/me waits for "grainsilorealismSSwinter42greyskin" and " 508756grainelevatorgreenREALskin" versions of the map...
1. It wasn't abandoned - it was back in operation (at least partly) in 1943. Still in operation today. Or at least, it was when we spent so much time in it!Serious question....
The elevator is/was obviously large and apparently needed when it was built. I'm sure it was a technological marvel for its day. Why then, was it completely abandoned after the war? I would assume that rebuilding would have been cheaper than starting from scratch? What changed that rendered it useless? Was the surrounding farmland rendered unsuitable for farming? etc. etc.
I guess its time to bone up on a little history. (I sooo hated history in my youth... (
Ah. I was thrown off with the talk of people being the first Westerners allowed(?) in. I thought perhaps there was some sacred significance for that.1. It wasn't abandoned - it was back in operation (at least partly) in 1943. Still in operation today. Or at least, it was when we spent so much time in it!
2. Volgograd is (and always was) surrounded by Steppe. The grain has to be brought in by truck or train.
Zets is pretty much right. A grain elevator typically recieves, stores and ultimatly ships out grain. Wheat, grain sorghum, corn, soybeans, rice, etc are examples of the kinds of grain that may be stored in them. Each grain has its own specific "safe for storage" moisture levels. Depending upon the elevator, the elevator may dry grain (most today will) or they may not. In the event they do not dry grain, they will only accept grain below a certain moisture content.
Yup - Floyd has the basic idea. The tall chunk with the windows actually houses a lot of the "elevator" gear - bucket lifts and conveyors. Incoming trucks are (typically) weighed and sampled, then dump the incoming grain into pits, at the bottom of which is one end of the conveyor/elevator system.
The grain will be moved through to a dryer of one sort or another, while the truck heads out (being weighed again so you know how much grain it deposited). The grain is lifted to the top of the building and then out onto conveyors again, across the top of the building and is directed into whichever silo that grain is intended for.
At some later date, the grain can be dumped out the bottom of a silo, into another elevator/conveyor system. This shifts the grain mostly into rail cars (on the east side of the elevator in Stalingrad) or across a really long conveyor down to the river. For some reason the Russians always say they didn't - but the damn thing is clearly visible on aerial photos. Grain could also be sent out to be dumped into sacks or trucks, but the vast bulk would go out via rail/river.
Doesn't take many staff to run the thing, even though it looks huge. It is a lot of work during the harvest season, but the rest of the time, rather dull
I am sorry, but 10-20Km from my house I find several buildings like that, that store rice, in our case... In the flat wheat steppes of central Spain are part of the landscape...