Last year whilst visiting Mongolia we travelled to Baganuur, once a Soviet Army base, now an abandoned relic of a different age. The base itself is worthy of a separate post at a later date, but in the meantime I wanted to share the following fragments of film we found laying in the rubble. They were clearly part of a Soviet propaganda / education programme and are on 35mm movie film. The iconography suggests that it was a film about the German Democratic Republic, but the other images could be from anywhere in the Eastern Bloc or Soviet world. I have not tried very hard, but have not been able to identify any of the people featured in the film, never-the-less it is the best piece of found film I have ever come across. Maybe I will go back one day to try and find the rest.
Two of the frames feature a couple of versions of the Nation Emblem of the DDR. The first dates from 1950 – 1953, the second is from after 1953.
Other frames focus on industrial scenes, such as below.
The rest are military or political in nature.
Someone might be able to identify the above individuals. They are probably political figures of some kind.
These fragments of film must have been laying in the rubble since at least 1990 when the Soviet Army left Mongolia and returned to the USSR.
Let me know if you have any ideas or a better knowledge of the era
Share this post:
Comments
mike brooks on Somewhere in Mongolia
Comment posted: 22/04/2025
Comment posted: 22/04/2025
Comment posted: 22/04/2025
Anna on Somewhere in Mongolia
Comment posted: 22/04/2025
Comment posted: 22/04/2025
Anna on Somewhere in Mongolia
Comment posted: 22/04/2025
Gary Smith on Somewhere in Mongolia
Comment posted: 22/04/2025
Thanks for sharing!
Comment posted: 22/04/2025
James-T on Somewhere in Mongolia
Comment posted: 22/04/2025
Also the broad-faced man in the final frame looks familiar, but I can't identify -- possibly a Yugoslav dignitary.
Comment posted: 22/04/2025
Christian Hogue on Somewhere in Mongolia
Comment posted: 23/04/2025
Comment posted: 23/04/2025
Egon Kluncker on Somewhere in Mongolia
Comment posted: 23/04/2025
Comment posted: 23/04/2025
Danilo Leonardi on Somewhere in Mongolia
Comment posted: 23/04/2025
Was the base you visited, a Soviet base, as in a USSR overseas base, or was it Soviet in the broader sense, such as Mongolian, but from the time of the Soviet bloc? Was it some base abandonned in haste? Presumably otherwise the strips would have been thrown away by cleaning staff otherwise? At any rate, it almost feels like archaeology. Were you part of an organised trip, or was this more of an urban exploring adventure? Also, did you have to do a lot of cleaning work to prepare the film for the scans? What did you use to scan the strips? How do the strips look like? Apologies for the many questions, but your article really makes me curious, and I'm looking forward to your next article on this, i.e. the continuation of your story.
Comment posted: 23/04/2025
Comment posted: 23/04/2025
Jeffery Luhn on Somewhere in Mongolia
Comment posted: 30/04/2025