At first glance, it seems that everything is quiet and measured in the taiga, but in fact it has its own life, full of interesting and mysterious random finds. Any hunter, fisherman or just a tourist can come across a bunker or a pile of space scrap metal.
Huge steel wheels are the legacy of gold miners. Photo: Extreme Tourism Team Forum
“In the area of the Ters River there is an old abandoned equipment, it is probably 50-60 years old,” says the hunter Valery Pautov.- In one MAZ, even the cabin is still wooden (these were made in the 50s of the XX century), I also saw old geodetic towers left over from gold miners. It is not difficult to explain how heavy equipment ended up among the pines in the overgrown taiga: it was simply abandoned, broken and unrepairable, and over time the roads became overgrown, hiding the cars in the thickets.
Mine entrance. Photo: Extreme Tourism Team Forum
Steam locomotives and bunkers
Interesting finds also fall on the share of auto travelers. “In the taiga of the Tashtagol region, we once discovered a strange bunker,” says the traveler. Lilia Khafiullina. - In the middle of the impenetrable taiga, there was a small, seemingly inconspicuous wooden structure, inside there was a stone well, where we went down. Downstairs were two rooms lined with wood, some furniture and old magazines with records. There were many suggestions what kind of bunker it was. They decided that he remained from the signalmen. But still, most of the valuable and unusual finds are on the “conscience” of those who are specially engaged in searches, studying old maps, archives, interviewing witnesses.
Crashed American bomber in the mountains of Kuznetsk Alatau. Photo: Extreme Tourism Team Forum
“The Siberian taiga is indeed full of secrets and mysteries,” says Alexey Bedrin, one of the members of the Kuzbass team of extreme tourism. — Every year we look for historical artifacts along new routes. There are many finds: abandoned settlements, old drilling rigs, and narrow-gauge railways connecting, a lot of various abandoned equipment and machines, dredges. One of the most interesting topics for extreme people - the search for steam locomotives. In the past, they served as thermal power plants, and now they are rusting where they remain.
Ventilation shaft of a gold mine in the Tisulsky district. Photo: Extreme Tourism Team Forum
It should be noted that the weight of the steam locomotives was colossal, and some of them have already become the prey of metal hunters. There are three such locomotives in the north of Kuzbass. One of them is located between the village of Muryuk and the village of Skalisty. Two more are located in the upper reaches of the Kiya, about 100 km from the village. Chumay, you can only get by water. Locomobiles stand next to each other on platforms, where there used to be a large gold mine. The hill, near which they are located, is all covered with leafy boxes, along which the gold-bearing river ran. These locomotives fed the pumps that pumped water. Steam locomotives were dragged to the hill in winter, over ice, along a specially frozen crossing.
If you find yourself in the Kuzbass taiga, look under your feet - what if something interesting comes across? Photo: Extreme Tourism Team Forum
space oven
If “space debris” is constantly found in Altai, then in the north of the region, search engines discovered something that they immediately called “space stove”. They were looking for a stage from a rocket, the fall of which was seen by one beekeeper, but they found a stove. Some now say that this thing is not from outer space at all, but the stove is. Others are inclined to believe that this is a steam jet ejector (part of the pump). Still others - that this is an element of an accelerating liquid engine.
In the Siberian taiga, you can stumble upon such "exhibits". Photo: Extreme Tourism Team Forum
“Moreover, from a strategic missile, since the “potbelly stove” has a side element of the bundle for the turbine,” one of the expedition members puts forward his hypothesis Evgeny Kumleshov. - Judging by the size, this part is from the first missiles of the "R" series. Such were in Aleysk and Uzhur. The place of fall for them has always been the ranges in Kamchatka and in Astrakhan region. But here the rocket could be in the event of some kind of accident or deviation from the course.
Pipe in the middle of the taiga. Photo: Extreme Tourism Team Forum
Autumn, rapidly falling on the Moscow region with rain, damp coolness and the north wind, drove hundreds or even thousands of people into the forests ... In search of mushrooms and nuts, they drive away from the capital by all available means of transport. So we decided to dedicate Sunday to a trip to the forest, picking mushrooms ...
We are strange people - we almost cannot afford to go somewhere without a camera ... even for mushrooms.
Walking on wet grass sprinkled with yellow leaves, we step on dry, dead branches. One by one, these branches crack, but this is not the crack that breaks the silence. The wind, shaking the tops of the birches, makes a louder noise than if a hundred people like us were engaged in breaking branches.
The undergrowth has already shed its leaves… Squinting our eyes in vain attempts to distinguish red and yellow round leaves from mushroom caps, we notice some kind of bald patch a couple of tens of meters ahead. Fifty steps, heels of broken dry branches under the soles of boots, and suddenly we find ourselves on old road... On the left we see a fork.
And on the right... On the right, about fifty meters away, a green military truck stands on the side of the road. Already jumping into the bushes, we understand that it is parked in a rather unnatural "pose".
A couple of minutes of waiting - no sounds, no people. We remember that about an hour ago we passed the remains of some kind of fence - a couple of fallen poles and the remains of barbed wire ... We go out onto the road, come closer to the truck, go around ...
Abandoned. Forgotten. Left forever. Like a ship that has run aground, the sailors and the captain have abandoned. An open door… Abandoned equipment!
We decide to walk along the road for a while in order to understand whether it is necessary to quickly hide from these places. Poisonous lily of the valley berries along the roadside ...
A hundred steps, another turnaround from the road ... It seems to be a path. Only the sound of the wind. And here, in the clearing... It's incomparable!
The fact that the technique was left is obvious even from the inspection from afar. But we are moving closer.
ATV? He won't "go away" anywhere.
URALs and ZiLs, what, nobody needs you?
Overgrown with moss? ..
Covered with foliage, you continue to shine ... Let not fresh paint, but at least rainwater.
Winch. Useful thing.
Rigid hitch.
Wheels, of course, should be pumped up.
and even install
What's inside?
Wow, there is an armored personnel carrier here
Was it once yellow? Or primer?
Comfortable handles - you can remember childhood and museum expositions, "climb" on the "tank".
Under this "umbrella"-case lives a retractable antenna
Let's go inside...
Radio station, on-board dosimeter, all sorts of other stray
Antenna base. You twist the handle - a telescopic mast rises above.
How tight it is! Behind the driver and radio operator, three more fighters can sit, with their skills in working with special equipment ...
Even more behind - a pair of engines
And the third fighter, except for stretching his legs forward, probably has nothing to do.
There is a lot of equipment ... It is “parked” so close to one car from another that it is difficult to get through in places, and you have to get out onto the roofs
Different antennas stick out from the roofs in places
Another armored personnel carrier from the inside - the same thing, only without a hole in the floor
I looked into one of the green KUNG vans: longing inside
The next one has a two-story bunk, like on a train.
The next one is much more fun.
Pair of trucks with antennas on the roof
Inside - a pair of diesel generator units
And the equipment under the antenna
Everything is so clean, shiny ... Like new. We open the window and remember that we are in the cemetery.
Although no ... It's called "preservation"
It's like he's telling us, "That's the way it is."
Another hundred meters along the road - and another dump of equipment
Is it a corner reflector? Looks like..
Remember the scene in Terminator 2 with the liquid villain poking through the roof of a car?
How did it happen that so much goodness was lost, and no one is watching? Where are the guards, at least dogs or no less hungry conscripts?
Here is the antenna outside...
You twist - and ...!
What unknown force threw the wagons one on top of the other?
Documentation is wet and sticky
Fuel tanks have a separate value
Our attention is drawn to a particularly long representative of the family of abandoned
“What amazing aerodynamics it must have!”
Monster cabin. Was he shot at?
We don’t get inside, but we get into the next one. There are cool lamps :) I could not resist and took one to my home, along with a bracket
Unfortunately, we are becoming more and more accustomed to plastic, plastic bags, cigarette packs and other garbage on roadsides, in cities, ravines and even forests. Get used not in the sense of perceiving it as a normal phenomenon, but in the sense of constant presence, wherever we are.
All the more disappointing is the garbage found in unexpected places - in the mountains, in inaccessible areas, nature reserves, at large cultural, historical or landscape sites. But sometimes the garbage is quite unexpected, if not exotic.
Probably, many who walked along the endless expanses of the most beautiful plateau on Ai-Petri paid attention to the cemetery of the abandoned construction equipment not far from the Taraktash trail and the cordon of foresters.
A dozen metal monsters rotting in the open air were left over from would-be gas workers who started, but never managed to complete, the construction of the Sevastopol-Yalta gas pipeline. They didn't do the job and forgot to clean up after themselves. And the authorities of the peninsula do not care at all about such an attitude towards one of the most beautiful places in Crimea, judging by the fact that this equipment has been rotting here for far from the first year ...
2. Walking along dirt road from Taraktash towards the cordon of foresters, you suddenly see a strange picture. Out of the mist, metal monsters suddenly appear one after another. At this moment, the surrounding reality resembles frames from films about the Apocalypse. Fog, silence and rusty dead machinery piled up along the road. 
3. Here and there separate parts of it are lying around. It seems as if this is some kind of battlefield where the machines came face to face. A kind of excavator Kursk Bulge in the Crimean mountains 
4. The corpses of tractors and excavators that died in this battle are everywhere - on the roadside, behind the trees, in the bushes. 
5. Throwing up in death agony the arm of a tractor-transformer.... 
6. Of course, the picture described above has nothing to do with science fiction films, robot battles and the Apocalypse.
Although the latter is debatable. Mini-Apocalypse, probably still exists. In government offices. In other words, many things cannot be named.
Where did all these rusty monsters come from?
But they are not alone here. There are still kilometers of half-filled trenches piercing the Ai-Petri Yayla, pipes lying in them, slowly becoming unusable, and millions of dollars already buried from the state budget. Trenches and abandoned equipment are directly connected.
All these are traces of idiocy and mismanagement of the state and commercial structures.
Back in 2004, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine allocated 40 million hryvnias from the budget for the construction of a gas pipeline high pressure Sevastopol-Yalta, part of which was supposed to pass along the Ai-Petri plateau, descending to Yalta along the territory of the Yalta mountain forest reserve. 
7. Unfortunately, a year later the funding was suspended, and a year later the money was found again. But here's the problem - due to precipitation and temperature changes, part of the pipe insulation became unusable, and it had to be changed. Then they began to make lining (covering with laths) of the previously welded gas pipeline, and then re-laying it into trenches and backfilling. So they did 13 kilometers out of 26 in the highlands. 
8. As a result, part of the branch along the plateau was built, but then a new sadness crept up.
Construction began without approval from the Ministry of Environmental Protection. And in November 2005, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued a negative conclusion from the ecological expertise regarding the gas pipeline, since the pipe cannot pass through the territory of the nature reserve. And until a positive solution to the issue, the construction was again frozen.
In 2006, they reported on "solving the issue and resuming construction", then the same thing in 2008, then in 2011 ... but things are still there.
The trenches are still abandoned, the unlined pipes are waiting for the weather from the sea, and the equipment ... we are going to look at the equipment further 
9. Backfilled part of the gas pipeline. Like a scar on a mountain plateau. Scar cost 45 million hryvnia 
10. They left the scars, they threw the pipes, they left the equipment. Here she stands.
Without windows, without doors, buckets and everything that is removable and can be useful in the backyard 
11. Caterpillars were even removed from some excavators. 
12. Piles of metal do not excite anyone - neither the Ministry of Natural Resources, nor environmental services, nor Chernomorneftegaz, which built the gas pipeline, nor Ukrgazstroy, which owned and owns this equipment, nor the authorities of the peninsula. 
13. Warriors of the armchair apocalypse... 
14. ... leave a friend to smoke, and in response there is silence ... He didn’t return from the battle yesterday ... (c) 
15. Make an office for one of those leaders here. 
15. The tractor was brought right from Vinnitsa ...
He will not return home anymore .... And he will not come to visit ... (c) 
16. Even sand is pouring from it. 
17. The fist of the proletarian is waiting for the head of the bureaucrat 
18. Maybe the builders were frightened by this inscription, and they simply do not know how to lower the equipment from the mountains? But these are not cheap KATO! 
19. Oversized garbage of the mountainous Crimea.... 
My previous photo essays and photo stories:
It would seem that more than 70 years have passed since the end of the Great Patriotic War, and the echoes of this terrible event are no longer felt so clearly. But still, to this day, there are still places where the war seems to have stopped, froze. Warehouses of abandoned equipment from the time of the Great Patriotic War can be found in many regions of Russia.
Technique in the suburbs
Entire columns of abandoned vehicles, tanks, cannons and other unique military equipment and armored vehicles from the Great Patriotic War are found in various parts of our country. Such a warehouse of abandoned equipment was discovered in the depths of the forest by residents of the Moscow region, picking mushrooms in the fall. Forgotten, abandoned equipment in the suburbs, from a long standing in some places overgrown with moss, covered with foliage, as if not participating in hostilities, not contributing to the Victory, left in this place forever. open doors, abandoned equipment, the random placement of some combat vehicles indicate that they were left hastily, without even saying goodbye, without bothering to thank their iron friend for their faithful service. Abandoned equipment is in a different state: mostly broken, and some even in combat readiness. The rows of abandoned cars are endless. Being here is like being in a graveyard. Only these are planes, tanks. And this case is far from the only one when abandoned equipment is found in the forests of the Moscow region.
sunken machinery
A lot of military equipment sank during the war in the rivers, swamps and lakes of Russia. This once indispensable, and subsequently sunken, abandoned equipment, which at one time served mankind a great service, now sleeps forever at the bottom of a lake or swamp, rusts, overgrown with mud. At present, cases have become more frequent when sunken military equipment is found and its rise from the bottom of the reservoir is organized.
Photos of abandoned equipment left by the military near Moscow can be found in the article.
Military archeology
Military archeology is a search activity on the battlefields of the Great Patriotic War. Search activities are carried out by special teams. Buried in the ground, sunken at the bottom of rivers, swamps and lakes, search engines find lined or sunken equipment: aircraft, tanks and other types - as well as personal belongings of soldiers and officers. The obtained trophies help to restore the complete picture of a particular battle. But search engines do excavations rather for commercial purposes. Collectors are willing to pay huge sums of money for the rarities they get - ammunition, personal weapons or military awards. And abandoned military equipment raised by search engines often finds a second life thanks to the work of restorers and, after repair, continues to live in the country's museums.
Legendary T-34
The symbol of the Great Patriotic War, the legendary T-34 tank, or, as it is also called, the "thirty-four", is installed as a monument in many cities of Russia. As a combat and labor relic of the Great Patriotic War, this armored vehicle became a real nightmare for the German troops. Undoubtedly, this tank had big influence on the outcome of the war, made a significant contribution to the Victory and brought glory to the great Soviet army. Therefore, special regret arises when you see this legend, the former power, strength, pride of our troops abandoned, unjustly forgotten somewhere in a dense forest, under the open sky, or left to rot and rust at the bottom of a river or swamp. Some copies of the T-34 were more fortunate, they are in museums as exhibits, but many remained standing in the same place where they were put out of action by the enemy as a result of hostilities.
outdated technology
Not only in but also throughout the history of mankind there is a constant race of all existing states for the invention of the latest technical means. Therefore, even if military equipment without breakdowns and significant "wounds" went through all hostilities, it cannot serve forever. Modernization is taking place in the field of mechanical engineering, old military equipment is becoming obsolete. It is being replaced by newer models with more advanced features. Therefore, outdated military equipment that has served its purpose "dies" and goes to rest, forming huge cemeteries of metal bodies, washed by rain, like tears.
Locations of abandoned vehicles
The abandoned equipment of Russia is not only the military equipment of the times of the Great Patriotic War left on the battlefield or warehouses of obsolete, outdated mechanisms, which were replaced by other, more modern machines. A lot of abandoned construction equipment is located in the northern regions of our country. In connection with climatic conditions, as well as the difficult terrain of these places and the almost complete absence of roads, various tractors, tractors, cars are left here to fend for themselves. In the Chelyabinsk region, in the local Serebryansky quarry, which was previously and is currently engaged (albeit in very small volumes) in the extraction of facing flagstone, you can find abandoned equipment. Mainly different types excavators, which over time have grown into the ground with their buckets and caterpillars.
A huge amount of abandoned military and civilian equipment, if desired, can be found by examining the expanses of our country. And if these places are not guarded or not guarded enough, the cars become easy prey for those who collect scrap metal.
