Visaginas: Lithuania's Nuclear Town 🇱🇹

la bass from surprisingly modern vilnius here  in lithuania lithuania a nation that has done   more than most post soviet independence to remove  any traces of its communist past you'll be very   hard-pressed to find a soviet statue a hammer  and sickle or a soviet mosaic in this country   and that's not surprising when you think about  how many of the lithuanian people were persecuted   and exiled under the soviet occupation however  about two hours north from vilnius is the town   of visagnas they call it the priebut of lithuania  where i've been told lies the last soviet mosaic   in lithuania that might not be true but anyway i  thought we'd jump on a train head north and see   if we can't find this soviet mosaic and maybe meet  some nice friendly babushkas on the way who knows   so um yeah join me on a trip in search of  the soviet mosaic of this aguinas let's do it all right let's find the first to sit down let's go and check out johnny i was just on my way to try to sneak  into russia to make sure you're okay people   have been worried you haven't uploaded in a  while johnny i'm like what you do what i'm on   my way to visagenas to check out a soviet mosaic  well you're alive yeah i'm alive do you want to   join me no i'm gonna head back to ukraine  no come with me to the mosaic you're on the   train let's go and check out soviet mosaic  are we doing it only if you promise to not   use that phrase let's check it out you become very  russian come on let's do it let's check it out look how pretty lithuania is little villages  little wooden villages nothing soviet at all which   is worrying because we're going to be looking  for soviet stuff today but look how nice those   little wooden houses are what a pretty part of  the world nothing but forest and little villages   and okay big old factories but um wow i like it  if you want you know it's really pretty yes johnny it's all right wow let's pop our head outside the train  door in zima now see what it's like you don't get long on a lithuanian train stop so i  won't get out but there's the only lady in semana   whoa oh it's not like on the band railway  where you can get off and explore i'd love to   know what's happening in old z mana but i'll never  know anyway there it is oh zimana in the winter oh when the soviets occupied lithuania in  the 1940s many men the lithuanian towns   and villages and hamlets took their hunting  rifles and disappeared into these dark woods   from there they formed battens  of men called the forest brothers   they harassed and attacked the  soviets all the way until 1956. yes so much history wrapped up in this little piece  of land lithuania used to be the largest country   in all of europe so many armies have passed  through here wasn't just the soviets who invaded   swedes have been here the germans have been here   the french have been here napoleon's soldiers  on the advance on to moscow and then the   great retreat passed through lithuania so much  history in this little piece of land in europe this here is ignalina which is home to   what was once a nuclear power station  the sister power station of chernobyl he employed 5 000 people until the eu  said to lithuania if you want to join   us you've got to close down your power  station and fire all the people and now   in the lina power station is shut down  and the people are out of work cheers eu wow the gentleman said we don't stay long  jump off get off my train basically in visage bye-bye whoa welcome to this a guinness not much here where is this again come on  we're looking for mosaics well welcome to vissaginos which is the  newest city or town in all of lithuania   that's because it was built in 1975 by the  soviets to house the workers for the nuclear   power plant down the road so let's go and see  what's left of old soviet visagenas there's not   there's a bit more of a village there  town although there is a bus that will   hopefully take us to the center wow and  apparently we can speak russian in this   town because the majority of people  here are ethnically russian let's see wow these lovely barbecues speak  russian i feel at home already wow we don't need a ticket johnny join me on the free  bus why is it free i don't know the barbershop has   said that you don't need to buy a ticket on the  buses in old vicinus we can just cruise around   here all day i think this is my favorite  town in uh the world so far wow free buses we keep asking people where's  the center and everyone says we keep asking people where's the center of town  and they keep saying it's a circle so i don't know   quite what they mean i think there's there is no  center there is no center it's just a big loop   basically there's a loop around this guinness  all day but it's for free so who cares wow right then the guy that was on the bus   he said you can either go swimming in  the lake over there i said no thank you   or you can go this way and explore the soviet  wonders of this aguinas should we go that   way uh let's go for a swim let's go and look  for the last soviet mosaic of lithuania possibly don't get an expensive one um oh oh check don't forget your receipt so i can   remember how much you deduct from  your wages let's see one butchery wow these apartment buildings that we're walking  past the old soviet ones a lot of them you can see   just empty and i suppose that's because well when  lithuania gained independence from the soviet   union a lot of the guest workers the russians that  come here to work in the power plant simply packed   up and went back home look at him up here i don't  know why anyone would want to leave this aguinas first impressions of lovely vicinus it  reminds me of a smaller shittier earpin   can you not be so rude about this adidas please   you've only just got here i think it's  lovely look at it lovely visigenas what you discovered johnny oh  i found to get my nieces and   nephews my christmas gifts oh yeah  i like it a little soviet bimbo toy   wow should we go inside yeah let's go  and check out this guinness toy shop magazines princess that's the greatest t-shirt i've ever seen you  know whoever this is the soviet hell's angel sorry foreign foreign the soviet auditor oh there's a soviet flagpole please my friend you know what  they call it a soviet amphitheater   amplified amplified your voice and you could  speak in front of your entire audience without   a microphone citizens of vasaginas  hear me let's start now the revolution   and raise the red flag once more  to fly over vasaginas who's with me anyone last chance i'm going and you i just see how to see i'm coming  board i'm coming i'll join you wow can you try that please johnny are you man  enough to try a vicinus pepper how can i get it on mongolia oh they still weigh their things here in  viseguinis in a soviet weighing thing this is rather strange walking around  because we've been in vilnius we're obviously   um the capital of the country you hear nothing  but lithuanian on the streets and then we've   come here just a couple of hours around the  train and all you hear is russian basically   it's like a little separate enclave of the country  here in the border area near to belarus and   latvia you know this is closest  i've ever been a beauty white   you've never been to beautiful  white russia you're missing out mate   let's check out beautiful biblioteca of isaginas  with some trip hazard steps for the babushkas   of the town to break their hips on check him  out come on this aguinas sort out your steps yeah careful johnny don't fall over   wow look at the old soviet door oh is it open  oh no oh thank god space church oh johnny look we've come to the biblioteca of and they have i'm  excited oh my god he's excited finally i've gotten   excited about something so they actually have  a vr headset here gets out of the way look what   we found here in visigenas an old soviet mosaic  just randomly on the wall here in the biblioteca budama visayanam how was my accent lithuanians please tell me   johnny what are you reading i'm just looking  at some melons melons oh let's have a look i   bet they're well good let's check oh what oh  nothing's not yeah okay i didn't realize okay behind us in the center of town is the old  radiation monitor because of course the nuclear   power plant wasn't so far away so this monitor  would alert the citizens if there was ever a leak   in the station anyway i think nowadays the  plants close down we're going to be healthy   we've got no problems for our um for our bodies  what do you reckon johnny i hope there is okay yes well he's living my dream i don't want to  talk too soon johnny but i have a feeling   the last soviet mosaic apart from the one  in the library the last soviet mosaic in old   lithuania is somewhere up these steps  the soviet steps of this aguinas what's happened have you pulled your hamstring i'll get to the mosaic no matter what of all the place i've been in the former  soviet union this town has some of the   strangest atmosphere it's um i don't know it's  like time stops still here and i've said that   in a few places but here it really has i  think what adds to the strangeness is that   we're in lithuania a country that has really  thrown off as much of its soviet shackles and   pass and architecture as it could but here  well the soviet union it's all intents and   purposes still kind of exists or at least it  feels like it does what do you reckon johnny   yeah absolutely it's competitive illness where  you see nothing so beer left whereas here   the people everything the architecture  the language it's all pretty soviet you know what i smell johnny no johnny i spell mosaics i have a  feeling that just around this corner   we are going to find the last soviet mosaic apart  from that one the library in all of lithuania   possibly i don't see music how do you smell  mosaic can you just get that sense when you're   when you're an experienced mosaic hunter you just  get that sense when there's one near you just get   that feeling that little you know that little  bit of butterflies in your stomach and you know   that there's a mosaic nearby let's find out is yours wow it's here i was right look here  above the venatecha the wine store   the great soviet mosaic of where are we  i've said it a thousand times where it is called man and the elements  and it represents that man   and the elements can co-exist together peacefully  nuclear power i mean then the eu closed the bloody   plant down but still there it is look at  it the beautiful ole miss egg is perfectly   preserved here on the side of an apartment  building in lovely soviet vicinus wowzers bold you know what we should do to honor the  soviet music tell me we should have a drink   under it well i'm going for a gubernica or  which is a um unfiltered wheat hefferweisen   sounds very german sounds a bit too german  for me but anyway and you've gone for a um   well one of those this looks more lithuanian but  more interesting are the just brutal potato chips   as an american would call them and as i always say  crisps well guys that's it from the great mosaic   hunt here in visages thank you for joining  us johnny thank you for joining me it's been   fun hanging out with you once again yeah sorry  fair enough um until the next time in some other   location some other country not sure where not  sure when but um yeah see you guys somewhere down   the road cheers once again cheers i'm glad you're  alive goodbye from the great visagenas museum ah [ __ ] beer

Channel: bald and bankrupt

Views: 2,359,543

Keywords: Lithuania, Vilnius, Visaginas, USSR, mosaic, bald and bankrupt, daily bald, train

Id: KI2VHBelyXI

Length: 22min 39sec (1359 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 19 2021