Abandoned Soviet Military Base Becomes Tourist Site

Once-secret “Skrunda 1” in western Latvia has become a tourist attraction. Now a decaying ghost town, the base compound once housed 5,000 Soviet troops and their families who lived in isolation as they monitored for missile launches during the nuclear stand-off of the Cold War.  It fell to decay after the last Russian troops withdrew in 1999 and no investors were interested in the land.  The municipality took control of the territory last year and designated it a tourist site.