A group of explorers in Russia have found around a billion roubles in old Soviet money at an abandoned mine, but it’s all completely worthless.

　　俄罗斯的一队探险者在废弃的矿洞里找到了数十亿前苏联时期的纸币，但都毫无价值了。

　　The group from Saint Petersburg, who publish a blog on abandoned sites across Russia, came across the money after following rumours that large quantities of cash had been dumped in old missile silos near Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Komsomolskaya Pravda news website reports. After travelling for several hours across rough terrain in Russia’s Vladimir region, they found the mine overflowing with cash.

　　据Komsomolskaya Pravda新闻报道，来自圣彼得堡的一队探险者，致力于探索俄罗斯的废矿洞并发表博客。他们在传言的引领下在前苏联废弃的莫斯科附近的导弹发射井里找到了大量现金。在俄罗斯弗拉基米尔地区探索了几个小时后，他们发现了充满大量现金的矿洞。

　　The site contains an estimated one billion roubles ($18m; ?13.5m at current exchange rates, or $33.3m at the "official" Soviet rate in 1991) in Soviet Union banknotes of various denominations issued between 1961 and 1991, all no longer legal tender in the Russian Federation. The mine had been flooded in recent years, leaving what was essentially a swamp of banknotes bearing the face of Vladimir Lenin, the explorers’ YouTube channel shows.

　　这个矿洞里有1961到1991年发行的苏联卢布，大约有10亿卢布，以现今的汇率换算，1800万美元，1350万欧元，1991年的汇率换算值3330万美元，但是在如今的俄罗斯联邦已经不再有效了。名为YouTube channel 的探险者拍的视频显示，近些年这个矿洞被水淹没了，因此最开始看到的只是一片装满钞票的沼泽地。

　　According to their account of events, elderly locals told the team about the mine, but said that nobody dared go near the place because it was linked to the Soviet Union’s ballistic missile programme, and contaminated with radiation. However, Geiger counters showed that this was not the case.

　　根据他们的叙述，当地的老者告诉他们矿洞的秘密，但是没有一个人敢靠近，因为那跟苏联导弹试验有关，可能被辐射污染了。然而情况并非如此。

　　Team member Olga Bogdanova said that the sight of such "riches" was difficult to convey in words. "There’s delight and some sadness, because you realise that this is a bygone era which will never return, that all this money would have been more than enough for anybody," she said. Just 100 roubles would have been a very good salary back in Soviet times.

　　探险队成员Olga Bogdanova说景象的奢华难以用语言形容，这让人悲喜交加，因为这是一个再也回不去的辉煌时代，这笔让任何人都能衣食无忧的钱已经失去了价值。在过去的苏联时代，100卢布就已经是很不错的薪水了。

　　Fellow explorers Anton Alekseev and Sergey Volkov were subsequently interviewed on Rossiya1 television, where the presenter noted that the cash was dumped following a government decision at the end of the Soviet Union, and that this might be one of at least three such sites across Russia.

　　探险队成员Anton Alekseev和Sergey Volkov在俄罗斯电视一台的采访中表示，这笔钱应该是前苏联解体时政府下令埋藏的，还说这可能是俄罗斯境内最后三个这样的矿洞之一。

　　The video has caught the imagination of social media users, many of whom wish that the cash was still legal tender. "I would dive in there like Scrooge McDuck," says one user, while another exclaimed, "I wish I could have a time machine, return with a pack of those banknotes and buy myself a controlling stake in Google, Gazprom, Rosneft, and never work again."

　　这段视频让网友们激动不已，他们多想这笔钱还能用啊。一名用户说：“我会在钱堆里像一只麦克老鸭一样潜水，希望能有一台时光机，带着这堆钞票回到苏联时代，买下谷歌、俄罗斯天然气公司、石油公司的股份，然后我就再也不用工作了”。

（编辑：何莹莹）