The “Degraded” Landscape of a Post-Soviet Military Base in Poland: Outside vs. Inside View
The “Degraded” Landscape of a Post-Soviet Military Base in Poland: Outside vs. Inside View

Summary/Abstract: This article focuses on the context and lasting consequences of the withdrawal of the Russian Federation military forces from the town of Borne Sulinowo in Poland in the 1990s. Combining an analysis of local and all-Polish media with interviews and observations conducted in Borne Sulinowo, the article distinguishes between insiders’ and outsiders’ perspectives on this former military base in order to demonstrate how degradation was as much a feature of the local natural landscape and built environment as it was a cultural and political construct serving the interests of the post-socialist state. Rather than inventorying environmental and economic damages, this article aims to present the multidimensionality and relativity of the phenomenon of degradation in the context of the landscape of a former Soviet base. By reconstructing facts, opinions, and myths related to the “degraded” landscape of a former military base, different perspectives and ways of seeing become apparent.

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