Plokstine – A Preserved Nuclear Missile Site in Lithuania

April 21, 2019April 21, 2019 CarloRLeave a comment

While almost all nuclear sites you can find in European Countries once beyond the Iron Curtain are today totally abandoned and fairly unaccessible, there exists a perhaps unique exception. The Plokstine site in northwestern Lithuania has been selected around 2010 for complete refurbishment with the help of public money, and in 2012 it has opened its doors as a museum. Located in a beautiful natural setting crowded with hikers – namely Zemaitija National Park, a national recreation area around Plateliai lake – it has quickly grown to international fame, and is now recording several thousands visitors per year, with guided tours in multiple languages – including English – offered on a regular basis during the warm season.

What is today an intriguing tourist destination, used to be part of a large Soviet installation for launching ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads. It is worth mentioning that Lithuania was a ‘Soviet Socialist Republic’ in the realm of the USSR, i.e. not just a satellite country of the Soviet Union, but part of it. Actually, this small country on the shores of the Baltic Sea, on the extreme western border of Soviet territory, was an ideal location for deploying weapons to hit European targets from within the Union. Furthermore, the Plokstine forest was – and still is – a little populated area, where construction works for a large top-secret military facility for storing and operating offensive cutting-edge hi-tech warfare would go likely unnoticed.

The missile complex was completed in December 1962, in the years of Khrushchev and Kennedy. The Plokstine site comprises of four interred silos and an extensive underground command station in the middle – the ensemble constituted a so-called ‘Dvina’ launch complex.

The ‘Dvina’ site in Plokstine was actually the last part of the missile base to be built. Two more sister surface sites, with four launchpads each, had been completed one year before, just west of the nearby village of Saiteikiai. These surface sites were similar to those you can find in Latvia (see this post), a neighbor country where unfortunately the last remaining ‘Dvina’ site was demolished in 2017, but abundant traces of the Soviet presence can still be found.

All three launch complexes in this region were designed around the R-12 missile. The R-12U missile was actually used in the underground ‘Dvina’ complex, slightly different from the surface-launched R-12. This weapon was better known by its NATO designation – SS-4 Sandal – and was a 2.3 megaton, single warhead, single stage nuclear missile. It reached true international notoriety before the base in Plokstine was activated, for this was the type deployed to Cuba in the missile crisis of 1962. Coincidentally, part of the staff transferred to Cuba in the days preceding the crisis was from the same rocket regiment of the Red Army (the 79th) stationed in Plokstine. Sandal missiles from here were reportedly transferred in complete secrecy to Cuba, via the port town of Sevastopol in Crimea in that occasion.

The base remained operational until the last missile – by then obsolete – left in 1978.

The Baltics were the first republics to leave the dying Soviet Union, openly defying the military authority of neighbor Russia. After the collapse of the Union and the end of communism in Europe, these three states – which historically do not belong to Russian culture – quickly joined the NATO and European Union, to escape Russian influence as much as possible. Most Soviet military installations were shut down and abandoned, and have been for two decades an interesting destination for explorers and war historians (see this post for many examples). Later on, most sites have been slowly demolished or converted into something else. Really a few of them have been preserved for posterity.

In this post you can find photographs from the Cold War Museum now open in the former ‘Dvina’ site of Plokstine, from a visit in 2017. Close to the bottom, you can find a few further photographs from a previous visit made by appointment in 2009, before the site was selected for renovation – these may be more appealing for Soviet-aura lovers!

Sights

What can be visited today is all in the area of the old ‘Dvina’ complex. The complex is mainly composed of four interred silos, covered by heavy steel & concrete bulged covers, placed on the four corners of a square. These gigantic caps are the most prominent components of the site from the outside. Today, an observation deck has been erected on the south of the area. From there, you can appreciate the distinctive plan of the ‘Dvina’ complex, with an access road terminating in a loop touching all four armored silo covers.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

The weight of each cover is told to be around 100 tonnes, as it was armored to withstand a nuclear explosion. The covers would be pulled sideward with a sled mechanism, to open the silos before launch. Unmovable missile launch complexes, like the ‘Dvina’ site in Plokstine, were easy and attractive targets for western weapons, thus requiring a very strong defense barrier. Similar considerations led the design of the Titan missile sites in the US, which albeit more powerful and capable of a greater range, are roughly from the same era (see this post).

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

To get near the silos or get access to the museum, you need to pay a ticket and join a guided tour. The visit includes a tour of the Cold War Museum, which has been prepared inside the rooms of the former control center. The tour will start from the visitor center, a new modern building. You will soon go through a specimen of the original fences which ran around the ‘Dvina’ complex, and which included barbed wire and high-voltage electrified lines. Close by, you can find traces of original unarmored constructions, likely service buildings. The missile site was operated by more than 300 troops stationing in a number of smaller centers in the area around the complex.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

The guide will lead you along a walk around the surface part of the complex, where you can see the construction of the caps from very close. The metal part is very rusty, but the concrete cover has been refurbished and looks like new – a pretty unusual sight, for connoisseurs of Soviet military relics!

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

Access to the underground missile service and control center is via a small metal door, right in the middle of the square formed by the four silos.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

A few rooms in the control center today host the exhibitions of the Cold War Museum. A room displays a quick time-line of the Cold War, since the end of WWII to the end of the USSR. In the adjoining rooms you can find propaganda items

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

Another room is about defense against nuclear threat. This is interesting, with many artifacts like dosimeters and medical tools, plus easily readable instructions of ‘dos and don’ts’ in case of nuclear attack.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

Another room is about the evolution of weapons over the Cold War decades, with original material from the time, including heavier tactical weapons.

The exhibition is modern, small but not superficial, and may appeal to any public, including children. Besides the exhibits, you can appreciate the relatively small size of all rooms and connecting corridors in the former control center.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

As you are driven next to the missile operation part, you can find a scale model of the ‘Dvina’ complex and a cut-out of a R-12U silo, together with a map of the relatively few missile sites in Lithuania – from the map, it can be argued that, for some reason, many more sites were prepared in nearby Latvia.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

Resting quarters for the troops and a communication station with original electronic gear have been reconstructed based on original footage and pics. Communication with the military headquarters was clearly an essential task – it was the only way an order to launch could be issued – and the serviceman on duty was responsible for assuring a permanent link with the chain of command. In other words, he was instructed not to leave his headphones under any circumstances, during a several hours-long shift!

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

On the sides of the corridors you can see holes for the extensive network of cables and pipes. Further on, you meet the most ‘hardware’ part of the exhibition. First, the original diesel-fueled power generator has been refurbished and is standing in its original room. The underground complex was designed not only to withstand a nuclear blast, but also to provide shelter for all servicemen for several days following an attack. This meant air filters, food, water, technical supplies and of course electrical power, were all essential assets. Oil for the generator was stored in a container in an adjoining room.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

Finally, you get access to one of the four silos. You need to go through a tight door opened on the wall of the concrete structure of the control center. Writings in Cyrillic can be spotted on the walls in this area. From there, you will see the cylindrical shape of the metal structure of the silo from the side. This metal canister is really big, the ‘Dvina’ silos featured a much greater diameter than the SS-4 missile they were built for. This was somewhat different from their US counterpart (see this post), where the missile diameter fits the size of the silo without much margin.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

You can get access to the silo via the original hatch, cut in the metal wall close to the rim on top of the silo, just beneath the external cap. Going through this hatch is incredibly difficult – it is extremely narrow, much longer than the size of a human step, and tilted upwards! It is hard to understand why the Soviets built it in a size so small – this applies to the control center too, for all corridors are really narrow and the ceiling in the rooms is so low you may easily need to bend forward! For those who don’t want to try the original entry to the silo, there is now a non-original door cut in the side of the canister.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

The inside of the silo can be observed from an original service deck, immediately under the external cover. From here you can clearly appreciate the size of the construction – the missile was more than 70 ft long, and sat here in a vertical position. The SS-4 was among the first missiles to make use of a storable liquid propellant, which allowed it to stay in almost-launch-ready conditions for a prolonged time, if resting in a silo. Nonetheless, the time for opening the armored caps was about 30 minutes, which meant this was not exactly quick to launch. The understructure of the armored caps can be clearly appreciated from inside the silo.

Photographs Before Restoration Works – Ghost Base

When I visited this site for the first time in 2009, it was open only by appointment. Unfortunately, I had only a compact camera at the time, and the very low light inside plus a rainy day outside, meant I could take only a few acceptable pictures.

However, they provide an idea of the state of the ‘Dvina’ complex before it was decided to reconfigure it as a museum.

As you can see, the armored silo caps were in a worse shape than today, yet not heavily damaged. The barbed wire fence around the four silos was probably original Soviet.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War Old Before Restoration

Inside, the control rooms were basically empty, except for some communist emblems and flags. Green wall paint and Cyrillic writings could be found even at the time, so what you see today is likely original. The generator, whilst in bad shape, was there.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War Old Before Restoration

The silo could be accessed only via the original hatch, and except for the partial darkness, its appearance is similar today.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War Old Before Restoration

It is out of doubt that the ‘Soviet ghost aura’ of the base was somewhat lost in the restoration process, yet credit must be given to the effort of the local government in preserving a rare and relevant trace of military history through an expensive restoration process.

Getting there and moving around

The Cold War Museum (Šaltojo karo muziejus in the local idiom) is located in the Zemaitija National Park, northwestern Lithuania, east of lake Plateliai. Access is via the road 2302. The place is totally accessible and well advertised locally. Visiting the outside of the armored caps and inside is possible only with a guided tour, offered in many languages including English, and lasting about 50 minutes. No fee is required for climbing on top of the observation deck. Full information through the official website here.

A Walk in Kiev – From Medieval Town to Post-Soviet Metropolis

March 17, 2019September 28, 2019 CarloRLeave a comment

Founded as a trading post back in the 5th century in the Ostrogoth region on the far eastern border of the Roman Empire, Kiev later grew to become the capital of the first ‘Rus’ in early medieval times. The ‘Rus’ embraced a vast territory between todays Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Western Russia. Centuries later, after a war lost against the Mongols and having changed hands more than once, it finally became part of the Czarist Empire.

In Soviet times, Kiev was the capital of the second largest Socialist Republic of the Union, i.e. the Ukraine. This large and fertile land, not subject to the exceptionally harsh winters typical to the majority of Russian territories, features a long coast with several port towns on the Black Sea, and since the Bolshevik Revolution and the Russian Civil War, it accounted for a good share of the population and workforce of the USSR.

Despite being kept in great consideration by the Soviet central government for its economic and military value, the Ukraine was among the fiercest opponents of the Bolshevik revolution back in the years of Lenin and the Russian Civil War. Some top-ranking Soviet leaders actually came from this Country, but that it remained separated from Russia even in Soviet times was not just by chance.

As a matter of fact, after the collapse of the USSR, the Ukraine immediately left for independence, entering a very difficult transitional phase, which is basically still lasting today. The general weakness of all recent presidential administrations, the claims of ownership over the former national industries and natural resources by private owners, and substantial border controversies with Russia, have produced living conditions for the population which are much lower than for other ex-USSR countries like Russia, the Baltics or Belarus.

All these pieces of national history are reflected in Kiev, a very large city where you hear echoes from all the eras of its complicated past. This chapter presents a quick account of the highlights of Kiev’s heritage from older and newer times, providing also an impression of how this town is evolving today. Photographs were taken in spring 2018, and portray a bit of everything, from spectacular Orthodox temples to gigantic Soviet statues, cannons from WWII, the Chernobyl Museum, panorama views of the city and more!

Map

The map below shows the location of everything described or portrayed in this post.

Pictures were taken mostly in central Kiev, itself a pretty extensive area, served by public transport, but more quickly and efficiently explored by taxi. As of today (2019), the cost of life for a visiting westerner is incredibly low, so even taking a taxi for every shift is not inconceivable.

Of course, there are some parts of the central district which are interesting to explore by walk, and if you are a well-trained type you might simply spend your day walking from a destination to the other – getting a more complete view of the city center, and avoiding traffic jams which constantly plague the city.

I really enjoy driving, but in Kiev I would not suggest moving around with a car on your own, cause traffic is really a nightmare, traffic flows are fuzzy and chaotic, so you may be easily wasting your time, letting aside the chance of accidents and damage to your car.

The central districts appear reasonably safe, so you may relax and move around by foot, taking all the pictures.

Sights

Saint Sophia’s Cathedral

If you want to start you exploration with a true masterpiece, then head directly to the very central Saint Sophia’s Cathedral. This glorious church and monastery founded around the year 1000 AD was renewed and modified over the centuries, but the main features of the central church have remained basically unaltered since its origin.

Kiev Saint Sophia

Kiev Architecture Panorama

Access to the monastery grounds are via the tall bell tower. You can also climb upstairs, very much advised to enjoy a very good view of Kiev’s central districts, including the nearby church of Saint Michael.

Kiev Saint Michael

Kiev Saint Sophia Panorama

Kiev Soviet Architecture Panorama

Kiev Soviet Architecture Panorama Government

Kiev Architecture Panorama

Looking farther, you can appreciate the size of the outskirts of the city, which is really extensive. The typical Soviet/post-Soviet amenity of the most peripheral districts is readily apparent. There is also a plant looking like an oil power plant, with giant red and white chimneys, right in town.

Kiev Soviet Architecture Panorama

The majestic river Dnepr can be barely seen from here, looking east.

From the outside the church in the monastery – resembling the plan of Saint Sophia’s Cathedral in Constantinople – is a masterpiece, but the mosaics inside are really unmissable.

Kiev Saint Sophia Cathedral Monastery

Kiev Saint Sophia

Unfortunately, taking pictures inside is strictly forbidden (many guards around).

Saint Andrew’s Church & Ministry of Foreign Affairs

A quick detour to the east from the alley connecting Saint Sophia’s to Saint Michael’s Cathedral, Saint Andrew’s Cathedral is a nice example of Czarist Rococo style. Unfortunately the church was undergoing renovation inside at the time of my visit.

Kiev Saint Andrew Cathedral

On the way from Saint Andrew’s Cathedral to Saint Michael’s Cathedral you can find a Soviet monolith, today the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The building, with a line of prominent columns aligned ahead of the façade, was built over a terrain formerly part of Saint Michael’s Monastery.

Kiev Ministry of Foreign Affairs Soviet Architecture

Saint Michael’s Cathedral

This beautiful church, with distinctive golden domes, was reconstructed in its baroque form in the late 1990s, after it had been completely demolished in the 1930s, among the darkest hours of Stalin’s communist dictatorship. The ancient mosaics which adorned the original church, dating back to the Byzantine period, were transferred to major museums of the USSR before demolition took place.

Kiev Saint Michael Monastery

Kiev Saint Sophia Monastery

Kiev Saint Michael Monastery

The accurate reconstruction work has produced a beautiful ensemble, with a church in the middle, a tower over the main gate, and several smaller buildings. The contrast between the blue façade walls and the golden roof produces a very nice chromatic effect.

Kiev Saint Michael Monastery

Friendship of Nations Monument

Descending towards the river from Saint Michael’s Cathedral, you soon reach an artery of the city called Kreshchatyy, and a typical soviet building – the Ukrainian House, today a congress center. This artery leads to the central Independence Square.

Kiev Ukrainian House Congress Center

Kiev Ukrainian House Congress Center Kreshchatyy

Next to the Ukrainian House you can find the head of short promenade leading to a balcony with a gorgeous view of the Dnepr. Going there, you pass under an arch, framing some sculptures including a – strangely – moderate soviet memorial, the Friendship of Nations Monument.

Kiev Friendship of Nations Soviet Monument

The size of the Dnepr is impressive. The balcony is a vantage point for a panorama view of the northern and eastern districts of Kiev.

Kiev Soviet Architecture Panorama Dnepr River

Kiev Friendship of Nations Soviet Monument

Kiev Soviet Architecture Panorama Dnepr River

Governmental District

Taking to the south from the Friendship of Nations Monument you get access to an extensive city park. Immersed in this park are the residence of the President of the Ukraine – Marijnsky Palace. This is a fancy blue and cream palace, with a nice Italian-style garden ahead of it. It is still working, so it is usually off-limits for tourists. A great panorama to the east can be seen from besides the palace.

Kiev Marijnsky Palace Presidential Residence Ukraine

Kiev Soviet Architecture Panorama River Dnepr

Kiev Soviet Architecture Dynamo Stadium

Next to the presidential residence you can find the small Parliament Building.

Kiev Parliament Ukraine

Kiev Soviet Hotel International Kijv

On the border of the park you can find the International Hotel Kiev, part of the soviet heritage. The park is pointed with many soviet statues and memorials, as well. To southern end of the park you meet the area of the old arsenal. The metro stop there resembles some of the stations in Moscow.

Kiev Soviet Architecture Monument

Further south you come to what is probably one of the most popular area among tourists, you meet more soviet buildings, including old soviet hotels.

Monument to the Unknown Soldier

The southern end of the governmental district is marked by the nice area on top of a cliff rapidly descending to the river. Here you will find the sober Monument to the Unknown Soldier. The focus of the monument is an obelisk with an eternal flame nearby. Access to the obelisk is via an alley with commemorative slabs along the sides.

Kiev Monument to Unknown Soldier

The obelisk is constantly guarded by the military. The area is quiet and nice to stay. The panorama to the east is again really gorgeous.

Kiev Unknown Soldier Panorama

Kiev Soviet Architecture Panorama

Immediately south of the obelisk, it is possible to see a monument to the victims of the Holodomor Genocide. This was a famine intentionally caused by Stalin in the year 1933, in support of the industrial development plans. By conveying all the food to the cities with industrial plants, and simultaneously prohibiting any movement to Soviet citizens among districts within the Union, Stalin and the Soviet Government set the stage for one of the worst famines in European history, causing millions of victims among farmers and the rural population. The rural population of the Ukraine was among the most hit by this move.

Kiev Holodomor Genocide Memorial

Pecerska Lavra Monastery

This is probably the best known monument in Kiev. This immense monastic complex is basically a citadel, with several churches scattered over a large area descending towards the river. Besides the churches, it is possible to find several buildings with refectories, dorms and more, plus an incredible museum with some incredible treasures from ancient times.

The churches date from different epochs, and some have been altered over the years. The most prominent, nearby the entrance, is in baroque style, with a tall tower ahead of it.

Kiev Pecerska Lavra Monastery

The size of the monastery is really striking, and it is very lively, with religious services and related activities often taking place.

Kiev Pecerska Lavra Monastery

The archaeological museum with its golden treasure is surprisingly rich and valuable.

Kiev Pecerska Lavra Monastery Museum Treasure

A less usual feature of the monastery is an Orthodox church dating from the late Czarist age, late 19th-early 20th century. It reflects the typical innovative style of the time, without departing from the classical subjects of the Orthodox iconography.

Kiev Pecerska Lavra Monastery

One of the most famous features of the Lavra is the catacomb with the mommies of the monks. This is really impressive, cause the tunnels are very narrow and dark, and you go there with a small candle. Taking pictures is strictly forbidden, and technically very difficult, due to the low light of the place.

Kiev Monument Victory Soviet Statue Gigantic Patriotic War

Kiev Pecerska Lavra Monastery

Looking south from the beautiful area of the Pecerska Lavra Monastery, you can spot the most prominent Soviet monument in Kiev – the Motherland Monument.

The Local Conflicts Museum

Accessing the area dominated by the immense statue to the Motherland from north, you find some damaged military vehicles. These are Russian vehicles requisitioned by the Ukrainian military in the course of the recent tensions which led to the annexation of the Crimea – a former Ukrainian territory – by Russia. The vehicles on display are Russian-made and Russian-operated relics, found on Ukrainian soils.

Kiev Monument Victory Soviet Statue Gigantic Patriotic War Motherland

Kiev Local Conflicts Museum

Kiev Local Conflicts Museum Russian Aggression

Kiev Local Conflicts Museum

Kiev Monument Victory Soviet Statue Gigantic Patriotic War

As the explanatory panels tell you, they are a proof of unauthorized military actions carried out by Russian troops on the territory of the Ukraine. As of today, the Ukraine and Russia are not openly fighting, but they are not friends.

Kiev Local Conflicts Museum

The Local Conflicts Museum is actually a wonderful collection of military vehicles, tanks, cannons, missiles, a few aircraft and even a submarine and an armored train. They are all from the Soviet weapons arsenal, and despite the name of the museum, there is even a ballistic missile among them.

The collection is split in two parts. One is on display over an apron which can be freely accessed. In this part you can see a few classic Soviet tank designs, rocket launchers and an attack helicopter Mil Mi-24.

Kiev Monument Victory Soviet Statue Gigantic Patriotic War

Kiev Local Conflicts Museum

The second part is located nearby, but it is somewhat more secluded, and can be accessed only with a small fee. Here you meet first a few aircraft, including a Lisunov Li-2, a license-built Soviet copy of the Douglas C-47.

Kiev Local Conflicts Museum War Soviet Cold War WWII Missile

There are a few attack aircraft from various ages (you can find many more in the beautiful air museum in Kiev, see here, a must-see for every aviation enthusiast), but what will probably capture your attention is a mighty SS-4 Sandal missile. This strategic missile type, also known as R-12 in the Soviet inventory, was the key element of the Cuban crisis. Before that, its deployment was planned in the last years of the Eisenhower administration also in the German Democratic Republic (see here). This was a major asset for the USSR in the years of the Kennedy administration, and was deployed in large numbers within the borders of the Soviet Union – preferably next to the borders, due its relatively limited range (see here).

Kiev Local Conflicts Museum War Soviet Cold War WWII Missile

Nearby the missile, you can find its launch gantry, which was anchored to the ground through a metal crown. This is what you find in todays Germany, the scant traces of the planned deployment of this system out of the USSR (see here). Another exemplar of this iconic missile with its gantry tower can be found in an excellent museum close to Minsk, Belarus (see here).

An impressive array of cannons with different calibers, a small submarine and an armored railway car with turrets – a similar one can be found in the Parola Tank Museum in Finland (official website here).

Kiev Local Conflicts Museum War Soviet Cold War WWII Missile

Also on display is a tactical nuclear missile with its movable canister truck.

Kiev Local Conflicts Museum War Soviet Cold War WWII Missile

Motherland Statue

This iconic statue is actually one of the youngest WWII monumental memorials of the USSR. Despite being planned soon after the end of the Great Patriotic War in the early Cold War period, it was not until the early 1980s that this metal colossus was built and inaugurated, at the presence of the then-Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

Kiev Monument Victory Soviet Statue Gigantic Patriotic War

The statue stands on a very nice natural stage, on top of a cliff dominating a wide panorama with river Dnepr in the middle.

Kiev Monument Victory Soviet Statue Gigantic Patriotic War

Kiev Monument Victory Soviet Statue Gigantic Patriotic War Motherland

Kiev WWII Great Patriotic War Memorial Panorama

Kiev WWII Great Patriotic War Memorial

The area around the monument forms a WWII memorial. There is provision for a big eternal flame, which despite the name is not constantly operating due to the massive gas flow needed for feeding it. Scattered around are some interesting groups of sculptures celebrating the efforts and the final victory of the USSR in WWII.

Kiev WWII Great Patriotic War Memorial

Kiev Monument Victory Soviet Statue Gigantic Patriotic War

The foundations of the Motherland Statue host a nice crypt with the names of thousands of soldiers and civilians fallen in the battles over the Ukrainian territory during the Great Patriotic War (which is WWII for the USSR).

Kiev WWII Great Patriotic War Memorial Museum

Besides the slabs with the names carved in them, there is very nice and sober mosaic decoration on the ceiling.

Kiev WWII Great Patriotic War Memorial Museum

You can get access to the crypt visiting the Ukrainian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War.

Ukrainian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War

Similar to other museums dedicated to the Soviet actions in WWII you can find in Moscow and Minsk, this collection is a true must-see for anybody with an interest in the topic. The museum right under the Motherland Statue, with access from the front of the monument (official website here). In the case of the museum in Kiev, the totally Soviet construction adds to the value, with red stone and bronze lamps and ceiling decoration adding to the atmosphere.

Before you get access to the original collection, you can see in the hall of the museum, and in a few small rooms nearby the entrance, material from the recent Russian-Ukrainian confrontation.

Kiev WWII Great Patriotic War Memorial Museum

The original collection is on two floors. There are uniforms, flags, many weapons, military gear, personal diaries, maps, passports and military papers. What is especially striking is the abundance of German material from the time, with tons of swastikas, Nazi insignia, original uniforms and more.

Kiev WWII Great Patriotic War Memorial Museum

There is a small collection of rare Nazi daggers. Other interesting items include an Italian-issued certificate of merit, given to a Soviet soldier fighting in the Italian resistance movement.

Kiev WWII Great Patriotic War Memorial Museum

There are clearly also many Soviet artifacts from the time, including original newspapers, books autographed by Stalin, and more. There is also the wreck of a downed Soviet aircraft.

Kiev WWII Great Patriotic War Memorial Museum

On the top floor you get access to the collection through a monumental wall with metal sculptures.

Kiev WWII Great Patriotic War Memorial Museum

Further Nazi and Soviet gear, uniforms, medals and papers are on display here. There is a diorama portraying the battle of Berlin, and even some Japanese war material – the USSR fought against the Japanese Empire especially in the months between the collapse of the Third Reich and the end of WWII in 1945.

Kiev WWII Great Patriotic War Memorial Museum

Before you come to the crypt under the Motherland Statue (described above) in the dome on top of the museum, you can visit also a more modern commemorative display, with black and white pictures of people involved in the war.

Kiev WWII Great Patriotic War Memorial Museum

Independence Square

This is the geographical and symbolic center of Kiev. This large square is crossed by a major road, with massive Soviet apartment or office buildings, which splits it in two.

Kiev Independence Square Maidan

Kiev Independence Maidan Square

Kiev Independence Square Maidan

On one side there are a few similar buildings creating a curved theatrical set. Looking closer, they are adorned with Soviet iconography, hence probably dating back to Stalin’s years. You may also notice they are not so well-kept – this applies in general to all buildings around the square, producing a strange ‘disorder feeling’.

Kiev Independence Square Maidan

There are traces of an original gate, from older times and misaligned with respect to the main axis of the square.

On the other side, the square is dominated by the monster Soviet building of Hotel Ukraine. This is preceded by a kind of modern mall, flanked by classical buildings probably dating back to an older era.

Kiev Independence Square Maidan

The district around the square is rich of older – pre-Soviet – buildings, making for an interesting stage for a relaxed walk.

Kiev Independence Square Maidan

Kiev Nouveau Liberty Architecture

Kiev Independence Maidan Square

To the south of the square you can find a group of particularly striking examples of Art Nouveau from the late 19th-early 20th century. Some of them are really world-class masterpieces, like the famous Chimera House, with sea monsters, animals and various strange creatures haunting the house.

Kiev Nouveau Liberty Architecture Chimera House

Golden Gate

A few minutes walking from Independence Square you can find the so-called Golden Gate, which is a reconstruction of one of the medieval gates of the city. The appearance of Kiev was greatly altered following its evolution in the centuries, leading to the disappearance of the walls and gates of the ancient city. The famous Mussorgsky theme closing the Paintings of an Exhibition is dedicated to the ‘Gate of Kiev’ – this monuments provides an idea of the real size an shape of such a gate.

Kiev Monument Gate Great

Kiev Soviet Architecture

Kiev Architecture

In the district around the monument there are examples of buildings from many ages and architectural styles. Soviet emblems are featured on many facades.

Chernobyl National Museum

Kiev is located less than 70 miles from Chernobyl power-plant. As a secondary effect of the increased popularity of Chernobyl as a tourist destination – as a result of the recent encapsulation of the ill-fated plant into a hi-tech protective armor increasing safety for visitors – Kiev has become a crossroads for international tourists.

The Chernobyl National Museum (official website here) has the function of a documents center for the accident, with rare artifacts taken away from the exclusion zone, papers and recordings from the time of the accident (1986), models of the power-plant and the contaminated area, and more.

Kiev Chernobyl Museum

Among the weirdest items on display, some specimen of mutated plants and trees, a mommy of a mutated animal, and photographs of similar subjects.

Kiev Chernobyl Museum

Another area of the museum is actually a memorial for those who perished, suffered a severe health condition or were deported for safety reasons after the accident. The latter happened to a number of smaller villages, including the now well-known Pripyat, which has turned into one of the largest ghost towns in the world.

Kiev Chernobyl Museum

There is also a quick pictorial overview of the Fukushima accident.

Kiev Chernobyl Museum

The district where the museum is located, north of Saint Andrew’s Cathedral, features several old-fashioned and classical buildings from pre-Soviet times, and Art Nouveau buildings as well.

Kiev Architecture

Kiev Mohyla

Kiev Andriivsky Descent

Kiev Architecture

Kiev Andriivsky Descent

Kiev Architecture

Yet some Soviet monsters are scattered around the district, like market buildings and university buildings – don’t forget Kiev used to be a capital of a Soviet Republic!

Forgotten Cold War Bases Around Prague

February 3, 2019February 22, 2021 CarloRLeave a comment

Todays Czech Republic was born from the peaceful split of Czechoslovakia in 1993. The latter was founded after WWI from the ashes of the Austrian Empire. Its well-developed industrial plants and proximity with Germany made it a primary target in the expansion phase of the Third Reich – in fact, after the Munich Agreement a large part of the territory of Czechoslovakia was annexed to Germany in 1938.

Towards the end of WWII, Czechoslovakia was conquered by both the Soviet Red Army and US troops. As a result of diplomacy moves soon after WWII, a new free republic was founded. Unfortunately, as soon as 1948 the local Communist Party conquered power with a coup d’état, turning this Country into a Soviet satellite.

From a military viewpoint, this period saw the adoption of Soviet supplies and organization standards. Czechoslovakia shared a border with the Ukraine, hence with the USSR. Yet the stability and reliability – from a USSR standpoint – of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, differently from other countries under soviet influence – like Poland – meant a certain level of autonomy in the setup of the armed forces, which were not massively present over the territory of the country during the 1950s and 1960s, until 1968.

The Prague Spring, triggered by the announced reforms of the leader of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party Alexander Dubcek, brought Brezhnev-led USSR to fear a loss of control of that industrialized region, creating a dangerous diplomatic affair and a bad example for other Soviet-controlled countries. The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, codenamed ‘Operation Danube’, was launched in August 1968.

The operation led to the successful occupation of the country by more than 250’000 troops from the USSR, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria. Since that time, and until 1989 with the overthrowing of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, the Red Army was present over the territory of this country, taking control and developing bases formerly managed by the local armed forces. The two largest airbases in the country, Ralsko and Milovice, both less than 40 miles away from Prague, were among the installations taken over by the USSR.

Despite this, the already developed Czechoslovakian Army maintained a high standard of proficiency and supply, thanks also to the local production of top-quality weapons. The local army was responsible of the Czechoslovakian sector of the anti-aircraft barrier of the western border of the Eastern Bloc, which was built in the 1980s based on advanced Soviet material, namely the SA-5 Gammon surface-to-air missiles. Furthermore, the city of Prague was protected by a network of anti-aircraft missile batteries based on the SA-3 Goa. Anti-atomic bunkers were built both in Prague for civil defense (see this post), and in more remote areas of the country for the government and for the military chain of command (see this post).

After the end of communism both in Czechoslovakia and the USSR, the departure of the newborn Czech Republic from the influence of Russia, and the reconfiguration of the Czech Army in view of the new geopolitical situation in the 1990s, the majority of the former military installations were shut down and abandoned – a scenario totally similar to all former Soviet-controlled countries, which had known an exponential increase in the military presence over the years of the Cold War, which could not be supported any more by the economies of the new independent Countries (see for instance here or here). Furthermore, like in every other country in the Eastern Bloc, the retreating staff of the Red Army and their families left extensive ghost towns (see for instance this post).

Today, after substantial demolition works and years spent under the action of the elements, a few traces remain of these witnesses of the Cold War. Yet as of 2018 some notable relics of this bygone era could still be found, conveniently reachable from Prague.

This post covers Milovice Red Army airbase, possibly better known through the name of the local Soviet town of Bozi Dar, two abandoned anti-aircraft missile batteries for the protection of Prague – Tocna and Miskovice – and an anti-aircraft battery in the vicinity of Dobris, south of Prague, once a focal point of the anti-aircraft defense of the European border of the Eastern Bloc, against NATO forces. Photographs were taken in summer 2018.

Map

The following map is very basic, and helps just to highlight the location of the four subjects of this chapter in the Prague region. The reason for not being more explicit is that the Dobris and Milovice bases are possibly not publicly accessible. Concerning Tocna and Miskovice, they are rather small installations, thus not difficult to explore.

As usual with this kind of attraction, approaching by car is the only way possible, due to the remoteness of the locations. Once there, much walking on uneven terrain is required. A tripod and torchlight are highly recommended for indoor exploration, and a cell phone with a GPS may be handy for moving around especially in Dobris and Milovice.

Navigate this post – click on links to scroll

Milovice Airbase
Tocna Missile Battery
Miskovice Missile Battery
Dobris Missile Base

Sights

Milovice Airbase

Much before being turned into one of the busiest and largest Soviet airports in central Europe, the airbase in Milovice had experienced a long history of upgrades and developments. Activated in the 1920s on military grounds previously established by the Austrian Emperor, the airfield was actively used by the Luftwaffe in the years of the Nazi occupation and WWII. Later on, it was turned into a major base of the Czechoslovakian Air Force, with MiGs reportedly operating from there as soon as a hardened runway was built in the early 1950s.

Before the Soviet invasion of 1968, the staff of the base used to stay in the village of Milovice, on the southwestern corner of the base.

After the Soviets came to occupy the field, they built from scratch a new, self-sufficient village on the northern side of the base, where Soviet troops and their families could live segregated from the local community. This village was named Bozi Dar. The Soviets developed the facilities of the base enormously, lengthening the runway to almost 8’500 ft, building about 40 reinforced hangars sized for MiG-21 and later MiG-23/27, and more than 25 open-air landing bays for Mi-8 and Mi-24 attack helicopters. The base featured also large open-air aprons for transport aircraft, which reportedly operated many military transport flights to and from the USSR with larger cargo aircraft.

A storage for nuclear warheads for tactical weapons was built to the south of the runway, with two Granit-type concrete containers.

Today this once prominent base is largely abandoned. The village of Bozi Dar, while surprisingly still hosting some form of business in a few surviving smaller buildings, has been almost completely demolished, leaving behind the depressing view of piles of rubble. The village had been ceded to private owners after the withdrawal of the Russian troops, but all proposed restoration ideas have come to nothing, and the by-then rotting buildings have met their fate in the early 2010s.

Milovice Abandoned Soviet Base Czech Bozi Dar Ghost

The northwestern corner of the airport is the richest in relics. Approaching the airport from this corner, you first meet significant remains of the double fence once delimiting the perimeter of the airbase.

Milovice Abandoned Soviet Base Czech Bozi Dar Ghost

In the same area, it is possible to find the helicopter aprons, almost untouched, with scant yet visible remains of tarmac repairs and typical airport area signs and delimiters painted on the ground.

Milovice Abandoned Soviet Base Czech Bozi Dar Ghost

From the same northwestern corner, you may go ahead along a former main road of the base looking east. South of the road you may soon spot the reinforced aircraft shelters built in this part of the airbase.

Milovice Abandoned Soviet Base Czech Bozi Dar Ghost

North of the road, you can see two unusual constructions, looking like fortresses of the Atlantic Wall (see here). These are likely part of the reinforced fuel resupply system, a pretty interesting feature of the Misovice airbase. These two reinforced tanks were only a part of a huge network of pipelines and reservoirs, which allowed to store most of the fuel in the vicinity of the base, but not on it, to prevent damages in case of an attack. The two reinforced tanks served only the immediate needs of the aircraft and helicopter fleet, and were designed to withstand a direct hit. This system was put in place by the Czechoslovakians, before the Soviets took over the base. You can spot the reinforced concrete roofs of the two reservoirs emerging from the bushes.

Milovice Abandoned Soviet Base Czech Bozi Dar Ghost

The aircraft shelters of this area are all shut. You can walk around, ahead and over them as well – useful for getting a panorama view of the base.

Milovice Abandoned Soviet Base Czech Bozi Dar Ghost

From the top of the shelters you can get a view of the open-air apron, and of part of the runway. The airport is today closed, but after the military quit, some ultra-light and RC aircraft activities were carried out from the area.

Milovice Abandoned Soviet Base Czech Bozi Dar Ghost

Having a close look at the gates of the hangars, you may notice they are made of concrete, really sturdy. Small engines to operate the gates can still be found on the sides of most of these hangars.

Milovice Abandoned Soviet Base Czech Bozi Dar Ghost

In the same area you can find a former cabin, probably hosting a power generation unit or something alike.

Milovice Abandoned Soviet Base Czech Bozi Dar Ghost

Further west, you can find a large unarmored hangar, most likely from older times than 1968. This was probably for maintenance activities. The windows on top of the front façade bear ‘KPSS’ in Cyrillic – this is the Russian acronym for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This is probably only part of the original writing. Further right, there is a Czechoslovakian flag, possibly from the later years when the base was operated.

Milovice Abandoned Soviet Base Czech Bozi Dar Ghost

The building of the maintenance hangar is composed of a very large main hall, and many smaller rooms all around its perimeter. Electric plugs and switches bear writings in Cyrillic. Today, there is also monumental pile of used tires!

Milovice Abandoned Soviet Base Czech Bozi Dar Ghost

On the walls of the main hall there are traces of Soviet murals and Cyrillic inscriptions – most of them are fading.

Milovice Abandoned Soviet Base Czech Bozi Dar Ghost

The rooms along the long side of the hangar are mainly heavily damaged and spoiled.

Milovice Abandoned Soviet Base Czech Bozi Dar Ghost

The rooms along the short sides are in a bad shape, but something more remains of the original furniture, including some doors and windows. The traces here suggest a more aesthetically pleasant design, not just purely functional – look at the doors and handles, more like those of a canteen than of a mechanic workshop.

Milovice Abandoned Soviet Base Czech Bozi Dar Ghost

Especially on the eastern side of the hangar, evident remains of a sauna and steam room tend to confirm the function of this area as a recreational facility. Having such facilities close to the runway would not be strange – something similar can be found for instance in Soviet airbase in Wittstock, in the former GDR (see here).

Milovice Abandoned Soviet Base Czech Bozi Dar Ghost

Leaving the hangar to the north you can find several fences, and leaving the airport you may meet the original double fence with barbed wire – almost untouched from Soviet times, so may you need to walk along it to find a way through!

Milovice Abandoned Soviet Base Czech Bozi Dar Ghost

All around the former airport it is possible to find memorabilia and items of interest – mugs, metal pieces, fuel tanks,…

Getting there and moving around

As said, while largely abandoned and mainly unfenced, this area is likely all private property. Moving around does pose some safety issues, for when walking in the bushes and wild grass you may stumble due to abandoned cables or barbed wire at the level of your ankles. The main hangar is not completely rotting, but it is unlikely that it underwent maintenance in recent years. The adjoining small buildings are probably even more dangerous due to risk of collapse.

The village of Bozi Dar does not deserve any attention, unless possibly if you are looking for memorabilia – all buildings are completely gone. The area to the south of the runway where the nuclear facility used to be has been completely demolished. It was reportedly similar to the one preserved in Grossenhain, next to Dresden in the former GDR (see here).

Approaching the airport from the northwest is convenient, for there is chance of parking on the side of the perimeter road, far from the unwanted attention of the locals. There are some local businesses insisting in the last buildings of Bozi Dar, and possibly on the apron, but probably there are not real security issues in entering the base area by foot – there are no barriers nor prohibition signs whatsoever, except for cars. The area of the base is very large – it is an airport after all… – and visiting the northwestern corner may take about 2 hours for a well-trained subject, including time for all the pictures.

Tocna Missile Battery

This is part of the former network of missile batteries for the anti-aircraft defense of Prague, operated by Czechoslovakian 71st Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade. This ring of protection was established in the 1970s. The base in Tocna was equipped with approximately 12 batteries of 5P71 two-rocket trolleys for the Soviet SA-2 Goa, which in the Soviet classification is known as S-125 Neva (or Petchora for the exported version). This is a popular model from the early 1960s, adopted in many countries outside of the USSR and the Eastern Bloc over the years, and still deployed today. These 24 missiles had a range of roughly 20 miles and a ceiling of more than 50’000 ft. The electronic gears for target acquisition and missile guidance comprised the trailer-mounted P-15 acquisition radar and SNR-125 tracking and guidance radar – all Soviet supply.

Similar to other batteries of the kind, Tocna was divided in two smaller sectors, one with the barracks, parking, living facilities for the troops and fuel storage, and one with reinforced shelters where the missiles were stored, and open-air aprons from where they could be launched. Today, the former sector is part of a local institution, and is separated by a fence from the latter sector, which is totally abandoned and can be accessed.

The missile area is located on top of a small hill. You can get access to the area starting from the gate of the former guard sector (still in use, inaccessible). Taking uphill you will soon meet the old inner wall of the base, which originally divided the guard part from the missile sector. Traces of the camo paint still adorn the concrete wall.

Tocna Prague Soviet Missile Radar Base Czech Abandoned

The storage facilities are basically four barrel-vaulted halls inside a shelter. The shelter could be accessed from two opposite sides. Each of the four halls could host three twin-rocket trolleys.

Tocna Prague Soviet Missile Radar Base Czech Abandoned

Dark and narrow passages connect the blind ends of the vaulted halls, and give access to a small protection area, where personnel could stay for protection in case the base was attacked from the air.

As you can see from the pictures, unfortunately the halls are in a very bad shape, covered in stupid graffiti and full of rubbish.

On top of the halls, there is a circular wall probably intended for the guidance radar. The missiles could be extracted from the shelters and prepared for launch from predetermined areas of the base.

Tocna Prague Soviet Missile Radar Base Czech Abandoned

On the western side of the shelter you can find a command building, which today is barely accessible due to piles of rubbish obstructing the door. This is used as sporting ground by paint-ball teams. The emerging foundation wall of the shelter area was covered in camo nets, with some remains still in place today.

Tocna Prague Soviet Missile Radar Base Czech Abandoned

On the northern end of the base you can find two more smaller shelters, with a large round hole in the roof giving access to where two large antennas can be found still today. These do not look like highly directional radar antennas, but more like usual communication antennas – maybe they are not originally from the time, yet they look unmaintained and rotting. The two shelters were possibly for control/communication trailers, or for power generators. These too are in a very bad shape today.

Tocna Prague Soviet Missile Radar Base Czech Abandoned

Getting there and moving around

The former base has been split into two parts. One is still run by some public service, and cannot be accessed. The other – the rocket storage part – is totally abandoned and can be accessed without clear restrictions. Some paint-ball activities are (or used to be) carried out around here – but apparently only rarely. During my visit I came across two people walking their dogs, and was alone for the rest of the time.

The place can be easily reached by car in the southeastern outskirts of Prague. Parking is possible right ahead of the gate of the public service in the still active area – there is a large apron where your car will not be noticed.

The site is rather compact, but the terrain is uneven and steep. Anyway, considering also the very bad shape of the installation, visiting will not take more than 45 minutes.

Miskovice Missile Battery

This site is similar to the one in Tocna both in history and function. Unfortunately, possibly due to the immediate vicinity to a nearby village, this site was completely demolished. Only few traces remain of the original installation.

Accessing via the only way possible, you will soon meet traces of the outer fence, with vertical concrete posts and barbed wire.

Miskovice Missile Base Abandoned Soviet Radar Czech

The framework of inner roads can still be seen, albeit invaded by vegetation. The only visible remains are the round wall for the radar, and part of the access door to one of the shelters.

Miskovice Missile Base Abandoned Soviet Radar Czech

Getting there and moving around

I went to the Miskovice site as I expected it to be in a much better shape. Clearly, demolition works have hit here months before my visit, so that basically nothing remains here to see – just another lost occasion of sparing a piece of military history from total oblivion. While not far from Prague and easy to reach, I would not suggest to waste time in this location.

Dobris Missile Base

Together with another sister site in the vicinity of Brno (Rapotice), the Dobris base was part of the Czechoslovakian stronghold of the anti-aircraft defense line of the Eastern Bloc, countering intrusion from the nearby NATO forces operating mainly from West Germany.

This defense line was implemented in the final years of the Brezhnev leadership in the early 1980s, and comprised of ten missile bases, located in Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria. It was based on the advanced SA-5 Gammon surface-to-air missile, known in the Soviet archives as S-200 Vega. Designed in the late 1960s, this massive anti-aircraft missile is still in service in many countries, offering a range of over 180 miles, a top altitude over 120’000 ft and a peak speed over Mach 4. It can carry a 450 lb warhead of conventional explosive, or a 25-kilotons nuclear warhead.

The missile battery of the SA-5 is typically composed of six 5P72 launchers, and a single radar 5N62 illuminating the target up to a distance of 180 miles.

The Dobris site, operated by the Czechoslovakian 71st Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, is an example of a really advanced launch facility for the SA-5 type. It is composed of three launch areas, with six launchers each, and correspondingly three 5N62 Square Pair radar antennas, making the three launch areas capable of working in parallel. Further antenna systems included a O-14 Tall King and a PRV-17 Odd Pair early warning radars, providing a seeking range of more than 350 miles at an altitude of 100’000 ft.

The area of the base in Dobris is correspondingly pretty large. The most notable feature are the incredible 60-ft-high concrete platforms where the square pair radars used to be placed. These structures are really unique, and clearly date from the latter, hi-tech stage of the Cold War era. The base was operative only in 1985, after four years of construction, carried out in secrecy by a force of 1’500 men. The areas was protected from intrusion by land, with a barbed wire fence and a concrete wall with watchtowers. All technical trails for operating the radar antennas and coordinating an attack, plus all power generators were sheltered in concrete bunkers, dug in the ground and covered in camo paint.

The base was deactivated at some point after the end of communism, for sure by the early 2000s. A private business has taken over the property, and a modern research center has been erected on the southern part of the former base. Thanks to its secluded location, sufficiently far from the city and deep in the trees, the area has come to our days in a relatively good shape. Due to the vicinity with a running business, exploring the launch part of the complex may be risky. This post covers only the more remote northern part, with the radar facilities and the control bunker.

Dobris Soviet SAM Missile Base Czech Abandoned VEGA SA-5B

Accessing the site from the north through the external fence and concrete wall still in good shape, you soon come to the first bunker, connected with the early warning O-14 Tall King. The bunker features two halls, which could host a control and signal processing trailer, and a power generation unit for the antenna. A corridor leads to a back door emerging to the ground level.

Dobris Soviet SAM Missile Base Czech Abandoned VEGA SA-5B

Holes in the ceiling allowed signal and power cables to reach the adjoining apron, where the antenna used to stay anchored. The Tall King was a massive 100-by-40 ft radar antenna, kept in place through six anchor points.

Dobris Soviet SAM Missile Base Czech Abandoned VEGA SA-5B

Pits and concrete pipes emerge from the ground all around the base. Moving southwest from the position of the Tall King radar, you will meet the monster structure supporting the Square Pair radar for one of the southernmost missile launch battery in the base (battery number 18 in the original maps). The support structure is accessible by a steep ramp, which allowed trailers for further electronic systems to climb on top of the platform.

Dobris Soviet SAM Missile Base Czech Abandoned VEGA SA-5B

The round wall on top of the platform provided the foundations of the radar antenna. Caution is needed here, for the center of the pavement is covered with some rubbish, deceiving a hole which allowed the power and signal cables of the antenna to run below the platform, and down into the nearby shelter.

Dobris Soviet SAM Missile Base Czech Abandoned VEGA SA-5B

The Square Pair operation trailers were hosted in that shelter, dug in the ground and featuring a single vault. Behind the main vault you can find smaller rooms with traces of technical gears – possibly for ventilation – and a service area for controllers and operators. A back door made access easier for the technical staff.

Dobris Soviet SAM Missile Base Czech Abandoned VEGA SA-5B

The service roads leading to the three high platforms for the Square Pair radar antennas meet in the same point, where the control bunker of the base can be found. This bunker is interred and very large. It features three entrances on the front façade, leading to as many vaults.

Dobris Soviet SAM Missile Base Czech Abandoned VEGA SA-5B

Each vault contained a power generator close to the entrance. The right vault contained the K-9 combat control trailer, with sensors and computers, from where the whole Dobris site was controlled. The central vault hosted a K-21M electrical distribution group, and the left vault the K-7 control group, which was used to monitor the status of the base and the accuracy of the targeting system. The graffiti on the sidewall of one of the vault clearly date to later than 1993, the year of Stephen Spielberg’s Jurassic Park feature!

Dobris Soviet SAM Missile Base Czech Abandoned VEGA SA-5B

To the blind end of the vaults a network of corridors and rooms can be accessed. This is interesting, for it features a protection system likely to be used in case of a serious threat to the base. This includes a system of tight doors, a ventilation system, showers and services typical to a decontamination facility.

Dobris Soviet SAM Missile Base Czech Abandoned VEGA SA-5B

This area is great fun to explore, but it is completely dark – a great environment for bats, like the one captured in this pic, purely by chance!

Dobris Soviet SAM Missile Base Czech Abandoned VEGA SA-5B

A powerful torchlight is mandatory for safely finding your way out. Traces of a control room – besides the trailer, which is clearly gone – can be found among other features of this interesting part of the bunker.

Just out of the control bunker you can find a building which served as a relax area for the troops. Traces of a gym can be found in one of the rooms.

Dobris Soviet SAM Missile Base Czech Abandoned VEGA SA-5B

To the back of the same bunker you get access to another platform for the Square Pair radar of the westernmost (number 17) missile launch area. The bunker for the control trailer can be found on the side of the platform, together with a soft cover for trucks or light vehicles.

Dobris Soviet SAM Missile Base Czech Abandoned VEGA SA-5B

Due to time constraints, the last platform was not explored. Leaving is convenient from the same point used for entering the area.

Getting there and moving around

As pointed out, the Dobris site has been partially converted into a modern research center, funded by the European Union and involving national universities. This occupies the southernmost part of the former base, close to the launch complexes.

Accessing the northern part of the site during the week-end is probably not very risky, yet you can immediately notice that the original external fence and wall have been repaired in recent times more than once, and inside there is an unpaved road kept free of any vegetation running along the wall. Coming close to the research center is not recommended, but the parts of the base portrayed in this post are clearly unused, with overgrown vegetation, dusty surfaces and rust everywhere.

Due to the intriguing history of the base and the good state of conservation, visiting is very rewarding. The area is a national park, and in case you miss the entrance you can relax with a walk in the trees. The area is pretty large, and visiting the only part portrayed in this post may take more than 2 hours, excluding time to and from the base. Much more would be needed if you decided to explore the rest of the base. A torchlight and a tripod are mandatory to explore the inside of the bunkers.

Soviet SS-12 Scaleboard Nuclear Missiles in the GDR

January 13, 2019February 16, 2021 CarloR2 Comments

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A little known fragment of Cold War history concerns the deployment of ballistic missiles by the Soviet Union outside of its national borders. Considering the case of the GDR, aka DDR in German language, during the Cold War the westernmost communist dictatorship in Europe, this happened in several instances.

History – in brief

Two such episodes took place in the 1950s and early 1960s with strategic missiles – Shyster and Sandal – in the area of Fürstenberg and Vogelsang, located one hour north of Berlin by car (see this post), in the territory of the GDR. This deployments lasted only briefly, cause strategic missiles of much longer range were developed soon, allowing targeting western Europe and the US from within the USSR.

Since then, a nuclear striking force was allegedly present over the territory of the GDR at all times, as testified by a number of now abandoned nuclear warhead bunkers built on the premises of major Soviet airbases (see for instance this post, and links therein). This force was mainly based on tactical warheads intended to be launched from aircraft.

From the 1960s to the early 1980s the USSR deployed also SCUD-A and SCUD-B short-range nuclear missile systems over the territory of some Soviet-controlled countries. This mobile-launched light weapons were stationed in the GDR in Königsbruck, Bischofswerda and Meissen, close to the border with Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as around Wünsdorf, were the high command of the Soviet forces in Germany was located (see this post). The improved SS-21 Scarab was added to the arsenal in Königsbruck in 1981, with a range similar to that of the SCUD systems.

Nuclear missiles appeared again in the GDR towards the end of the Cold War, in the years between 1984 and 1988. This time the Soviets used intermediate-range theater missiles, in the form of the SS-12 Scaleboard, a 500 kilotons, single-warhead tactical system, with a range of 500 miles and launched directly from a mobile launcher. The reason for this deployment was a kind of retaliation following the choice of the Reagan administration, together with some European NATO Countries including West Germany, Italy and Britain, to deploy intermediate-range missiles provided by the US in Western Europe.

This move by the western allies was part of the complicated and lengthy negotiations which would culminate in the INF treaty in late 1987, between the US and the USSR. In the end, this agreement led to a bilateral dismantlement of intermediate-range nuclear forces (‘INF’), including both the American Pershing II and the Soviet Scaleboard.

Talks aiming at counterbalancing the Soviet nuclear deterrent in Europe represented by the SS-20 Pioneer mobile-launched missiles, with a range of more than 3,000 miles, had been started in the closing phase of the Carter administration, with the USSR still led by Brezhnev. The goal of the operation from a western standpoint was the deactivation of this missile by the Soviets. The deployment of a huge force of hundreds of Pershing II tactical ballistic missiles and Gryphon cruise missiles by the US, ordered in 1983 by the Reagan administration in agreement with some European Countries, should stand as a precaution in case the desired deactivation of the SS-20 would not be obtained (see also this post). The NATO move was perhaps not interpreted as desired, and in response the USSR deployed the Scaleboard in the GDR, close to the border with the West in 1984, putting a halt to the talks.

Following the change in the leadership of the USSR, the INF treaty was later signed in 1987 by President Reagan and Gorbachev. The involved missiles deployed by both the US and the USSR, and not limited to the Gryphon, Pershing II and Scaleboard, were soon withdrawn starting in 1988. They were later decommissioned and physically destroyed.

Sights

Today, a few relics of this late episodes of the Cold War can be found in the former German Democratic Republic. The quick deployment of the Scaleboard meant that an existing Soviet missile brigade (119th) was relocated in mid-1984 from Gombori, in the Soviet Republic of Georgia, to locations in the GDR, namely Königsbruck and Bischofswerda near Dresden, and Warenshof and Wokuhl in Mecklenburg. Thanks to the improved mobility of the Scaleboard system, launched from mobile platforms, not much hardware was necessary for storing and operating the missile. Light shelters were quickly built to store the nuclear warheads and the missiles. These were connected by a network of short service roads made with prefabricated concrete slabs.

Following the withdrawal of the missiles, and later of all Soviet troops from the former GDR, these missile sites were demolished or invaded by nature. Apparently, nothing has survived in Königsbruck and in the bases in Mecklenburg, whereas in Bischofswerda significant remains are to be found, albeit not publicized at all, with a short walk in the trees.

This post provides a map and a few pictures to reach the former Bischofswerda missile base. Photographs were taken in late summer 2018.

Map

The following map highlights the location of the bunkers and the access points to the Bischofswerda site. During my visit I tried three accesses by car, and the northern access road – access point 1 on the map – is the only one where I could find a (small) parking area. The area is today in a forest, and there you cannot get to the bunkers with a car – prohibition signs can be found close to all three pinpointed access points. Some walking will be needed, but the area is nice and you are likely to see some wildlife – that was my case!

I noticed that the Ulmon map on my iPhone had the bunkers accurately pinpointed. In any case, a GPS and an electronic non-satellite map is strongly recommended, for the site is shrouded by high-grown vegetation, and barely visible on a satellite photograph.

Please note that the POIs related to the missile bunkers on the map above have been placed by hand, and may be not very accurate. I noticed the Google base map does not show all the service roads connecting the bunkers. These roads are not maintained any more for vehicles, but they can still be used by hikers. Anyway, I tried to reconstruct the basic network with green lines – please zoom in to see them.

Bischofswerda SS-12 Scaleboard Missile Bunkers

Accessing the site from the northernmost entry point (access point 1 on the map), you will soon meet a former service/administration building for the troops, in pure Soviet style from the Eighties – see the terminal passenger in Sperenberg here, from the same years. It was built in 1983, and today it is used in the warm season as a service building for boy scouts and other forest-related activities. A placard quickly recalls its history. The Soviets (then Russians) left the place in 1993, and the barracks originally built in the area for servicemen stationed there were completely demolished soon after.

Soviet Missile Base SS-12 Scaleboard Germany Bischofswerda

From the service building, the area of the missile shelters can be reached with a quick walk along a broad and almost flat road – you might easily drive to the place, if only it was not forbidden.

Soviet Missile Base SS-12 Scaleboard Germany Bischofswerda

The bunkers are grouped around a small square area with concrete slabs on the ground. Despite the short distance from the square to the shelters, these are totally unapparent, and you may have a hard time getting closer to them if you do not have a GPS and some electronic map. Zoom in on the map above for some basic directions concerning this part of the missile site.

Soviet Missile Base SS-12 Scaleboard Germany Bischofswerda

While they have not been demolished, all bunkers are abandoned with only one exception, and they are effectively hidden by wild vegetation.

There are bunkers of three types. The majority are hangars for storage of the missiles. There were four launchers with two missiles each, totaling eight missiles on the Bischofswerda site. The nuclear warheads were stored separately from the missiles, and quickly installed only in case an order to attack was issued. Bunker N on the map is the former storage for the nuclear warheads. Access is not possible due to the wild vegetation and the partial sealing of the sliding door with a pile of land. Yet the distinctive polygon-shaped metal access door can still be seen, different from that of all other bunkers.

Soviet Missile Base SS-12 Scaleboard Germany Bischofswerda

The storage bunker A can be neared more easily. You can notice the totally different construction with respect to the nuclear warhead bunker N. The door of this bunker is sealed too.

Soviet Missile Base SS-12 Scaleboard Germany Bischofswerda

Between bunker A and B there are traces of a construction, possibly another bunker, today completely interred.

Soviet Missile Base SS-12 Scaleboard Germany Bischofswerda

The missile bunker B is open, and used as a storage for wood logs. There are also parts of the original ventilation system. The construction components of the shelter are similar to those you can find in other Soviet missile launch bases (see for instance this post). Yet the size of the bunker is rather small compared to similar facilities built for strategic missiles. This highlights the reduced cost of the preparation of a theater missile launch facility, with respect to its strategic missile counterparts.

Soviet Missile Base SS-12 Scaleboard Germany Bischofswerda

On the far end of the complex (item Z on the map), you can find another bunker, at a glance similar to the other missile shelters. It was opened when I visited, and as you see from the pics there is an intermediate frame, dividing the hangar in two parts, connected by a passage. Considering the position and structure, I guess this was a command bunker, similar to those you see in other Soviet missile bases (like again this). There is a placard remembering the deployment of the Scaleboard system in this base, and inside somebody recently put a photograph of two former high-ranking staff from the US and Soviet Armies stationed in Germany at the time of the deployment, shaking hands in front of this very bunker. The photo was taken years after the decommissioning of the site.

Soviet Missile Base SS-12 Scaleboard Germany Bischofswerda

Two other missile shelters, C and D on the map, close the tour. One of them is open, the other is sealed and barely reachable due to vegetation.

Soviet Missile Base SS-12 Scaleboard Germany Bischofswerda

Special Feature – 119th Missile Brigade barracks in Gombori, Georgia

As mentioned above, the Soviet 119th Missile Brigade was tasked with running the theater missile installations hastily prepared in locations in Germany. To this purpose, the 119th was relocated in May 1984 from Gombori, Georgia, then a Soviet Socialist Republic in the realm of the USSR. It left back to Gombori at the end of the German deployment in March 1988. By that time, it converted to another missile platform, following the coincidental phase-out of the SS-12. For the time of the ‘German leave’, the 119th was under the responsibility of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, headquartered in Wünsdorf (see this post).

In the following pictures, taken on another trip (2019), you can see the abandoned barracks of the 119th in Gombori. This site was code-named ‘Tbilisi Army Barracks Gombori AL 12’ by the US, due to the proximity with the Georgian capital city, Tbilisi.

Gombori Georgia Abandoned Soviet Base Headquarters SCUD Missiles Eastern Germany

The 119th Missile Brigade moved away from Georgia after the USSR broke apart. It relocated to Elanskiy, Russia.

Getting there and moving around

As already pointed out, getting close to the site is possible by car, but touring the place will require a walk of roughly 1.5-2. I suggest leaving the car at access point 1 on the map. The site missile is not maintained except for the former service building, where you can find picnic tables and related facilities. The building was closed for the season already at the beginning of September, but the area around the building is not abandoned. The former service roads in the trees are maintained as well.

On the other hand, the area of the bunkers is basically abandoned, except for the Z bunker on the map, which is not maintained, but bears a placard on the front façade. Walking around does not pose any particular difficulty, but you should go prepared to face nettles, brambles and wild vegetation around the bunkers. Carefully watch your step, for there are open manholes scattered on the ground, probably part of the original underground electric supply system.

Visiting may take a bit more than 1 hour for the interested subject – something more if you want to take good pictures. A tripod is strongly advised also for external photographs, cause the trees effectively stop sunlight, so the area is mainly dark.

Hitler’s Mystery Mega-Structures in Central Europe

November 1, 2018September 28, 2019 CarloRLeave a comment

During the last two years of WWII, the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany was slowly retreating from the eastern front, pushed back by the mighty blows of the Red Army. The bombing runs carried out by the western Allies from airfields in Britain were systematically hitting most urban centers in mainland Germany and over the territory occupied by the Nazis. It is hard to imagine, but it was in the year 1944, when the destiny of Germany was almost sealed, that industrial production in Hitler’s Third Reich reached an all-time record.

At that time the Germans were desperately short of fuel, raw materials and troops, and their production efforts would not spare them from a complete defeat in 1945. Yet it was in the last stages of the war that some of the most ambitious industrial facilities were designed, built and in some cases made operative before the end of the war.

The driver of the design was in most cases the need to move production lines to secluded and well protected areas, difficult to spot and to destroy through air bombing. As a result, these sites were placed far from urban centers. They were also designed to withstand bombing, by putting them underground, or building them with substantial reinforcement, making large use of one of Nazi Germany’s favorite materials – reinforced concrete.

In this chapter two major sites of this kind are described. One is in southwestern Poland, a region which had been part of the German Empire for long before WWII. The second is in eastern Bayern, today one of Federal Germany’s most prosperous states, close to the border with the Czech Republic. Photographs were taken in late summer 2018.

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Project ‘Riese’, Poland
- Osowka
- Rzeczka
‘Weingut I’ Aviation Industry Complex, Germany

Sights

Project ‘Riese’, Poland

Construction around this cluster of underground sites started in late 1943, and reportedly lasted until the closing stages of WWII, just days before the Soviets entered the region. The name ‘Riese’ means ‘giant’ in German, and it is surely well suited for this complex, which while far from finished is really striking in size. It was actually composed of at least six major construction sites, which in the intention of their designers should have been developed deeper in the mountains, until a link could be established between them forming a formidable network of tunnels and large halls.

Besides the size and historical meaning of these sites, what makes project ‘Riese’ so fascinating is also the actual purpose of this incredible complex is far from established. Three major theories exist in this respect. The complex might have been intended to be an underground industrial city, a kind of Noah’s Ark for the ‘superior race’ embodied by the top-ranking military and governmental staff of the Reich, or a gigantic secret laboratory for innovative technologies.

What is sure is that the construction was carried out by forced labor, mainly by prisoners of Gross-Rosen concentration camp, just a few miles north of the complex. For the scope, the Nazis created a number of satellite camps next to the entrance of the construction sites. Rather incredibly, only very scant traces of the project remain in the written records of key figures of Nazi Germany – Albert Speer’s personal diary notably reports some millions marks allocated for project ‘Riese’, and at some point after the war he cited the item resulting from the completion of the construction works, whatever its purpose, as sized to be capable of hosting some tens of thousands people.

Today, six construction sites have been discovered, of which two – Osowka and Rzeczka, the most conspicuous – have been opened to the public, whereas the other are visitable basically for speleologists only.

Osowka

The first visitable site is in the town of Osowka. This site is composed of two parts, one underground with access from the side of a hill, the other close to the top of the same hill.

The underground part can be visited only with a guide. The plant of the completed construction features two accesses, and you will be driven in using the first and out using the other. Between the entrances, the site is mainly composed of an array of parallel tunnels pointing towards the mountain, connected by long halls.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

Close to the entrance you can spot a concrete guardhouse with loopholes for machine guns. Some wooden structures like in a mine have been put in place to give an idea of the appearance of the working technique at the time of construction.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

Most tunnels have been dug but not reinforced with concrete walls, whereas others are almost complete, showing a peculiar two-level design. The lower level features a smaller section, and the top one a taller, round shaped section.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

A feature of the ‘Riese’ complex is a special technique for building the inner concrete coat of the rocky tunnels, producing the distinctive ‘church-ceiling-like’ appearance of some of the halls, with a round shape and frames close to one another.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

The Osowka site features also a collection of smaller artifacts, collected from the ground and dating from the construction years, i.e. from late WWII.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

Life-size silhouettes of some WWII tanks are on display, to show how the size of these items was totally compatible with the size of the tunnels, in support of a potential use of the site for weapon manufacture.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

The outside part, which can be accessed freely, is the most mysterious. At the base of the trail leading uphill you can spot a strange concrete platform, with provision for – possibly – interred pipelines.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

Close to the top of the hill you can find a huge concrete platform, with an apparently chaotic ensemble of slots, pipes, handles, stairs and pools. This item has been deemed close in shape to the base of a service building for the valves and pipelines of a power-plant. Theories have flourished in support of the use of this item as a prototype control system for a nuclear power-plant.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

The nuclear program of the Nazis, which indeed existed and is even documented to some extent, is shrouded in mystery for what concerns the actual findings obtained during the war. These dark spots are also due to the destruction of most of the hardware connected with the program everywhere in Germany, and with the inherent secret nature of the program itself. No evidence exists of the Osowka site in the public papers about the nuclear studies of the Reich, so the true purpose of this object is likely to remain an unsolved riddle.

Close by this platform, you can find an original concrete building, part of the same construction plan. It is pretty long, with large windows, and likely intended for troops or technical staff.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Osowka

Rzeczka

Compared to Osowka, this site is more centered on the inside part. Again, there are two entrances, close by a creek on the side of a hill, providing access to a network of tunnels. Similar to Osowka, close by the entrance you can find guard-houses in concrete. These were built soon, possibly for keeping a watch on the forced workers.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Rzeczka

The construction works in Rzeczka were less advanced than those in Osowka. Yet thanks to the lack of the concrete coat, you can appreciate the size of the tunnels, some of which are really tall.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Rzeczka

There are small collections of artifacts found in the tunnels, and an original concrete room offers a description of all discovered sites of the ‘Riese’ project.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Rzeczka

A 1:1 copy of a V-1 German flying bomb has been placed in one of the tunnels, to show the compatibility of the size of this weapon with the tunnel. Such weapons were reportedly assembled in underground facilities elsewhere in Germany.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Rzeczka

Visiting is again possible only with a guide. Some multi-media experiences with sounds, lights and voices are included in the tour, but these are not so impressive for those who don’t understand Polish.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Rzeczka

On the outside, you can spot some relics from construction years, including trolleys, and concrete slabs watermarked with symbols of the local construction companies tasked with the practical realization of the site. There is also a copy of a V-2 rocket, operative in the last months of WWII but little effective in changing the fate of Nazi Germany.

Project Riese Hitler’s Mystery Installation Poland Rzeczka

Getting there and moving around

As pointed out, the sites connected with project ‘Riese’ are many, but most of them are not visitable unless to specialists and with the help of a speleologist. On the other hand, the two sites of Osowka and Rzeczka are professionally operated as primary tourist attractions. The distance from these two sites is about 20 minutes by car, so you can surely arrange the tour of both sites on the same day, with much spare time in your daily schedule.

At Osowka you can find a large parking and a fully equipped visitor center, where you can book a guided tour, or join a departing one – the only way to get inside. Please note that the number of people admitted on each tour is relatively small, so I would suggest booking at least one day in advance through their website (partly also in English) to be sure to get a place at the time you like. They offer several different tours. The most complete include a visit to a part of the underground site which can only be accessed by boat. This is given only on some days by reservation, and only for groups. The standard tour of the inside is offered several times a day.

The guided may turn out really boring, cause you are provided an audio-guide in English with explanations lasting a couple of minutes for each of the circa ten stops, in face of the Polish-speaking guide talking about 5 minutes per site. You may try to spend your spare time taking good pictures, but even though groups are relatively small, they tend to obstruct the view inside, leaving poor chances for acceptable shots. Furthermore, lighting is not very good, so a tripod would be recommended, except you don’t have the time and chance for undisturbed long poses. Therefore, if you are interested in top-level pictures, you would better arrange a dedicated tour out of the normal touristic offer. Otherwise, you’d better go prepared to a difficult visit.

The outside part of the site is less frequented and more rewarding. It can be reached in about ten minutes following a pretty steep, unpaved trail in the trees. This part is unfenced and unguarded.

The Rzeczka site has only an inside part, which can be visited only on a guided tour. You can join one of the frequent tours they provide even without reservation. There is a small visitor center and plenty of parking space. Similar to Osowka, the guide will speak in Polish, and you are provided an audio-guide in English. The visit lasts less than in the case of Osowka, and the audio-guide explanations are more proportionate to the speech of the Polish-speaking guide, making for a more enjoyable visit. The multi-media experiences are of little relevance for non Polish-speaking people. Outside you can find also some panels with explanations on the history of the site in both Polish and English. Website with some info in English here.

The tunnels in Rzeczka are poorly lighted too, so photographing will be difficult unless with a tripod, but the conditions are not very favorable for operating with a tripod – many people around and short times between stops along the tour.

‘Weingut I’ Aviation Industry Complex, Germany

The giant complex known as ‘Weingut I’, the original codename attributed by the Nazi staff at the time of its design and construction, is the direct result of a plan to relocate all major industrial production lines of the Reich to protected areas, far from the line of the front and from any major urban center. In this particular case, the new factory was intended to shelter the production line of the new Junkers Jumo 004 jet engines for the ‘Schwalbe’ – also known as Messerschmitt Me-262, this was the first jet fighter in the world to be pushed into service, back in 1944.

The huge factory was designed based on a basic module made of a reinforced concrete arch, some 250 ft open, 100 ft tall and 10 to 15 ft thick. This item was to be built on site and partly buried under ground level. Twelve such modules were needed for the complete hangar, with a total intended length of the factory of around 1.200 ft. Of the planned twelve sections, seven were actually built between mid-1944 and the end of the war.

Despite the intended scope was that of hiding the factory to protect it from aerial reconnaissance, due to the size of the construction works the object was reportedly spotted by US aircraft, but not attacked. Actually, the special construction was tested against explosives by the US Army after the war, resulting in the collapse of all modules except one, which is still standing today besides the pretty sizable relics of the others.

The site is not actively guarded, but it is located in a regional nature preserve, so access is through a nice walk in the trees. Once next to the hangar you can find multiple access points.

Weingut I Hitler’s Messerschmitt Hangar Germany

Close to the main arch, the only one still standing, it is possible to find an explanatory panel in German only. It commemorates also the forced laborers from the nearby concentration camps, who had to take part substantially in the construction works.

Weingut I Hitler’s Messerschmitt Hangar Germany

Walking under the arch is at your own risk, cause despite the bulky appearance of the structure, smaller pieces of concrete are hanging from from the ceiling. However, a walk inside will give you the most striking impression of the size of the hangar.

Weingut I Hitler’s Messerschmitt Hangar Germany

Just nearby the remaining module to the west you can find a walkable, half interred bunker, likely with a technical function which is today hard to imagine.

Weingut I Hitler’s Messerschmitt Hangar Germany

The module still standing today is the westernmost of the hangar, so walking east you will have the chance to step on the roof of the demolished modules. A number of thick iron rods can be spot at ground level.

Weingut I Hitler’s Messerschmitt Hangar Germany

Walking along the former southern side of the hangar, you can spot a deep well, probably part of the construction strategy. It may have been used to take out the gravel from beneath the base of the arches to lower them to a rest position on more compact ground.

Weingut I Hitler’s Messerschmitt Hangar Germany

Along the same side you can find a way to walk below the fallen structure. You can also get a view of the edge of one of the modules.

Weingut I Hitler’s Messerschmitt Hangar Germany

The eastern end of the complex is probably the most hazardous, cause you find an unprotected concrete cliff a good 10 ft high, constituted by the edge of a fallen module.

All in all, the place is a nice example of the undeniable structural design abilities of the German military, really interesting to visit both from a technical viewpoint and as a witness of the utopian visions of the Nazis, which unfortunately cost the lives of many.

Getting there and moving around

Reaching the trail-head is very easy by car. Leaving Mühldorf am Inn for Waldkraiburg along the road St2352, about 0.5 miles south of the crossing with St2550 you will find a sizable gravel factory to your right, preceded by an unpaved road taking west in the trees. You can park on the unpaved road on the northern side of the factory – probably a heir of the original factory built to feed the construction works of the hangar.

From there, you should take the unpaved trail into the trees, closed to vehicle traffic. It is another 0.5 miles to the site, on a flat and easy trail. A quick scan of the Google map will allow you to plan the trip. The place is not remote, cell phones work and you may use a virtual map to get oriented on site. Visiting might take about 2 hours for a very interested subject, including the trip from the parking and back, plus all time needed for pictures .

Soviet Bases and Bunkers in Southwest Poland

September 8, 2018December 27, 2020 CarloR2 Comments

Similarly to other sovereign Countries in the Warsaw Pact, post-WWII Poland had to host Soviet troops on its territory. These often lived in segregated towns built anew close to larger airbases and tank firing ranges.

Such installations flourished in many European satellites of the USSR especially at the beginning of the Cold War, as a result of several factors. On one hand, the political situation was still rather unstable especially in recently occupied Countries like Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, so a military presence was deemed necessary by the Soviets for keeping the status quo. Furthermore, in the early Fifties, Stalin was allegedly programming a final blow on war-battered western Europe to place the entire continent under communist rule, gaining direct and year-round access to the non-freezing Atlantic Ocean. On the other hand, the performance of early jet military aircraft, and somewhat later of early missiles, was still rather limited especially in terms of range, and called for the setup of outposts in the peripheral regions of the Soviet-controlled zone to allow planning serious military operations beyond the border.

In the final years of the Soviet Union, communism began to rapidly retreat from central Europe, as more and more nations profited from the internal problems of the USSR and rebelled against dictatorship, opting for democracy. Troops from the USSR were ordered back to their mother country. The great majority of the military assets were taken back to Russia, including not only weapons, aircraft, tanks, trucks and anything with an engine, but also plants, pipelines, antennas, TVs, refrigerators, etc. from virtually all military bases and Soviet villages nearby.

What stood as a tangible trace of the Soviet presence were all major infrastructures – airbases, missile launch pads, bunkers, deposits, railway stations, barracks,… – and housing for troops and their families.

As a quick glimpse into what can be found today, this chapter covers a small area to the southwest of Poland, just north of ‘pottery town’ Boleslawiec. The territory of the once prominent airbase of Szprotawa has been opened to private businesses, which now occupy concrete shelters presumably made for MiG-23, MiG-27 or Su-17. The huge runway is used for test driving and related activities. Even the nuclear Bazalt-type warhead storage has been partly taken over by a local company. Yet a good part of the runway, many aircraft shelters and the reinforced part of the warhead storage make for an impressive and evocative sight.

Fifteen minutes south from Szprotawa, the former military base of Pstraze used to be a focal point of near-border military activities, carried out within an extensive shooting ground nearby. Until recently, substantial traces of a secluded Soviet military town could be found in the trees. Despite the generally poor condition of the barracks and technical buildings, and demolition work going around on the former premises of the base, from portraits taken in 2018 you can still get a good idea of how seriously the USSR invested in these outposts on foreign territory, by just looking at the quantity and size of the existing buildings. On a later visit (2020), almost everything had been wiped out in Pstraze, leaving behind a triple of Granit-type bunkers, still very interesting to visit, and much concrete debris.

For more Soviet sites in Poland you may also check this post.

Photographs of this chapter come from two short-stays in the area, in early September 2018 and August 2020. I acquired a good deal of information from a friend in Poland, who is also the owner of this interesting channel on YouTube.

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Szprotawa/Wiechlice Nuclear Warhead Bunker
Szprotawa/Wiechlice Airbase
Pstraze Formere Soviet Military Village and Bunkers

Sights

Szprotawa/Wiechlice Nuclear Warhead Bunker

The plan of the airbase in Szprotawa is very similar to the one of Brand in the former German Democratic Republic, less than two hours to the northwest of this site in Poland (see this chapter). The orientation of the runway is similar, there are aircraft shelters to the south, and about .75 miles southeast of the airport it is possible to find a major storage area, which includes a bunker for atomic warheads. The connection road is today publicly accessible, and the typical Soviet concrete slabs are holding on in their place still today, allowing a convenient access by car.

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase Nuclear Bunker

The area of the nuclear storage was heavily guarded, and much of the original buildings and fence, including the original gates, is still in place. The reason for that is a private business operating these days in the area. This is both good an bad, for most buildings are reasonably well preserved – i.e. in better condition than in similar, but totally abandoned sites – but they are surrounded by deposits of coal, heavy mechanical components and industry materials and machinery.

Above all, you cannot access the place freely, for there are trucks going in and out and workers moving around.

From the access road you go through a first gate with red stars, which is apparently blocked open. Between this area and the deposit/inner fenced area, there are some buildings, which include a (possibly) former housing block and a smaller technical building with a unique Soviet-themed fresco in a very good state of conservation. Today, most buildings around this apron appear unused.

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase Nuclear Bunker

Close by the green gate giving access to the secured part of the installation, there are a small building where somebody is still living today. The gate looks original from the Cold War era. The inhabited building is at least partly original, bearing writings in Cyrillic on the front wall. A red-star-shaped flag pedestal and another statue pedestal with writings in Cyrillic can be found on the two sides of the gate.

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase Nuclear Bunker

From the gate and along the perimeter of the high security part you can still spot the original fence – the usual concrete posts with lines of barbed wire, typical to Soviet military installations.

The fenced area is very large, comparatively more extensive than in Brand and other places where nuclear warheads used to be stored. There are here several depots for trucks, numbered, with wooden gates, still today bearing extensive markings in Russian language.

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase Nuclear Bunker

The centerpiece of the area is of course the nuclear warhead bunker. Located in the eastern part of the fenced area, this is similar to those you can find for instance in other Soviet airbases like Brand, Finsterwalde (see this chapter) and Rechlin/Lärz (see this chapter), in the former German Democratic Republic. A huge difference is that this nuclear bunker has been left open!

Ahead of the entrance you can find a preserved concrete structure, where a crane for loading/unloading operations used to be mounted. This structure is taller than the front facade of the bunker. A unique feature here are the trees painted on the pillars of this structure, which considering the today fading colors, appear to be original from Soviet times.

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase Nuclear Bunker

The facade of the bunker features a massive curved double door. Inside there are warning signs in Russian. The door gives access to a wide corridor leading through the bunker to the storage chamber.

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase Nuclear Bunker

The corridor could be split in two sections by an impressive square tight door, which retracted to the left hand side of the corridor when open. This is how you can see it today. I guess this tight door was installed to withstand a nuclear attack to the site. As a matter of fact, nuclear deposits and facilities were among the top targets of the military forces of both opponents during the Cold War.

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase Nuclear Bunker

To the right hand side of the corridor, a smaller tight door gives access to a narrow pedestrian corridor, leading out of the bunker through a small door on the facade. Unfortunately, this door is shut today, and blocked by a pile of wood from the outside.

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase Nuclear Bunker

After passing the big tight door, you can spot some smaller doors leading to service rooms on both sides of the corridor. There is also a passage leading to a toilet. The latter looks pretty fine, apart from some dust from age – and from the coal works nearby. Strangely enough, there are four taps of different size by the sink.

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase Nuclear Bunker

A metallic stair to the left side of the main corridor leads to the upper floor. Here you can find another narrow corridor, leading to a series of small service rooms closed by normal wooden doors. There are signs telling what you should wear when accessing some of these doors, like gas masks, gloves, boots – or maybe what gear you could find there. I guess these rooms were connected somehow with the ventilation system, cause big pipes can be seen running near the ceiling here.

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase Nuclear Bunker

Still upstairs, walking towards the facade of the bunker you find a tight door giving access to the ventilation system. This appears quite complicated, with several smaller tight doors, but it is arguable that ventilation had to be a major concern in case of a nuclear attack to the deposit and also for storing high-tech gear in the best possible conditions. Original air filters are still in place, but the compressors and fans have been taken away. Sunlight comes in through the round manhole you see on the front facade of the bunker.

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase Nuclear Bunker

Proceeding downstairs towards the back-end of the bunker you find a large hall with a monster double door totally similar to the external door of the bunker. Also here, warning signs in Cyrillic are written on the inside of the door. Look at the cap of my 10-22 wide lens for a size comparison!

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase Nuclear Bunker

The storage room is very large and empty. There are two long ventilation pipes in the upper corners, going all the way down to the far extremity of the room. Two small doors can be found in the room on the same side of the entry double door. They give access to two smaller rooms, where there used to be engines to open and close the extra-heavy halves of the double door. There is also trace of a lighting system, but this has been likely salvaged and used somewhere else – this is typical to most of the wiring and electric plants in former USSR installations.

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase Nuclear Bunker

Back to the entrance, you can spot a loading/unloading platform for trucks totally similar to Finsterwalde and Rechlin/Lärz.

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase Nuclear Bunker

You may get a further view of the inside of the bunker through this video from the YouTube channel of a friend, who provided much of the info to reach the site.

Getting there and moving around

The airbase and its premises are today in the village of Szprotawa. You can reach the gate of the bunker by car. Approaching the village from the south along the roads 297 or 12, which meet just south of the village, you may then take the road called Sosnowa. It points north and straight into the base. After about .25 miles the road will turn left. Just before that, you will see a paved road taking to the right. Keep on it as it will go through the former grounds of the base, now invaded by vegetation, where you will spot old aircraft shelters. The pavement will turn into concrete slabs at some point. Follow the road until it points south. You will find the gate with red stars and a no trespassing sign just after crossing an unpaved service road. You may park on the roadside and get past the gate by walk to avoid misunderstandings.

As pointed out, the area is privately owned and not open to the public. You need to get permission to step inside, and it might not be granted. You are likely to meet workers and watchdogs who will bark at you. I gesticulated in front of the workers, showed my camera and photographic gear, and they appeared not to care much about me taking pictures around. I spent a pretty long time undisturbed in the bunker, which is basically unused by the local business, but decided not to stimulate any discussion by taking too many pictures of the area ahead of it, which is actively used.

Szprotawa/Wiechlice Airbase

The fact that the airbase in Szprotawa – also known as Wiechlice – was supplied with a warhead bunker for tactical nuclear weapons tells much about its relevance at the time. Today, the territory of the base has been divided and partly sold to private businesses.

On one side, this has implied severe alterations to the original plan, with taxiways made unrecognizable, demolished or highly modified buildings, and so on. On the pros side, the huge runway can be freely accessed, and except for the extremities, it is still in relatively good shape, with the original centerline and other markings still visible.

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase

The base offers also some classic Soviet Type B hangars, typical to the mid-Sixties to mid-Seventies period. The giant reinforced concrete doors have been taken away. On the inside walls, writing in Cyrillic is abundant.

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase

On the day of my visit there, a local ‘war race’ (official site) – a kind of gymkhana – was taking place, making use of the post-apocalyptic scenario of the deserted base to setup a great running circuit – much fun!

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase War Race

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase War Race

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase War Race

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase War Race

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase War Race

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase War Race

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase War Race

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase War Race

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase

A tank was performing some acrobatics for the crowds on a terminal part of the former runway – a very nice and unusual sight!

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase

The site is completed by an extensive network of preserved service ways and some smaller buildings, generally not in a good shape.

Szprotawa Wiechlice Soviet Airbase

Getting there and moving around

Similarly to the approach to the atomic bunker, you might take on the road called Sosnowa from road 297 or 12. The road points into the base. At the end of the road, turn right and you will point directly to the runway. You will see several aircraft shelters in this area. You can park where you like, or you can reach the runway and move freely on it.

Pstraze Former Soviet Military Village and Bunkers

In its history the base of Pstraze hosted tank regiments, which would train on the extensive proving grounds nearby. A large secluded town used to be located just out of the fence, for civilian servicemen and for the families of Soviet staff.

Accessing the site from the south you are likely to meet what remains of the extensive housing, today completely demolished. Notwithstanding the rather depressing appearance of this area, this is a real mine of memorabilia and collectibles, in the form of garments – buckles, buttons, shoes,… – and items of everyday use – mugs, dishes, pharmaceuticals, canned food,… This is probably a result of the content of many apartments having been dumped in the area. I left with a shopping bag full of stuff, from a couple of gas masks to a metal buckle with hammer and sickle, a doll, Russian canned meat, and more!

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base

Moving north from this area, you meet scant remains of the original fence, telling you are entering the former military part of the site. There are a pretty large road and even a railway, both still serviceable today, even though not much used.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base

The following pictures are from a visit in 2018 – unfortunately, the buildings in this site have all basically disappeared as of summer 2020, when I visited for a second time to check out the bunkers and monuments, still there at that date (see later).

The first buildings were to be found north of the railway line, shrouded in the trees. In the southeastern corner a number of concrete platforms which might have been the foundations of soft, wooden buildings could be seen first. From there, pointing to the center of the former base you might spot a quantity of two/three-levels buildings, designed around the very same architecture. There used to be really many, and aligned along the service roads of the base, they form the majority of the ensemble.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base

Some different buildings in the military town could be found in the center. First and foremost, a movie theater.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base

The front part with the main entrance and a foyer had already collapsed entirely in 2018, but the theater was still in place at that time. The seats were gone, but the structure was sizable, telling about the great number of people that composed the staff of the base in the days of operation.

On the frame of the ceiling a series of names of locations were probably painted by the troops stationed here, or somebody who was tasked with maintenance works at some point.

A second interesting building could be found cross the street with respect to the movie theater. It is not very clear what its original function was, possibly a mall. It featured four halls at the corners, accessible with small flights of stairs from the outside, and larger halls inside. It had just one level, and a pretty broad extension.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base

This is what remained of this building in 2020.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit

Another interesting building could be found further west, towards the limit of the military town. It featured a gracious cantilever roof above the entrance, albeit in a pretty bad shape. Inside, it was composed of an immense hall, but maybe there used to be dividing frames and walls. Traces of a reception desk suggest some form of service – pool, gym, spa? – was provided here, and the same is true for the halls to the back, featuring tiled floors and walls.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base

Further interesting mystery buildings could be found on the northern limit of the site. There was a large, two-levels square building with an inner courtyard, somewhat elevated with respect to the surrounding area. Ahead of the entrance there was a pavement decoration with a wind rose. The facade was sober but somewhat more modern than all the other buildings. A command building, or a school maybe? There was also a smaller building on top of a similar low hill cross the street, but the roof had totally collapsed already in 2018.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base

There were also traces of a relax area with benches. A statue of Lenin would just complete the setting – possibly there was one, or some monuments, but nothing remains today here.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base

All in all, the place was really impressive for its extensive size and the unreal quietness and ‘Soviet ghost aura’ pervading the area…

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base

It should be said that with respect to other bases of the same type, the buildings here appeared really rotting and unsafe already in 2018. Most of the roofs had collapsed or had been willingly demolished, so the walls were exposed to the weather. Not many reasons remain to check out this area, except for chance is that you will leave with some CCCP-marked souvenir!

More interesting are a couple of monuments to be found scattered on the territory of the base, and as of 2020 somewhat unexpectedly spared despite demolition works in full swing.

The first is located on a crossing between two major unpaved roads of the base. It is made of three large slabs of concrete. The center one is clearly celebrating an anniversary from the closing stages or the end of WWII, when this area fell under control by the Soviets.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base Monument

The one to the left is fading, and the iconography is not very clear.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base Monument

It is also interesting that both this and the center panels appear to have been updated over time – there are multiple layers of paint in some spots, and as the most recent are fading, the older ones are surfacing, creating a somewhat blurred image, difficult to interpret.

The right panel is basically a big head of Lenin, with beams coming out of it. There is also a fading inscription to one side. From b/w photographs, it can be perceived more clearly that face traits were once there, making the portrait somewhat more elaborated.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base Monument

The second monument is much smaller and secluded. It is basically a commemoration slab concerning the soviet war effort in the Great Patriotic War.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base Monument

Unfortunately, side decoration is likely missing, as well as part of the inscription.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base Monument

Possibly the only reason to visit the place today is the part to the northern end of the town. There you can find (in 2020) a well preserved set of Granit-type bunkers. This type of bunkers was simple, basically made of an interred straight tunnel with two gates to the opposite entrances. They were built for many different uses, ranging from soft shelter of war material (like assembled missiles) to protected command posts. Granit bunkers appeared relatively late in the Cold War years (late 1970s), and are typical to several bases in the Eastern bloc (see for instance here or here for more examples).

A peculiarity of Pstraze is the fact that not just one, but three Granit bunkers were built in a very small area, with access well below ground level, and with two big access ramps for trucks each, reaching the two opposite ends of each bunker.

Here are pictures from the easternmost. Trees were painted on the concrete lids to the side of the entrances for deception. Access for trucks is really steep, but the ramps are still today in a relatively good shape.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit

To the far end of this bunker the lids have been partly torn. The entries to the ramps are guarded by turrets.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit

The second bunker is similar in construction to the first.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit

The last Granit is more strange. The front and back entries have been deeply modified at some point in history, closing them with a kind of concrete gate, strongly reducing the size of the entrance. This might have been a command post. Traces of a suspended canopy can be found on the access ramps for trucks.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit

Looking inside, you may notice the same trees painted on the original side lids. This further testifies the external concrete structures came at a later stage.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit

Leaving this area and going back to the military village, you may notice a fence existed once dividing the two sectors, as typical in most soviet installations.

Trzebien Pstraze Abandoned Soviet Base Bunker Granit

Getting there and moving around

I had not the time to explore the access points thoroughly, but I found a fairly accessible way in driving close to the ghost base from the road 297 in Stara Oleszna. The main obstacle between the road 297 to the base is river Bobr, which is not just a small creek, and can be passed only with a bridge. There is one for light vehicles in Stara Oleszna. It is well maintained, cause there are people living on the other bank of the river who rely on it. Keep on the road leaving the bridge to the west. After about .4 miles you will come to a T-shaped crossing, where you need to take to the north. There are warning signs, and the road turns unpaved. After about .15 miles you will find a prohibition sign for cars. You may leave your car there and continue by foot.

From this direction you will meet first demolished housing on your left, then you will cross the railway and main service road (paved). From there you can start your exploration. Unfortunately, as of 2020 there is not much left to see of the village, except the two monuments. Further north, you can find the Granit bunkers, which may make for an interesting sight especially for more military-minded subjects.

Secret Soviet Missile Bases in the GDR

January 14, 2018February 16, 2021 CarloRLeave a comment

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Driving less than one hour north from Berlin, Germany to the beautiful region of the Oberhavel, you can find some largely forgotten relics of an untold chapter of the Cold War, when Khrushchev secretly deployed nuclear missiles to hit European targets, for the first time outside of the Soviet Union – years before the Cuban missile crisis.

History – in brief

Germany held an undisputed lead on missile technology at the end of WWII. Similarly to the US, the missile program of the USSR started soon after Hitler’s army was defeated, and benefited from the capture and transfer of hundreds of German rocket scientists. These German engineers started by reproducing the German A-4 – also known as the in-famous V-2 -, the worlds first surface-to-surface missile to reach mass production. The corresponding Soviet design was named R-1, and similarly to the original A-4 it had a very short-range – less than 200 miles – and a payload too low for carrying a nuclear warhead, hence it could not be used to pose a strategic threat to the western enemies even in Europe from within the borders of the Communist bloc.

After long and intensive research efforts towards the increase in range, payload and accuracy of rockets, and aimed at improving yield, mass efficiency and miniaturization on the side of nuclear weapons, the Soviets finally could deploy the first intermediate range strategic missile, in the form of the R-5M – or SS-3 Shyster in the western databases – by mid-1956. With a range of 800 miles and a payload of 2800 lbs, this 60 ft-long missile could carry a single 300 kilotons nuclear warhead with basically autonomous inertial guidance, and radio correction to increase accuracy. Similarly to the A-4, propulsion was based on alcohol as fuel and highly volatile liquid-oxygen as oxidizer. Operation and maintenance of this high-technology surface-launched system was a very complicated task, requiring well-trained, specialized staff in large numbers. Several Engineering Brigades were established during the Fifties for this purpose, and their numbers and relevance went on increasing with time, as the range, yield and number of strategic missiles was rising with no pause in the following years.

For the USSR, already led by Khrushchev at that time, the commissioning of the R-5M platform meant that for the first time targets in the enemy Countries of Western Europe could be placed under the menace of a nuclear attack, carried out by means of missiles traveling at a speed so high that made them virtually undetectable and unstoppable. The Soviet Union now owned a strategic missile force, but the problem of range was still hard to tackle.

It was at this point that, after years of cogitation and secret papers, the deployment of the R-5M to the ‘border Countries’ of the communist empire started to take a tangible form. The reason was simple – while the range of the Shyster was not enough to reach any target from within the USSR, it could hit at least Britain, Northern France, Belgium and the US bases in the western half of Germany from some ‘satellite Country’, namely from the territory of the German Democratic Republic.

After inspection, the area between the small towns of Fürstenberg and Vogelsang – isolated in a pretty large, wild and unpopulated area, deep in the countryside about 35 miles north of Berlin and 12 miles from each other, but linked to the railway system – were selected by the higher ranks of the Soviet Army in 1957 for the deployment of missile launch facilities for the R-5M.

Construction works were started in total secrecy, enlarging and modifying Soviet military installations where some tank divisions were quartered. Even the top levels of the government and military staff of the GDR were unaware of the operation – codenamed ‘Atom’ by the Soviet high command. The Soviets carried out much of the work themselves, but they could not avoid to involve local civil workers for ‘unclassified tasks’, and they eventually came to suspect that something unusual was going on. Agents of – at least, but probably not only – the secret service of Federal Germany transmitted the news to their headquarters beyond the Iron Curtain. Yet documents become available decades after, following the end of the Cold War, show that not much detailed information existed in the archives of the intelligence of Western Countries about this deployment – further highlighting the ‘top secret’ level of the operation. This was actually the first deployment of Soviet strategic weapons outside the USSR ever, years before the more famous operation ‘Anadyr’ causing the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 – a scenario very similar to operation ‘Atom’, but with the US instead of western Europe directly within range of Soviet missiles.

Barracks, recreation and service buildings, concrete launch ramps, connection roads, bunkers for atomic warheads, and everything that was needed both for storing all subsystems and for supporting launch operations was built during 1958 both in Vogelsang and Fürstenberg. Two artillery units and two specialized accompanying technical units arrived in January 1959, together with 12 missiles transported by train, as reported again by secret agents. At the same time, upon reaching completion of the construction works all civil workers were dismissed, and today we know that the nuclear warheads arrived under heavy escort in May 1959 by train.

As typical in the chess game between the two superpowers in the years of Khrushchev, Eisenhower and Kennedy, after years of preparation operation ‘Atom’ was suddenly interrupted only three months after the Shyster had become operative in the GDR, in August 1959. An order to withdraw immediately was issued, and all missiles and related units were temporarily relocated in Kaliningrad, Russia, from where they were short of range and not any more a threat for the West.

But this is not the end of the story. In March 1959 the new R-12 missile, also known as SS-4 Sandal and later deployed to Cuba, became operative with a range of 1300 miles and a single high-yield, 2.3 megaton nuclear warhead. In September 1961 the Khrushchev administration issued an order to deploy a missile regiment constituted anew for the purpose with R-12 missiles to the GDR – an operation codenamed ‘Tuman’ (‘fog’ in English).

The high-ranking staff responsible for the operation inspected the bases of Vogelsang and Fürstenberg the same month, and issued orders for some preparation work to be carried out for making these facilities suitable for the new R-12 missile. As a result, two launch pads were set up in the trees between the two military bases. Each of them comprised light service buildings, concrete platforms for the launch gantries and support vehicles, fuel storages, guard bunkers. Gravel roads were prepared to connect the launch platforms with the two main bases, where Sandal missiles could be hidden and sheltered in the bunkers already manufactured for the Shyster.

The staff of the new regiment was engaged in intensive training activities and launch simulations in the USSR until the end of 1961, and all material and troops were kept ready for moving by train at the railway station of Zhitovichi, Belarus, at that time inside the Soviet Union, to the now ready bases in the GDR.

Again, after all preparations the order to deploy was never issued, and by mid 1962 ‘Tuman’ was halted and the special regiment disbanded. This second attempt to place Soviet missiles out of the USSR was canceled just months before the deployment to Cuba, and soon after the R-14 missile had become operative in April 1961. This missile, known as SS-5 Skean, had the same warhead but roughly twice the range of the SS-4 Sandal, mainly thanks to a different propellant. With this system all western Europe could now be targeted from behind the border of the USSR, making deployment to satellite Countries in Europe unnecessary.

Similarly to operation ‘Atom’, even though preparation works probably did not go unnoticed by the few people in the area, this story remained basically undisclosed until at least the mid 1990s, after the – by then – Russian armed forces left the territory of the former GDR, and both Vogelsang and Fürstenberg, which after the early Sixties had continued to work as military bases for some Soviet tank divisions, were finally shut down and abandoned.

Sights

As argued in other chapters on this website dealing with former Soviet installations over the territory of the former GDR, todays Germany – comprehensibly – does not seem interested in preserving any legacy of this inconvenient past. For the case of Vogelsang and Fürstenberg, the remoteness and amenity of the area has facilitated a new birth of these two as well as other nearby centers, which are today lovely destinations for local tourism especially from Berlin, with nice lakes, cycleways, many canals and hiking trails in the trees. As these two military bases with their weird stories have been a well kept secret since their inception, there is probably no reason for the local communities to publicize them now.

As a result, both bases are being strongly reclaimed by nature, and little remains today of these once prominent – albeit secret – installations.

Yet from a historical perspective the missile installations in Vogelsang and Fürstenberg make for a proof of the seriously dangerous and determined attitude of Khrushchev and the Soviet Union towards increasing the power of the USSR on the international scene by means of military actions. Especially in 1959 with the deployment of the Shyster, the stage for a crisis with an unpredictable outcome was prepared in Europe, but for some reason luckily this was not exploited. Furthermore, this happened some years before the Cuban missile crisis, incorrectly accepted as the first such experiment in Soviet history.

Both bases in Vogelsang and Fürstenberg present some traces of the activity of the missile units. While most of the buildings connected with the missile operations have been demolished, including unreinforced hangars for storing the missiles, bunkers for nuclear warheads can be found on both sites – these are much stronger, and demolition work would be very difficult, so these hangars have been simply closed and left there. Vogelsang is covered in a dedicated chapter, while the scant remains of the Fürstenberg barracks and the nuclear storage there will be shown in this post.

Possibly more intriguing – for more dedicated explorers – and difficult to find are the rocket launch pads. Two launch pads for the R-5M exist, on the premises of Vogelsang and Fürstenberg bases. Eight further pads are placed in two groups of four, in the large territory extending between the two military bases. These are totally abandoned, forgotten deep in the trees, possibly the only tangible testimony of the planned deployment of the SS-4 Sandal in the GDR. These are also covered in this post.

Photographs were taken in August 2017.

Map

Due to the wild vegetation and to the shape of the launching pads – which are concrete slabs today mostly covered by a thin layer of mud, moss and lichens – spotting these ‘archeological findings’ is getting more and more challenging. To ease the search I created a Google map of the launch pads. No coverage of what remains of the nearby bases of Vogelsang and Fürstenberg is provided on the map, as whether those places are interdicted to the public or free to visit is a matter of discussion.

Besides the position of the pads themselves, you can find what are car-accessible roads to get near to pinpointed POIs and suggested trail/trail-heads.

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

R-5M/SS-3 Shyster Missile Launch Pad and Nuclear Bunker, Fürstenberg
Housing at Fürstenberg Military Base
R-5M/SS-3 Shyster Missile Launch Pad, Vogelsang
R-12/SS-4 Sandal Missile Launch Pads, South-East of Fürstenberg
R-12/SS-4 Sandal Missile Launch Pads, North of Vogelsang
Templin Soviet Airbase – Totally Gone

R-5M/SS-3 Shyster Missile Launch Pad and Nuclear Bunker, Fürstenberg

There is one missile launch pad in Fürstenberg, built for the Shyster missile. The local road along the western border of the military base divides its premises from the launch pad, which today can be neared with walking on an easy trail which was probably a Soviet gravel road in its origin, wide enough to allow moving the missile on a trolley.

Like all other launch pads in the area, the central piece is a narrow rectangular concrete slab about 30 ft long, with a prominent metal crown set in it, with a diameter of about 5-6 ft. The crown is a piece of technology, even though today it is covered in rust and with an unattractive brownish color. It was used to anchor the small gantry put under the missile to keep it in the launch position. The missile was transported on a trolley in a horizontal position, and lifted to a vertical attitude before launch.

Furstenberg Lychen Nuclear Missile Launch Pad

The most visible difference between the launch pads for the SS-3 Shyster and for the SS-4 Sandal – the latter being a couple of years younger, as shown above – lies in the metal crown. The crown of the Shyster is smaller and more like a polygon, where that for the Sandal – see later – is more round shaped, mostly resembling a watch bezel.

The concrete slabs had to withstand the intense thrust and heat of the missile without breaking into pieces. I guess – but I am not sure – some of the piping leading to these slabs – not visible here but next to other launch pads – may have been installed for a water cooling system.

The launch pad is the most visible item of a more complex system, comprising fuel and oxidizer storages, an electric generator, a control cabin and other gear. All this was placed in partly interred dugouts, which in Fürstenberg are today basically all gone.

On the premises of the Fürstenberg base and very close to the launch site there are two bunkers, possibly for the missile and nuclear warheads. The size and construction of the larger bunker, which has two doors on the two faces, suggests a use as a missile storage bunker, possibly suitable both for the Shyster and the Sandal, which despite the totally different performance were not so different in shape and size.

Furstenberg Lychen Nuclear Missile Base

Today both bunkers are totally closed and inaccessible, the smaller one – possibly for warheads – has been turned into a shelter for bats. You can see the inside of the batbunker through the batslot!

Furstenberg Lychen Nuclear Missile Base

Conspicuous traces of the barbed wire fences and prefabricated concrete wall marking the perimeter of the area are still in place.

Furstenberg Lychen Nuclear Missile Base

Housing at Fürstenberg Military Base

Similarly to Vogelsang (see here), in Fürstenberg there are traces of what was once a large Soviet base, with housing for many people and service buildings. There are buildings in at least two styles, suggesting construction works were carried out in different stages. Multi-storey buildings are more recent, and similar to those you can find in the former airbase of Brand (see here) – among others.

Furstenberg Lychen Nuclear Missile Base

A large part of the buildings has been demolished, and there is comparatively less to see here than in Vogelsang. Yet the place looks haunted also in clear air and bright sunlight, so the area may be worth a visit for the enthusiasts of Soviet ghosts!

R-5M/SS-3 Shyster Missile Launch Pad, Vogelsang

A portrait of the launch pad in Vogelsang from another visit is provided also in a dedicated chapter of this website. For completeness, here are some new photos.

While similar to the that of Fürstenberg, this launch pad is far better conserved, but not easy to spot from the access road of the base. The system of trenches and dugouts for all technical gear needed to prepare and control the launch can be spotted very easily all around. Note the polygonal shape of the metal crown typical of the Shyster system.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Launch Pad

There are also traces of military material, possibly unearthed due to some more recent demolition work, like old ‘CCCP-made’ batteries, metal boxes, protective metal panels and more.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Launch Pad

Some of the trenches have been flooded, and you would better go prepared to face thousands of biting midges and mosquitoes – take it seriously, otherwise you are not going to withstand their attacks for more than 5 seconds!

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Launch Pad

Visible traces of the barbed wire fence from Soviet times can be found along the access road.

Vogelsang Nuclear Missile Launch Pad

In Vogelsang the location of the launch pad is much farther away from the nuclear warhead storage and missile deposit area than in Fürstenberg, and from the housing and service buildings of the military base. Everything is more scattered, and much more walking is needed to find this launch site, due to its distance from the local road.

R-12/SS-4 Sandal Missile Launch Pads, South-East of Fürstenberg

A first set of four launch pads for the Sandal missile can be found in a small area deep in a forest, on a flat terrain. This was associated to Fürstenberg for supply. The pads are placed at a walking distance from each other. Differently from the Shyster sites, the Sandal sites are not close to any building, and the gravel connection roads are in many cases not visible, or they have been more recently modified by the forest service. Plus they are not maintained in any way, and are today barely visible.

Searching for these findings is very funny if you like this kind of activities. You will definitely feel like Indiana Jones – or Lara Croft – while searching for the missile launch pads, but you have no chance to find them unless you have a GPS. You won’t need more than an iPhone with a decent free GPS app and good deal of patience, but without both ingredients you’d better give up from the start. Look at the pictures where I have my iPhone in one hand to see the ‘exact’ coordinates – some tolerance is needed, since my free app was not professional, and the trees above are very effective in jamming the satellite signal.

Of the four pads in this first site – possibly identified as BSP-1 by Soviet staff – I explored only three due to unfortunate time constraints. Proceeding from the west to the east, on site number 3 on the map I could not find even the concrete slab of the launch pad! Only a small unreadable metal sign has been left for posterity.

R-12 SS-4 Sandal Nuclear Missile Launch Pad Vogelsang Furstenberg

Launch pad number 2 on the map can be spotted once you are close. The concrete platform is partly unearthed and the corners can be seen. A gap in the trees on the area also help to find the perimeter of the rectangular concrete slab, which is otherwise shrouded by low vegetation.

R-12 SS-4 Sandal Nuclear Missile Launch Pad Vogelsang Furstenberg

The metal crown of the SS-4 Sandal is bigger and different in shape from those of the SS-3 Shyster, as anticipated – it is almost circular, not polygonal. I found exactly the same type of metal rig in some much bigger launch bases for SS-4 missiles in Latvia (see here).

R-12 SS-4 Sandal Nuclear Missile Launch Pad Vogelsang Furstenberg

The trenches and shallow dugouts for all components of the missile system can be spotted all around, albeit made mimetic and very difficult to capture with a camera, due to the underbrush hiding them and smoothing their profile. The trenches and the concrete pad are connected by a system of concrete pipelines. Metal frames with hinges, once made for doors giving access to the pipelines, can be spotted very close to the concrete platform. Maybe these were used also for a water cooling system to avoid the explosion of the launch pad, subject to the exhaust of the rocket engine at launch.

R-12 SS-4 Sandal Nuclear Missile Launch Pad Vogelsang Furstenberg

Walking to the the launch pad number 1 on the map you may come across what remains of a concrete booth, possibly a control cabin.

R-12 SS-4 Sandal Nuclear Missile Launch Pad Vogelsang Furstenberg

Launch pad number 1 is very similar to number 2, but here part of the side of the platform is unearthed and clearly visible.

R-12 SS-4 Sandal Nuclear Missile Launch Pad Vogelsang Furstenberg

It is noteworthy that no trace exists of any serious fence around the Sandal launch sites, differently from all other Soviet installations of various kinds I have visited all over the former GDR. Recalling the SS-4 launch sites were never operative, perhaps the Soviets did not really complete the construction works, and the cordoned area was marked only with some ‘soft barrier’ which could be removed leaving no trace.

Please note that the access road to get near to this site is car-accessible, but it is narrow, unpaved, with muddy spots, covered with fallen leaves and in some sections with sand. I could reach my destination with a station wagon without particular difficulty on a dry day in summer, but I would say the best vehicle type for this roads in any weather would be a smaller, possibly AWD car. Needless to say, you will need some form of protection for your feet and legs to approach the launch pads, but there are no bad insects in the area.

R-12/SS-4 Sandal Missile Launch Pads, North of Vogelsang

The second Sandal launch site – possibly named BSP-2 by the Soviets, but historical sources are not very clear – is associated to Vogelsang, which is roughly 4 miles south, from which it should have been supplied. Despite the similar role, this installation is very different from the previous one.

The launch pads are almost square, not rectangular. The missile facilities are built on top of a steep small hill, not on flat terrain, with the four launch pads much closer to each other than in the previous site. They have been put along a circular pattern, not straight as for the previous installation. It looks like this site was developed further than the previous one, for much more conspicuous remains of dugouts, and even what seems to be a guard post with a firing loophole, can be spotted here.

Starting from the easternmost pad number 1, the concrete platform is pretty well conserved and the metal crown for the SS-4 is easy to find. There are traces of metal wiring, and concrete pipelines all around.

R-12 SS-4 Sandal Nuclear Missile Launch Pad Vogelsang Furstenberg

Approaching the northernmost launch pad – number 2 on the map – it is possible to see remains of large dugouts, possibly for fuel deposits or other technical stuff.

R-12 SS-4 Sandal Nuclear Missile Launch Pad Vogelsang Furstenberg

Number 2 is poorly conserved and difficult to get access to. The terrain around is muddy and covered by a thick forest of 3-feet high nettles. The metal crown has almost disappeared under a nice layer of moss.

R-12 SS-4 Sandal Nuclear Missile Launch Pad Vogelsang Furstenberg

Launch pad number 3 to the west is connected to what looks like a nearby pool by a concrete pipeline, suggesting a cooling system, but maybe this was a dugout for a generator or something electric, with wiring connecting this gear to the missile through the concrete pipe. Also here the metal crown is today barely visible.

R-12 SS-4 Sandal Nuclear Missile Launch Pad Vogelsang Furstenberg

The last launch pad – number 4 on the map – is located to the south of the site, and poorly conserved. It was partly covered by a pile of cut branches when I visited. A strange item nearby the platform, where part of the metal crown can be spotted pretty easily, is an angle-shaped iron bar with a big bolt in it, emerging from the ground – and almost killing me, making me stumble!

R-12 SS-4 Sandal Nuclear Missile Launch Pad Vogelsang Furstenberg

Except for the obvious need for proper walking gear, this place is easy to reach by foot along a nice, prepared nature trail – see map.

R-12 SS-4 Sandal Nuclear Missile Launch Pad Vogelsang Furstenberg

The SS-4 launch pads are not publicized nor maintained, perhaps even somewhat voluntarily hidden, but the trail passes very close to them, so getting near is easy. There is a small lovely pond at the base of the hill, and the area is pretty wet. As a result, also here there are thousands of biting insects around – don’t forget your insect repellent!

Templin Soviet Airbase – Totally Gone

As a Cold War historian, aviation enthusiast, archaeologist, dark tourist or Soviet fan (?), you may be tempted to go to the nearby super-base of Templin, once one of the largest and more advanced Soviet airbases over the territory of the GDR.

Well, don’t waste your time. Sadly, the area of the base – in all its extension – has been converted into a gigantic solar power plant, owned and run by Siemens. It is totally fenced and full of obstacles, prohibition signs and CC-cameras. The scant remains of some housing are not accessible. There is also a small circuit track on the old apron, where some companies offer extreme driving experiences. Nothing interesting here, not any more.

Templin Former Soviet Base

The Estonian Aviation Museum

December 3, 2017September 22, 2023 CarloRLeave a comment

A nice and lively university town in the heart of the Estonian countryside, Tartu has really something for every kind of tourist – including those interested in aviation history. The Estonian Aviation Museum, or ‘Eeesti Lennundusmuuseum’ as they write it in the tricky local idiom, boasts a substantial and heterogenous collection of aircraft preserved in exceptionally good condition, which will not leave indifferent even the most knowledgeable aviation expert.

Having being for long a socialist republic in the realm of the Soviet Union – and today sharing a border with Russia – Estonia had access to massive surplus reserves after the end of the Cold War, so it is no surprise that Soviet aircraft are well represented in an Estonian museum. This already might appeal to western tourists, for the exotic, menacing silhouettes of MiGs and Sukhois are not often to be found except in less accessible spots in the former Eastern Bloc. Yet some more unexpected and rare models have been added over the years, including some SAAB aircraft from Sweden which are authentic collectibles.

The following photographs cover almost every plane that was there in summer 2017.

Sights

Most part of the collection has been preserved in a cleverly designed structure, made of small open-walled hangars with translucent canopies. The aircraft are illuminated by natural light, helping much when taking pictures, but they are not exposed to direct sunlight, rain or snow, which tend to damage both metal and plexiglas on the long run. Furthermore, the lack of doors and frames allows you to move around freely, and the place is not suffocating nor excessively warm.

The aircraft are basically all from the Cold War era, but some of them have outlived the end of the USSR and were retired more recently. The portraits are grouped here roughly based on the nationality of the manufacturers or aircraft mission.

Designs from the US

The American production is represented in this museum firstly by a McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, operated by the West-German Luftwaffe. The General Electric J79 turbojets have been taken out of the airframe, so you can see them separately.

McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom

McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom with J79 engine

A pretty unusual sight, also the antenna and electronic group in the nose cone have been taken out and are on display. This Phantom is a F-4F, a version specifically developed for West Germany from the basic F-4E. The former inventory number was 99+91.

McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom Radar Avionic Targeting

Another iconic model on the menu is a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, formerly from the Italian Air Force. This exemplar is actually an Italian-built ‘S’ version, and among the latest to be retired by the Aeronautica Militare. The engine, again a J79, is on display elsewhere in the museum. An unusual crowd of instruction and warning stencils populate the external surface of the aircraft.

Lockheed F-104 Starfighter Italian Air Force

Soviet Military Models

The majority of the aircraft on display were designed in the Soviet Union or other countries of the Warsaw Pact.

Two aggressive aircraft include a MiG-21 and a MiG-23. The first, present here in the colors of the Polish Air Force, is a MiG-21bis Fishbed, the latest development of this fast delta-wing fighter/light-interceptor.

MiG-21 Fishbed Polish Air Force

Possibly one of the most ubiquitous fighters of the jet age, the MiG-23 Flogger is part also of this collection. The aircraft you see in the pictures is a MLD variant, representing the last upgrade of this iconic fighter, which was also the basis for the very successful MiG-27 design.

MiG-23 Flogger Ukrainian Air Force

MiG-23 Flogger Ukrainian Air Force Tumansky R27

MiG-23 Flogger Ukrainian Air Force

It bears the markings of the Ukrainian Air Force, therefore it is likely an ex-USSR aircraft. The engine is sitting besides the aircraft, and two rocket canisters are placed beneath the fuselage, close to the ventral GSh-23 twin-barreled cannon.

MiG-23 Flogger Ukrainian Air Force

A less usual sight is a MiG-25 Foxbat, a super fast interceptor/recce aircraft. Conceived in the late Fifties when the race for speed was in full swing, it was developed into a high performance platform to counteract the threat of the SR-71 Blackbird. It was built around two massive Tumansky R-15 afterburning turbojets, rated at a pretty high wet thrust of 110 kN, resulting in an incredible top speed around Mach 3.2! The aircraft is pretty sizable, and you can appreciate that looking at the picture of the main landing gear – search for the cover of my Canon wide lens close to the ground and compare sizes!

MiG-25 Foxbat Red Army Tartu Estonia

The menacing silhouette of this huge bird, with red stars on the vertical fins and a bare metal fuselage, will likely make relive in you an ‘Iron Curtain feeling’!

MiG-25 Foxbat Red Army Tartu Estonia

One which will not go unnoticed is a Polish Air Force Sukhoi Su-22M4 Fitter in a flamboyant, very colored livery. This massive fighter-bomber represents the export version of the Su-17M4 built by the USSR for domestic orders.

Sukhoi Su-22 Fitter Polish Air Force

Despite the shape, roughly similar to that of the MiG-21 also on display, the size of this aircraft is much bigger – you might think of Su-22 as a case for a MiG-21…

Sukhoi Su-22 Fitter Polish Air Force

Soviet bombers are represented by a pretty rare Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer, which is today still in service in Russia. The example on display bears the markings of the Ukrainian Air Force, meaning it was once a Soviet aircraft.

Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer Ukrainian Air Force (ex-Soviet Red Army)

This massive twin-engined beast outsizes all other military aircraft on display. The aircraft is on display with three support tanks under the fuselage and the inner wing pylons.

Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer Ukrainian Air Force (ex-Soviet Red Army)

A less common sight is a Yakovlev Ya-28P Firebar, a long-range intercept version of this multi-role platform from the early Sixties. This design is very interesting, with a four-points undercarriage and a very long nose cone, where a radar system for a target-tracking and missile guidance system was located. The two turbojet engines are mounted in cigar-shaped underwing pods. The relevant sweep of the wing suggests a significant speed capability, yet many variants of this aircraft were developed to exploit also its good range performance. The antenna originally placed in the nose cone is on display besides the aircraft, which bears original Soviet markings.

Yakovlev Yak-28 Brewer-E Soviet

Soviet Transport Aircraft

Two aircraft which could not find their way in covered shelters mainly due to their bigger size, are a Tupolev Tu-134A-3 and a Yakovlev Ya-40. Both can be accessed, so you can get a view of the inside, including the cockpits.

The Tu-134 twin jet, with its distinctive glass bulge in the nose ahead of the cockpit, has been for long a ubiquitous aircraft in the USSR and in many countries of the Eastern Bloc. The exemplar on display was taken over by the Estonian company Elk Airways, created after Estonia left the USSR.

Tupolev Tu-134A-3 Elk Airways Estonia

Notwithstanding this, the aircraft betrays its Soviet ancestry and ownership in every particular, from the all-Cyrillic writings to the hammers and sickles here and there, from the design of interiors to the exotic cockpit, painted in a typical lurid Soviet green and with prominent unframed black rubber fans for ventilation.

Tupolev Tu-134A-3 Elk Airways Estonia

The Yak-40 is an interesting three-jet executive/small transport aircraft. The one on display went on flying for at least some good 15 years after the collapse of the wall in Berlin.

Yakovlev Yak-40 Soviet Executive

Yakovlev Yak-40 Cockpit

Yakovlev Yak-40 Soviet Executive

Yakovlev Yak-40 Cockpit

Yakovlev Ya-40 Tartu Estonia

The internal configuration features an executive room ahead of a more usual passenger section and tail galley. The style of the cabin and of the pure analog cockpit is really outdated for todays standards!

Yakovlev Yak-40 Tartu Estonia Executive Cabin Soviet

Yakovlev Yak-40 Tartu Estonia Executive Cabin

Yakovlev Yak-40 Tartu Estonia Executive Cabin Soviet

Yakovlev Yak-40 Tartu Estonia Executive Cabin

Yakovlev Yak-40 Tartu Estonia

A rugged workhorse still flying today in many countries is the Antonov An-2, a single propeller, radial-engined, biplane tail-dragger transport. There are two of them in the collection. One is under a shelter and can be boarded. The interiors are very basic, but the visibility from the cockpit is very good especially for a tail-dragger with an engine on the nose.

Antonov An-2 Tartu Estonia

Antonov An-2

Antonov An-2 Tartu Estonia

Antonov An-2 Cockpit

Swedish Aircraft

An unusual chapter in air museums except in Sweden is that of SAAB aircraft, which are represented in this collection by two iconic models, a Draken and a Viggen, and an extremely rare, very elegant Lansen. All are in the colors of the Royal Swedish Air Force.

The Saab 35 Draken features a very distinctive double-delta wing, and was developed in the Fifties for reaching a high supersonic speed. The design turned out to be pretty successful, and was operationally adopted primarily as a fighter by Sweden and other European countries as well.

SAAB 35 Draken Swedish Air Force

The one in the collection is painted in a bright yellow livery. The infra-red pod under the nose cone of this aggressive attack aircraft looks like the lidless eye of an alien!

SAAB 35 Draken Swedish Air Force

SAAB 35 Draken Swedish Air Force Radar

SAAB 35 Draken Swedish Air Force

The Viggen is a an attack aircraft from the late Sixties, developed for the domestic military needs into some sub-variants. With the JA 37 version displayed here, the Viggen went on to constitute the backbone of the intercept fleet of neutral Sweden, and was retired only in the early 2000s. The aerodynamic configuration features a prominent canard wing, and the Viggen was notably the first in such configuration produced in significant numbers.

SAAB JA 37 Viggen Swedish Air Force

The most unusual of all three SAAB designs on display is surely the SAAB 32 Lansen. A very neat design from the Fifties, loosely recalling the Lockheed P-80 and the Hawker Hunter, the Lansen was a jet fighter of the early Cold War developed specifically for Sweden and gaining a good success. The ‘E’ version on display was converted from the original fighter variant (‘B’) for the ECM role, and kept flying almost until the end of the 20th century. The green painting of the Royal Swedish Air Force is really stylish, definitely adding to an already elegant design.

SAAB J32 Lansen Swedish Air Force with RM5/Avon engine

SAAB J32 Lansen Swedish Air Force

Soviet Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAM)

Curiously enough, an extensive collection of SAMs is part of this rich collection. All major missiles from SA-2 to SA-6 are represented, some of them in multiple exemplars. The size of these missiles, especially the oldest, is really striking. They are stored outside, besides some cases for missile transportation, deployable radar antennas, and what appears to be a flak cannon from Hitler’s Germany – a bit of an outsider…

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-2

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-3

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-5

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-3

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-5

SAM Container

German Flak Cannon

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-2

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-5

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-4 SA-6

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-4

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-6

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-4 SA-6

Jet Engines

Many of the engines of the aircraft on display have been taken out of the corresponding airframes and put on display besides the plane where they used to belong, or in a dedicated part of the museum together with others. The J79 belonging to the Italian-built F-104 can be recognized from the Italian plaques on many components.

Soviet Jet Engine Tartu Estonia

General Electric J79 Turbojet McDonnell Douglas Phantom engine

Soviet Jet Engine Tartu Estonia

General Electric J79 Lockheed Starfighter engine

Many soviet engines bear markings in Cyrillic, and one of them, a larger turbofan which does not fit in any bird on display, has been cut to show all components.

Soviet Turbofan Cutaway Tartu Estonia

More…

More aircraft in the collection include some Mil and Kamov utility helicopters, a BAe Hawk of the Finnish Air Force and other trainers mainly from countries of the Warsaw Pact, some of them now on the civilian register.

PZL TS-11 Iskra Polish Air Force

Crop Duster Tartu Estonia

PZL Wilga Tartu Estonia

Jodel DR-1050 Ambassador

Aero L-39 Albatros Ukrainian Air Force

BAe Hawk Finnish Air Force

Aero L-29 Dolphin

Kamov Ka-26

Mil Mi-8 Tartu Estonia

A further notable aircraft is a Dassault Mirage IIIRS from the Swiss Air Force – with multi-language French and German stencils all over.

Dassault Mirage IIIRS Swiss Air Force

There are also some anti-aircraft guns, armored vehicles, tanks, and other curios items to whet your appetite!

T34 Soviet Tank Tartu Estonia

Rockets Tartu Estonia

Anti Aircraft Gun Tartu Estonia

Military Transport Tartu Estonia

Anti Aircraft Gun Tartu Estonia

Autonomous Aircraft Drone Tartu Estonia

Getting There and Moving Around

The museum can be reached 10 miles south of central Tartu on road 141, about 15 minutes by car from there. There is a free parking area nearby the entrance. As remarked, the collection is well-kept and somewhat publicized locally. There is a website with all information in English. The time required for visiting may vary from 45 minutes for a quick tour to 2.5 hours for photographers and those with a specific interest in the matter.

Soviet Leftovers in Latvia

October 15, 2017May 9, 2020 CarloR3 Comments

Similar to the neighbor republics of Estonia and Lithuania, Latvia was occupied by the Soviets a first time in 1939 and again in 1944, when after some years of occupation by Hitler’s forces the Red Army started to successfully repel the German Wehrmacht from within Russia back towards Poland and central Europe. Differently from other European Countries later to become satellites of Moscow’s central communist power, the three ‘Baltic States’ were directly annexed to the Soviet Union.

History – in brief

As a matter of fact, the process of annexation was not a very peaceful one. Having had already a short but intense experience of the Stalinist dictatorship as a consequence of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact before the German invasion in 1941, as soon as it became clear that Stalin’s forces would regain power hundreds of thousands from the Baltics left the Country for abroad, while the communist regime rapidly started to put in practice its deadly ideas, with the collectivization of all private activities, abolition of free elections and non-communist associations, and the imprisonment and deportation of all who disagreed with this plan.

The reason for the different fate of these Countries – annexed – with respect to those of central Europe – which became satellites of the USSR – may be understood on one side looking further back in history – the territories of the three republics had been for long under the direct influence of the Russian Empire. On the other hand, as testified by the relevant military presence in these areas since immediately after the beginning of the Cold War, the government of the USSR considered the Baltic region of high strategic value. Taking control of the coast of the Baltic States, and also thanks to the annexation of the region of Hanko in Finland, the USSR could protect the access to the Gulf of Finland and Leningrad, profit from military and commercial ports which do not freeze in winter and deploy strategic military resources – especially aircraft and missiles – within range of most European capitals.

Bases for all branches of the military flourished in all three new Soviet Socialist Republics. Soon after the fall of the Wall in Berlin, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were the first of the USSR states to declare independence from the Union in 1990 – almost two years before the actual collapse of the USSR – following massive protests which unveiled the high level of intolerance for the Soviet rule. As a result of the withdrawal of Soviet/Russian forces, these three small republics found themselves in control of many military installations, totally disproportioned to the new size and needs of the new states, and making for a not-so-welcomed memento of many decades of hardship – as a matter of fact, some measures to limit the spread of Russian influence in culture and politics have been implemented in all three states, which also joined NATO and the European Union as soon as possible.

Sights

The attitude assumed towards the huge military assets left from the Cold War has been slightly different in the three republics. All three are basically getting rid of them, Estonia being the quickest – not much remains there of the many missile bases, and the once prominent strategic air base in Raadi has been totally closed down and partially converted into a museum on national history. Until some years ago many missile sites remained in quite a good shape in Latvia, but most of them have been actively demolished in recent years, including the most iconic Dvina silo sites – as of 2017 the job was completed and no Dvina complex remains in Latvia. Yet visible remains of surface bases and many ghost towns and bunkers are reportedly still there, and while some can be visited ‘officially’ as museums, many are left to urban explorers and archaeologists, while some hardware like warehouses and service buildings has been reused by local companies for storing logs, gravel and other raw materials. Lithuania bolsters possibly the last surviving Dvina missile complex in Europe, which has been turned recently into a museum on the Cold War, totaling 20’000 visitors per year. The demolition process is perhaps slower there.

Prisons constitute non-military but possibly more disturbing leftovers from the communist era. There are some in the Baltics – as basically everywhere in the former eastern bloc including Eastern Germany – all opened as museum, and in one instance also partially turned into a curious and evoking ‘jail hotel’.

This post presents some highlights and examples of remains from the Cold War era from both military and non-military sites in Latvia. Photographs were taken in 2017, during a visit to this lively and nice country in Northern Europe.

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

Zeltini Nuclear Missile Base
Dvina Missile Site, Tirza – Completely Destroyed
Skrunda Military Ghost Town
Karosta Military Prison & Liepaja Port Town
Klavi Nuclear Missile Base
The Corner House – KGB Prison in Riga

Zeltini Nuclear Missile Base

This missile base is one of the best conserved in the three republics. The storage and launch complex was originally built for the R12 liquid fueled, 2.3 Megaton single-warhead nuclear missile, known in the West as SS-4 Sandal. This missile system – the same deployed to Cuba in 1962 – was pretty modern for the end of the Fifties, yet it lacked the extra range required to reach strategic targets in Europe from deep within Russia. This made the Baltic region very interesting for the military, and a place of election for installing missile complexes in that age.

The base of Zeltini is one of three missile launch sites around the town of Aluksne, in northeastern Latvia. This base was updated and kept in an active state until the end of the Soviet Union and the withdrawal of the Red Army towards Russia, who obviously carried away all the weapons and technical rigs. Soon after, the locals started to take away anything of any value, including extensive piping, cables, any metal and so on, leaving basically the empty buildings and bunkers. More recently, as typical also to other such places in Latvia, private businesses were allowed on the premises of the former installation. A timber storage and processing facility today occupies the area where the nuclear warheads used to be stored, separate from the missiles.

The complex in Zeltini could accommodate four missiles in two couples of neighbor storage bunkers, built about .3 miles apart, and launch them from two twin surface launch pads. At least two launch pads can be seen today. They are large flat area with a pavement made of concrete slabs, recognizable by a steel crown on the ground with an approximate diameter of 5-6 feet. This was used to anchor the low gantry holding the 72 ft long missile in vertical position when being readied for launch.

One of the pads is in the center of the best preserved part of the site – the southeastern one -, but the position of the missile gantry is today occupied by a pretty big head of Lenin, reportedly moved here from Aluksne after the end of communism, sparing it from being blown up.

Zeltini Soviet Nuclear Missile Base Latvia

The grounds around this launch pad are rich with interesting bunkers, which once hosted support machinery and control gears, including anything necessary for missile servicing, launch preparation and control.

Zeltini Soviet Nuclear Missile Base Latvia

There are bunkers of basically two types – smaller ones with a single entrance on one side of a cusp-roofed tunnel and a lower height, and bigger ones, much roomier, longer, and with doors on both sides of the barrel-vaulted tunnel.

Zeltini Soviet Nuclear Missile Base Latvia

AZeltini Soviet Nuclear Missile Base Latvia

Zeltini Soviet Nuclear Missile Base Latvia

A ubiquitous feature of these missile complexes are concrete T-shaped frames planted in the ground. These were used to carry miles of pipings at the time when the base was active.

Aligned with the main axis of the launch area it is possible to spot the corresponding missile bunker ‘N.3’, which is unfortunately locked. The construction and size are like those of the bigger support bunkers, the only visible difference being the slightly wider doors on the front façade, and the absence of a back door on the other end of the bunker.

Zeltini Soviet Nuclear Missile Base Latvia

Many traces of plaques with mottos and citations in Russian from Lenin & Co. can be found on the exterior of the bunkers, whereas tons of ‘Warning!’ signs and other technical information are painted in the inside.

Zeltini Soviet Nuclear Missile Base Latvia

A second launch pad can be seen in the in the northwestern part of the military grounds – with no Lenin’s head. Here traces of stripes on the ground for easing maneuvers or indicating the place to park ancillary rigs – like generators, gas tanks,… – can still be seen. Also here the corresponding ‘N.2’ missile bunker is locked.

Zeltini Soviet Nuclear Missile Base Latvia

In a land strip where nature is growing wild between the two main launch areas, it is possible to spot a little bunker with a kind of concrete sentry-box. This was presumably a storage bunker for light weapons, a small reinforced shelter for watchmen, or something similar. Wooden shelves can still be found inside.

Zeltini Soviet Nuclear Missile Base Latvia

Another interesting sight is what appears to be a ‘living bunker’. This is half interred, with small doors on both ends and a sequence of rooms aligned on a long corridor. The center room is the biggest, and may be a canteen or something alike. There are traces of a decorated white and blue linoleum pavement, but there are also very unique frescoes on the walls. These include an artist impression of the SS-4 Sandal missile and also of the typical mushroom-cloud produced by a nuclear explosion!

Zeltini Soviet Nuclear Missile Base Latvia

A conspicuous part of the Zeltini base is the command area with living quarters for the troops. This is the part you see first when entering the base. The buildings here are totally abandoned and possibly dangerous to access.

Zeltini Soviet Nuclear Missile Base Latvia

There is not much left inside, but relevant remains of plaques with inscriptions and artistic drawings can be found on the walls outside. A highlight of the area is a former small park with a typical communist monument – a distinctive feature of all Soviet bases. The small park is a bit creepy, there are still benches around a former flowerbed, and a rain shelter, all now emerging from a field of nettles! The monument is basically a long wall with the silhouette of a stylized head. The inscription is fading, but the face painted on the red head can still be seen.

Zeltini Soviet Nuclear Missile Base Latvia

Getting there and moving around

The former missile base of Zeltini can be easily found driving on the P34, about 1.2 miles west of the town, exactly where P44 leaves from P34 to the north. There is also an official sign on the P34 pointing the way in. The area is preserved to some extent, and some of the former connection roads inside can be seen on Google Street View, yet the grounds are unfenced and there are no opening times. You can go in and move with your car, the only risk is that of getting a flat due to the road not being very clean.

Close to the head of Lenin there is also an explanatory panel with some quick notes and a basic map. A museum can be found in Zeltini, which was not opened when I visited, and they reportedly offer also guided tours of the place. This might be interesting especially for those less used to exploration activities, and possibly also to get access to the missile bunkers, which are usually closed. I couldn’t arrange a guided visit though, so I don’t know what they are offering on guided tours.

Some timber companies work in the former base, and you should not interfere with their operations, nor intrude in those parts of the base which are now used by them. Apart from this, this installation is rich of interesting sights and not much risky nor too big or difficult to explore, and it will make for a good 2 hours (minimum) exploration even visiting on your own, without accessing the locked or forbidden parts.

Note: Nearby Dvina Missile Site, Tirza – Completely Destroyed

There used to be other two ‘sister sites’ of the Zeltini complex in the area around Aluksne. One was in Strautini, a design very similar to the one in Zeltini. To my information this has ceased operations but is still today part of a military installation, so it cannot be approached. The second one was built in Tirza, and it was a Dvina site, i.e. a complex of four interred silos built for a suitably modified version of the R12 missile, called R12U. This kind of missile site started to be installed in 1964. Standing to the Google map of early 2017 the Tirza site should have been still in relative good shape. Unfortunately, in very recent times the local government hit very hard, having the site totally destroyed, flooded and buried under a monumental pile of land. The photographs below show what remains of this site – literally nothing.

Tirza Dvina Soviet Nuclear Missile Base Latvia

Even though the silo may have represented an uncomfortable reminder of the relatively recent occupation by the Soviets, as the only remaining site of the kind in the country it should have deserved possibly a different treatment – similar to the site in Siauliai, Lithuania, recently turned into a museum on the Cold War. Another option – probably the most obvious – would have been to leave the site to nature, as it happened in most cases to former Soviet installations scattered around Europe, at no cost and without any relevant risk for the local population – the site in Tirza was extremely remote, hidden deep in the trees, far from the main road and from any village of appreciable size, in a part of the country of limited touristic interest. Only those interested, like explorers and historians, would have looked for it. The choice of the government, which judging from the proportions of the demolition work must have implied the use of a very relevant amount of money for the job, appears really hard to justify – especially in face of an infrastructure system still well below the European standard.

Anyway, as a practical suggestion, don’t waste your time trying to reach the Tirza site – Dvina missile complexes are not to be found in Latvia.

Skrunda Military Ghost Town

Located in the hilly countryside of southwest Latvia, about 50 miles from the port town of Liepaja, the area around the village of Skrunda has been for long a primary strategic site for the USSR. Due to the geographical position on the northwestern border of the Union, this place was selected for the construction of an early warning radar device – a system capable of detecting incoming enemy ballistic missiles, leaving enough time for deploying countermeasures and for retaliatory actions. The type built in Skrunda was called Dnestr-M, and was the first early warning system type deployed by the USSR. Actually, the Skrunda radar site, codenamed RO-2, was the first to become operative in 1971, marking the foundation of the entire Soviet ABM (anti-ballistic missile) system. This was just a component of a series of similar sites intended to cover the entire border, constituting a ‘invisible fence’ against missile attacks from the US and their Allies.

Early warning radar systems are not just small radar antennas like those you can see in airports. Instead they are very (very) big and powerful systems, digesting a huge flow of electric energy to stay alive, and where all the required hardware – including the antennas – is often stored in suitably designed, tall and imposing buildings. The RO-2 system was made of two Dnestr-M fixed antennas, each assembled in a special construction 650 ft long and 250 ft tall!

The staff required for running the facility and all connected businesses was numerous, so a military village was built anew in Skrunda deep in the years of the Cold War just a few miles north of the old town. The village was intended for troops, technicians and their families. The relevance of the Skrunda site is testified also by the selection of that area for the installation of another antenna of the type Daryal-UM, with a range of almost 4’000 miles, 1’000 more than the Dnestr-M system. The decision was taken in the late Eighties, and the Daryal-UM system in Skrunda was never operative.

Following the collapse of the USSR an agreement was made between the governments of Latvia and Russia to gradually phase out the early warning systems in Skrunda, which had to be kept under Russian administration for some more years. As a result, the village of Skrunda was inhabited until 1998 by Russian troops.

After the demolition of all early warning hardware formerly agreed upon and the withdrawal of the Russian army, the military town of Skrunda was left in a state of disrepair. The Latvian government tried to sell the property in more instances, while some of the worst conserved buildings have been demolished. More recently the local municipality took control of the area, and there are plans to find a new function for the remaining part of the ghost town. Also the Latvian army is active on it. In the meanwhile you can tour this ‘domesticated’ ghost town – which can be accessed officially paying a small fee at the entrance – you are even given a map of the site!

Skrunda Ghost Town Latvia

The fact that you pay for a visit takes away much of the ghost-town-aura typical to other similar places in the former Eastern Bloc – here you know you are not alone. Nonetheless, what makes this place impressive is the size of the buildings, now totally empty, and the imposing ensemble they form together.

Skrunda Ghost Town Latvia

Besides the residential buildings, the bulkiest and more numerous, there are a hotel, a school – which cannot be accessed due to the collapsing roof -, a market and many other services you may expect to find in a typical modern neighborhood.

Skrunda Ghost Town Latvia

Also impressive are the club with a big gym and the frescoes in it. An obelisk monument can be found in the square ahead of the gym.

Skrunda Ghost Town Latvia

On the tiles on the blind side of one of the residential buildings it is possible to spot a giant, now fading portrait of a Soviet soldier.

Skrunda Ghost Town Latvia

The residential and service complex with its distinctive tall buildings occupies the northern part of the ghost town of Skrunda, while the southern part is composed of lower buildings formerly for barracks and military services, including a canteen, a command building and a small military prison.

Skrunda Ghost Town Latvia

The face of the command building bears inscriptions in Cyrillic, which are now barely visible. From historical pictures it is possible to see that at some point the Red Banner was changed into the Russian flag you can spot today.

Skrunda Ghost Town Latvia

Most of the buildings in this area are in a really bad shape, and many are inaccessible due to piles of waste material packed inside. Among the most unusual sights here, stickers of ‘Western propaganda symbols’ – including an iconic Arnold Schwarzenegger in James Cameron’s ‘Terminator’! – inside the door of a small cabinet, likely from the Eighties.

Skrunda Ghost Town Latvia

At the time of my visit there were some Latvian troops busy moving light material between some of these buildings.

Getting there and moving around

Getting to the Soviet ghost town of Skrunda is easy with a car. You can reach the old town of Skrunda along the A9, connecting Liepaja and Riga. Once there, take the P116 going north to Kuldiga. The entrance to the site will be on your left about 3 miles north of the center of old Skrunda.

I have to admit I had prepared my visit as a ‘usual’ wild exploration, and I discovered the place is actually a tourist attraction only when I was there. My first approach was from the side of the village opposite to the P116, to reduce the chance to be spotted by locals. To my great surprise I was soon met by a young lady walking along the main street of the ghost town. I thought she was there for picking mushrooms or something in the wilderness, instead she came closer and politely told me there was a ticket to pay! Then I spotted other visitors around in the distance. I moved my car to the P116 and accessed the place as a normal visitor. An old lady at the former control booth of the military village asked for a few Euros – no credit cards, obviously – and gave me a ticket and a map.

The reason for my error was the lack of information available online, also due to the very limited penetration of English in that part of Europe, even on websites. For the same reason, unfortunately I can’t provide an official source site nor opening times.

Due to a very tight timetable, I could only dedicate about an hour to the visit of the ghost town – I also wasted some time moving my car from the back to the official gate of the base. The site may deserve 1.5-2.5 hours depending on your level of interest, especially if you want to take pictures.

As written above, Skrunda is in the center of a renovation program, and the place may not remain visible for long.

Karosta Military Prison & Liepaja Port Town

The port town of Liepaja is the third most populated center in Latvia. It bolsters an ancient tradition as a commercial port, built along trade routes very active since the early years of the Hanseatic League. More recently, in the second half of the 19th century the port was greatly developed also for military purposes under the power of the Tzars. This time saw the construction of conspicuous fortifications in the northern area of the town, and the development of an extensive military district named Karosta.

The military port was destined to play an important role in WWI, when the agonizing Russian Empire was fighting against the forces of the Kaiser, and again in WWII, when the Soviets, who had just annexed the Latvian territory in 1939-40, started fighting against Hitler in 1941. The German Wehrmacht actually occupied Liepaja until 1945.

Back in the hands of the Soviets, the port was developed step by step into a major base of the Soviet fleet, headquartering the Baltic branch tasked with tactical dominance of the Baltic Sea. Since the 1960s until the collapse of the USSR Liepaja was turned into a closed town for military personnel only, and all commercial activities were interdicted.

Nowadays the commercial port is again very active, and the town, even boasting a university, is trying to reestablish its original status as a center for commerce and tourism.

Most notably, the former military district of Karosta can be toured along a well designed historical trail, showing the old quarters of the military town from the years of the Tzars. A distinctive feature of Karosta is the breakwater pier, protruding into the Baltic for about 1 mile, which can be walked in its entirety. Another very suggestive sight is the dome of the Orthodox church, recently refurbished after having being closed for years in the Soviet era.

Karosta Liepaja Latvia

Karosta Liepaja Port Pier Latvia

Karosta Liepaja Latvia

Karosta Liepaja Pier Military Port

Karosta Liepaja Latvia Soviet Monument

Another unusual sight in the Karosta district is the coastal fortification built by the Tzars in the late 19th century. The cannons are gone, but the mighty fortifications look still impressive.

Karosta Liepaja Latvia Coastal Cannon Battery

The additions by the Soviets in terms of housing are clearly recognizable by the depressing style and poor building technique, making these buildings look worse than their older predecessors.

Karosta Liepaja Latvia

The military district of the Tzars included a military prison, today known as Karosta Prison (or ‘Karosta Cietums’, in Latvian). This prison has been turned into a museum only recently, and is now advertised as a local attraction.

Karosta Liepaja Prison Hotel Soviet Nazi

This prison is unique in many senses. From a historical perspective, for instance, it was managed by six different military powers in its history – the Russian Empire, the newly constituted Latvian government soon after WWI, the Soviets between 1940 and 1941, the Nazis until 1945, then the Soviets again and finally the Latvian government of our days after the independence from the Soviet Union!

The place is rich of sad memories, especially from the years of Nazi occupation, when the prison was not intended to reeducate – whatever this might have meant in Soviet times -, but acted more as an antechamber for captured spies or subversive elements to be shot – something that reportedly happened in the courtyard in several occasions – or deported to Nazi lagers. Of course, the beginning of the Soviet period was a very harsh one too for Liepaja and all Latvia, thanks to Stalin’s unscrupulous deportation plans which hit hard in the region, but that was a business the small military prison of Karosta was not much involved in.

The brick building of the prison is composed of two floors. The museum offers guided visits to the small complex. The first sight is the office of the director on the ground floor, preserved from the Soviet era, and enriched with tons of collectible items. Really an impressive sight.

Karosta Liepaja Prison Hotel Soviet Nazi

Another very unique room is packed with weapons, uniforms and other military gear from the years of WWII. This collection, albeit small, is extremely valuable especially for what remains of the Nazi period – somewhat paradoxically, in Germany similar collections are basically impossible to find.

Karosta Liepaja Prison Hotel Soviet Nazi

I explicitly asked more than once about the originality of the pieces on show, and was punctually reassured. The prison and what is in it, with the exception of the arrangement of the ticket office and the rooms nearby, is 95% original, and what was not originally there when the prison was finally closed – like a portrait of Stalin and a wooden silhouette of Lenin’s face – is still original, relocated for exhibition purposes. No fakes.

Karosta Liepaja Prison Hotel Soviet Nazi

Next, the guided tour will drive you to the cells on the top floor, which were intended for soldiers, where the ground floor was for officers. The only difference is in the color of the walls – black on the top floor, brownish on the lower floor.

Karosta is the only military prison you can visit in the Baltics… and probably the only one in the world where you can sleep, if you dare to! The standard treatment is not so rude as you may expect, and spending the night in provides also the advantage of a dedicated evening visit of the prison after the closing time, along with the other ‘inmates’.

The rooms where you sleep are the cells of the ground floor – originally intended for officers. There are two possible configurations, i.e. rooms with iron beds, or empty cells, where you assemble your ‘bed’ taking a wooden board and a mattress from piles in a deposit. Then you are given a pillow, sheets and a blanket. The sheets are marked in Cyrillic, and probably belong to the original supply of the Soviet prison.

Karosta Liepaja Prison Hotel Soviet Nazi

The door of the cell is left open, so you are totally free to move around all night, and even go out in the courtyard if you need. Toilets are in common, placed in the original toilet room. They are clean, even though basic, and there are no showers. There is a guard – who is also the guide on the evening tour – on the top floor, and the external perimeter of the prison is locked, so you feel reasonably safe. You can also park your car inside the perimeter. That said, spending the night in the cell is surely unusual and provokes strange feelings and thoughts… but that’s what you were probably looking for when you decided to sleep in a prison!

Karosta Liepaja Prison Hotel Soviet Nazi

The prison offers more intense experiences where you are ‘disturbed’ during the night and treated more harshly by the guards, but these are only for groups. These packages are advertised also for companies, for team-building purposes.

The small restaurant has been put in the original canteen for the guards, and they offer a full Soviet-themed menu for dinner and for breakfast. The ‘hotel’ manager speaks English, and she can help you out with the menu, written in Latvian only.

Karosta Liepaja Prison Hotel Soviet Nazi

All in all, a unmissable pick for those interested in authentic Soviet experiences.

Karosta Liepaja Prison Hotel Soviet Nazi

Getting there and moving around

The museum in the prison of Karosta is an official tourist attraction in Karosta, which is part of Liepaja. The website provides much practical information about the museum and the many special activities they promote, plus you can find the contacts for arranging a stay in case you want to. You may inquire with your intended arrival date. In my case the answer was quick and punctual, and I was asked about usual details. The only ‘stressful’ thing was the check-in limit – 5 pm – but this turned out to be more flexible than initially expected. I had the deadline extended to 6 pm by e-mailing the staff earlier on the day of arrival, and a group of six arrived well after 8 pm, by prior arrangement.

On check-in you are shown the two cell types mentioned above – this happens before payment, in case you realize this is not for you and decide to leave! The fare for my 1-night stay was very low, 15 Euros or so, plus coins for dinner and breakfast.

After check-in I was invited to have dinner before taking possession of the cell-room, and then go downtown and come back well after the closing time of the museum. I was given the number of the guard, who opened the gate letting me in with my car when I came back.

The hotel office acts also as a tourist information point for the military district of Karosta and for the town of Liepaja. They provide maps, schedules of cultural activities and general information for the whole area.

As pointed out, if you are interested in spending the night in the prison you will have the chance to park inside a locked external fence. The rooms will not be locked, nor the prison building, so you should not experience any discomfort in that sense. You should not expect the room service, and be ready to make your bed, but the staff will treat you kindly and professionally. I was so tired for the trip I fell asleep with no difficulty – average light, average temperature, low humidity, no noise, unidentified ‘background smell’, but not excessively annoying…

Klavi Nuclear Missile Base

Similar to the base of Zeltini (see above), the base of Klavi was a surface missile base. Differently from Zeltini, Klavi is totally abandoned.

What remains there makes for a quick interesting visit. The characteristics of the complex are very similar to those of Zeltini, perhaps a bit more regular, for in Klavi all four launch pads are placed side-by-side in a single array. The most notable feature of the installation is the many bunkers, which include missile bunkers and smaller support ones. Some of the bunkers bear visible traces of the original Cyrillic writing.

Klavi Soviet Nuclear Missile Base Latvia

The launch pads with the metal crown on the ground can be found also here – but the crowns are gone, probably the metal was resold. The exploration is somewhat complicated by some ditches and flooded areas, obstructing the access to part of the grounds. Nature is growing wild in the area, but garbage and waste material can also be found in significant amounts.

Klavi Soviet Nuclear Missile Base Latvia

Similar to Zeltini, besides the storage and launch area there are a series of support and living bunkers, plus a technical area which is today occupied by some form of business, including a soft-air training ground.

Klavi Soviet Nuclear Missile Base Latvia

The base testifies the double attitude towards these former missile sites adopted in Latvia, which on one side are left in a state of disrepair, but are not totally abandoned, and are often being used in our days for various kinds of business.

Getting there and moving around

The place can be found with a nav using the following coordinates, 56.661370, 24.128137, pointing to the access road of the launch complex. All roads around the site and reaching to it are unpaved – but this is the standard in Latvia. The point can be reached with a car. Going further may be easier by foot, for the road is not maintained and turns pretty narrow.

The former technical part with the soft-air facility is located 0.3 miles from that point moving northeast, and can be clearly spotted on a satellite photograph. Approaching the launch part from the south you will not pass through it, and you will more likely go unnoticed – the launch area is abandoned with no prohibition signs, so this is just if you don’t like to attract any attention.

I would say this place should be of interest for more committed urban explorers, as you should go with at least a basic consciousness of the general plan of a missile base to understand where you are and for moving around, due to wild nature obstructing the view in many instances.

Note: there is a sister site, almost a clone of this base, located south of the village of Zalite, about 5 miles south of the Klavi complex. Apparently not in a bad shape, the area has been taken over by small private businesses and marked with clear signs of prohibition. Strangely enough, there are apparently some people living in the rotting buildings of the former technical area. I went to the Zalite site also, but I was greeted by angry watchdogs moving around freely as soon as I approached the former launch area, and I could not even step off my car. Soon after I was spotted by a small group of people, like a family with elders and children with a ragged, disturbing appearance, including a woman with only one leg and a prominent metal prosthesis – the whole scene looked like some low-budget horror movie. They were clearly not happy to see me. I had a very bad feeling and decided to leave immediately.

The Corner House – KGB Prison in Riga

As soon as they landed in the territory of Latvia in the early Forties, the Soviets started to implement their regime in all its features. These included forced collectivization of private businesses, de-facto abolition of all political parties and free elections, and prosecution of non-communist elements of the society. The state security office monitoring the life of all citizens and assuring their adherence to the communist ideology and way of life was the local section of the NKVD, later to evolve into the famous KGB. This was tasked with the collection of information, arrest, interrogation, sentencing, detention and often times also deportation and execution of anybody suspected of ‘counter-revolutionary acts’ or ‘anti-Soviet crimes’ – the meaning of which was very generic and often used to prosecute people on the basis of scant or absent evidence of any type, and basically for political opinions.

It is still not clear for what particular reason this secret political police found a suitable home base in a nice apartment building in central Riga, which until the time of the Soviet occupation had been a normal residential building. Behind the elegant façade, the Soviets moved in an impressive quantity of offices and archives, plus a complete prison, located on the ground floor and in the basement, with cells and rooms for interrogation, with separate branches for women and men. The prison ceased function during the Nazi occupation, when it was opened to the public for propaganda reasons. Not discouraged nor impressed, the Soviet secret police reopened it as soon as it regained control of the region in 1945. After the secession of Latvia from the USSR, the building, which over the decades had become a symbol of communist terror, was closed up and left there, nobody reclaiming that haunted property, associated with fear, sad memories and negative feelings of hardship and oppression. Only a few years ago an association aimed at preserving the memory of the deadly function of the building, and of those who were touched by the violent ideological repression carried out by the Soviets in Riga and Latvia, started to offer regular tours of the prison.

The place is preserved as it was when it was shut down, much of the original furniture, lighting and paint being still there.

Corner House KGB Prison Riga Latvia

The entrance is by the door on the corner, as it used to be in the past for the ‘general public’ – typically relatives of people mysteriously disappeared, going there to check whether they had been arrested by the KGB. What strikes most in these first rooms is the incredibly shabby, ragged, purely Soviet appearance of these public offices. A nice introductory exhibition with much info and data on the history of the place and of political repression in Latvia can be toured for free in this part of the building.

Corner House KGB Prison Riga Latvia

Here it is also where the guided tour of the prison will start. You will be driven through the corridor reserved to KGB employees and arrested people. From there you soon reach the prison – particularly disturbing even for Soviet standards, very dark and narrow.

Corner House KGB Prison Riga Latvia

Close to the entrance there is a control room for the whole prison, with original furniture from the KGB inventory – still tagged. A mix of terror and sadness, a really depressive ‘something wrong’ feeling can be clearly perceived there still today.

Corner House KGB Prison Riga Latvia

Interrogation rooms with a fake mirror glass and preliminary detention rooms as large as a phone box, with no windows nor ventilation, are among the first sights of the tour.

Corner House KGB Prison Riga Latvia

Along the walk the guide gives you a description of the life condition of inmates and an idea of the function of some special places in the prison.

Corner House KGB Prison Riga Latvia

Part of the tour is the caged courtyard intended for the few minutes of walk inmates were allowed per day.

Corner House KGB Prison Riga Latvia

During the visit you will see also the basement, where the kitchen for the inmates can still be found, together with service rooms and further cells.

Corner House KGB Prison Riga Latvia

Finally you will have a look at the inner courtyard, reportedly where many inmates had their last walk, soon before entering a dark room nearby where they were shot in the head, as mostly typical in the years of Stalin. The shabby room where this happened can be observed from the door, and is preserved with respect.

Corner House KGB Prison Riga Latvia

All in all, a true must see not only for the committed Cold War historian, but for everybody interested in the recent history of Latvia.

Getting there and moving around

The building of the KGB prison is located in Brīvības iela 61 in central Riga, and can be conveniently reached with a pleasant 10 minutes walk from the central historical district.

The Corner House is professionally managed as an international-level museum. It is possible to visit the informative exhibition for free, where for touring the prison you can either go there and reserve a visit, or buy an electronic ticket online in advance. Access to the prison is by guided tours only, but tours are offered in English, German as well as Latvian and other languages – website here.

The guided tour lasts just less than 1 hour, and I strongly recommend it as a very suggestive experience which will not leave you indifferent, also thanks to the lively approach of the very knowledgeable local guides.

A Walk in Murmansk – A Soviet Industrial Port of Our Time

September 2, 2017December 24, 2018 CarloR2 Comments

Murmansk is a port town in the northwestern corner of todays Russian Federation. It bolsters the biggest population among the centers north of the Arctic Circle in the world. It was founded in 1916, just months before the Revolution, and developed rapidly thanks to its strategic position for the needs both of the Navy and of maritime commerce. Actually this is the only Russian port on the Barents Sea which is not blocked by ice in winter, and it is in a region rich of substantial natural deposits, including nickel and coal. Furthermore, the coast in the vicinity of this town and along the Kola peninsula features countless coves and bays, providing an ideal setting for stationing a military fleet.

Probably the highest point in the history of Murmansk, which also contributed greatly in forming its current shape, was in the Great Patriotic War, i.e. WWII as they call it in Russia and the USSR until the Nineties. Murmansk was a key port on the supply line between the Western Allies and the USSR. A railroad linking Murmansk and St. Petersburg – some 900 miles south – existed since before its foundation. For this reason, and for the abundant raw materials in the region, the area was a dramatic theater of war, the German Wehrmacht relentlessly hitting there from both Norway and Lapland, the northernmost region of Finland. As a matter of fact, the resistance of the Soviets around Murmansk meant that the town was never conquered by Hitler’s forces, which where stopped just some tens of miles away to the west.

The damage and destruction brought by the war, acknowledged by the Soviet government with medals and the title of “Hero of the Soviet Union” awarded to Murmansk, meant that today the city has a mostly ‘modern’ appearance – in the Soviet sense. From the viewpoint of architecture, Murmansk has been rebuilt with industrial and military activities in mind, as most cities all around the USSR and differently from the most famous Moscow and Leningrad (today St. Petersburg). During the Cold War Murmansk developed into a huge port town and industrial center, with a population reaching almost half a million at some point. At the same time, military ports and shipyards multiplied in the region. The Soviet Northern Fleet has been stationed there since its foundation in the Thirties, and during the Cold War it was tasked with patrolling the Atlantic up to the northern coast of the USSR. The Northern Fleet was supplied with many iconic firsts for the USSR, including nuclear submarines and strategic nuclear missiles.

A trip to this industrial city is probably not in the list of many tourists, and even less from abroad. But for those looking for a full immersion in the atmosphere of an authentic Soviet town of the Cold War days, conveniently located not far from the Russian western border and still populated and very active, Murmansk has really much in store. Furthermore, if you care about the history of WWII and the Cold War, then this is definitely a place to go. The closed town of Polyarny, from where Marko Ramius sets off in Tom Clancy’s memorable fiction ‘The Hunt for Red October’, is just miles away from Murmansk. If you would like to see something in this region which still retains much of its ‘CCCP aura’, unless you are from Russia Murmansk is one of the few towns in an extensive region which has been opened to foreign visitors – Polyarny, as well as Severomorsk, where the headquarters of the Northern Fleet are, and other military centers nearby unfortunately are not accessible to foreigners even today.

This post shows a possible itinerary touching some Soviet- or war-themed highlights in town. At the end of the chapter you can find information about reaching Murmansk, which itself may turn an interesting part of the trip. Photographs were taken in August 2017.

Map

The Google map below shows the itinerary I followed during my visit. All sights pinpointed on the map are mentioned or portrayed in the post. I covered the whole itinerary with a long walk, resulting in a very requiring 24 miles which I walked in one day. Despite the great photo opportunities you can get walking around alone, this distance can be definitely too much for the majority of visitors, so you may choose to hire a taxi or move with public transport for at least a part of the itinerary. Or you may decide to explore the town in one and a half or two days instead of just one.

Sights

Ploschad Pyat’uglov

The central square of Murmansk – ‘Five Corners Square’ in English – is where the two oldest hotels are, the ‘Azimuth’ and the ‘Meridian’. If you are staying at the Meridian – a good level executive hotel – you can enjoy a good view of the Azimuth, a typical modern Soviet building, a section of the port and the northern districts of Murmansk. Your view will reach to one of the most famous Soviet monuments in Russia – Alyosha, the gigantic statue of a Soviet soldier.

Murmansk Azimuth Hotel

Murmansk

Murmansk Alyosha

Murmansk Church

Murmansk

Murmansk fog

Murmansk

On the façade of the building to the left of the Meridian you can see a sculpture of some Soviet decorations attributed to Murmansk. Not far cross the road is a similarly themed obelisk.

Murmansk Hotel Meridian

Murmansk medals

Murmansk Hotel Azimuth

To the southeast of the square, Tsentralnyy Park is a nice park frequented by Russian families with children. On the southeastern side of the park are a statue of Kirov – a friend of Stalin, who killed him at some point, as he often used to do with friends – and a couple of neoclassic Soviet public palaces with Soviet-themed decoration.

Murmansk Kirov

Murmansk

To the northwest of the Ploschad there is another smaller park with monuments and fountains, and the Regional Art Museum of Murmansk in one of the corners (website here). The latter is a nice little art museum, where works of many regional artists from the 19th century and well into the Soviet era can be found.

Murmansk Kapsula

Murmansk Regional Art Museum

Murmansk McDonald’s

Among the elements helping to remember you are in the 21st century and not any more in the Soviet Union, there is a McDonald’s – possibly the northernmost in the world – and some banks around the square.

Prospekt Lenina

One of the two traffic arteries in Murmansk, describing a large arch crossing the central district. Moving south from Ploschad Pyat’uglov, you can walk down the full length of this boulevard. In the most central district, closer to the square, you will find many buildings with typical Soviet facades. Soon after leaving the square, on the eastern side there is a statue of Lenin, creating a nice scenery with the wings of the stately building behind it.

Murmansk Prospekt Lenina

Murmansk Lenin

One of the most notable buildings along the boulevard apparently belongs to the heir of the KGB, and still retains a monument with the sword and shield close to the entrance. The façade is adorned with prominent hammer and sickle symbols.

Murmansk Prospekt Lenina

On the eastern side of the boulevard another interesting sight is the Monument to the Border Guards of the Arctic. This is placed in a small, well-kept and quiet park. Close by, a theater can be recognized by the frieze on the front – this was undergoing renovation at the time of my visit, and nothing more could be seen.

Murmansk Prospekt Lenina

Moving further south, the road turns markedly to the southeast, and correspondingly the quality of the buildings starts to decrease sharply, with some exceptions, including some bulky modern buildings. One of them is really imposing, fenced and guarded. It may be a tribunal or a military command of some sort, given the level of security. As the road starts to climb uphill, a monument connected to WWII is clearly noticeable, with and anti-tank cannon prominently standing on a pillar. From that place, it is possible to spot some Soviet decoration on lower profile residential buildings.

Murmansk Prospekt Lenina

In this part the panorama changes rapidly, with wild vegetation and poor housing coexisting side by side. Some buildings look as they are just waiting to collapse, and you think they are abandoned until you see two well dressed clerks coming out of a decrepit door. Hammer and sickles can be found on the façade or to the side of every other building.

Murmansk Prospekt Lenina

Somewhat unceremoniously, Prospekt Lenina comes to an end forming a sharp angle with Prospekt Kirova.

Prospekt Kirova and Ulitsa Shmidta

Turning northwest on Prospekt Kirova the road starts to descend. Here you can find a significant number of Soviet style apartment buildings. Looking carefully, you can see that the construction of the buildings is modular and the style is very repetitive – there are only about five or six variations in the basic module.

Murmansk Prospekt Kirova

As the street turns north changing name into Ulitsa Shmidta you have on the southern corner a building connected with the Navy, possibly an academy, with some strange instrumentation on the roof. Cross the street there is a small park, with a modern church, clearly built after the end of the Soviet period.

Murmansk Prospekt Kirova

From around this point it is possible to get some good pictures of a still working power plant, which is located basically in a block of this district, not far from the city center and surrounded by apartments. The proximity of the chimneys to the apartment buildings is typical to Soviet towns, much harder to find in the west, unless you’re running out of money building your town when playing SimCity. Furthermore, the power plant in Murmansk is really huge and the funnels really monstrous!

Murmansk Prospekt Kirova

Proceeding north on Ulitsa Shmidta, on the eastern side it is possible to spot many Soviet facades, where on the western side you may have problems getting a view of the railway and the port down below, due to the vegetation strip obstructing the view. At some point on the eastern side you will find a military building, recognizable by the red stars on the gates – the same model of gates and stars you can find in many abandoned military sites all over the former Eastern Bloc.

Murmansk Ulitsa Shmidta

Murmansk Ulitsa Shmidta Alyosha

Murmansk Ulitsa Shmidta

A block south of the last bend to the northeast where Ulitsa Shmidta changes its name into Ulitsa Kominterna, it is possible to find a small nice park with a monument to the Soviet Navy, just ahead of a stately building which may have been a former military headquarter.

Murmansk Ulitsa Shmidta Fleet Monument

The monument is modern in design, and perhaps made after the end of the Soviet Union, yet looking very exotic if you are from the western side of the Iron Curtain.

Railway Station

Possibly one of the oldest buildings in Murmansk, and surely one of the most iconic thanks to the pinnacle with the red star on top, is the railway station. The façade and entrance are on Ulitsa Kominterna, but the building is built on multiple levels, for it is on the rim of a small coast. The passenger railway is at the bottom of the coast, and very close to the building. An old steam locomotive with a big red star is placed on one of the passenger platforms.

Murmansk Railway Station

Murmansk Ulitsa Kominterna

Murmansk Railway Station

On the northern side of the station building it is possible to get access to a footbridge, passing over the passenger terminal and the huge cargo terminal. The latter offers a really impressive show, with countless coal trucks unwinding along endless railways. The railway basically ends in Murmansk, and the port is specialized with taking coal from the trains and putting it on the ships – plenty of dedicated cranes are always active in this transfer work. The railway yard is always very busy.

Murmansk Railway

Murmansk Ulitsa Shmidta

In the evening you can watch the assembly of the empty convoys, being set up for their travel back to inland Russia. This is a pretty violent and noisy show, as they usually form a train by kicking a car on a railway track against the rest of the convoy waiting at the other end. When the car hits the convoy a very loud bang is produced, which can be heard from a great distance everywhere in town.

Murmansk Railway

Murmansk Railway Steam Engine

Given the number of convoys and cars, this unusual concert goes on for quite a while every evening.

Port of Murmansk and Icebreaker Lenin

Descending from the far end of the footbridge towards the sea you reach the platform of the port of Murmansk with a short walk. You can walk only a small part of the port area, including two piers. The famous icebreaker Lenin (website here), the first nuclear-propelled non-military vessel in the world, is permanently moored here and can be visited as a tourist attraction – in theory.

Murmansk Icebreaker Lenin

[NOTE: Obviously the dates of my trip had been chosen accounting for the opening times of this museum ship, one of the most relevant sites in town. I was very unlucky, experiencing the harsh treatment Russia still reserves to tourists this day – in spite of a published timetable of the tours available online, even though in Russian only, I found a printed paper in Russian on the entrance to the pier, basically telling ‘no tours for today and tomorrow’, full stop. Unfortunately, you can experience similar issues even in cities with a touristic vocation like St. Petersburg, so this happening in the remote Murmansk was not unbelievable. Yet considering I visited from quite afar, tuned my trip specifically for this attraction standing to the available information and came during the peak season, this shows a very low-level preparedness for tourism and especially a generally bad attitude towards foreign visitors, both parts of an unwanted heritage of the Soviet times. You’d better go ready to similar problems when traveling to Russia.]

Anyway the icebreaker can be admired also from the pier. The size is really stunning, especially if compared to the older and glorious Krassin, which can be found in St. Petersburg (see this post). Along the Lenin, on another pier a modern icebreaker can be seen. Murmansk is also a well-known starting point for arctic cruises.

Murmansk Port

A monument remembering the Great Patriotic War closes the square ahead of the piers on one side. Cross the bay from this point it is possible to spot another war monument, including a jet aircraft and a cannon.

Kursk Monument and Church of the Savior on Waters

Going back to Ploschad Pyat’uglov and restarting northeast along Prospekt Lenina after some walk and more interesting buildings, including the local government of Murmansk adorned with all the decorations earned by this town for the effort during WWII and the Regional Museum (website here) – which unfortunately was closed on the day of my visit -, you reach Ulitsa Papanina. Taking it to the northwest you soon cross Ulitsa Chelyuskintsev.

Murmansk

Murmansk Hero City

Murmansk

Murmansk Hero City

Murmansk

Murmansk Hero City

Murmansk

Murmansk Hero City

Murmansk

Again, here the quality of the housing and parks decreases sharply. Ulitsa Chelyuskintsev climbs aggressively uphill. After a distance the main road takes slightly to the left, and a building resembling a beacon can be seen further uphill, reachable with a flight of stairs. This beacon is a monument to the seamen lost at sea, and it includes a chapel which is closed most of the time irrespective of the published opening times.

Murmansk

Just behind the beacon there is a monument to the ill-fated nuclear submarine K-141 Kursk, a new strategic ship of the Northern Fleet launched in post-Soviet times, which in the year 2000 sank following two accidental explosions, killing all on board. Thanks to the shallow waters where this accident happened, it was later possible to recover the wreck. Part of the turret was taken away and transformed into the monument you see, which is actually a piece of the original vessel.

Murmansk Kursk Memorial

Proceeding further uphill, it is possible to reach the small nice Orthodox church of the Savior on Waters, which is operated regularly and is probably the most central temple in Murmansk.

Murmansk Church

Leninskiy Okrug and Museum of the Northern Fleet

To the back of the temple it is possible to reach again Ulitsa Chelyuskintsev. Keeping the Museum of the Northern Fleet as a destination, located close to the northern border of Murmansk, you can walk some miles crossing the district called Leninskiy Okrug, which is a very populated residential area of the ‘working class’. Here you can see by yourself the very low-level of the housing, roads, walkways and services of this industrial town, where most of the population is living today. This standard of living appears to be in striking contrast with what you see in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and you can imagine how the neighborhood must have looked like when all cars around where Soviet made and there were no services like banks and cell phones retailers giving a modern touch to the scene.

Murmansk

The building hosting the Museum of the Northern Fleet is no exception – it looks like an abandoned building from the outside. The entrance hall is purely Soviet style, too large and very grim. An old lady stands knitting in one corner, watching a TV show. She will instruct you about the ticket price – very low, only cash accepted – and the way to go. The building must have been a former clubhouse for officers or retired staff.

Murmansk Museum of the Northern Fleet

Murmansk

Murmansk Museum of the Northern Fleet

The museum (information here) covers the history of the Navy at least until the creation of the Northern Fleet. There are about ten small rooms, packed with tons of memorabilia items, documents, flags, parts of ships, photographs, paintings, portraits, uniforms, medals, models, maps, weapons and so on. Notwithstanding the old-style exhibition and the plenty of information mainly on the facts of WWII and the Cold War period, the museum is fairly up to date, mentioning also post-Soviet history and the current status of the fleet. It is noteworthy that most of the descriptions are in Russian only, so you should go with some knowledge of the topic if you don’t know the language.

Murmansk Museum of the Northern Fleet

Some Soviet memorials and the portraits of all commanders of the fleet from its foundation to the present day can be found on the stairs.

Murmansk Museum of the Northern Fleet

Monument to the Waiting Woman

Setting the course back to downtown Murmansk, it is possible to reach the monument to the Waiting Woman, dedicated to the women of the seamen, with a multi-miles walk from the Museum of the Northern Fleet, again crossing Leninskiy Okrug.

Murmansk Port

Murmansk

Murmansk Waiting Woman

Murmansk

The monument is an example of Russian ingenuity, yet somehow evocative. The place where the small sculpture is located is a vantage point from where it is possible to have a look to the northernmost part of the port of Murmansk, invisible from the town center. Much precise information about the home port of the vessels of the current Northern Fleet is not easy to get, anyway in the pictures you can see the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, the only Russian aircraft carrier, recently deployed to the Black Sea and now returned to the bay of Murmansk – somewhat mimetic, carefully look at the pictures below.

Murmansk

Murmansk Port

Murmansk Admiral Kuznetzov Aircraft Carrier

Murmansk Port

Murmansk Alyosha Soviet Soldier

Murmansk

Alyosha

The most famous monument in Murmansk and in the region surrounding it, the monument to the Defenders of the Soviet Arctic during the Great Patriotic War, informally known as Alyosha – ‘little Alexander’ in English -, is a gigantic statue to the Soviet Soldier, commemorating the battles fought by the Soviet Army against the Third Reich during WWII. Not only is this monument placed on top of a hill, but it is some 115 feet tall, making it the third tallest monument in the former USSR, after Stalingrad, now Volgograd, and Kiev, today in Ukraine. It is visible from many places in town and from the area around Murmansk.

Murmansk Alyosha Soviet Soldier

Murmansk

It can be reached easily from downtown with a taxi, or if you are coming following the itinerary, climbing uphill at a short distance from the Monument of the Waiting Woman (see the map for a detailed trail to follow).

Murmansk Alyosha Soviet Soldier

Murmansk

Murmansk Alyosha Soviet Soldier

The monument is surely worth a visit. The size is impressive, and the eternal flame still burning ahead of the statue adds to the authenticity of the ensemble as a place of remembrance.

Murmansk Alyosha Soviet Soldier

There are also two anti-aircraft guns and some ancillary parts to the back of the monument. The square ahead of it, possibly made for ceremonies, is not very well-kept and infested by mosquitoes in the warm season.

Murmansk Alyosha Soviet Soldier

Leaving from the monument towards the city center can be done cutting through a wild green area along a well-marked trail. A mystery communication central can be found at some point. I met people grilling meat on a barbecue in this partially wild park.

Murmansk Alyosha Soviet Soldier

From here you have a good view of the industrial port and of the central districts of Murmansk. Upon reaching Ulitsa Chelyuskintsev there is a small modern memorial showing some pictures of Murmansk soon after the devastation caused by WWII.

Murmansk

From here it is possible to go back to the city center where your hotel will probably be and where you can find some very good local restaurants.

Murmansk memorial

Murmansk Church

Getting to Murmansk

Notwithstanding the interesting ensemble and some noteworthy monuments, this city alone can hardly motivate a trip from abroad even for dedicated enthusiasts. On the other hand, it makes for a quick and easy detour from a travel to scenic Lapland (Finland) or northern Norway. After some investigation about going there with a car I abandoned the idea – too complicated in terms of papers and risky – and elected to go there starting from Kirkenes, a small town in northern Norway just a few miles from the only border crossing point between Norway and Russia. There is a local Norwegian travel agency called Pasvikturist selling on the Internet the tickets of a bus service operating between Kirkenes and Murmansk with no stops. The service is operated once per day in both directions. They also sell travel packages of one or two days to Murmansk including a part-time guide and accomodation.

The bus is actually a comfortable Russian registered minibus. The pick-up point in Kirkenes is by the Scandic Hotel, where there are some possible pick-up points in Murmansk, which is much larger, typically by all the biggest hotels.

You must have the visa for entering Russia, and you can get the necessary invitation from both the Azimuth and Meridian hotel. I noticed not all hotels in Murmansk offer this service, so be careful if you want to opt for a smaller hotel. Getting the invitation involves an easy electronic procedure worth a few dollars. Passport control – both Norway and Russia – takes a while, about 45 minutes in total for all on the minibus. Restrictions on the goods you can transport apply, but are by far less stringent than when traveling by air. You are not required to pass a metal detector, and bags are inspected only sporadically. My small army knife and all photographic gears passed without trouble.

The trip from Kirkenes to Murmansk can be very interesting. The region you cross is full of military installations. Extensive areas along the road are fenced and under surveillance. Going to Murmansk we had to stop to let a number of tanks cross the road. There is at least one military checkpoint where all passports are quickly inspected again by military staff!

Zapolyarny

Pechenga

Nickel

Sputnik tanks

Among the unusual sights along the road are the huge nickel mines between Nickel and Zapolyarny, the countless memorials of WWII along the valley of the Pechenga river, the military town of Sputnik, and a ropeway built by the German Army to carry supplies to the front. The background scenery is that of an endless sequence of hills with arctic vegetation.

Sputnik

Sputnik training grounds

Pechenga training grounds

Pechenga monument

Pechenga

Kola

Pechenga

Sputnik

Sputnik ropeway

Sputnik

Sputnik ropeway

Sputnik

Nickel Zapolyarny

Zapolyarny

Nickel Zapolyarny

Zapolyarny

Nickel Zapolyarny

Nickel

Sputnik

Getting closer to Murmansk you will see directions to many ‘closed towns’ – connected with military activities, and where foreign visitors cannot enter – including Polyarny, cited in ‘The Hunt for Red October’. This surely adds to the atmosphere and prepares you to the visit of the town.

Polyarny closed town

Polyarny

Murmansk

Entering the town you will pass over the bay on a bridge and you will get a view of the southern part of the port and of the city, otherwise difficult to reach by foot.

Murmansk train

Murmansk

Murmansk chimney

Murmansk

Murmansk is clearly served also by an airport, so if you want or need you can surely reach the city by air – and also by train – from within Russia, but you will not get a view of the region, which may be very interesting if you are traveling as a tourist.

Sights

Photographs Before Restoration Works – Ghost Base

Getting there and moving around

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Map

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Sights

Saint Sophia’s Cathedral

Saint Andrew’s Church & Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Saint Michael’s Cathedral

Friendship of Nations Monument

Governmental District

Monument to the Unknown Soldier

Pecerska Lavra Monastery

The Local Conflicts Museum

Motherland Statue

Ukrainian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War

Independence Square

Golden Gate

Chernobyl National Museum

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Sights

Milovice Airbase

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Tocna Missile Battery

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Miskovice Missile Battery

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Dobris Missile Base

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Soviet Ghosts in Germany

History – in brief

Sights

Map

Bischofswerda SS-12 Scaleboard Missile Bunkers

Special Feature – 119th Missile Brigade barracks in Gombori, Georgia

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Sights

Project ‘Riese’, Poland

Osowka

Rzeczka

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‘Weingut I’ Aviation Industry Complex, Germany

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Szprotawa/Wiechlice Nuclear Warhead Bunker

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Szprotawa/Wiechlice Airbase

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Pstraze Former Soviet Military Village and Bunkers

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Soviet Ghosts in Germany

History – in brief

Sights

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R-5M/SS-3 Shyster Missile Launch Pad and Nuclear Bunker, Fürstenberg

Housing at Fürstenberg Military Base

R-5M/SS-3 Shyster Missile Launch Pad, Vogelsang

R-12/SS-4 Sandal Missile Launch Pads, South-East of Fürstenberg

R-12/SS-4 Sandal Missile Launch Pads, North of Vogelsang

Templin Soviet Airbase – Totally Gone

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Sights

Designs from the US

Soviet Military Models

Soviet Transport Aircraft

Swedish Aircraft

Soviet Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAM)

Jet Engines

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