Karosta: Life After the USSR

The abandoned military port of Karosta, in Western Latvia has seen some of the most influential and disturbing eras of modern times from Russian Tsarist origins, to Nazi and then Soviet occupation.

When the Russian army left in 1994 after Latvian independence, Karosta became largely uninhabited and most structures fell to ruin. In the late 1990s, the area was troubled by high unemployment, street crime and drug problems.

This documentary explores how the residents of Karosta have coped throughout the years without infrastructure and order, and examines how community organisation K@2 aims to stimulate positive change by means of art, culture, education, and cooperation to give residents hope of a better future.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Latvia
• Karosta
• military port
• Soviet occupation

[yadsik]

@yomom74 The fall of the Warsaw pact is the reason why East Germany had a poor economy later on. The actual fall of the USSR is what caused the problems. While the USSR was up and strong any Soviet state would have the support it needed. The privatization of industries was disastrous. I personally know four Germans who at first preferred to live under Capitalism, but things are not improving and are now regretting the change. The same applies to most of the former USSR.

[tupums15]

As always some people make videos of worst place in some country and then say: " they are poor, have nothing to eat and so on..." Russians left that place so what are you going to do with that place? Nothing- because it costs a lot of money to change that place for good( i mean destroy it).

[TARLANA100]

Vi snjali tolko samoje ploxoje 4to est v karoste.A xorowovo vi ni4ego nisnali.Na etom video vi mozite uidet kak malo v karoste nedostatkov .

[PoMu4]

Those beautiful commentaries they made are describing the WHOLE city, it's in a really poor condition and when it get's dark, you can easily find problems in any corner of the city litteraly, not only in Karosta.

AND that's really sad, since I'm living in this place for quite a while now, it's really sad to see how life is being sucked out of the city by those freaking corrupted politics... whatever, who cares anyway.

[PoMu4]

I'm sorry but those comentaries are freakin ridiculous ! "It's a dark place of the whole city, everyone here's buying alcohol, blood is everywhere, it looks terrible..." GIVE ME A GODDAMN BREAK. Most of those people they asked, are a bunch of lunatics, who do know that most of Karostas population are Russians (and if you didn't know, a lot of Latvians have a really bad attitude against Russians) and I bet that they have been in Karosta only once or twice, yet they're still are trying to judge.

[PoMu4]

@bananaLT Oh c'mon, WTF are you talking about. Children are children, they're always doing what they're not supposed to do and yes, since they're childer, it's okay for the, you know, to play on the street and get dirty for some reason, don't talk rubish. AND as a matter of a fact, 90% of Liepaya is in terrible condition not only Karosta and dangerous aswell !

[zipcis]

Kur šo iespējams noskatīties??? !!!!

[bananaLT]

I'm from Klaipeda and recently I've visited Karosta, so..what I saw it surprised me, I couldn't imagine there was so poor district in Liepaja.. I saw bunch of dirty children in the dump next to one block of flats ant they were searching for metal parts in the broken fridgerator.. Actually I don't like russians, but that day I felt sorry for them that they have to live in that poor district, damn it seemed dangerous!

[40bcoots]

@memohavok .. american books probably do ... it's not a problem that I have.

[memohavok]

@40bcoots Stop reading american books man, they damage your mind.

[40bcoots]

@yadsik ""How would you like if your your family was whisked away to Siberia & never heard of again?"" it's not a stupid question; because that is what happened. So must be a uni student that lives in a world of theory, rather than admit to what actually did happen.

You have your dreams of reducing everyone to the lowest common deminonator.

My dream is the opposite