Russian extreme tourism: 450 dollars for 3 days in Stalin-era labor camp

Russian extreme tourism: 450 dollars for 3 days in Stalin-era labor camp

Igor Shpektor, the mayor of Vorkuta, is looking for investors for his proposal to reconstruct one of the Stalin-era labor camps - complete with watchtowers, barbed wire, guard dogs and gruel.

He believes that there are plenty of "extreme tourists" who will be willing to fork over least US$450 for a three-day stay.

That doesn't mean he foresees using visitors as slave labor in coal mines or to work outside in minus-40 Celsius (minus-40 F) weather - the fate of many of the more than 1 million people sent to the Vorkuta camps.

Shpektor casts the idea as a way to remember the city's tragic past while pulling Vorkuta out of its post-Soviet slump that saw it lose some 80,000 residents in a decade, according to the AP.