As part of our bestselling Transnistria tours, the Soviet Wastelands team spend a huge amount of time in Chisinau, the capital city of Moldova which is Europe’s least visited country. Chisinau has a few hotels on offer, but you’d be foolish not to choose one of our favorite Soviet hotels in Europe: The Hotel Cosmos! …
Today, many people associate the term Young Pioneers with the travel company who led the way in North Korean tourism. However, the Young Pioneer was originally a youth movement founded in 1922. The movement’s full name was the Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization. It was a mass youth organization of the USSR for kids aged …
After surviving two grueling civil wars that decimated its population and infrastructure, Chechnya has been reborn into a popular destination amongst Russian and some hardcore Western tourists, a concept that would have been unthinkable only ten years ago. I’ve spent a lot of time in Chechnya and the wider North Caucasus leading group and private …
This is not strictly a hotel, but for me as a guide and the hardcore travelers on our tours, the Bucharest to Chisinau (or vice versa) train is home for a night and this Soviet adventure is a night nobody forgets. Belonging to Moldova rail, the train was built in East Germany during the 1970s …
With the Soviet Wastelands office fittingly being based on the Black Sea coast of Varna, Bulgaria, we know a thing or two about the Communist past of this huge country. Despite siding with Fascist forces in WW2, after a Soviet-backed coup in the 1940s Bulgaria operated as a Communist state under the reign of the …
The modern history of Romania is far from cheerful. Despite fighting alongside the Fascist forces during WW2, in the early post-war years, Romania was occupied by Soviet troops. In 1947 King Michael was forced to abdicate the throne and the People’s Republic of Romania was declared. This paved the way for Romania to become a …
