Classified and abandoned. An artist captured "Lost Time" in a deserted military town.
Natalya Bykova I visited the abandoned military town of Kosterevo-1 with friends. in the Vladimir region and found a lot of interesting things there.
The town was established in the 1960s and disbanded in the fall of 2007. It housed a training center for anti-aircraft missile troops. During Soviet times, it wasn't even on maps due to secrecy. Now, anyone can pass through the checkpoint.
Many buildings remain in the town: the school, the community center, the cafeteria. The headquarters building is littered with unused documentation, and the walls are covered with posters, maps, and now even modern graffiti.
"I have my own attitude toward these ruins. The people are gone, but time seems lost in the hallways and rooms. The walls and floors remember the life that once teemed within them. The click of heels, the music in the banquet hall, the clink of spoons and pots in the dining room, the echo of voices. All of this is still there." said Olga, Bykova spoke about her feelings to the publication “Klyuch”.
Abandoned buildings are amazing places. According to the artist, some people search for valuable objects or papers with historical significance there, but she finds them. "time itself, what remained in the ruins of rooms and corridors".
Photo: from the personal archive of Natalia Bykova
