Chernikov, my guide, had a bolt-action rifle slung over his shoulder — in case we came across any polar bears, he said, or in case they came across us.
We were standing at the rudimentary dock in Pyramiden, a ghost town on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, in the High Arctic. I’d heard that in 1998 the Russian government had tricked the town’s 1,000 residents into taking a holiday on the mainland, only to close the mine and forbid them from returning. According to the rumor, it had been abandoned ever since, frozen in time at the top of the world. Was it true? I asked.