In Balaklava, Ukraine, I visited one of the USSR’s super-secret bases, “Facility 825”. This is a giant semi-submerged underground lair, where submarines could enter, be refueled or repaired, and be entirely invisible from the air. Oh yes, and it was designed to survive a 100 kiloton direct hit. The base seems to have been conceived […]
Browsing Posts tagged USSR
Balaklava: Giant Secret Lair
September 20, 2011
Sevastopol and the Black Sea Fleet
September 18, 2011
I’m in Sevastopol, Ukraine. The city was formerly host to the Soviet Black Sea Fleet. After 1991, the fleet was partitioned between Ukraine and Russia and both halves are still based at Sevastopol, although most of the warships I spotted had Russian ensigns. Like Vladivostok, Sevastopol was a […]
Brest Fortress, Belarus
December 26, 2010
The Brest Fortress complex commemorates the heroic defence of the Soviet garrison against the German invasion of June 1941. I also ambled through the Fortress Museum, which has some displays of the 19th c. fortress, and even a very short display on the 1939 Polish defence, but which is naturally focused on the 1941 defence, […]
Baikonur: Soyuz TMA-20 Launch
December 17, 2010
I was at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to watch the Soyuz TMA-20 launch. It was spectacular. I strongly recommend it. (Tour Logistics.) (More Baikonur photos.) I found myself in a tour group of six: our guide told us we were all the tourists visiting the launch. There were also some press, and various Roscosmos/ESA/NASA […]
Moscow: Museum of Cosmonautics
June 2, 2010
I took the Metro out to the VDNKh stop. As you emerge, you see the stunning soaring tower of the Monument to the Conquerors of Space. 100 meters of titanium clad concrete, thrusting a rocket ship into the cosmos. Build back in 1964, as a tribute to the bold new Soviet Cosmonauts and the Brave […]
Moscow: Armed Forces Museum
June 2, 2010
Moscow’s Central Museum of the Armed Forces doesn’t specify a country in its title, but the answer becomes clear when you step inside. This is the Armed Forces of the USSR, comrade! Allowing for the Soviet focus, it is an excellent museum of its kind, well laid out, with many shiny artifacts. Outside are arrays […]
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