During Soviet times, Chenchen Island was a multi-million dollar fishing collective farm. According to the residents, "it had everything": there was a ferry, airplanes. The village had about 1,000 permanent residents. Today, only 50 remain. The island didn't survive the 1990s, and the destruction has been ongoing for 30 years. The ruins of a cultural center resembling an ancient temple with columns, a post-apocalyptic landscape, and time frozen in the late 1980s. Amid this timelessness, without internet, electricity, or any connection to the mainland, there are still people. Almost all of them are patriots. Vladimir Sevrinovsky spent a long weekend on the island on May 9th, and here's what he found.
