It took about a month to destroy the building on Kungu street in Old Riga. It was built in Soviet times and served as a storage hall for the main department store "Universālveikals". On the ground floor there also used to be a stationary shop. For the past 15 years the building was not used. The destruction works finished a couple of weeks ago and the area has been turned into a parking lot.
Ventspils is a coast town in West Latvia, considered wealthy, tidy and boring place. These are a few photos of the city centre that slightly compromise this image - old signs of fishermen's club and hospital, street water pump, weird old house and closed glass bottle recycling point.
Rīgas Radio Rūpnīca aka Radiotehnika RRR or just RRR for short, which means Riga Radio factory, was producing radios, turntables and cassette players in Soviet Latvia but went bust in 1990s. Located in Imanta district of Riga the waste territory is now occupied by various small companies, strorages and empty buildings. One of the companies is RRR VEF, a merge of names of RRR and another famous company VEF, however besides the grand name there is a small firm that produces sound speakers.
There is not much difference between Narva and Ivangorod, except for the fact that Narva is the third biggest city in Estonia, which is part of European Union, while Ivangorod is just a rural area in Leningradskaya oblast in Russia. In Soviet times they operated as a single town (even thought Ivangorod was oficially also a seperate town then) but today Ivangorod sinks into recession and survives only thanks to transit and contrabanda of alcohol and cigarettes. The first photos are from Narva, while the last six photos are from Ivangorod.
VEF kultūras pils in Riga is a culture house that bares the name of the famous State's electro-technical factory (Valsts Elektrotehniskā fabrika) even though the factory doesn't exist anymore - it bankrupted soon after the collapse of Soviet Union. The factory was producing telephones, radios and also is considered the birthplace for the world's smallest Minox camera. Built in typical 1950s monumental style the building today hosts various low-key events and youth hobby clubs.