A robot, developed by start-up firm Asimov Robotics, holds a tray with face masks and sanitizer after the two robots were launched to spread awareness about the coronavirus, in Kochi, India, March 17, 2020. (Photo by Sivaram V/Reuters)

France's Alice Finot celebrates next to the mascot winning silver in the Women's 3000m final at the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Torun on March 5, 2021. (Photo by Aleksandra Szmigiel/Reuters)

General view of a clash after the match of the Egyptian Premier League between Pyramids FC and Zamalek at the 30 June Air Defense Stadium in Cairo, Egypt on April 23, 2019. (Photo by Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters)

Journalists watch the take off of a German Eurofighter jet at the airbase in Noervenich, Germany, Thursday, August 20, 2020. Pilots from Israel and Germany will fly together the next two weeks during the first joint military Air Force exercises between the two nations in Germany. (Photo by Martin Meissner/AP Photo)

This photograph, taken on September 28, 2019, shows an Erythrina Abyssinica planted in a pasture on Ferme Espoir, owned by former President Joseph Kabila, in Masisi territory, northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Photo by Alexis Huguet/AFP Photo)

A Humboldt penguin swims in a pool during the annual stock take at ZSL London Zoo in London, Thursday, January 2, 2020. Caring for more than 500 different species, ZSL London Zoo's keepers face the challenging task of tallying up every animal large and small, every mammal, bird, reptile, fish and invertebrate at the Zoo. (Photo by Frank Augstein/AP Photo)

A model composes herself during the Ukrainian Fashion Week 2020-2021 at the Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex on February 4, 2020. (Photo by Irynka Hromotska/Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

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.