Post Soviet Journal | Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan | 2025
Mailbox 200
A quiet, forgotten about town, who’s glory days ended 30 years ago when the Soviet Union dissolved. Kyrgyzstan, much like the 14 other republics left in the USSR’s place, have no shortage of these towns. Central Asia particularly, where spaces are large, economies are dry and landscapes are challenging, seems to have an abundance of semi ghost towns, where older residents live peacefully reminiscing over their red years, and where the youth leave in search for a more prosperous future. Entering the small town of Mailuu-Suu, one would think they have entered a town as such, located in the mountains of the Fergana Valley, about an hour and a half from Jalal-Abad. One would not think Mailuu-Suu is one of the most polluted places on the planet and is the site of one of the worst cases of environmental damage leftover from the Soviet Union.
In the years following the Second World War and the beginning of the Cold War, the Soviets struck gold in the mountains around Mailuu-Suu. With the new race to create nuclear weapons, the demand for Uranium led to the founding of the town in 1946. Much like other sensitive military, mining and research towns in the USSR, Mailuu-Suu was a ‘closed city’ and never appeared on any maps, with only authorised residents coming and going. It was given the name of ‘Mailbox 200’ to conceal its identity and location. Between 1946 and 1968 over 10,000 tones of Uranium Oxide was mined and process around the town, and when mining operations shut down, a toxic legacy was left behind.
Islambek has been a resident of Mailuu-Suu his entire life but was born after the mining stopped. His father had been a miner, being assigned to the town and moved from his home village near Jalal-Abad in the early 60s and had stayed onto work in one of the factories set up after the mines closed. Islambek’s story is much of the same as others from these forgotten ‘closed cities’ from across the former Soviet Union, one that remembers a time of industry and prosperity and now must face the economically stagnant reality of life today. Today he lives in the same wooden two-story buildings he had lived in during the Soviet Union, the accommodation built for the miners and manual workers of the town. With limited work and an aging population, he like many other men of his age in the town, spend much of their free time drinking, something he says has gotten worse since the collapse of the Union. This photo journal explores what Mailuu-Suu and life there is like 30 years on from the end of communism and the detrimental environmental consequences of the uranium mines. Despite the economic hardships, the people and hospitality remain as warm here as it is in the rest of Kyrgyzstan.
During the years the mines were operational, the Soviet authorities imported nuclear scientists, engineers and other highly valuable individuals mostly from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltics for the processing of Uranium Oxide, also known as Yellowcake. This was a core material used in nuclear weapons. To this day, old European faces can still be seen as many stayed after the 1990s, and the town feels considerably more Russian that the average Kyrgyz town. To compensate those who lived and worked, the living standards were considerably higher in Mailuu-Suu just as it was in other ‘closed cities’ compared to the rest of the union, particularly Central Asia. More food, higher salaries and better amenities were given out, including western goods in the supermarket. Islambek remembers the ‘life’ in the town, as coming and going was a big deal, and with few outsiders, the town was a big village where everybody knew everyone as he puts it. Even the manual workers and miners had much better working conditions in Mailuu-Suu than those who worked in ordinary mines did.
The mining of uranium, combined with disregard for the town and environment from the Soviet authorities led to Mailuu-Suu becoming poisoned by the time the mines had shut down. In 2006 New York based environmental health NGO Pure Earth ranked Mailuu-Suu as one of the most polluted places on Earth, and the most polluted in Central Asia. After the uranium ore had been processed in the Mills outside the town, the leftover material was radioactive tailings, the byproduct of separating the uranium from the ore. The Soviets made 23 uranium tailing dumps holding around 1.9 million cubic meters of nuclear material on the hills above Mailuu-Suu, referred to as dams, on ground that was tectonically unstable and susceptible to landslides and floods. Much of the tailing is dried with the consistency of sand, meaning much of the radioactive waste has been absorbed into the ground and water supply of the area. In 1958 tailings dam number 7, due to factors such as heavy rain and neglect, failed and released around 600,000 cubic meters of its material into the Mailuu-Suu River. The Radioactive waste was carried 40 kilometres down the river into the Kara Darya River in Uzbekistan’s Fergana Valley, the agricultural breadbasket of Central Asia. The consequences of the pollution still impact the area to this day. When mining ceased, Soviet authorities made no effort to clear the contamination or waste. Signs warning of Radioactive waste stand in the grounds of the tailings dumps today.
Not far from Islambek’s house is the remains of the last standing uranium mill around Mailuu-Suu, the buildings where the Ore was turned into yellowcake. The building has been left empty since 1968 when operations stopped, and the decades have taken a toll on the building, with a large part of the roof collapsed. What is most haunting about the building however is its use as a shelter for animals for the locals who live around it. Despite contamination from the Uranium, chickens and cows are kept inside the ruins of the Mill, animals which will later be eaten. The economic state of the town has led many residents to keep animals as a means of food, with chickens and goats a common sight in the backroads and hillsides, drinking contaminated water and grazing from the soil.
The tragic reality of Islambek’s story is like many others in Mailuu-Suu. With the water and soil they live on contaminated with radioactive waste, cancer rates are double that of the national average and the highest in Kyrgyzstan. His mother died in her early sixties from breast cancer, and his father a few years later from lung and stomach cancer, Islambek himself has experienced a fast decline in his health as he enters his mid-fifties and worries it may be cancerous. When asked about Mailuu-Suu’s hospital, he shrugs it off as being too busy with not enough money. He thinks the Kyrgyzstan government have a part to play in the high cancer rates, as they don’t send enough money for healthcare in the town or help people relocate away from the contamination. Additionally, stillbirths and birth defects number far higher than the national average.
Mailuu-Suu retains some industry however, not near the Soviet levels but enough to keep the local economy alive. After mining operations ceased in 1968, the Soviet authorities built and invested in factories, the most notable one being the lightbulb factory, the largest in the Soviet Union at the time. This is where Islambek works part time as a production operative, he had gotten the job in the factory before the collapse of the union during public ownership and had managed to stay working after the factory was privatised in the 1990s. According to Islambek, the factory is now ‘half dead’ compared to the Soviet Union’s time, and that his wages were better as the job came with an apartment near the centre of Mailuu-Suu back then. He misses many of his friends and colleagues who he refers to as his ‘comrades’ who moved away after the fall of communism, and he remembers all the social life in the town all those years ago.
Still just about visible on the face of the factory is the old socialist mural painted when the factory was constructed in the late 1960s. Sections of the industrial complex the factory sits within are abandoned with buildings succumbing to the elements. Many of these buildings have had parts salvaged by locals for income after production stopped. If it weren't for the workers coming and going out of the lamp factory, one would assume it is abandoned due to its dilapidated state.
Today the factory employs around 1,300 people from the town and produces about 40 different types of incandescent electric bulbs, many of which are exported to neighbouring and other former Soviet countries. The Hungarian-Kyrgyz development fund has helped the factory modernise and acquire new machinery to increase its range of products, and hopefully create more jobs for those in the town.
Islambek worries for the future of the town. He thinks, despite some remediation efforts, the Kyrgyz Government has abandoned Mailuu-Suu due to lack of real investment and the continuing problem with uranium contamination and makes the sad but realistic conclusion that he will likely die from cancer. His view of the Soviet Union is much more positive than the current Kyrgyz Republic, despite much of the damage to the region being done within this time. Likely a symptom of nostalgia when those such as Islambek did not have to worry about housing, work and money, and when the truth of the contamination was mostly kept a secret from ordinary workers.
Sitting around on a weekday on their phones, in what appears to be an abandoned school covered in graffiti, are three boys from Mailuu-Suu. The look of boredom is obvious as their necks droop down looking at videos with a wilted demeanour. Through a translated conversation they explain what living in a town as such is like for the youth, and why many dream of leaving not just Mailuu-Suu but Kyrgyzstan as a whole.
‘It’s boring’ is the immediate answer I get from Vadim, the boy sat on the steps, he explains that there is nothing to do in Mailuu-Suu. Vadim is part Russian, as his grandfather came to Mailuu-Suu from southern Russia as part of the mining effort, his older brother has already left to go work in Krasnodar in Russia. He now lives at home with his younger brother and mother near the centre of Mailuu-Suu. The school Vadim and his friends attend was shut for the summer holidays leaving them wondering what to do for the months before September, many of the children help in family businesses or with livestock, but many end up hanging around the town. He and his friends often hang out in the abandoned buildings, they are told not to wonder too far into the mountains due to the unstable landscape and the tailings dumps. Many children who are a few years older enjoy riding motorbikes around the dusty roads up and down the valley, with the noise of load exhausts heard at all hours of the day racing around, it has become a popular activity in Mailuu-Suu. Vadim and all his friends want to buy motorbikes but do not have the money yet he explains.
The internet plays a large role in the lives of the children of Mailuu-Suu, as many use social platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Something Vadim’s friends can’t seem to put down. It is here that connects them to the outside world and the reason many want to leave the country. ‘The money is very good’ as Vadim’s friend puts it when asked why they wanted to go to Russia to work after they finish school. A large number of Kyrgyzstan’s citizens go to Russia to work to send the money back home, as remittances account for 21% of the country’s GDP. Mailuu-Suu is a clear example of this, as most residents are pensioners, women and children.
Like the building Vadim and his friends were hanging out in, a considerable number of buildings stand abandoned in Mailuu-Suu. Everything from small wooden houses used to house miners to factories have been left to fall apart, and it is noticeable as you walk through the often-quiet streets. On the edge of the town centre, rows of apartment blocks, likely used to house workers for the factories, stand empty and salvaged still bearing the Soviet propaganda on their walls. Icons of Lenin and Marx still adorn some walls and space age themed paintings read slogans such as ‘To Space!’ still resonating the space age nostalgia of the Soviet Union. The history on these walls however will likely soon disappear due to vandalism combined with the decay of the buildings, many around Mailuu-Suu have already collapsed. The decreasing population size has contributed to the rising number of derelict buildings, in 1989 the population peaked at over 32,400, today the official estimate of the population is 20,000 but it is likely that the number is inflated. Many of the non-Kyrgyz residents returned to their original republics upon the collapse of the Soviet Union.
An apartment block in the centre of the town still inhabited by locals. Buses and marshrutkas still frequent Mailuu-Suu and connect the town to Bazar-korgon and Jalal-Abad. Many residents use these to get products they can’t get in the town and are often filled with pensions with their shopping.
Not all the housing is apartments and wooden blocks, many of the houses in the leafy streets of Mailuu-Suu were built for the engineers and scientists who came from across the Soviet Union. Due to their importance and service in Mailbox 200 combined with the isolation living here presented, they were assigned much more desirable housing than most of those in the country. Two story Stalin era houses were built out of brick and made to a ‘luxurious’ standard at the time. Although many have been left empty, those in good condition remain desirable to residents. Due to the number of people that have left however, combined with the environmental challenges which has deterred people away from living in the town, Mailuu-Suu has some of the lowest property prices in the whole of Kyrgyzstan. A two-bedroom soviet era apartment in a block has a price of about $2000 today, compared to the Bishkek price of approximately $50,000-$70,000. Despite the 20,000 strong population, the town has repeatedly been called a ‘ghost town’ due to the population decline, and walking around some streets one can feel the emptiness despite the presence of residents.
On the hills above a tailings dump where the dirt roads wind around the rocky terrain and teenagers shoot up and down on their motorbikes, a man called Nurlan is going to check up on his flock. Nurlan is a shepherd in his retirement and lives just on the outskirts of Mailuu-Suu. Originally from a village near Izboskan, now in Uzbekistan, he moved to Mailuu-Suu after getting a job in a workshop in the early 1970’s. Nurlan loves Mailuu-Suu and explains how it is nice to have the fresh air combined with the convenience of the town but also points out how it was better in the Soviet Union. His view is the same as many elderly residents as he remembers jobs and prosperity and the thriving community of all Soviet nationalities within Mailuu-Suu. Surprisingly when asked about the contamination from the uranium mining, Nurlan dismisses it saying there is ‘no radiation’ and points out he is in his seventies with no health issues despite continuously coughing. ‘Our water is clean it is from the mountains; my goats are all healthy’ he adds. The denial of any contamination is a shared perspective of many elderly in the town, as the Soviet authorities never made public any evidence of the environmental damage the mining continues to cause.
Nurlan’s denial of the contamination is inextricably linked to his nostalgia and idolisation of the Soviet Union, by explaining how it created jobs in the mines and the factory, and how the uranium from these mountains made them the most powerful in the world. He thinks the remediation efforts in the area are a waste of money and complains that his pension from the Kyrgyz government is nothing to live off and must keep goats to support himself. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the economic hardships that followed, many saw the newly formed Kyrgyz republic to blame for not investing and keeping the industry alive in Mailuu-Suu. Nurlan adds that many now rely on animals and farming to stay fed, he himself sells his goat’s meat to those locally, the same goats that drink from the radioactive Mailuu-Suu River which contains radon gas. It is not uncommon to see dead and decomposing livestock along the river.
Initial remediation efforts in Mailuu-Suu started in 2004 with funding from the world bank which saw some waste rock and a tailings dump removed and relocated away from the town and water supply. In 2023 however, a €23 million grant from the European Union was designated to remediate Mailuu-Suu over a seven-year project managed by the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development. Most of the uranium mills have since been demolished, with the main effort to either stabilise or relocate the radioactive tailings. Geologists and engineers from Europe have been covering the dumps with thick soil layers and building more earthquake and landslide resistant dams. Trucks have been taking some of the tailings that pose a direct risk to the river and water supply away from Mailuu-Suu to secure disposal sites. In time it is hoped the water can be rehabilitated to minimise contamination to the wider Fergana Valley. Just outside of the town on a wall of what was a building connected to a demolished mill is a Soviet mosaic, still expressing the collective hope for a technologically advanced future in the space age, a common sight in Central Asia and the broader former Soviet Union.
Mailuu-Suu must be one of the most harrowing examples of the consequences of the Soviet nuclear programme almost 60 years later combined with post-Soviet era poverty. Not only the poisoning of the water and soil but the poor health of the residents with an inadequate healthcare system and lack of work has crippled this once prosperous town. It is understandable to those who live here, many being pensioners who enjoyed their lives under the Soviet regime, view the current government and country with distain as the promises of socialist rhetoric were never achieved. With remediation efforts happening it is hopeful Mailuu-Suu will see a new lease of life through new industry and tourism as environmental conditions gradually improve, and the title of one of the most polluted places on earth is dropped. Until them Mailuu-Suu will continue to be the strange irradiated town full of abandoned buildings and Soviet nostalgia.