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Keyword: igorlshpektor

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  • NYT Vorkuta Journal: Above the Arctic Circle, a Gulag Nightmare for Tourists?

    06/06/2005 6:10:14 AM PDT · by OESY · 5 replies · 477+ views
    New York Times ^ | June 6, 2005 | STEVEN LEE MYERS
    VORKUTA, Russia, May 30 - This broken-down Arctic coal town does not offer much when it is comes to economic prospects. The mayor works with what he has. "My dream is to build a gulag," the mayor, Igor L. Shpektor, declared the other day in an outburst that stung like the bitter chill of late May in a place whose history is inseparable from the Soviet Union's notorious system of penal labor. He meant a gulag for tourists. "Extreme tourism," he explained.... The most significant foreign investment in Vorkuta (pronounced vor-ku-TA) since the collapse of the Soviet Union, after all,...