Skrunda-1
Skrunda-1 (sometimes also confusingly referred to as Skrunda-2) is unsurprisingly near the town of Skrunda in Latvia 150km from the capital Riga; it is a huge Soviet town that housed up to 50,000 people, both military and their families were based here from 1963 to 1999.
Skrunda-1 was originally the site for one x Dnepr radar installation, this was the first generation of Soviet early warning radars which could provide the Soviet Union with warnings of Ballistic Missile attacks from different directions from distances of up to 3,000km (1864 miles) and one x Dnestr-M radar which had the same range but was positioned to identify missile launches from NATO submarines in the Norwegian and North Seas. (Both had the NATO reporting name: Hen House). The USSR had 11 of these installations spread over 6 different sites in the USSR but would now be as spread out as the Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
The Dnepr replacement was a Daryal-UM radar (NATO reporting name Pechora) and it started construction on the base in 1986. The building was vast measuring 80 metres by 80 metres (260x260ft) this radar receiver was to have a range of double the Dnepr’s at a total of 6,000 km (3,728 miles), the Soviet Union planned for 8 of these to be built but only 2 are now operational, one in Russia and one in Belarus.
The Daryal-UM in Skrunda-1 was never completed and due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the breakaway of the SSR’s (Soviet Socialist Republics) there were a lot of radar bases outside of Russian territory, Skrunda-1 was one of these and in accordance with the terms of a Russian Latvian Agreement, the large and still under construction Daryal-UM was demolished in 1995, with an agreement that the Russians would dismantle the rest of the radar stations and vacate the site by the Feb 2000, after a failed attempt by the Russians to get this extended to 2002, the Russians stopped operations in August 1998 but it took another year for them to clear the site completely of the people and equipment they wanted to take back to Russia, in one block of flats in the kitchen is a tear off calendar showing the last date as Thursday 04 November 1999, so from this I would like to guess that they were home in time for Christmas!
We first visited Skrunda-1 back in May 2012, just before leaving for Latvia we found out the site had been sold and that security was stepping up. We decided to give it a go anyway, but did not last too long as soon as we got on site we could see that it was being cared for most of the doors had been nailed shut, there was little to no damage; practically all of the windows were intact, we were just searching around when we ran into Security, just sitting on a wall staring at us! Not wanting to cause too much of a fuss and realising by then we were possibly a couple of years too early we backtracked and headed to Liepaja our next stop.
Fast forward to the winter of 2015, we heard from a friend who had recently been to Latvia that not only was the town accessible it was wide openJ. Panic began to set in though as just before leaving to get our flight we read that the Latvian military had recently purchased half of the site and are using it for training! When we drove past the night before on the way to our accommodation there were 2 men in uniform at one of the entrances and a coach load of military personnel pulling in! We found out later that the Military now send troops there at night to prevent further looting, when we got there the next day it was thankfully deserted.
No problem with closed doors this time although we were probably a little late as the place had been well and truly looted despite that though there was lots to see the place is vast, with single accommodation, flats for families, a hospital, a kindergarten, a command centre, water tower, 2 bunkers (we found 1), special accommodation for officers, 2 theatre halls gym (now sadly burnt) and even a very grim looking cell block.
I believe that the overall plan for the site is for the military to develop half for their training and for half to be used by the town ….. Quite what they are going to do with it though is probably another matter!
Skrunda-1 was originally the site for one x Dnepr radar installation, this was the first generation of Soviet early warning radars which could provide the Soviet Union with warnings of Ballistic Missile attacks from different directions from distances of up to 3,000km (1864 miles) and one x Dnestr-M radar which had the same range but was positioned to identify missile launches from NATO submarines in the Norwegian and North Seas. (Both had the NATO reporting name: Hen House). The USSR had 11 of these installations spread over 6 different sites in the USSR but would now be as spread out as the Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
The Dnepr replacement was a Daryal-UM radar (NATO reporting name Pechora) and it started construction on the base in 1986. The building was vast measuring 80 metres by 80 metres (260x260ft) this radar receiver was to have a range of double the Dnepr’s at a total of 6,000 km (3,728 miles), the Soviet Union planned for 8 of these to be built but only 2 are now operational, one in Russia and one in Belarus.
The Daryal-UM in Skrunda-1 was never completed and due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the breakaway of the SSR’s (Soviet Socialist Republics) there were a lot of radar bases outside of Russian territory, Skrunda-1 was one of these and in accordance with the terms of a Russian Latvian Agreement, the large and still under construction Daryal-UM was demolished in 1995, with an agreement that the Russians would dismantle the rest of the radar stations and vacate the site by the Feb 2000, after a failed attempt by the Russians to get this extended to 2002, the Russians stopped operations in August 1998 but it took another year for them to clear the site completely of the people and equipment they wanted to take back to Russia, in one block of flats in the kitchen is a tear off calendar showing the last date as Thursday 04 November 1999, so from this I would like to guess that they were home in time for Christmas!
We first visited Skrunda-1 back in May 2012, just before leaving for Latvia we found out the site had been sold and that security was stepping up. We decided to give it a go anyway, but did not last too long as soon as we got on site we could see that it was being cared for most of the doors had been nailed shut, there was little to no damage; practically all of the windows were intact, we were just searching around when we ran into Security, just sitting on a wall staring at us! Not wanting to cause too much of a fuss and realising by then we were possibly a couple of years too early we backtracked and headed to Liepaja our next stop.
Fast forward to the winter of 2015, we heard from a friend who had recently been to Latvia that not only was the town accessible it was wide openJ. Panic began to set in though as just before leaving to get our flight we read that the Latvian military had recently purchased half of the site and are using it for training! When we drove past the night before on the way to our accommodation there were 2 men in uniform at one of the entrances and a coach load of military personnel pulling in! We found out later that the Military now send troops there at night to prevent further looting, when we got there the next day it was thankfully deserted.
No problem with closed doors this time although we were probably a little late as the place had been well and truly looted despite that though there was lots to see the place is vast, with single accommodation, flats for families, a hospital, a kindergarten, a command centre, water tower, 2 bunkers (we found 1), special accommodation for officers, 2 theatre halls gym (now sadly burnt) and even a very grim looking cell block.
I believe that the overall plan for the site is for the military to develop half for their training and for half to be used by the town ….. Quite what they are going to do with it though is probably another matter!
