What happened at Vorkuta?

The Vorkuta uprising occurred at the Vorkuta Gulag in July 1953, when inmates at various camps who were forced to work in the region’s coal mines went on strike.

Why is Vorkuta abandoned?

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, so did many of the mines, and many Russian coal miners found themselves unemployed. Since Vorkuta is in an isolated region of Russia, the now-jobless coal miners were forced to find new opportunities in new destinations.

Can you visit Vorkuta Gulag?

While many parts of Russia contain the remnants of former gulags, Vorkuta is one of the only places where travelers have the opportunity to meet residents who actually worked in the camps. This far-flung outpost in the Arctic really is a living capsule of Russia’s Soviet past.

Does anyone live in Vorkuta Russia?

Central Vorkuta as it looks today. But close to a century after its founding, a city whose population approached 250,000 in the late 1980s now has fewer than 60,000 residents and is shrinking faster than any other in Russia.

Is Vorkuta a ghost town?

These are the abandoned ghost towns towns that surround the coal-mining center of Vorkuta in Russia’s Arctic north, swathed in snow and ice following recent brutally cold temperatures. The town of Vorkuta was an infamous Gulag labor camp from the 1930s to 1960s, with prisoners forced to mine the region for coal.

When was Vorkuta abandoned?

Many of the mines had been abandoned and by September 2020, the estimated population was only about 50,000….Vorkuta.

Does the Vorkuta Gulag still exist?

Today, the Gulag is long gone and there are only a handful of people like Krikun who witnessed the height of the Soviet repressions. And yet more than half a century later, Vorkuta has become a prison for a new generation unable to find a way to leave.

How many died at Vorkuta?