![]() ![]() However only Norwegians and Russians are making use of the rights mainly by exploiting coal resources. How is it possible that there are Russian towns on the Arctic archipelago, that is under the sovereignty of Norway? The Svalbard Treaty of 1920 meant that all the signatory countries could conduct commercial activities on Svalbard. The closest settlements are the towns of Longyearbyen, Ny Ålesund (Norwegian) and Barentsburg (Russian). Pyramiden lies far beyond the Arctic Circle at a latitude of 78 degrees north. A Soviet mining town beyond the Arctic Circle To truly appreciate the town, however, you should become versed in the strange history of its impressive rise and mystery-shrouded fall. You can smell the past century in the air. There’s the brutally block-style architecture, the obligatory statue of Lenin or the propaganda murals. To explore Pyramiden is like stepping back in time to Soviet-era Russia because in many ways you have. The contents of many of the public buildings had been vandalized – doors were broken, bookshelves had been tipped over, papers were strewn about… Sadly, nowadays Pyramiden shows signs of decay and weathering. ![]() The empty movie theater looked like it was just yesterday when someone played the dusty instruments and the northernmost piano there.īut exposure to 20 years of harsh Arctic weather has taken a toll on the once prosperous town. Books covered by layers of dust still lied on the bookshelves, dried plants sat on windowsills and dishes were stacked on the cafeteria shelves. The equipment used for coal mining sat where workers had left it. When my friends and I arrived there in summer of 2014 little has changed. All the buildings and things remained largely as they were when the settlement was abandoned and the Russian Arctic settlement turned into a ghost town. The original plan was to dismantle and remove all the equipment and infrastructure, but it never happened. In 1998 the Russian mining company Trust Arcticugol that owned Pyramiden decided to end the coal mining activities in Billefjorden on Svalbard. After the extraction of the last wagon of coal from the mine in March the last permanent residents left in October. We even attempted to climb the Pyramiden mountain that gave the name to the town. At the beginning of June, we took a boat there and stayed for a couple of days in an abandoned cabin outside the town exploring the area. The Russian mining town Pyramiden was one of the places that I wanted to visit. Back in 2014, I have spent five months living in Longyearbyen, Svalbard. ![]()
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