Thursday, 7th June, Kazanlak

Today we complete the ‘guns and roses’ cycle by actually visiting the Kalashnikov factory, the Arsenal. It has been arranged through B’s father and relations who still work there. The community and arts centre complex near our hotel also says Arsenal on it, a sign of the company's social engagement.

We walk down the central, tree-lined avenue, passing on the way a small park, a dining hall and a kindergarten. There is also an infirmary. Over 20,000 workers used to work here but there is less than a quarter of that number now.

Entering the real Arsenal is like gaining access to a prison, security is strict, the whole estate is walled, we surrender our passports in return for temporary ID plastic.

Significantly almost exactly the same ratio of lost jobs can be seen at General Motors in Detroit, though the acres of plant that made the jobs visible there have been demolished, leaving only the ruins of private homes as architectural markers of radical economic and demographic changes.