272: Solnechnogorsk

Solnechnogorsk is a medium sized town on the "Leningradka", the main road from Moscow to St Petersburg. Traffic flows through it day and night. I say flows but the sheer volume means it is often just crawling. I spent last weekend there with a friend, who I met when I was at the military academy taking part in a United Nations Monitoring Officer's (UNMO) course in 2006 (when I was still serving). The military academy is called Vystrel and it has shrunk considerably. There is a fence around a small part of it but many of the old buildings are outside this fence and are boarded up and slowly decaying. It all looks very sad.
The town itself is a mix of old and new: old wooden houses still being lived in, a few "kommunalkas", some 5 floor concrete panel buildings and some more modern tall (20 floors +) structures blocking out the light of their smaller neighbours.
The first 3 photos are from my time there in 2006 - it's amazing how much vodka you can get in a helmet!
The second group shows some of the work of one enterprising citizen to try and brighten up the environment for people's enjoyment. She has created what her sign calls a fairy tale glade. We saw her working away on her creation while we were passing. It is a labour of love and I do hope it's not vandalised too quickly.
On this day, in 1956, Soviet troops invaded Hungary and crushed the popular uprising that had begun in October. Here is the BBC take on the invasion.
And a video clip