During our visit to the Zone Of Alienation our guide Maxim asked us several times if there is anything specific we really want to see. After we’ve seen the standard attractions Palace of Culture and the Amusement Park I actually wanted to get an overview of the city and since there are so many well-known pictures people standing on top of buildings I asked Maxim if we could do that, too. Of course officially it is way too dangerous and therefore forbidden, but after a well-timed pause of like 10 seconds, part of the program as the information we got about every location, Maxim told us that he knows a building where we might be able to “risk it”. But first he wanted to show us the supermarket on the way to the car.
Since Pripyat was a city built to house the personnel working at the nearby nuclear power plant a lot of highly educated and well-payed people lived in the town – Pripyat was a privileged city in many, many ways. Maxim illustrated that by mentioning that the supermarket in Pripyat was one of the few places in the Soviet Union that actually sold Chanel Nº 5. In times when every one hit wonder teeny idol sells half a dozen perfumes as merchandising the Chanel thing might not seem to be a big deal, but given the political situation back in 1986 it is actually the perfect example of how high the standard of living in Pripyat really was.
Nowadays the central supermarket, which was part of a small shopping mall, is quite a sad view, but in 1986 it must have been state of the art with a reputation that good that people from the surrounding area took long trips to shop there. The ground floor was mainly for food and the huge freezer cabinets with their isolation containers cracked open made the place look rather creepy. The entire floor was in disarray with shopping carts, shelves and a bunch of broken furniture scattered all over the ground – pretty much the only things unharmed were the signs showing where the aisles once were.
The first floor, reserved for non-food items, was in even worse shape. With all the shelves gone and the ceiling cladding, including all the lamps, crashed to the ground the whole floor made the impression as if it could collapse at any time – that feeling was boosted by the fact that the ceiling remains were softened over the past two decades by the forces of nature; even walking there gave me the creeps. The view across Pripyat’s Lenin Square to the city’s most famous hotel “Polissya” was nice though…
(If you would like to know more about my trip to the Zone Of Alienation please *click here* to get to the “Chernobyl & Pripyat” special. For a map of the area please *click here*.)
Zone Of Alienation – Pripyat: Supermarket
2011/01/23 by Florian / Abandoned Kansai
Just been catching up on your Ukraine coverage – nice stuff.
Love the Kiev Subway shot – the two girl in the middle distance, dead centre, staring at you in a ‘What the hell is he taking a picture of’ kind of way 🙂 But seriously those are incredible subway stations.
Thanks a lot – and the better locations are still waiting to be published!
I don’t know why, but I got stared at in Ukraine almost as much as in Japan – although I got the feeling that in Ukraine people stared at my (actually not so special) camera, while in Japan people stare at me, the tall white foreigner…