To start, some news about the weather : this winter is not too cold for the moment with temperatures mainly between -5°C and -15°C.
Not a lot of snow compared to what has happened in western Europe in December !
What is incredible is to see vegetables vendors in the street even when it's cold outside !
We have tested country cross skying in Ismaelovo park, with some obstacles to cross !
And we continue to run outside when temperature is not below -10°C ...
Loujniki stadium on left and frozen Moskva river below
Now, the Stalin bunkers in Moscow !
I am sure that not so many tourists have the opportunity to visit the Stalin bunkers : only groups with guided tours are possible.
Since the early 1990s, the existence of a network of underground bomb shelters beneath the Russian capital has repeatedly been mentioned in the local media.
The bunkers, allegedly built from the 1930s through to the 1970s, are said to be connected by a secret alternative metro system, often referred to as "Metro-2."
The authorities' refusal to either confirm or deny the existence of the mysterious network has provided fertile soil for the growth of various imaginative theories.
Two real bunkers dating back to Stalin's time, however, are open for public and can be visited.
Izmaylovo Command Post
The reserve command post of the Soviet armed forces was officially opened to public in 1996, as a branch of the armed forces' museum.
The bunker, which is located in the Izmaelovo neighbourhood, is connected to the Kremlin via a 17 km underground railway.
The bunker was built in the 1930s as part of a state programme aimed at boosting the Soviet Union's defence capacity.
Its construction was camouflaged by one of the most ambitious projects in Stalin's time : a people's stadium, sketches of which give an idea of the grandiosity of the project.
Soviet media reported : "To ensure that the national sports tournament is organised properly, the USSR's central stadium is to be built in Moscow and the stands will seat at least 120,000 people."
The stadium, which was to be connected to what now is Partizanskaya metro station, wasn't built, but the bunker was.
The choice of its location was in no way random : the site was chosen in the eastern part of the capital, while an enemy was most likely to come from the west. Also in the vicinity were three military aerodromes, including the country's most important one, Monino.
The visit of the bunker includes :
- The session Hall of the Supreme command chief of the Red Army
- Stalin's work cabinet and Stalin's rest room (?)
- Dining room
- Generals room (High command room)
- Also various objects and clothes, and a map with the position of USSR's army troups around Moscow !
Tagansky Secured Command Post
The Tagansky Secured Command Post, also known as Bunker-42, was opened to the public as the Cold War Museum in 2006, when it was put up for auction by the Defence Ministry and purchased by a private company. It was a former command post of the Soviet anti-aircraft forces.
Similar to the Izmaelovo bunker, it is connected to the city's metro system, with a railway tunnel leading to it from the ring line. You can hear ring-line trains when visiting.
The Cold War Museum offers two kinds of tours. The first one, "Top Secret", is focused on the history of the bunker and its place in the Cold War with USA. That's basically a guided tour of the facility's main area, and you can watch a movie about the Cold War. That's the tour that we have done and it's enough to understand the configuration of the site and to remember the Cold war time with an impressive movie (nuclear tests over the sea, unter the sea) available in different languages.
The "Extreme" tour is focused on various kinds of engineering structures aimed to support the operation of the command post, some of which are hidden or not so easily accessible, hence the tour's name. Comfortable footwear, gloves, headgear and flashlights are recommended for those who would like to take this tour.
The Cold War reference is quite relevant as the bunker was built in the 1950s, when the threat of a nuclear war was, perhaps, more real than ever.
Built directly under Taganskaya Ploshchad, some 100 metres below ground (310 steps and 18 floors, down then up by foot !), the facility consists of four tunnels, each about 150 metres in length and high enough to be divided into two levels, with smaller tunnels connecting them with one another.
The structure was built to shelter 2,500 people, with a supply of air, electricity, food and water for three months. During the period when the bunker stood idle, some of its fittings and engineering items were lost, but what is left is still pretty impressive.
The bunker lost its status as a secret object in the mid-1990s, and has been used since for shooting several movies, including Alan Metzger's "Carriers".
We finished the visit with a museum and also some "grechka" (buckwheat meal) and vodka (or tea for those who don't like vodka !).
Ramenki bunker
Rumour is that Moscow's biggest underground bunker is located some 10 km from the city centre, in the Ramenki neighbourhood, not far from the main building of the Moscow State University.
In the early 1990s, a Soviet newspaper quoted an anonymous KGB officer who claimed to have taken part in the construction of the Ramenki bunker, describing it as a fully functional underground city with an area of about 2 sq. km. Allegedly, the construction of the bunker began in the late 1960s and was completed in the mid-1970s.
The underground city was said to accommodate up to 15,000 people at the depth of between 180 and 200 metres and was connected by underground metro tunnels to the Kremlin and other key buildings.
The bunker reportedly had food supplies for 30 years and entertainment facilities, including movie theatres.
The Ramenki bunker caused some international resonance when a story on it appeared in Time magazine in 1992. Russian officials, however, never admitted the existence of the bunker, nor have they provided any comments.
So, it remains unclear whether the bunker actually existed and if so, what is happening there at present.
One argument in favour of the idea that the bunker actually exists was information made public about a fire in some underground structures near Prospekt Vernadskogo in December 2002 - no further details were available, however.
Metro-2 system to reach Ramenki ?
Former mayor of Moscow, GH Popov in interview with Ekho Moskvy radio reported that, according to his information, a secret subway line led to the building of the CPSU Central Committee and had access to the government's Vnukovo-2. This secret line was, in his view, used during the evacuation of staff of the Central Committee after the defeat of the State Emergency Committee in August 1991.
It was the last subject for 2010 ... new ones will come for 2011 year and we will continue to discover together Russia.
I hope to everybody an happy new year and enjoy the celebration of new year with family and friends ! (snovim godom с новым годом 2011 !) http://video.yandex.ru/users/videofootage/view/5/
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