Berlin wall at Bernauerstrasse

Not so many years ago one third of all humans lived under communist governments, the cold war seemed an endless affair and fear of nuclear annihilation was always present. Then in November 1989 the Berlin wall, symbol of the divided world came down and in 1991 the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Red China would go down the road of gradual reform but has in fact not been a real communist state since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. In a only a few decades communism has turned from a global force competing for world domination against western capitalism into a chapter of twentieth century history. Some people living on the "free" site of the iron curtain often wondered what it would be like to live in a grey totalitarian society like the Soviet Union or East Germany. Comtourist is a website driven by this fascination and explores the remains of communism and socialism all over the world. We travel to former (and still) communist countries and take interest in history, architecture, museums, monuments, cars and everything else that is left from the communist period. Besides this Comtourist also looks for communist heritage (like army equipment, aircraft and cars) outside the former communist world. Comtourist.com's interest in communism being strictly historical and non political does not prohibit us from commenting on matters with a political context. We will plea to save historic objects from the communist era like statue's and building. This is controversial by any means but we believe that erasing history as done in many Eastern European countries is the wrong thing to do. Also do we feel the need to make note of the many human rights violations committed in the name of communism. Having visited KGB and Stasi torture prisons and more important travelled trough North Korea brings the obligation to report the hideous crimes of communism besides the adulation resulting from our hobby!