Cozy bunker. Military-historical museum of fortifications, Sevastopol - “- how did they know how to keep secrets in the USSR? Military Historical Museum of Fortifications in a Balaclava
You can get acquainted with the ancient defensive structures of Moscow using the example of the Kremlin walls and towers. But to see the capital's fortifications modern era- you need to go down tens of meters into the mines and tunnels that began to be created in the middle of the 20th century.
Bunker-703 is a real museum-reserve of modern fortification at a depth of 43 meters underground. Functioning life support systems, cast iron tubes with dates from the Stalin era. Everything is genuine. And you can touch everything with your own hands.
The bunker operated for several decades as a secure special archive for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Until recently, secret experts worked here and the most important international secrets of our country were kept. Only in 2018, after the facility was declared technically obsolete, were the first visitors allowed into it.
Now the bunker hosts regular events, which anyone can sign up for. You will see massive security doors, unique Soviet equipment, and get acquainted with the technologies and artifacts of a special fortification facility hidden under Zamoskvoretsky courtyards and alleys.
Our bunker is the only place in the city where every visitor can look into a real deep mine from Stalin's times and set off a nuclear attack warning siren with their own hands. Or walk with your own feet through the same cast-iron tunnel that trains travel through on the ring line of the metro.
Now a full-fledged Museum of Modern Fortification is being created here - the first in our country. Models of protective structures of the nuclear era, special equipment and declassified documents dedicated to the creation of the first Soviet deep bunkers are already presented here.
We are always happy to help those who want to get rid of the obsessive myths about “Stalin’s bunkers” and find out how really Moscow is built below ground level.
If you are unable to register through the website, or have questions regarding registration, write to: [email protected].
The address and directions can be found
Hello!
Do you love history? Military theme? I don't... but what I really appreciate are the excursions.
For the last 6 years I have been living in Crimea, and here, as you know, there is so much interesting, colorful and mysterious things to do. The peninsula has something for everyone. There is everything here: military themes, love and romance, mysterious myths and stories, walking paths for many, many kilometers.
This time our choice fell on the historical military Balaklava and quite by accident we found the museum of fortifications.
I don’t know about you, but before this incident I didn’t know what “fortifications” were, so I’ll give a definition here:
Fortification- a building intended for sheltered accommodation and the most effective application weapons, military equipment, control points, as well as to protect troops, the population and rear facilities of the state from the effects of enemy weapons.
Next to the museum there is a beautiful view of the left side of the bay - this is where all the catering establishments are located, and you can also buy fresh fish or mussels. We came exactly from there (having previously refreshed ourselves).
GENERAL INFORMATION:
The museum is small, located underground, or rather in Mount Tavros.
The price of the excursion is 300 rubles, very young children (it seems they are not allowed under 5-6 years old), there are discounts for special categories of citizens.
In terms of time, everything lasts about 1 hour, although they promised us hour-hour twenty. But we managed it in exactly an hour, unfortunately.
Walking in the museum is comfortable, I was wearing thick heels, everything was fine - I was alive and well, my legs were intact. But I wouldn’t recommend walking in shale, because it’s cool and damp there.
I repeat, it’s cool in the museum, there’s a breeze, it’s damp and humid. It's better to take something with you to throw on.
We were there on September 27 at 16:20, there weren’t many people in the group, about 20 people.
We had a young lecturer (tour guide), you can hear well, they have a microphone. The story is interesting, albeit without enthusiasm.
Map of objects: 820 RTB (the one through which the excursion leaves) and 825 GTS (where the excursion enters):
At the entrance there is an illuminated tunnel. It’s very beautiful, and I was also terribly curious what kind of lanterns were there in the distance???
IN THE MUSEUM OF FORTIFICATIONS BALACLAVA: IMPRESSIONS:
Intense, atmospheric and incredibly emotional!
I will not retell all the information I heard because some of it has already been forgotten and that’s not it. You can read more about the objects on the official website *link*, there is history and general information.
I absolutely do not regret visiting the facilities! This is something unknown, as if we are in a time loop and time has stopped here...
Thick doors that can repel an attack and save lives in the event of an invasion or nuclear war.
Yes, by the way, this object was of particular importance after the explosion in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
About the gate:
The entrance to the corridor is blocked by huge shockproof gates. They can withstand pressure of 60 atmospheres. Each leaf weighs 10 tons. Their height is 4 meters, width 40 cm, the gates are sheathed in metal and filled with concrete inside. Closed using a special mechanism within 2 minutes. The hydraulic structure had a system of shock-proof gates and lock chambers that provided protection for the underground complex in the event of a nuclear strike.
In the past, for the ignorant, the GTS was deciphered as a “city telephone exchange”; in fact, only a few knew about this complex. The entrances to the shelter were carefully camouflaged both from the air and from the sea. On the mountain above there was a dummy of residential houses; the entrance from the sea was masked with a special mesh that imitated rock!
Oh, there were some inventors in the USSR! Another object comes to mind in Crimea (bike shows are held there every year) - this object was disguised as a plant that is always under construction in order to transport materials for the construction of such a shelter without hindrance and without suspicion.
More technical information:
Dry dock and terminal at 825 gts. This place served for the repair and inspection of submarines. And also, in the event of an atomic attack (is that what they call it?), up to 7 medium submarines could take refuge here!
There is a small submarine on land. It was very interesting to touch it and knock on it; I had never seen such things before:
Citizens leave pennies inside, but so what? Signs are signs
We crossed the bridge to the second object - 820 RTB (arsenal).
Remember, I wrote at the very beginning that at the entrance I captured some lanterns in the tunnel? Here they are.
The arsenal was intended for storing and preparing nuclear warheads for torpedoes and missiles for operation, carrying out routine maintenance and assembly of ammunition warheads
We saw several gates throughout the complex, some of which were different.
But this thin (in comparison) door turned out to be not so simple:
Behind the anti-nuclear gate is a flat steel door, but it is no less powerful. It has a gate made like a sea door, that is, with a high threshold - a coaming. It is needed so that people can pass through to service the mechanisms that drive the doors.
By the way, the ship Kyiv, as I understand it, was bought by the Chinese. They turned it into something like a restaurant with Ukrainian cuisine.
And the most saturated room. Various elements are collected here: equipment, awards, uniforms, clothing, imitation and even a piece of a submarine!
Cold War. The weapons multiplied and multiplied year after year, and the probability of their use periodically became different from zero. Thoughts about the nuclear threat did not allow potential friends on both sides of the ocean to sleep peacefully. The retaliatory strike strategy was developed continuously. The question is who, how and with what will strike back when there is radioactive ash everywhere... Assuming that all stationary launchers are destroyed, the choice remains only with mobile ones - at that time these were only aviation and navy (road and railway options appeared many Later). Obviously, the forces of retaliation must be reliably hidden until hour "H" in a quiet and secluded place. One of the solutions to this problem was precisely the top-secret facility in Balaklava - a huge complex located in the depths of Mount Tavoros. The complex was a plant for the repair and maintenance of submarines with a sea canal, a nuclear arsenal and could be used as a bomb shelter where several submarines and up to three thousand personnel and service personnel could find shelter. The object was designed to protect against nuclear explosions with a power of up to one hundred kilotons and had a life support autonomy of thirty days. Nowadays the facility is not used by the military for its intended purpose, and a military base has been opened on its territory. historical Museum fortifications. This name is partly correct, however, the theme of the museum’s exhibition goes far beyond fortification.
1. Upon entering the museum, visitors are greeted by a poster.
The museum offers a walking land tour (200 rubles) along the corridors and premises of the facility and a water tour (270 rubles) by boat along the canal. The museum's opening hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday and Tuesday are sanitary days.
Although the guides say that both excursions are the same in terms of information, however, in my opinion, this is far from the case. On a walking tour, there is much more interesting in rooms that are absolutely invisible from the water, but a water tour allows you to better appreciate the scale of the structure.
2. Not far from the museum you can find another, more official sign. However, apart from the intercom with the voice of a security guard, no one can be seen there, although, perhaps, the museum’s management is located there somewhere.
3. At the entrance to the museum there is a diagram of the once top-secret military facility. More precisely, two objects in one complex.
On the right side of the diagram is "Object 825 GTS". The abbreviation in the name means “hydraulic structure” for specialists, and for everyone else it means “city telephone exchange”. By purpose, it is a plant for the repair and maintenance of submarines of the 613th and 633rd projects, as well as an ammunition storage facility for these submarines. In addition to workshops, the plant had a dry dock and a sea canal with a working length of about five hundred meters. The total length of the sea canal is about six hundred meters. In addition, the facility includes a power plant and a fuel storage facility for nine and a half thousand tons of fuel.
In the lower left part of the diagram “Object 820 RTB” is a nuclear arsenal where six types of nuclear warheads were stored and maintained.
The drawbridge, with its small height, blocks the entrance from Balaklava Bay to the sea canal. To allow the boat to enter, the bridge was raised on pontoons and moved to the side. For reasons of secrecy, this was done only in the dark.
4. The first series of pictures is short - a boat excursion.
Immediately after boarding the boat, we see the northern bayport - to the right of the tunnel there is a thick gate closing the entrance. Its dimensions are: height - 14, width - 6 and length - 18 meters, and weight is 150 tons. Now it is in the open position, almost completely recessed into the side niche.
5. Exit from the mine-torpedo section into the channel. In the event of a nuclear war, it was here that torpedoes and missiles were supposed to be loaded into the boat.
7. Suddenly two mannequins dressed in OZK appeared. How much they could help when there is radioactive ash around is a moot point. Probably just a little bit and not for long...
8. View from the canal to the dock area. The bars that prevent hard contact of the boat hull with concrete structures are clearly visible.
9. On the dock area there is a sabotage two-seater midget submarine "Triton-1M".
11. View to the north.
12. Ten minutes later or a little less, the boat approaches the southern end of the sea channel and makes a turn. From here you can see the exit from the bay to the open sea.
13. View of the southern exit from the sea canal from the outside, from under the road bridge. The bateauport has been dismantled. It was probably not as huge as at the northern end of the canal.
14. This is what the southern exit looks like from the opposite side of the bay. During the operation of the object, both exits of the cattle are camouflaged with nets that accurately imitate the appearance of the surrounding area. To be sure, they even built models of residential buildings.
15. We go back a little faster. Ahead you can see the “light at the end of the tunnel” - the entrance to the sea canal. Note the widening of the channel at its very beginning.
16. In the wide part of the canal there is a small port that covered the entrance to the dry dock, where the boat’s hull was being repaired. Repairing a boat at the dock usually took up to three weeks.
17. We leave the canal back to the entrance to the museum to the northern bathoport. The duration of the water excursion was about 15 minutes.
18. Part two - on foot. Some photos will show the same objects as on the boat tour along the sea canal, but from different angles. The photo shows the “entrance portal” (see plan at the beginning of the post).
19. The underground rooms are cool and a little damp. Therefore, the guides are dressed warmly due to the specifics of the work. The pace of the walking tour is quite fast. Stopping and capturing the halls in detail is quite problematic, and the group is large - about 30 people. The photo on the left is a trolley. It may have been used to remove rock during construction, but unlikely during the operation of the complex.
20. Underground objects and structures are indicated in red on the map. Yellow - karst cavities. How many things can be hidden here!
21. Some corridors of the structure are closed to visitors. I think there are a lot of them here.
22. A little about the construction of the facility. In 1956, a special construction department No. 528 was created, which was engaged in the construction of this structure “Object 825 GTS”. It is easy to notice that the same numbers are used in the object number and the building department number. Accident? The complex was built from 1954 to 1962. At first, military builders built the facility. However, the rocks are very hard marble-like stone, which caused enormous difficulties in excavation, apparently due to a lack of experience in such work. Therefore, civilians were brought in for construction. There were four six-hour shifts at the face - work was carried out around the clock. Directional explosions were used for excavation. This did not greatly bother the local residents, who were already accustomed to such work at the neighboring quarry. To ensure secrecy, export rock was carried out at night on barges on the open sea.
23. The museum has halls with a huge number of exhibits. Unfortunately, the pace of the excursion does not allow for a close look at even a tenth of it. A railway track runs through the center. Apparently, trolleys were the main thing here vehicle. The halls external to the white light are closed with thick gates, preventing the penetration of the blast wave into the premises. The gates have leaves that are approximately quarter-cylindrical in shape. It is not entirely clear how the railway track diverged from the gate, the doors of which are slightly below floor level. Perhaps there was some removable section of the path.
24. Technical description and characteristics of the gate.
25. Another room. Here are photographs of Balaklava Bay and some weapons - bombs, mines and torpedoes.
26.
27. Sectional view of a small anti-ship mine
29. Sometimes you come across these pompous manhole covers. It seems that if, after the declassification and abandonment of the facility by the military, everything that could be taken away had not been stolen from here, then it is unlikely that we would have seen these museum-iron-foundry creations.
30. One of the purposes of the object is a nuclear bomb shelter. According to the plan, it should withstand a bomb explosion with a power of up to one hundred kilotons. The plant's workshops provided space for three thousand people, and the sea canal had to accommodate seven medium or nine small submarines. Some places write that the number of submarines could reach fourteen. It is difficult to say whether it is possible to cram such a quantity into the canal. In the event of the outbreak of a nuclear war, when only radioactive ash remained everywhere in the area, these very surviving submarines were supposed to take on board the available missiles with nuclear warheads and strike back with them.
31. After a long and empty corridor, we go out to the dock area, directly to the canal. The door between the corridor and the dock area. Not the thickest. You could say it's interior.
32. The already familiar midget submarine "Triton-1M"
33. The Triton-1M boat is not airtight. When submerged, it is filled with water. Through the crack of the cockpit canopy, we managed to photograph the submarine's control panel.
34. There were probably such soda fountains in all factories of the Soviet Union.
35. Here, on the dock area, there is another diagram of the complex with some of its technical data.
36. Along the bridge, built already in museum times, we cross the canal and head towards the nuclear arsenal. Again about the door. Technical description, characteristics and routine maintenance map.
37. Door opening drive gearbox. The handle and lever are on the right side, probably for manual opening in case of electrical failure.
38. Door design elements.
39.
41. Another room. Alas, there is very little time to explore... The next group is almost on their heels. There is a lot of interest. Maybe there is no such rush here in winter?
42. Engine telegraph of a surface 2-screw ship.
43.
44. Electrical wiring in the tunnel is a symbiosis of old and new.
45. Red corridor. In real life, of course, the lighting was very ordinary, but it was lit in red by museum employees. The fact is that the corridor leads to the local zone - the place where they worked directly with nuclear weapons. To reduce the echo, the walls and ceiling of this corridor are covered with ordinary corrugated slate.
46. Model of a nuclear weapon on a trolley. The cart sits on a turntable - the rails run along the corridor, and the cross tracks lead to the storage room. The ceilings over a large area are covered with wavy slate. It was not possible to achieve a complete absence of echo, however, voice intelligibility is much better than in other rooms with smooth walls.
47. This inscription was found in the nuclear arsenal at least twice. Relevant at all times. And during the operation of the complex it could not have been more relevant. Even some of the employees who worked there did not know about this facility. According to the guide, one of the visitors only found out at the museum where she worked many years ago.
48. "Room No. 17. Storage of nuclear ammunition for torpedoes." - the sign next to the gate says dryly. In total, six types of warheads were stored in the nuclear arsenal.
49. Someone listens with interest and asks questions, while someone doesn’t understand what we’re talking about at all.
50. Kh-22 cruise missile body
51.
52.
53. Inside the cabinet-safe for storing sources of ionizing radiation. The room is small. A niche in the wall is covered with a sliding screen on wheels.
54.
55. The next room presents some elements and systems of submarines. The photo shows the top part of the battery. It’s difficult to say anything about the type and performance characteristics, but I didn’t take a photo of the plate.
56. The entrance hatch of a submarine with a shaft, where visitors are not prohibited from climbing in order to test their flexibility. ;-)
57. Various control devices. Attracting attention young man the device is something like a torpedo course control apparatus. I could be wrong, of course.
58. Battery cells "in full height"For comparison, on the right is an ordinary door.
59. Control panel of the Sadko station from the Project 690 submarine "Mullet". The station is used to service hydraulic systems, high pressure air, diving and ascent.
60. Workers with an electric hoist.
On the floor is the body of the SAET-50 torpedo.
There is a tool box on the left against the wall. Each tool on the panel has its own recess, painted red. Thus, a quick glance is enough to make sure that the entire tool has “returned to its base” and some screwdriver has not been left lying around in the depths of the devices being serviced.
61.
62. Submarine workspace layout
63. The museum’s exposition presents elements of the equipment of combat swimmers and dolphins serving in the navy.
64. Another model of a detachable warhead of a ballistic missile.
65.
66. A reminder is never superfluous. This is the situation. On the right, close up, you can see two doors behind which there was a telephone exchange and a radio room.
67. Main ventilation unit. One of them, I suppose.
68.
69. Small side corridor for staff. It is a gateway consisting of doors like these. It bypasses the main corridor gate with a quarter-barrel gate.
70. It's difficult to say what it is. It looks like ventilation.
71. From the side corridor we exit into the main one. There are a few steps left until you go outside. Looking back, through the open gate, the gaze slides along the rails, clinging to the platforms with mock-up warheads, to the green and red. Just a few tens of meters...
72. Exit to the courtyard. The exhibition continues here. However, some things are just thrown together.
73.
74. Deck attack aircraft Yak-38
75. Marine gas turbine engines
On the right is the DO-63 engine - the sustainer turbine of the M7K unit used on Project 1135 ships.
76. Some ammunition is stacked in a stack.
77.
78. At the fence there are containers for parts of 3M9 missiles.
79. The exit to the street is “decorated” with rockets.
The walking tour lasted approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. The air temperature in the rooms is not the same, in the coolest part it is about 15 degrees. However, there are no drafts, and therefore the cold is almost not felt.
It seems to be the largest military facility ever declassified. Previously, I did not quite understand why, after more than 30 years of operation, in 1994 they stopped using it for its intended purpose. However, it's simple. Time passed, the old submarines were scrapped, and the new ones turned out to be larger. Available as part of the Ukrainian submarine fleet the submarine simply did not fit into the channel. And Ukraine itself has not been awarded the status of a nuclear power - they do not need a nuclear arsenal. Okay, let it be a museum as a reminder.
Ten kilometers from Sevastopol, in Balaklava, in 2003, for the first time in forty-six years, a top-secret submarine repair plant was presented to the public. This strategic facility, unique in the world in its scale, began construction in 1957.
The underground submarine base in Balaklava, better known as Object 825 GTS, is a top-secret Cold War-era military facility in Balaklava Bay. GTS or City Telephone Station is the name of the facility for purposes of secrecy. It is currently the largest of all declassified military installations.
Object 825 GTS is an anti-nuclear defense structure of the first category, capable of protecting against direct hits atomic bomb with a capacity of 100 Kilotons, which includes a combined underground water channel with a dry dock, repair shops, fuel and lubricants warehouses, and a mine and torpedo unit. Located in Mount Tavros, on both sides of which there are two exits. From the bay side there is the entrance to the canal (adit). If necessary, it was covered with a bateauport, the weight of which reached 150 tons. To access the open sea, an exit was equipped on the northern side of the mountain, which was also blocked by a bathoport. Both holes in the rock were skillfully closed with camouflage devices and nets.
In the event of a threat of a direct nuclear strike, the plant was able to close hermetically using automatic doors and exist autonomously for 3 years. This enterprise had its own bakery, warehouses for storing food and fuel and lubricants, and a hospital. The combined underground water channel could accommodate up to 9 submarines and repair them if necessary. Its depth reaches 8 meters, width - from 8 to 12 m, and the height of the canal arch is 18 meters. The total area of all premises and passages of the plant is 5100 square meters. m, underground water surface - 3 thousand square meters. m. The length of the canal is 380 meters, the length of the dock is 110 meters.
Object 825 GTS was intended for shelter, repair and maintenance of submarines of the 613th and 633rd projects, as well as for storing ammunition intended for these submarines. The channel (length 602 meters) of the object could accommodate 7-9 submarines. Loading equipment into Peaceful time was carried out at the pier, taking into account the movement of spy satellites of a potential enemy. In case of a nuclear threat, loading had to be carried out inside the base through a special adit. The complex also included a repair and technical base (object 820), intended for storing and servicing nuclear weapons. The temperature inside the base is about 15 degrees. In some rooms, dehumidifiers are still operating, removing excess moisture from the premises
After atomic bombing in August 1945, the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet government, assessing the scale of destruction and the consequences of nuclear explosions, adopted a comprehensive plan for protecting the country's main industrial and defense facilities from nuclear weapons.
A government decision was made to build a facility in Balaklava that could protect equipment and people in the event of a nuclear explosion. The project for the Balaklava protective underground structure was prepared by the Leningrad Design Institute and in 1953 submitted to the government for signature. Joseph Stalin personally reviewed and personally endorsed the project for the construction of a one-of-a-kind underground submarine repair plant in Balaklava Bay. In the post-war years, a naval base was established in Balaklava. The 14th Submarine Division was based here Black Sea Fleet THE USSR.
How to get there:
Crimea, Sevastopol, Tavricheskaya embankment, 22
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