Walking the closed down airfield doesn’t disclose much of the busy air force life that only a decade ago characterized Luostari air force base. From here, Norway is 16 kilometers away, or less than a two minutes flight after take-off. No wonder the intelligence officers deployed close to the border on the Norwegian side had a special eye towards what happened on the Russian side.
In addition to eastern Turkey, this was the only place where a NATO-country had direct border to the Soviet Union.
Before the breakup of the USSR, the military garrisons in the Pechenga valley, including this airfield at Luostari, were closed for foreigners. Today, you drive straight through Pechenga on the main road from Norway towards Murmansk. Luostari is a few kilometers along a side road after the mining town of Zapolyarny.
Gagarin
Korzunovo is the town that served the airbase. Searching the internet for information, not much will turn up. With one exception. Korzunovo was Yuri Gagarin’s hometown for nearly three years; from 1957 to 1959. Lieutenant Gagarin was a pilot with the Northern Fleet’s 169th fighter regiment deployed in Korzunovo before he became the first human in space in April 1961. Gagarin still shines glory to what’s left of the town. His golden bust stands across the road from the town administration, just under the wings of an old greenish propeller plane on display.
Yuri Gagarin and his wife Valentina’s elder daughter; Elena, was born in Korzunovo in April 1959. Elena is today Director of Moscow Kremlin museums.
Marina Popova, a local school teacher, is honoring Yuri Gagarin by running a small, but well informative, museum. “I came up here together with my husband that serves in the army. So, in addition to teaching, this Gagarin museum keeps me busy,” says Marina.
There are no fixed opening hours at the museum. You have to call Marina and make an appointment. Korzunovo doesn’t get too many visitors.
When the Northern Fleet’s air force unit was redeployed, Korzunovo was left almost uninhabited. Empty apartment blocks in a row along the main street create the image of a ghost town. Until the yellow school bus arrives. There are still some 250 people living here. And the local school serves the surrounding military garrisons as well. Happy pupils disembark the bus; not all children in the world have a huge closed down airfield as their nearest playground.
Final flight to Severomorsk-1
Fighter jets from Luostari were transferred to Severomorsk-1 air base near Safonovo north of Murmansk around the year 2000. So were the families of the pilots and other air base personnel.
The nearest abandoned apartment block to the air field is just some 2-300 meters from the control tower. The tower is, for one or another reason, still manned. A woman, most likely not educated as flight control officer, is sitting behind the large windows at the top of the tower. Watching nothing else than the empty airstrip and ruins of other buildings along the apron and taxiways.
“Hi, guys, the Cold War is over”
There is a kind of audible silence as you walk across the air base. Along the runway, the disposition areas, the half fallen brick walls and the base plates of the former hangars is really a walk through Cold War history. A kind of outdoor museum. You can perfectly well imagine the final call over the speaker system:
“Hi, guys, the Cold War is over! Take the aircrafts and other valuable equipment with you and let’s move away from here. Away from the Norwegian border. Bye, bye Luostari!”
Soviet slogans
Shadows of the past are still visible on the walls of the deserted buildings along Korzunovo’s main street. In traditional Soviet style one wall reads: “Peace on earth. We protected our freedom in fight.” Another text reads: “The Victory of Communism is Inevitable.”
A corroded bust of Lenin stands in front of the abounded building with the Communist slogan.
Further down the main road stands a direction sign reading “Tankodrome.” In a small private car, you just don’t want to drive further. Mixing up with heavy military vehicles and tanks is nothing for a civilian.
Korzunovo is still surrounded by other military garrisons. Like 19 km, Pechenga, Lower Luostari and Upper Luostari. Garrisons from where the tanks and other military vehicles make use of the shooting ranges and training areas around the closed air field. Once upon a time the location of all these military places were classified information. Not so today. All installations and locations can be zoomed in and are in detail marked by the online satellite image service of Wikimapia.
