Bunker 42 aka Tagansky Protected Command Point, Moscow
Russians’ True Meaning Of Bunkering Down
By David Ellis
Those who continue to predict that the end of the world is just around the corner, and when the time passes and nothing has happened they just recalibrate their predictions, must have undying faith in their own certainty. There's even a American TV show (where else but!) called the Doomsday Preppers devoted to these very people: how they build their shelters, prepare their survival kits and train to fight off the inevitable surge of hapless unbelievers who didn't prepare.
Primative-looking now, how Russia’s leaders would continue directing the war in the 1950s.
But these survivalists are rank amateurs compared to the preparations undertaken by the Russian leaders during the early 1950s when the cold war was at its peak. Picture this; 65 metres under the city of Moscow, an enormous 7,000 sq metre shelter with tunnels connecting the numerous chambers. These chambers acted as storerooms for medical supplies, diesel generators, land line communications and an extensive radio network, food supplies and, even deeper than the shelter a well for water.
This preparation was considered sufficient for the communist party leadership, including Khrushchev, Bulganin and Molotov (Party Secretary, Prime Minister and Foreign Minster respectively) with there families and approximately 1,000 military heads and staff to remain underground for up to three months to direct the war effort in the event of a nuclear war.
Quarters originally planned for Stalin now a Bunker 42 lounge
Now the cold War is well and truly over that Moscow bunker has become a sought after tourist attraction and Cold War museum. The private company that now owns the bunker is working tirelessly in applying entrepreneurial principles to give people an insight into how leaders at the time prepared for a potential nuclear holocaust. Muscovite take advantage of the bunker and storerooms and hire them out for weddings, conferences (that can cater for up to 1,000 people), corporate promotions and even to watch movies in the cinema.
There is even a private meeting room originally planned for Stalin's use, (who originally conceived the bunker) to hold special dinner parties for his closest 50 or so comrades.
The official story doing the rounds at the time and to conceal the fact that an underground facility was being built and to hide it from western spy planes was that the Taganskaya Metro railway station was undergoing major renovations. The bunker, designated the Tagansky Protected Command Point, was built the equivalent of 18 stories below ground and underneath the station.
Part of the 600m of secret inter-connecting tunnels 65m under Moscow.
A clandestine operation was conducted each night. Hundreds of worked were shipped into Taganskaya on, what was ostensibly, the last train for the day, to construct the bunker and undertake technical installations. At dawn the workers were simply shipped out on, what appeared to the general populous, the first trains for the day. And, the conclusion drawn from analysis of data captured by the spy planes was that the rubble being carried away was just from the renovations of the Station.
After about 40 years in 1995 and with the end of the Cold War the Command Point was decommissioned and closed.
In 2006 a Russian company paid the equivalent of $AUD20 million for the derelict, dusty and cobweb infested network of tunnels, out of date land line and radio communications systems, storage rooms, old supplies and, interestingly, stores of weapons.
A visitor is fitted out with replica survival gear from the bunker’s early days
Now known as Bunker 42 it is accessed by tourists via a nondescript doorway adjacent to a once school building. If you are up to it you can descend 288 steps or catch a high speed lift down to the bunker. After being met by guides decked out in KGB uniforms visitors are taken on a tour the telecommunications centre more or less how it appeared in its heyday. Documentary films of the era can be viewed. Particular note should be taken of the contradictory posters displayed on the walls with messages that describe Bunker 42 as “a symbol of the greatness of our Motherland…” at variance with “a memory of armament race futility…”.
To really get into the mood tourists can dress up in KGB uniforms and carry an AK47 or other decommissioned armament for souvenir photos.
Entry tickets (approximately $AUD35) need to be pre-purchased on the www.bunker42.com website.
Taganskaya Railway Station, Moscow: the West trickedinto not knowing what was going on below.
