Russian explorers find swamp of Soviet cash

A group of intrepid St Petersburg-based explorers recently found themselves flush with cash when they discovered around a billion rubles in Lenin-adorned Soviet cash at an abandoned mine in Russia’s Vladimir region.

The adventurous group, who produce a video blog in which they explore abandoned sites across Russia, found the boggy treasure trove after hearing reports that huge amounts of Soviet cash had been dumped in former missile silos close to Moscow following the collapse of the USSR. Severe flooding had transformed the underground chamber into a veritable money swamp.

Unfortunately for the explorers of the Abandoned Country blog, though the money would have equated to $33.3m at the “official” Soviet rate in 1991, it is now completely worthless (save historical value). Puzzled as to why they were the first to discover the riches, upon speaking to elderly locals the team discovered that fears that the area was contaminated with radiation had stopped anyone from venturing into the area. Testing with Geiger counters revealed this not to be the case, however.

“There’s both delight and some sadness, because you realise that this is a bygone era which will never return, that all this money would have been more than enough for anybody,” team member Olga Bogdanova told Russian news site TJournal on Monday. According to Ms Bogdanova, at least three such sites exist across Russia.

Source: BBC News and TJournal