Story

The Town with No Tomorrow

November 07, 2013 | Foreign Policy
By
Brendan Hoffman

The Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill a month after it was shut down, as seen through a lace curtain. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

A pigeon flies the central square in Baikalsk, Russia. Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Prime, 2013. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

Men sit in an employment office in Baikalsk, Russia, waiting their turn to fill out job applications. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

Girls play at the chalk board during a sewing class at a local school in Baikalsk, Russia. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime, 2013.

Vadim Kovalenko, 24, drinks tea at his dacha in Baikalsk, Russia. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

A man chops firewood. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

Boys play outside after school. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

An ancient control panel inside the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill. The high costs of modernizing the mill are one of the major reasons it shut down. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

Vladimir Shikhanov, a former worker at the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill who was recently laid off, poses for a portrait in Baikalsk, Russia. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

A secretary talks on the telephone at the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

Students attend an English class at a local school in Baikalsk, Russia. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

A train carrying timber travels through Baikalsk, Russia, to the east, toward China. Much of Russia's timber is now exported to China. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

Large rolls of paper remain inside the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill a month after it was closed down. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

Two girls talk during their lunch break at a technical college. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

Tatiyana and Nikolai, surrounded by friends and family, kiss on the shore of Lake Baikal on their wedding day. It is traditional for couples to visit the lake shore to pose for wedding pictures. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

A group of Russians hold a party on the shore of Lake Baikal. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

Women take a smoke break outside a bakery in Baikalsk, Russia. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

A collection of dachas in Baikalsk, Russia, seen from the window of a moving car. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

Two boys sled down a hill formed by an earthen berm containing slurry from the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill in the adjacent town of Solzan, Russia. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

A strong gust of wind blows freshly fallen snow in Baikalsk, Russia. Image by Brendan Hoffman/Prime. Russia, 2013.

Note: This slideshow is published in conjunction with Anna Nemtsova's article, "On the Edge of Siberia's Dark Blue Heart."

One cold week in October, photographer Brendan Hoffman and Democracy Lab columnist Anna Nemtsova journeyed to Baikalsk, a lonely town on the edge of Russia's Lake Baikal. Within Russia the town is known for its citizen-led environmentalist movement against the local Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill. Operating since the mid-60s, the mill churned pollutants into the lake, a unique ecosystem that holds 20 percent of the world's fresh water and sustains over 1600 endemic species of plants and animals. Decades of protests by environmental activists have finally brought the mill to its knees. It shut down — seemingly for good — last month.

Today the town's residents are struggling to cope with the mill's closure. Like the hundreds of other Soviet Russia "monotowns," Baikalsk is a community that was sustained by a single industry. Without the mill, it's unclear how Baikalsk can go on. During his foray into a corner of Russia rarely visited by outsiders, Brendan Hoffman catalogued the poignant silences of this dying town.