wikipediaNope, Pripyat isnt number one; if anything, the abandoned labour camp of Butugychag is even more incredible and a lot more sinister. While the history of many Soviet corrective labour camps are well known and documented, perhaps none have tried to be forgotten as quickly as Butugychag. And yes, corrective labour camp is just a Communist colloquialism for Gulag. Like when a friend describes her new boyfriend as being careful with money, or a teacher calls a child difficult, we know how to read between the labour camp lines. Situated in the quintessential back end of nowhere, this camp ran for a decade as a uranium mine. All the mining of the radioactive materials was done manually, with absolutely no protective gear at all; the average life of a miner at Butugychag lasted around a month. Overall, it's estimated that 400,000 people died there. There was also a large chicken farm and a top secret medical research facility which carried out experiments that I want absolutely nothing to do with. Unreachable by road, Butugychag is now nothing more than abandoned camps, mines, and a radioactive research facility. That may be the most terror inducing sentence I have ever written. To this day, the Russian government refuse to acknowledge the presence of this former uranium camp but the radiation levels in the area are still well above normal. This camp is glowing like a ghost camp.
