In the center of Pyramiden, a bust of Lenin overlooks the town with its imported grass and the impressive glacier. Pyramiden is an abandoned mining town on Svalbard, Norway. The town gets its name from the pyramid-shaped mountain nearby. It lies at 78 degrees north, deep inside the Arctic.

The Soviet Union started activities here in 1930. In 1956, the Soviets built a real town. They built homes, schools, a swimming pool, a theater, and even a big culture house. More than one thousand people lived here. Pyramiden was a showcase of socialism.

Palace of Culture

The Lenin bust, installed in front of the former Palace of Culture, stands as a poignant symbol of the Soviet Union’s presence in the Arctic. This bust is notable for being the northernmost statue of Lenin in the world. It is installed at the main square, in front of the former Palace of Culture.

Ghost town

In 1998, the last coal was taken from the mine. After that, people left the town very quickly. They abandoned everything: buildings, equipment, belongings, furniture, books in the library, exhibits in the museum, toys in the kindergarten, medical records in the clinic, skis in the sports complex, saxophones in the community center. They only managed to put locks on all the buildings and erect a monument; a coal-filled mine car with the inscription: “On March 31, 1998, the last ton of coal was extracted from the Pyramiden mine”. It looked like time had stopped.

The town stood completely empty for a long time.

Open-air museum

Since 2007 the town is like an open-air museum. It’s run by the Russian mining company Arktikugol. Tourists come by boat or helicopter to visit the empty buildings and to see the famous Lenin bust. Now, twenty people live in Pyramid in the summer and two in the winter. Most of the local guides hold Ukrainian passports. Polar bears sometimes walk through the streets, so you can’t walk freely in town.

Today, the Lenin bust in Pyramiden attracts visitors and photographers, offering a unique glimpse into the past. Walking here feels like travelling back in time. In front of Lenin is a grass field, the green grows on black soil, brought by ship from Ukraine. This soil made it possible for grass to grow in the Arctic. This makes the town unique in Svalbard’s cold climate. Anyone who visits quickly forgets the busy modern world.

Southernmost Lenin

The southernmost Lenin in the world stands at Antarctica’s Pole of Inaccessibility. Over sixty years ago, Soviet explorers reached this extreme and remote point, far from the surrounding seas. Temperatures here can drop to minus 50°C. To mark their achievement, they left a large bust of Vladimir Lenin. The statue still stands today, though it may be hidden under snow. Photos of this unique monument are very rare. Who knows, maybe one day the southernmost Lenin will have its own page here, joining the northernmost and all the other Lenin monuments I’ve documented.