SovietSvalbard
BARENTSBURG, PYRAMIDEN & GRUMANT
Whether you travel by boat or snowmobile, arriving
inBarentsburg is surreal – if feels like you’ve just
steppedoff in Soviet Russia, because inmanyways
youhave. There’s thebrutally austere architecture,
the statueof Lenin, and thepropagandamurals
exhortingminers to “use their stronghands to
createheat and light”. Of the roughly 490mostly
Ukrainianminers here (the rest areRussian and
Tajik), it’s said that three speakEnglish and two
speakNorwegian.When they’renotworking,many
go to the gym, a throwbackwith amurky green
saltwater pool. Day-tripping tourists havebuffets
at the “five-star”BarentsburgHotel (hint: don’t eat
thewhale), buy overpriced T-shirts and kitsch art
at the souvenir shop, anddrink2.5per cent ABV
beer at theworld’s northernmost brewery.
Russianhunterswere a feature on Svalbard in
the 17th century, and in the early 20th century
Russia starting building up its coal mining presence
on Spitsbergen – establishing theGrumantmine in
1912, Pyramiden in 1927 andBarentsburg in 1932.
During theColdWar,more than two thirds of
Svalbard’s 4,000populationwas Russian, almost
all of whomworked for the state-owned company
Trust Arktikugol.
ButwithGrumant closed in 1965 andPyramiden
desertedon a singleday in 1998, that presence
seems under threat. TheBarentsburgmine–
essentially still run as itwas in Soviet times –has
struggledwithdecliningoutput (thesedays it
sells low-gradecoal toWesternEurope rather
than giving it back toRussia) andbeenbeset by
problems. An accident in 1997 killed23miners,
while adamning2005 report found that 17.5per
cent ofman-hourswere spent resolving accidents.
WithArktikugol the last state-ownedRussiancoal
company, it’s not hard to imagineBarentsburg going
theway of Pyramiden, whose architecture, Lenin
statue andmosaicmurals are strikingly similar.
Wewent toPyramidenandBarentsburgbyboat
andsnowmobilewithSpitsbergenTravel,Basecamp
ExplorerandBetterMoments
spitsbergentravel.com, basecampspitsbergen.com,
bettermoments.no
According to
Anastasia, theonly
English-speaking
guide inBarentsburg,
theBarentsburg
Hotel is “as good
ashotels anywhere
in theworld”.
That couldbe said
for thehotels in
Longyearbyen,
but not alas for
Barentsburg’s
offering. Thebrutalist
structurewasbuilt
in the ’90sby state-
ownedminecompany
TrustArktikugol,
whowanted to
diversify from their
strugglingmine–
thehotel has lost
moneyever since,
not surprisingwhen
itswebsitewarns
visitorsof “liability
issues”. Similarly, the
world’snorthernmost
brewery isn’t quite
nailing it –because
of local laws, itsbeer
canonlybe2.5per
centABV. Still, at
least vodka’scheaper
thanmilkonSvalbard.
N
didnot stayhere
(thoughwedidhave
the lunchbuffet)
Tourism,
Soviet-style
Clockwise from main pic
⁄
Themain signat theabandoned
Pyramiden; thewaitress at the
BarentsburgHotel; Barentsburg
schoolgirls JuliaandKarina; an
abandonedphonebook
n
—Svalbard
⁄
To do
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