What Stalin hid in Mount Tavros: Balaklava underground

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The underground Balaklava submarine base has remained in history one of the most striking examples of the Cold War. In the last century, this top-secret facility was created in the event of a nuclear war - the Third World War. Times have changed, but today's Crimean Balaklava continues to amaze with vast underground labyrinths. The crown of power of the military industry of the USSR has become a landmark of the Crimean peninsula and one of the most visited museums in Greater Sevastopol.

Nuclear strike and the Soviet response

Today's conflicts between Russia and the United States look much easier from the outside than those that arose after World War II. The advent of nuclear weapons has created a race and paranoia. In this context, in the event of Soviet aggression, the Americans developed a preventive plan for a nuclear strike against the USSR. Both powers were methodically building up their nuclear arsenals, warheads, torpedoes and missiles capabilities, revealingly threatening each other with potential retaliation. After the US atomic bombs exploded in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet Union put on a strengthening of the submarine fleet with nuclear weapons on board. At the same time, Stalin gave the order to look for a place where it would be possible to reliably shelter nuclear submarines for a retaliatory strike. They searched for more than one year, eventually stopping at Balaklava. The city was instantly classified, and it was decided not to mention its name on the Crimean map.

History of the Crimean Balaklava: Genoese, Turks, British, Russians

For many centuries Balaklava was not just a sea fishing village, but a military port. At first, this region was chosen by the Genoese, who erected the ancient fortress of Cembalo here. Later, an Ottoman garrison was stationed on the territory of modern Balaklava. During the Crimean War, the English camp was based here. Nearby, an elite British "Light Brigade" of cavalrymen made their famous but failed attack on Sevastopol, but were defeated.

The fact that Balaklava Bay is not visible from the sea is not at all a myth. So the place to hide the navy was not chosen by chance. The harbor, no more than 400 meters wide, is reliably protected both from storms and from prying eyes. Mount Tavros, under which the underground complex is located, is also a real find. The thickness of its marble limestone reaches 126 m, thanks to which the base was assigned the first category of anti-nuclear resistance.

Secret construction of a secret base

The project of the complex of the naval base-protection of the Black Sea Fleet in the event of a nuclear war was checked and endorsed by Joseph Stalin himself. Construction work started in 1953. The process was in full swing around the clock. Mining works were entrusted to Moscow, Kharkov and Abakan metro builders. Drilling was carried out mainly by blasting. As soon as the soil and rocks were removed, a metal frame was installed, after which the mining was poured with concrete. For reasons of secrecy, the courts entered the complex only at nightfall. One of the most unique elements of the project was the Southern Bathoport - a huge sea gate that protects the bay from the damaging effect of a nuclear explosion. Structurally, it is a hollow metal structure weighing 150 tons with dimensions of 18x14x11 m.

The entrance to the channel at that time was covered with a special camouflage netting to match the rocks, which was pulled by means of a winch. The total area of the erected structures was equal to 15 thousand square meters, and the channel for submarines in width exceeded the Balaklava Bay itself. Some of the interior spaces reached the level of a three-story residential building. The entire base was divided into several levels of secrecy, marked with different colors of floor and wall paint for visual recognition.

In secret underground compartments, there were more than 200 people serving the dock and the rest of the facility's engineering systems. Even before fifty personnel representatives made up the water guard unit, carrying a permanent service at several posts: entrance and exit from the tunnel, dock. The entire staff of the Balaklava secret complex gave their consent to a nondisclosure agreement. For the period of work and the next 5 years after dismissal, employees were limited in a number of rights. For example, these citizens were deprived of the opportunity to travel outside the Soviet Union, to socialist countries as well.

The special workshop of the shipyard with a separate dry dock was ready for operation in 1961. The following year, the complex was replenished with a nuclear arsenal. In the new complex, it was possible to hide 9 small-class submarines from a nuclear strike, or seven medium-sized ones. In addition to the boats themselves, in the event of a nuclear strike, the underground base accommodated all the personnel of the underground repair complex, the military personnel of all nearby units and the urban civilian population of Balaklava.

From the top secret submarine base to the museum

The classified underground base of Russian nuclear submarines lost its power and value with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Unlike similar military facilities, the complex in Balaklava Bay was used until 1993. By 1994, the boats of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation left the territory. In the process of the division of the Soviet fleet, one large diesel-electric torpedo submarine was handed over to Ukraine. Nuclear ammunition, of course, was taken out to Russian territory.

The object was quickly abandoned, and the most valuable equipment became the prey of hunters for orphaned metal. All covers and gates of communication wells, inspection hatches, tunnels were plundered, a power cable was cut out. In a short time, the powerful military facility was a rather pitiful sight.

In 2002, the Ukrainian authorities woke up and decided to declare what was left of the complex a historical museum. Today the Cold War Museum attracts tourists no less often than other attractions of the Crimean Peninsula.

Well, in general, it is not only a military base that can be hidden underground. But even a city, from modern Moscow to ancient Petra.