Eight Soviet Closed Cities: From Nuclear Labs to Ghost Towns

The Soviet Union maintained a network of closed cities—secret settlements hidden from maps and road signs—that housed military, scientific, and industrial activities, many tied to the nuclear weapons program. These cities offered privileged living conditions but were heavily guarded. After the USSR's collapse, some opened, but many remain restricted. Arzamas-16 (now Sarov), the primary nuclear research center, was established in 1946 and produced the first Soviet atomic bomb in 1949. Today it is controlled by Rosatom. Krasnoyarsk-26 (Zheleznogorsk) produced weapons-grade plutonium from 1950 in underground facilities. Molotovsk (Severodvinsk) built and maintained nuclear submarines from 1938. Chelyabinsk-40 (Ozyorsk) was site of the 1957 Kyshtym disaster, a major nuclear accident. Norilsk, originally a Gulag labor camp, became an industrial hub for mineral extraction and remains highly polluted. Zvezdny Gorodok (Star City) trained cosmonauts like Yuri Gagarin and now hosts international astronauts. Pripyat was evacuated after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Chelyabinsk-70 (Troitsk) designed nuclear weapons and continues research.