Keith Gessen published an essay titled “Out of the Sky” in The New Yorker
(September 4, 2024) about the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, a
space center built in the Soviet Union still used by Russia today, captured
in photographs by Andrew McConnell.

What I see in McConnell’s photographs is the Soviet empire receding. In its wake it leaves monuments to its hubris and carelessness. Chernobyl, in Ukraine, is one such monument; the naval base at Sevastopol, which Russia has retained by annexing Crimea, is another. With regard to Baikonur, the Russians have largely squandered the incredible work done during the Soviet period.

Photograph by Bill Ingalls via Wikimedia Commons.