The word “bunker” evokes images of a grim concrete shelter; dark, dank and ugly. Well maybe for most people, but not if you’re the Red Tsar.
Moscow’s Stalin Bunker is positively palatial, with faux marble columns, a large domed conference room, and a paneled private office.
Conference Room
Between 1933 and 1939 the Soviets built a sprawling secret underground bunker complex at Izmailova, in the Eastern suburbs of Moscow, as a refuge from potential German air attacks. It was built using convict labor, under the pretense of being foundations for a giant stadium. “Stalin’s Bunker” was an even more secret refuge within this complex. The bunkers are connected by a 15km tunnel to central Moscow, with various side connections into the metro network.
The complex was abandoned in 1949, as it was far too shallow to resist nuclear weapons. It fell into disrepair and then after 1991, the Stalin Bunker section was restored and opened as a museum. Unfortunately most of the furniture and decorations are not original, but my guide assured me that they’d tried hard to reconstruct the original appearance, and pointed out a few pieces of original furnishings.
Stalin’s Office. Chair is original, Scotsman is not.
Although it was built for Stalin, he never actually used it as his main base. He probably visited on a couple of occasions, but he preferred to stay based nearer the Kremlin.
The central conference room has impressive acoustics, supposedly so that the quiet spoken Stalin could be easily heard by all his subordinates.
Practicalities
The Stalin Bunker is still well hidden, with no external signage. It’s at 55.797412, 37.751028 at Izmailova. Use the Partizanskaya Metro stop, then go North along 890th Proyektiruemyy Prospekt, past the fantasy-land Izmailova Kremlin and look for a side lane East marked ФОП “ИЗМАЙЛОВО”. At the end is a closed gate. At the pedestrian entry at the side of the gate, explain that you’re going to “Bunker Stalina” and they will let you through. Then head down the ramp to the right. At this point you’ll see the guardian tanks. The bunker entrance is through the blue steel doors opposite the tanks.
You need to book a tour in advance and it’s not cheap. The price depends on the group size, from 4900 Rubles for a one person tour, to 1600 Rubles each for a group of six and up. That will get you a knowledgeable English speaking guide and about an hour inside the bunker.
Their website (in Russian) is at www.cmaf.ru/branchs/bun Their contact email is sbunker@mail.ru.
The Museum of the USSR is a new and quirky museum at Moscow’s VDNKh exposition center.
It’s really a “Museum of Everyday Life” in the USSR, with several large rooms full of everyday Soviet kitsch. Old fashioned electronics, teddy bears, Soviet motivational posters, etc, etc. It’s all reasonably amusing.
The star of the show is the Lenin. A faithful replica of Lenin lying in state, just as in the Mausoleum. Except as you watch, this one’s chest rises and falls. Lenin lives! A miracle!
It’s not a very serious museum and not worth a special trip. But if you’re out at VNDKh it’s worth a ten minute visit.
While in Moscow, I discovered that the space aliens who landed at Chelyabinsk have now set up camp in Red Square. A giant shimmering force field covers Lenin’s Mausoleum. Of course the authorities claim it’s a bubble tent to shelter repair work on the mausoleum, but this is Russia and who believes the authorities?
More seriously, I am curious whether we will see any noticeable changes when the repairs are unveiled.
You enter the silo control room and take the command chair. Bob enters the launch codes and takes the deputy commander chair. The green “Ready to Launch” light comes on. “One – Two – Three” and you both simultaneously turn your launch keys. The “Launch Enable” light comes on. The ICBM launch is now irrevocable and unstoppable.
Gulp.
Yes, it’s only a museum. The silo has been decommissioned and the ICBM is only a training dummy. But it’s still an amazingly spooky experience to be in a real Cold War ICBM silo going through the launch initiation sequence and turning the real launch control key. Exactly as many crews were trained to do, but never executed.
This is the Titan Missile Museum, 30 miles South of Tucson. It served as an active Titan II ICBM silo from 1963 to 1982 and then became a museum. They run one hour guided tours every hour, taking you through the crew quarters, and into the control room for the simulated launch. You also get to see the decommissioned Titan II sitting brooding in its launch shaft.
The silo is an impressive piece of engineering. The whole complex is heavily blast resistant, with massive blast doors and lots of thick concrete. There were also unexpected features, like flex joints in a concrete tunnel to allow movement during a blast, and giant springs in the command area to buffer shocks. In order to execute a launch, the crew needed to receive the launch codes from remote headquarters, so the silo has multiple layers of backup communications. Two backup radio antennas rest protected in their own little mini-silos, ready to be pushed above ground if the main antenna is taken out.
Tour groups can be up to 25 people, but there were only 3 in our group. If you want to be the lucky visitor to operate the launch controls, try to be at the front of your group when you get into the command room.
I found it a very striking experience. Don’t miss it if you’re in Tucson.
I visited Iraq in March 2012 on a private archaeology-focused tour with Babel Tours. I had a great time! Here are some notes for anyone considering a similar visit.
Visas and Permissions.
Right now you cannot visit Iraq as an independent traveler. To get a tourist visa you must visit with an approved tour company.
Babel Tours got me a tourist visa authorization letter from the Department of Tourism within the Ministry of the Interior. That letter (in Arabic of course) apparently both authorized me to receive a visa and authorized me to visit archaeological sites. (The letter was carefully checked at most of the sites we visited.)
Ur Ziggurat
I entered Iraq from Kuwait. I took a taxi from Kuwait City to the border and was stamped out of Kuwait without any difficulties. Basim and Muqdad from Babel Tours were waiting for me on the Iraqi side and helped me get a 30 day Iraqi visa issued. I was then stamped into Iraq.
I exited from Baghdad into Kurdistan. To my surprise I did not need any new visa or passport stamps for Kurdistan – the Kurdish Regional authorities accept an Iraqi visa. On exiting from Iraq into Turkey I hit a minor snafu. The Turkish border post did not seem to be able to issue me the normal Turkish visa-on-arrival sticker. They very kindly stamped me into Turkey anyway, but later on when I exited Turkey at Istanbul, I got scolded “you have no visa!” before being allowed out.
What and where:
I was mostly in Southern Iraq (based in Nasiriyah) with a few days in Karbala and Baghdad.
The archaeological sites I visited varied enormously in how much they have been “restored”:
Uruk: Red Temple platform
Larsa and Lagash are mostly vast acreages of shards and a few large tells. There have been some excavations, but the excavators refilled their digs to preserve them. But still enormously old and interesting.
Girsu and Uruk have many exposed excavations with (presumably) some reconstruction, but nothing unseemly. The White Temple at Uruk is mostly just a few mud brick mounds on a giant mud brick platform, but Holy Mother of Wombats, it’s from 3000 bc. (Notes on Uruk.)
Ur is mixed. Some areas are clean excavations but the giant Ziggurat was “restored” in Saddam Hussein’s time with brand new facing bricks. But you can still find some sections of the original near the top. (Notes on Ur.)
Babylon has suffered a full DisneyLand “restoration”. There is even a shrunken replica of the Ishtar Gate. But even there, you can find many original sections lurking behind the scenes. And the site guide will show you “the very spot where Alexander the Great died”. (Notes on Babylon.)
At Ctesiphon the giant 6th century Sassanid brick arch is original, but one of the side buildings is a rebuild.
Karbala: Imam Al Abbas Shrine
Babel Tours also steered me to visit the Holy City of Karbala, where I visited Shia Islam’s most important pilgrimage site, the burial place of the Imam Hussein. This was both interesting and impressive: the Shrine is quite magnificent. We visited during Friday evening prayers when the Shrine was crowded with the faithful. The site authorities don’t see many tourists, so they aren’t yet tired of them, and were very welcoming.
I spent two nights in Baghdad. The Iraqi National Museum is nominally closed for renovation, but exceptions are possible and we managed to visit several sections, including their main Assyrian rooms. (Notes on the National Museum.)
Safety and Security.
Baghdad: Martyr’s Monument
There are security checkpoints everywhere, but they mostly simply glance at you and wave you through. A very small number wanted to check my passport and visa. At most of the archaeological sites we needed to dig out my authorization letter from the Dept of Tourism and have that checked. (The authorities seem anxious to protect the sites, which is good.)
I don’t want to over-generalize on safety from one short visit, but Southern Iraq definitely seemed very calm and placid, which fits with the news and what Babel Tours were telling me. Security was much tighter and more alert around Karbala, but lighter again in Baghdad itself.
I reluctantly decided to avoid the Mosul area (Nineveh, Nimrud, Khorsabad) based on what I had been seeing in the news and advice from Babel Tours and others. I hope that will change.
Practicalities
Nasiriya: Al Janoobh Hotel
There is no real tourism infrastructure in Iraq, so don’t expect Holiday Inns or Starbucks. Babel Tours put me in reasonable three star hotels and fed me lots of fine Iraqi food. It all worked well.
I paid $5100 for a private one-person nine day tour. I expect it would cost significantly less per-head if there are several people in your group, or if you can arrange to join an existing fixed-schedule tour.
Roads are generally high quality and the checkpoints only slow things down a little. One warning: traffic is generally busy and Iraqi driving is often “creative”. Baghdad in particular has severe traffic congestion.
Nasiriyah
Southern Iraq is quite socially conservative. The women in Nasiriyah wear all-encompassing black robes, plus headscarves, but with uncovered faces. I don’t imagine they expect that from a foreign woman, but covered legs and a headscarf might still be tactful, at least in the towns. Baghdad is quite different – most women wear headscarves, but a significant minority don’t.
Conclusion
It’s Mesopotamia! It’s currently safe. Just do it!
Overall Babel Tours did a good job of helping me decide an itinerary, guiding me, getting me into “closed” sites, and generally looking after me. I would recommend them! The other main company I know of is Hinterland Travel – they are more targeted at fixed-itinerary mid-sized groups.
If you are planning an Iraq trip and have any questions, feel free to email me: “thewanderingscot” at site “yandex.com” and I’ll do my best to answer.
Update July 2013: Unfortunately the security situation is getting worse.
As part of a wave of bombings across Iraq on July 14th, there was a car bomb in Nasiriyah which killed five people and another bomb in Karbala which killed four. There are also continuing serious incidents in and around Baghdad. Alas! Things seem to be getting worse and it’s no longer possible to regard even Nasiriyah as entirely safe.
That said, the South is still vastly safer than Northern areas such as Mosul and incidents are still relatively rare. You are much more likely to see a traffic accident than a bomb. So it’s by no means crazy to visit, but I would strongly recommend making a careful and thoughtful assessment of the up-to-the-minute status before any trip. One option is to avoid Baghdad and to stick entirely to the South, entering and exiting from Kuwait.
Some sections of the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad are now open. (More PHOTOS.)
Nabu, God of Wisdom and Writing, plus Lamassu
The star exhibit is a stunning collection of Assyrian works from Khorsabad, including two enormous larger-than-life carved scenes of courtiers bringing gifts to the King, two giant guardian Lamassu, a large statue of Nabu the god of Wisdom and Writing, and much more.
LamassuMini Lamassu
Lamassu are Assyrian winged bull or lion guardian figures, with Kingly human heads, typically positioned to guard gateways. The gods have wisely provisioned them with five legs, so that they appear stable when viewed from either the front or the side. I was greatly struck the first time I saw the ones in the British Museum. I’ve now seen others in Paris, Chicago, New York and Persepolis, so it was great to finally see some in their home land of Iraq. The Khorsabad hall has both the two giants and a mid-sized pair. An earlier Assyrian room has a very unusual pair of miniature Lamassu, each only about three feet high. The right-hand one in particular is very well preserved and a delight to see.
There is much more in the museum: I was led through halls of statues from 1st-3rc c. Hatra; of assorted Islamic coins, artifacts, and decorations, of small scale Assyrian pieces (some of very high quality) and a few older Sumerian pieces. I was allowed to briefly poke my nose into a room still under renovation where Assyrian ivories and other high-value items are being prepared for display.
Courtiers Greet the King
Unfortunately the Museum isn’t yet generally open. My guide (Basim from Babel Tours) takes in small groups fairly regularly and was able to get us admitted. We had the place to ourselves! I hope the various renovations complete soon and the Museum becomes fully operational.
