Alyona Nefedova "Night and silence given for ages, Rain or maybe it is snowing, Anyway, I am warmed up with endless hope, I see a city far away which doesn't exist..." These words from Alexander Krivoshapko's song, performed by Igor Kornelyuk, were quite an accurate description of the city you see here just a few dozens of years ago. One could see this place with their eyes, but it didn't exist. There was no single hint of its presence on the maps, on the road signs, and on one of the Moscow railway station's (from which a train departed to this city) schedule. On the platform, the citizens somehow managed to recognize "their" people. From time to time, you could hear questions like “Are you going to the City? or "Are you from the City?" If in response you heard a confused “from which?” or received a puzzled stare, it meant that the person was not from there, from “a city which does not exist.” Years passed; many things have changed. The city has regained its historical name -- it was at least the sixth switch in less than 70 years. Now it exists on maps and in navigators, we can hear about it from the TV screens and read about it on the Internet. Sarov -- the city which didn't exist -- is located in the Nizhny Novgorod region, at the intersection of two rivers, Satis and Sarovka, hidden from wondering eyes in the dense forests of the Mordovian nature reserve. Nevertheless, for many people a virtual visit is still the only available option to get there, as Sarov, one of the main nuclear centers in Russia, remains being inaccessible for wondering eyes. There are many closed cities in our country. But is there at least one similar to Sarov? I am not sure. Here, the past and the future merge together. On the one hand, it is a huge temple complex, which is now getting reconstructed, with a goal of returning it to the state in which it was several centuries ago; on the other hand, it is the Russian Federal Nuclear Center, which concentrates on one of the most advanced and secretive fields of science.
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