Only the most intrepid urban explorers cross the tattered ruins of the old Iron Curtain to endure the excessive bureaucracy, military paranoia and freezing winds of the East to hunt for the ghosts of an empire. Rebecca Litchfield is one who couldn’t resist the haunting allure of the ruins of the Soviet Union.

Tanzania, 1964. A touching moment between primatologist and National Geographic grantee Jane Goodall and young chimpanzee Flint at Tanzania's Gombe Stream Reserve. (Photo by Hugo van Lawick via National Geographic)

A scantily-clad brunette is pictured passed out on the pavement. Mayhem hits the streets of Newcastle, UK as clubbers out on the Toon have a little too much to drink as they enjoy the Bank Holiday on August 29, 2016. Photographs take last night show scantily-clad women passed out on the pavement, while boozed-up men were caught arguing with police. (Photo by XposurePhotos.com)

A model poses on Aprilia motorcycle displayed at the Indian Auto Expo in Greater Noida, on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, February 4, 2016. (Photo by Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters)

This undated image provided by World View shows World View capsule and balloon spacecraft that will rise to 100,000 feet above Earth for passengers to see the curvature of the planet and the blackness of space. Space tourism companies are employing designs including winged vehicles, vertical rockets with capsules and high-altitude balloons. While developers envision ultimately taking people to orbiting habitats, the moon or beyond, the immediate future involves short flights into or near the lowest reaches of space without going into orbit. (Photo by World View via AP Photo)

A young man with an amputated leg poses for a photograph standing by his broken artificial limb in the rebel-controlled area of Maaret al-Numan town in Idlib province, Syria March 20, 2016. Two university students forced to interrupt their studies have learnt to make and fit hundreds of new limbs in the past four years in opposition-held areas of Syria. A mobile clinic operating from a truck has gone some way to improve access to treatment. While most patients are between 15 and 45, the clinic also helps children and the elderly with replacement limbs. (Photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)

Indian students play with coloured powders as they celebrate “holi” or the “festival of colours” during a special function in Kolkata on March 12, 2017. Holi, the popular Hindu spring festival of colours, is observed in India at the end of the winter season on the last full moon of the lunar month, and will be celebrated on March 13 this year. (Photo by Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP Photo)

U.S Army combat camera photographer Spc. Hilda Clayton took this photo July 2, 2013 that was released by the U.S. Army, that shows an Afghan soldier engulfed in flame as a mortar tube explodes during an Afghan National Army live-fire training exercise in Laghman Province, Afghanistan. The accident killed Clayton and four Afghan National Army soldiers. (Photo by Spc. Hilda Clayton/U.S. Army via AP Photo)