In Russia’s abandoned gulag town, deep in the Arctic -50ºC, where frozen houses in soulless tower blocks are sold for 1 cent

A GULAG city in the icy tundra is now frozen in time as it became Russia’s most depressing place.

Vorkuta is a cemetery of soulless tower blocks, true houses sell them for just 1 cent to the few people who chose to embrace the ‘miserable’ life at -50 degrees Celsius.

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Isolated above the Arctic Circle, the residents of Vorkuta routinely embark on a twenty-hour train ride across the frozen tundra to reach the nearest town with direct air links to Moscow.

The amount of daylight also varies dramatically throughout the year, contributing to the inhospitable conditions.

During the summer For months, the residents of Vorkuta live under the ‘midnight sun’, where the sun remains visible 24 hours a day, in endless daylight.

But in winterthe city experiences the opposite phenomenon, known as the ‘polar night’, where people wake up and go sleep in constant darkness for weeks.

From Vorkuta history is deeply intertwined with the Gulag system, as it was one of the largest forced labor camps in the Soviet Union.

Founded in the 1940s, the city was built by criminals and political prisoners, who were forced to work in the coal mines on a one-way ticket.

A complete one mining infrastructure used to surround the urban municipality of Vorkuta.

Along the main coal mine near Vorkuta itself, 13 additional mines were constructed around the town.

New settlements were established for each of these thirteen mines to provide housing for the workers.

Some of these outposts even reached five-figure populations.

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But the coal mining industry would then go into decline in the 1980s, with many mines greatly reducing their operations or closing completely.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Gulag system, prisoners and unconvicted miners suddenly found themselves out of work.

Since the 1980s, Vorkuta has experienced a sharp population decline, reducing its population from 150,000 to less than 50,000.

The remaining families live mainly in the city center of Vorkuta, leaving the rest of the city virtually deserted.

YouTuber Dave Le Genda ventured on a trip to Vorkuta in 2022 and quickly discovered why you could get a whole house for just 1 cent.

He said, “Because life here is absolutely miserable!”

‘Walking through the streets you definitely get the impression that it is a dying city.

“The abandoned buildings make it feel like a ghost town.”

When asked about his life in Vorkuta, a local in his early twenties explained: “In winter it’s quite bad. Last winter it was almost -50 degrees Celsius.”

Dave, whose real name is Davide, described Vorkuta’s story as “very sad indeed, but fascinating at the same time”.

The Italian wrote: “All neighborhoods of Vorkuta are full of old Soviet buildings that are now abandoned, while the local administration sees no point in doing so (but especially no money before) to break them off.

‘The result? From most streets, Vorkuta looks like a ghost town.’

Vorkuta and its surroundings are now a perfect representation of post-Soviet decadence, where most of the streets are empty except for the snow.

Aerial footage shows several abandoned brutalist buildings, disturbing landscapes and gloomy piles of concrete and gloomy Stalinist monuments.

Snow has made its way into forgotten homes as icicles cover stairs and protrude from window frames.

Footage also shows abandoned vehicles covered in snow in a parking lot, while apartment buildings appear painted white after being hit by snowstorms.

Dotted around the city, numerous communist buildings now lie abandoned.

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