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Koryo Tours, a travel company specialising in unique and unusual destinations, describes Kadykchan as the best place on Earth to visit \u201cto get a glimpse of the end of civilisation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roughly 3,500 miles from Moscow in Russia\u2019s frozen Far East, the city beat out the Chernobyl disaster zone\u2019s Pripyat to the accolade.<\/p>\n
Once a bustling mining settlement with a population topping 10,000, for the past 25 years it has been a ghost town, unchanged and untouched since the dying days of the Cold War.<\/p>\n
It sits deep in Magadan Oblast, in an area colloquially known as Kolyma, a name that makes Russians shudder to this day.<\/p>\n
This year may mark the 70th anniversary of his death, but the sceptre of Joseph Stalin looms large, especially for those with ties to Kadykchan.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: <\/strong> Inside world\u2019s coldest city where locals face bone-chilling temperatures of -50C<\/strong><\/p>\n In the Thirties, the Soviet dictator desperately sought to access the vast mineral, metal and gold resources that lay beneath the Siberian soil to boost the country\u2019s industrial output.<\/p>\n Forced labour was the cheapest and quickest way to go about this, and the \u201cRoad of Bones\u201d was born, with only a gulag and pickaxe awaiting those detained by Moscow at the end of thousands of miles of highway.<\/p>\n Just under a million prisoners passed through Kolyma in this way over the course of a quarter-century, of whom at least 200,000 would die.<\/p>\n The enslaved workers were mistreated, malnourished and ill-equipped to survive winter temperatures plunging as low as -50C (-58F).<\/p>\n Varlam Shalamov, the writer who provided the world with one of the most harrowing accounts of life inside a Soviet-era gulag, spent nearly two decades interned in Kolyma, including two years at the newly opened coal mines of Kadychan in the early Forties.<\/p>\n In his book, \u201cKolyma Tales\u201d, he wrote: \u201cBloody blisters, hunger and beatings. That\u2019s how Kadykchan welcomed us.\u201d<\/p>\n Attitudes shifted after World War Two: the camps closed and the Moscow\u2019s bureaucrats sought to attract civilians to the town with the promise of apartments and decent wages.<\/p>\n We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info<\/p>\n Don’t miss… <\/strong> The industrial outpost thrived in the Seventies and early Eighties, its population doubling in just over five years. The local shops were kept stocked, the restaurant always had live music, and the city boasted a cinema, hospital and two schools.<\/p>\n The good times, however, were not to last. As the Soviet Union imploded, the profitability of the mines deteriorated significantly.<\/p>\n The first exhausted its reserves in 1992 and closed down \u2013 there was little else to do, Kadykchan\u2019s exodus began.<\/p>\n Then on November 15, 1996, a methane blast ripped through the remaining mine, killing six of the 27-strong crew on shift. The disaster sealed the town\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n Back in 2017, the BBC spoke to Gennady Shchepalkin and his wife Tatiana, who were born, met and lived in the city. Describing this time, they said: \u201cThings were so desperate people were shooting dogs for food.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1998 the entrance to the catastrophe-stricken mine was blown up and the shaft flooded.<\/p>\n Without a reason to continue existing, the last residents packed up and moved away and the council set the city\u2019s civic buildings alight.<\/p>\n Today, all that remains are the charred husks of concrete apartment blocks, overturned classrooms and eerie streets overtaken by vegetation.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/78\/590x\/secondary\/kadykchan-aerial-4995844.jpg?r=1696510127163\")
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