Incredible moment an urban explorer discovers a Soviet-era crane in a factory and takes the rusting machine for a spin
- An urban explorer managed to operate an abandoned Soviet-era crane in Poland
- Haunting footage shows the dust-covered machine spark and judder back to life
- The explorers then start operating its arm and moving it around the factory
This is the incredible moment an urban explorer managed to drive an abandoned Soviet-era crane in a deserted Polish warehouse.
Haunting video footage shows the dust-covered machine shoot sparks into the air before juddering back to life.
It is believed to have lain dormant for more than 30 years following the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991 after falling oil and gas prices led the former superpower to lose its grip on eastern Europe.
An urban explorer pictured underneath the crane that the explorers operated. The dust-covered machine is believed to have lain dormant for more than 30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union
Sparks flew as the overhead bridge crane juddered back to life. The explorers were inside an old Polish warehouse when they flipped the power switch to see what would happen
Creepy footage shows the large overhead bridge crane suddenly splutter back to life after one of the explorers flips a power switch.
Sitting in its operating room, one of the explorer's starts moving the arm backwards and forwards.
Then, when they try to run it across its railings, sparks shoot out of the machine.
Trying a second time, the crane begins to run over its former railings, disturbing dust across the factory floor.
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One of the explorers climbs onto the moving crane body to get a better view.
Before moving the crane, footage shows the young adventurers climbing into dust covered trucks on the factory floor and looking at rusted fans.
An explorer also took a picture while they were underneath the crane, shown here. They operated the crane arm, moving it backwards and forwards, before trying to drive the crane across its railings
A young explorer in the crane's operating booth. When they were driving the crane along its railings above the factory floor, one of the explorer's decided to climb onto the machine's arm
The Soviet Union collapsed due to falling revenues and the failure of Gorbachev's reforms to improve living standards rapidly, which emboldened people to challenge the previously oppressive regime.
Political revolution in Poland, where the forgotten factory is based, in 1989 sparked other revolutions across eastern Europe that led to the toppling of the Berlin Wall a month before the USSR collapsed.
On June 4, facing heavy internal pressure after years of mismanagement, the Polish government called elections. These were won by free-market backing Solidarity in August making the country's new Prime Minister, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the Soviet bloc's first non-communist leader.
Fighting galloping hyper-inflation Mazowiecki rapidly privatised a number of state-owned enterprises which, it quickly emerged, were completely unprepared for a capitalist economy.
They went bust leading Poland into a recession, following the collapse of industry, and a near-paralysis of foreign trade.
This lasted until 1992, when the shock-therapy reforms started to take effect and the economy picked back up. Since then the country has not experienced a recession.
As well as operating the crane the explorers also climbed into rusted vehicles on the factory floor to find out whether they would operate
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