| Bunker 42 is an authentic Soviet era nuclear bunker in Moscow, now open as a museum. It is extremely cool.
The main tunnels provided 7000 sq meters of space, 65 meters under Moscow’s Taganskaya Hill. You enter through a fake building on the surface, which provides four meters of protective concrete around the bunker entrance. The deep tunnels are further shielded with a meter of concrete and four inches of steel. It was built in the 1950s and was an active Soviet nuclear-era installation, functioning as a hardened command and communication center for the Moscow military leadership. A prototype of the bunker design was tested at Semipalatinsk and after various domestic animals inside survived a large nearby nuclear blast, the design was approved for Moscow. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the bunker was kept on high alert with 650 military staff in full lock-down for ten days. Ten days that might have changed the world… The tour starts by descending the 288 stairs from the entrance to the main bunker core. Then we watched a short introductory film, explaining the nuclear arms race from a Russian/Soviet perspective and describing the motivation for the bunker. It was very interesting to hear that alternative perspective, where the Soviet Union is at risk, but the Cuban Missile Crisis still a potential catastrophe for both sides. It was also interesting to hear our guide’s overtly pro-Soviet perspective, including such phrases as “… until our country was destroyed in 1991 …”. The bunker occupies four giant tunnels, which are cross-linked and also have service connections into the Moscow Metro system. In most places the tunnels are split into two stories, but there are occasional full double-height sections. Unlike the Stalin bunker, this feels like a real hardened war bunker, full of steel and concrete. It’s great! The canteen and living areas have been converted into a modern restaurant and conference center for special events. (The perfect place for a wedding!) As part of the museum, they have a pair of missile silo control panels, imported from a real Soviet ICBM site. Once again I managed to get one of the command chairs as we simulated a launch. The procedure is a little more complicated than at the Titan silo. We had to each simultaneously turn a control key, then enter the launch codes, then each of us simultaneously push a button and turn a key. Unlike the Titan silo, the Soviet crews had the launch codes in a safe and could in theory launch independently. It was fascinating to emulate a Soviet launch, though a little less spooky than doing it in a real missile silo. |
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Practicalities
The bunker entrance is at 55.741701, 37.649088 at Building 11, 5-y Kotelnicheskiy Pereulok. The nearest metro is Taganskaya. The bunker entrance is a little hard to spot. Look for a side entrance on the South of 5th Kotelnicheskiy Lane with a barrier gate and then about ten meters in a steel gate with a large Soviet star. That’s it!
You need to book in advance. A place on an English language tour costs 1300 Rubles. Our group had twelve people, which I think is their maximum. The tour lasts 90 minutes. The Bunker-42 website is www.bunker42.com and their contact email is cwm@bunker42.com.
For the film, our group was offered the choice of a 30 minute English language film, or an 18 minute Russian film with English subtitles. We opted for the shorter film, as that would give us more time actually touring the bunker. This turned out to be an unexpectedly good choice, as we got to see the Russian/Soviet perspective on the nuclear arms race.
