![]() These included cities like Perm, a center for Soviet artillery, munitions, and also aircraft engines production, and Vladivostok, the headquarters and primary base of the Soviet Pacific Fleet. In addition to this, some bigger cities were closed for unauthorized access to foreigners, while they were freely accessible to Soviet citizens. Even Soviet citizens were not allowed access to these places without proper authorization. Examples are the modern towns of Ozyorsk ( Chelyabinsk-65) with a plutonium production plant, and Sillamäe, the site of a uranium enrichment facility. The first category comprised relatively small communities with sensitive military, industrial, or scientific facilities such as arms plants or nuclear research sites.Map indicating federal subjects containing closed cities used for nuclear research and developmentĬlosed cities were established in the Soviet Union from the late 1940s onwards under the euphemistic name of "post boxes", referring to the practice of addressing post to them via mailboxes in other cities. Also, in the Soviet Union, people working with classified information received a salary bonus. This lack of freedom was often compensated by better housing conditions and a better choice of goods in retail trade than elsewhere in the country. The very fact of such a city's existence was often classified, and residents were expected not to divulge their place of residence to outsiders. ![]() ![]() To relocate to a closed city, one would need security clearance by the organization running it, such as the KGB in Soviet closed cities.Ĭlosed cities were sometimes guarded by a security perimeter with barbed wire and towers. People not living in a closed city were subject to document checks and security checkpoints, and explicit permission was required for them to visit. The actual settlement can be rather distant from its namesakes for instance, Sarov, designated Arzamas-16, is in the federal republic of Mordovia, whereas Arzamas is in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast (roughly 75 kilometres (47 mi) away). For mail delivery, a closed city is usually named as the nearest large city and a special postcode, for example, Arzamas‑16, Chelyabinsk‑65. Sometimes closed cities may be indicated obliquely as a nearby insignificant village, with the name of the stop serving the closed city made equivocal or misleading. ![]() In some cases there may be no road signs or directions to closed cities, and they are usually omitted from railroad time tables and bus routes. Sometimes closed cities may only be represented on classified maps that are not available to the general public. In modern Russia, such places are officially known as "closed administrative-territorial formations" ( закрытые административно-территориальные образования, zakrytye administrativno-territorial'nye obrazovaniya, or ЗАТО ZATO for short).Ī checkpoint in the closed city of Zheleznogorsk, in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia After 1991, a number of them still existed in the CIS countries, especially in Russia. Many closed cities existed in the Soviet Union from the mid-1940s until its dissolution in 1991. There may also be a wider variety of permanent residents, including close family members of workers or trusted traders who are not directly connected with clandestine purposes. Such places may be sensitive military establishments or secret research installations that require much more space or internal freedom than is available in a conventional military base. Central entry checkpoint to the closed city of Seversk, Tomsk Oblast, RussiaĪ closed city or closed town is a settlement where travel or residency restrictions are applied so that specific authorization is required to visit or remain overnight.
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