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.

A boy tumbles as he plays soccer on the streets of the Khayelitsha township in Cape Town, December 3, 2009. (Photo by Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)

Residents look on as flames burn through bush on January 04, 2020 in Lake Tabourie, Australia. A state of emergency has been declared across NSW with dangerous fire conditions forecast for Saturday, as more than 140 bushfires continue to burn. There have been eight confirmed deaths in NSW since Monday 30 December. 1365 homes have been lost, while 3.6 million hectares have been burnt this fire season. (Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)

People walk along the Neva River at sunset in St.Petersburg, Russia, Tuesday, December 6, 2016. The temperature in St.Petersburg is –9C ( 15.8 °F). (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

A model presents a creation at the Nasir Mazhar catwalk show at London Collections Men in London, Britain June 11, 2016. (Photo by Neil Hall/Reuters)

In this aerial image, debris of the Japanese Imperial Navy fighter A6M “Zero” is seen in the field on August 29, 2016 in Babeldaob Island, Palau. The war was opened up 75 years ago by Imperial Japan against the allied forces, including the United States, by the Pearl Harbour attack on December 7, 1941, claimed more than 2 million lives until Japan's surrender in 1945. (Photo by The Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images)

People participate in a Labor Day parade on September 2, 2024 in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The festival is a new event this year added by Mayor J. Christian Dumais in an effort to bring the community together on Labor Day weekend. The festival included musical and artistic performances, children's games and activities, touch-a-truck, a beer garden, food trucks, vendors and more. (Photo by Zhu Ziyu/VCG via Getty Images)

Medic James E. Callahan of Pittsfield, Mass., gives mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to a dying soldier in war zone D, about 50 miles northeast of Saigon, June 17, 1967. Thirty-one men of the 1st Infantry Division were reported killed in the guerrilla ambush, with more than 100 wounded. (Photo by Henri Huet/AP Photo)