A vanishing village is a village that has, for some reason, been deserted. The problems of extinction of rural areas and over-population of large cities are very important for almost every country in the world, at a great extend of Belarus.

The disintegration of the traditional social and political structures after the Second World War caused a vast movement of rural migrants into cities. The fall of the Soviet Union precipitated the collapse of many collective farms and state-owned enterprises, shutting down thousands of factories and throwing millions of people out of work in the process. Gonchanskoe is one of the examples, the village only two and a half hours from Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

At the moment it’s population is less than 200 people. In 2013 there were 14 pupils in local school. In the summer 2014 the school closed down. The village is home to primarily pensioners.

The decay of many Belarus villages is likely to continue without the help from the government, investors, infrastructure or social services.