Soviet Army soldiers sit on their tanks in front of the Czechoslovak Radio station building in central Prague during the first day of Soviet-led invasion to then Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968. (Photo by Libor Hajsky/Reuters)

Planes land in fog at Heathrow Airport, west London, as heavy fog covers a many parts of the south east, on April 1, 2014. (Photo by Steve Parsons/PA Wire)

“Lofoten Glow”. I was desperately searching a good sunrise spot this particular morning. Normally Storvatnet Lake is completely covered in snow, so you can only imagine my surprise when I saw these crazy ice formations almost being shot out of the frozen lake. I put my crampons on and took a big risk walking out. I could hear the ice cracking underneath my feet, and when you’re all alone in a fjord/canyon like this – the cracks are echoed and sound really frightening. Was it worth it? I sure think so! Photo location: Storvatnet, Lofoten Islands in Northern Norway. (Photo and caption by Stian Klo/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Reuters Photographer Carlos Barria photographed a person born in each year China's one child policy has been in existence; from a man born in 1979, to a baby born in 2014, and asked them if they would have like to have siblings. Here: Lv Mengmeng, who was born in 1995, poses for a photograph in Shanghai August 22, 2014. When asked if she would like siblings, Mengmeng said: “Maybe brothers, because I think they could protect me”. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)

A woman falls while slipping on ice during freezing rain on Roosevelt Island, a borough of Manhattan, in New York January 5, 2014. New York City was hit on Friday by the first severe winter storm of 2014 and was still in the grip of sub-freezing weather on Sunday morning. The woman got up and walked away from the fall. (Photo by Zoran Milich/Reuters)

Visitors view Patricia Piccinini's “The Embrace” artwork during the “You Know Who” exhibition at the Abdulmecit Efendi mansion in Istanbul, Turkey, 27 September 2022. The exhibition, which by the organizers is described as questioning “the representation of the unknown in contemporary art, based on the symbolic world of the supernatural and unknown in the Byzantine period”, is shown from 20 September until 11 December 2022. (Photo by Erdem Sahin/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

People play "Palin", a traditional ritual and ancestral Mapuche game played with curved sticks called "Chuecas" and a wooden ball, during a meet on Dia de la Raza (Day of the Races), also known as Columbus Day in Vina del Mar, Chile October 11, 2015. (Photo by Rodrigo Garrido/Reuters)

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.