Once falling within the borders of the Kingdom of Prussia, during this period Borne Sulinowo was known under its German-language handle of Groß Born. Home to a handful of farmers, it’s probable that it would have remained an obscure irrelevance were it not for Hitler’s rise to power.

True, for years prior, the rolling landscape circling Groß Born had been used for military drills, but it was under Hitler’s watch that the area underwent aggressive militarization. In fact, such was Hitler’s interest in the development of the town as a military base, he attended the opening ceremony on August 18, 1938.

The choice of location for this military facility had not been incidental - the surrounding swathes of rugged countryside provided the ideal conditions in which to school soldiers in the art of artillery fire and mechanized combat. Moreover, with Hitler casting his eyes eastwards, Groß Born - which was around 80 kilometers from the Polish border - was seen as the ideal launchpad for future military actions.

Ordered here on the eve of WWII, it was from Groß Born that General Guderian’s Panzer units rolled forth as part of the devastating Blitzkrieg that would soon engulf Poland. As Guderian’s tanks blazed a trail towards Warsaw, Hitler visited Groß Born for a second time, basking in the glow of those early lightning triumphs.

The town’s importance did not recede with the shifting shape of the front. Groß Born remained key to the Third Reich, and the following years saw the arrival of Luftwaffe units and the construction of POW camps nearby. Even Rommel was here, his Afrika Korps using the barren terrain to their advantage to train for their African campaign.

As the war reached its apocalyptic climax, the geographical area found itself fiercely contested and subjected to the vengeful wrath of the Red Army hordes. Despite that, Groß Born was left largely intact and not just through luck. For Stalin, the seizure of a readymade garrison town must have felt like one of destiny’s more generous gifts - the town’s next chapter was about to be written.

With Europe’s borders revised, Groß Born found itself inside the new look Poland and rechristened Borne Sulinowo. The survival of its barracks and assorted military storehouses meant it retained its strategic value as a potential springboard for future aggression - only this time, the gun barrels pointed west.

Intensely Sovietized thereafter, the next few decades saw Borne Sulinowo turned into a self-contained world that was all but hermetically sealed. Though the town fell inside Poland, it was in actuality an isolated enclave of the Soviet Union. On maps, it was marked simply as a forested area.

What little is publicly known is owed to the likes of super-spy Colonel Ryszard Kukliński, an officer for Poland’s General Staff who was secretly in the employ of the CIA. Among his revelations, it is known that the number of tanks once swelled to a staggering 1,000.

The military hardware that was stockpiled also, allegedly, included nuclear weapons. Though explicitly denied by the Soviet Union, Kukliński claimed to have seen first-hand ballistic missiles and silos. In subsequent years, his claims have been supported by several researchers and today tourists can judge for themselves by peering inside abandoned tunnels that once reputedly housed weapons of mass destruction.

It was not until October 2, 1992, that the last Soviet troops withdrew from Borne Sulinowo, and the following year their permanent departure was formalized when the town was signed over to Polish civil authority on June 5, 1993. After decades of existing covertly in the shadows, Borne Sulinowo officially returned to the map of Poland.

At first, Poles flocked to reclaim the town, their numbers boosted by the discounted price of property. Efforts to repopulate it, however, were thwarted by what had come before. Known by some as the Soviet El Dorado, or Little Leningrad, large parts of Borne Sulinowo had been built using sub-standard, prefabricated Soviet architectural solutions. Soon, entire housing blocks were being earmarked for demolition due to their hazardously poor condition.

Today’s daytrippers would assume that clocks must have stopped in the early 1990s. Driving past scruffy scrubland and eerie pine forests, travelers pass deserted former guardhouses, half-wrecked pavilions embossed with Cyrillic lettering, and ruined bunkers peering from the undergrowth. Rubble-strewn fields and windswept parade squares whizz past car windows.

As one penetrates deeper into town, history seems to seep from every cracked crevice: Soviet stars adorn bus stops, and patriotic reliefs decorate the walls. Prevalent as these are, they are outnumbered by the derelict barracks that often line the streets.

These neglected husks are ripe for urban exploration, but pale when compared to the broken, shattered form of the Officer’s House. Completed in 1936, it was here that Guderian’s top brass lived, carousing in facilities such as the on-site casino. Later, the Red Army added a cinema, a lake-facing restaurant, a theater, and even a disco. Walking through the meandering, graffiti-clad corridors, glass crunching underfoot, one can almost feel the ghosts of the past.

That’s equally true of the skeletal remains of Guderian’s villa. Once revered as the most beautiful building in the town, period pictures depict an elegant half-timbered manor enveloped by woodland. Devastated by fire in 1990, hopes for its restoration recede each year.

The thrill of venturing into such forbidding objects is replaced by altogether more somber feelings at the moss-clad graveyard on the edge of Borne Sulinowo. Serving as a civil-military cemetery, its points of interest include the tomb of Ivan Poddubny, a Russian soldier killed in 1946 during skirmishes with locals.

According to the Russian version of events, 20-year-old Poddubny died while defending a storeroom from Polish saboteurs. Others, though, contest that he was shot by locals while trying to steal a cow along with his drunken comrades. Though it’s unlikely the truth will ever be known, Poddubny is remembered via a remarkable grave that is crowned with a monument of a giant sub-machine gun pointed to the heavens.

Walking onwards, those that visit pass the graves of soldiers killed in training exercises, unnamed deserters, and epidemic victims. Most poignantly, a children’s section also awaits, the graves festooned with wilted flowers and weather-worn toys.

But whilst Borne Sulinowo has a prevailing undercurrent of gentle decay, there is also life in the town. Embracing military tourists, curiosity seekers and those that enjoy the road less traveled, it offers a rich feast of oddities. The Museum of Military History is a standout in this regard with its displays of trucks, tanks, and amphibious landing vehicles, as well as a calendar of events that includes Tank Days from June 28-30 where visitors can see tanks crushing cars, live firing exercises and bridge-building demonstrations.

Beyond, and the town’s Izba Museum presents history in a traditional manner, foregoing multimedia gadgetry to instead showcase physical objects that include relics recovered from the local wartime prison camp, Oflag II D.

Private enterprise has likewise flourished. Though toned down since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, snooping around yields discoveries such as restaurants selling alcohol in Kalashnikov-shaped glasses, old school grocery stores and family-run museums creaking with rusting detritus and garage-style finds: school text books, propaganda posters, beer bottles and grenades.

Coming here, one is swept away by the atmosphere. Borne Sulinowo does not glorify the past, instead it freezes it in a way that’s impossible not to relish. A living museum, it is a place that intrigues, impresses and occasionally chills. As a stark reminder of the not-so-distant past, this piece of the USSR feels particularly pertinent when set to the context of today’s instability.

Getting There

Set between Bydgoszcz and Szczecin, Borne Sulinowo is off-the-beaten track. Driving is the best option although public transport connections do exist. Trains to and from the nearest train station, Szczecinek, run from Warsaw (approx. 4hrs), Gdańsk (approx. 4hrs), Poznań (approx. 2hrs) and Szczecin (approx. 3hrs). From there, Borne Sulinowo is 20 kilometers away and can be reached via a 30-minute bus journey.