{"id":61245,"date":"2025-10-16T23:24:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T21:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=61245"},"modified":"2025-10-27T23:29:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T22:29:14","slug":"the-ruins-of-grumant-a-soviet-ghost-town-on-the-norwegian-islands-of-svalbard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/10\/16\/the-ruins-of-grumant-a-soviet-ghost-town-on-the-norwegian-islands-of-svalbard\/","title":{"rendered":"The ruins of Grumant, a Soviet ghost town on the Norwegian islands of Svalbard"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Svalbard archipelago has been under the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Norway since 1920, but has a very specific legal status.<\/p>\n

Pyramiden: a Soviet ghost town on a Norwegian island in the Arctic Ocean<\/a><\/rel>
\nThe German World War II bomber that was 59 years abandoned on an Arctic island<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

Before Svalbard came under Norwegian rule, these remote islands north of the Arctic Circle were abandoned and were established by Russian coal mining settlements<\/strong>. The 1920 Svalbard Treaty prohibited naval bases and military fortifications on the islands, although it does allow Norway to maintain military forces on the archipelago to ensure its sovereignty.<\/p>\n

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The old buildings of the Soviet mining town of Grumant (Photo: \u0412\u043b\u0430\u0441\u043d\u0430 \u0440\u043e\u0431\u043e\u0442\u0430<\/a>).<\/div>\n

At the same time, the treaty allows people of any nationality to settle on the islands and exploit them economically<\/strong> within Norwegian law. This helped the USSR continue its mining operations in Svalbard. The USSR had several towns on the islands.<\/strong> The largest were Pyramiden<\/a>, now almost abandoned, and Barentsburg<\/strong>, a town of 297 inhabitants that is the second most populated locality in Svalbard. Even today it remains under Russian control and its inhabitants are mostly Russian.<\/p>\n

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One of Grumant's abandoned buildings (Photo: Ask Kj\u00f8ndahl<\/a>).<\/div>\n

In western Svalbard is Grumant (Grumantbyenm in Norwegian), a Russian settlement established in 1912<\/strong> that grew to over 1,100 inhabitants by the mid-20th century. Located along the coast, this place was like a part of the USSR in Norwegian territory<\/strong>, like Pyramiden. Due to the lack of a deepwater port, coal mined in Grumant was transported by narrow-gauge railway to another Russian settlement, Kolsbey (Colesbukta in Norwegian). Grumant was abandoned in 1961<\/strong>, but the Russian company that operated the village still retains ownership of its buildings.<\/p>\n

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The remains of the old narrow-gauge railway that carried coal mined from Grumant to Kolsbey (Photo: Ckt2packet<\/a>).<\/div>\n

Last Sunday, YouTuber Cecilia Blomdahl<\/a>, a Swedish citizen living in Longyearbyen, the largest town in Svalbard (with just over 2,000 inhabitants), posted an excellent video visiting and exploring the Soviet ghost town of Grumant:<\/strong><\/p>\n