Abandoned military installations from the USSR era. Made and forgotten in the USSR: abandoned cities, factories and military installations. "resident evil: secret complex on the Aral Sea

In the Russian Federation, the legal successor of the USSR, de-Sovietization is proceeding at an accelerated pace; the post-Soviet elites, who destroyed and plundered the Union, and now parasitize on its ruins, are mortally afraid of the awakening nostalgia of the population that once Soviet people, for a state that has long sunk into oblivion.

Not a day goes by without the proteges of the West, who seized power by deception and have held it for 27 years, not taking further steps to denigrate the memory of a powerful state, destroyed thanks to the meanness of some and the naivety of others, through ill will and a coincidence of tragic circumstances, due to betrayal and corruption, lust for power and greed, stupidity and betrayal...

After this state, the lost Soviet Atlantis, there remained not only fragments of industry, science, culture, but also the ruins of some of its secret objects military power, which was supposed to guard its sovereignty, but did not help...
The enemy destroyed great country from the inside then, he is trying to do exactly the same thing now, so I propose to remember, to restore, at least from individual fragments, the picture of those defensive fortifications that were erected by generations of Soviet people, but did not save them from the betrayal of the elites....

Look, think, draw conclusions - here is history and food for thought in photographs of 10 objects...

Particularly secret and forgotten by everyone
After the collapse of the USSR, the young states inherited many once powerful military and scientific facilities.
The most dangerous and secret ones were urgently mothballed and evacuated, while many others were simply abandoned.
They were left to rust: after all, the economies of most newly created states simply could not support their maintenance; no one needed them.
Now some of them represent a kind of mecca for stalkers, “tourist” sites, visiting which involves considerable risk.

“Resident Evil”: a top-secret complex on Vozrozhdenie Island in the Aral Sea

During the Soviet era, on an island in the middle Aral Sea There was a complex of military bioengineering institutes involved in the development and testing of biological weapons. It was an object of such secrecy that most of the employees involved in the landfill maintenance infrastructure simply did not know where exactly they were working. On the island itself there were buildings and laboratories of the institute, vivariums, and equipment warehouses. In the town, very comfortable living conditions were created for researchers and military personnel in conditions of complete autonomy. The island was carefully guarded by the military on land and sea. In 1992, the entire facility was urgently mothballed and abandoned by all occupants, including the facility's guards. For some time it remained a “ghost town” until it was discovered by looters, who for more than 10 years removed from the island everything that was abandoned there. Fate secret developments conducted on the island and their results - cultures of deadly microorganisms - still remains a mystery.

Heavy-duty “Russian Woodpecker”: Duga radar station, Pripyat, Ukraine

The Duga over-the-horizon radar station is a radar station created in the USSR for early detection of intercontinental ballistic missile launches by starting flashes (based on the reflection of radiation by the ionosphere). This gigantic structure took 5 years to build and was completed in 1985. The cyclopean antenna, 150 meters high and 800 meters long, consumed a huge amount of electricity, so it was built near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. For the characteristic sound on air made during operation (knocking), the station was named Russian Woodpecker (Russian Woodpecker). The installation was built to last and could function successfully to this day, but in reality the Duga radar operated for less than a year. The facility stopped operating after the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion.

Underwater submarine shelter: Balaklava, Crimea

As they say knowledgeable people- this top-secret submarine base was a transshipment point where submarines, including nuclear ones, were repaired, refueled and replenished with ammunition. It was a gigantic complex built to last, capable of withstanding a nuclear strike; under its arches, up to 14 submarines could be accommodated simultaneously. This military base was built in 1961 and abandoned in 1993, after which it was dismantled piece by piece by local residents. In 2002, it was decided to build a museum complex on the ruins of the base, but so far things have not gone beyond words. However, local diggers willingly take everyone there. (After joining the Russian Federation - a museum).

"Zone" in Latvian forests: Dvina missile silo, Kekava, Latvia

Very close to the capital of Latvia, in the forest there are the remains of the Dvina missile system. Built in 1964, the facility consisted of 4 launch shafts approximately 35 meters deep and underground bunkers. Much of the premises is currently flooded, and visiting the launch site without an experienced stalker guide is not recommended. Also dangerous are the remnants of toxic rocket fuel - heptyl, which, according to some information, remain in the depths of launch silos.

“The Lost World” in the Moscow region: Lopatinsky phosphate mine

The Lopatinskoye phosphorite deposit, 90 km from Moscow, was the largest in Europe. In the 30s of the last century, they began to actively develop it using the open pit method. At the Lopatinsky quarry, all main types of multi-bucket excavators were used - moving on rails, moving on caterpillars, and excavators walking with an “added” step. It was a giant development with its own railroad. After 1993, the field was closed, abandoning all the expensive imported special equipment. Mining of phosphorites has led to the emergence of an incredible “unearthly” landscape. The long and deep troughs of the quarries are mostly flooded. They are interspersed with high sandy ridges, turning into table-flat sandy fields, black, white and reddish dunes, pine forests with regular rows of planted pines. Giant excavators - “absetzers” resemble alien ships, rusting on the sands in the open air. All this makes the Lopatin quarries a kind of natural-technogenic “reserve”, a place of increasingly lively pilgrimage for tourists.

“Well to Hell”: Kola superdeep well, Murmansk region

The Kola superdeep well is the deepest in the world. Its depth is 12,262 meters. Located in the Murmansk region, 10 kilometers west of the city of Zapolyarny. The well was drilled in the northeastern part of the Baltic shield exclusively for research purposes in the place where the lower boundary earth's crust comes close to the Earth's surface. In the best years, 16 research laboratories worked at the Kola superdeep well, they were personally supervised by the Minister of Geology of the USSR. A lot has been done at the well most interesting discoveries, for example, the fact that life on Earth appeared 1.5 billion years earlier than expected. At depths where it was believed that there was no and could not be organic matter, 14 species of fossilized microorganisms were discovered - the age of the deep layers exceeded 2.8 billion years. In 2008, the facility was abandoned, the equipment was dismantled, and the destruction of the building began. As of 2010, the well has been mothballed and is gradually being destroyed. The cost of restoration is about one hundred million rubles. The Kola superdeep well is associated with many implausible legends about a “well to hell” from the bottom of which the cries of sinners are heard, and the drills are melted by hellish flames.

"Russian HAARP" - multifunctional radio complex "Sura"

In the late 1970s, as part of geophysical research near the city of Vasilsursk Nizhny Novgorod region built a multifunctional radio complex "Sura" to influence the Earth's ionosphere with powerful HF radio emission. The Sura complex, in addition to antennas, radars and radio transmitters, includes a laboratory complex, a utility unit, and a specialized transformer electrical substation. The once secret station, where a number of important studies are still being carried out today, is a thoroughly rusted and battered, but still not completely abandoned object. One of the important areas of research carried out at the complex is the development of ways to protect the operation of equipment and communications from ion disturbances in the atmosphere of various natures. Currently, the station operates for only 100 hours a year, while the famous American HAARP facility conducts experiments for 2,000 hours during the same period. The Nizhny Novgorod Radiophysical Institute does not have enough money for electricity - in one day of work, the test site equipment deprives the complex of a monthly budget. The complex is threatened not only by lack of money, but also by theft of property. Due to the lack of proper security, “hunters” for scrap metal continually sneak into the station’s territory.

« Oil stones» - sea city of oil producers, Azerbaijan

This settlement on trestles standing directly in the Caspian Sea is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest oil platforms. It was built in 1949 in connection with the beginning of oil extraction from the seabed around the Black Rocks - a rock ridge barely protruding from the surface of the sea. Here there are drilling rigs connected by overpasses, on which a settlement of oil field workers is located. The village grew, and in its heyday included power plants, nine-story dormitory buildings, hospitals, a community center, a park with trees, a bakery, a lemonade production plant, and even a mosque with a full-time mullah. The length of the elevated streets and alleys of the sea city reaches 350 kilometers. There was no permanent population in the city, and up to 2,000 people lived there as part of the rotational shift. The period of decline of Oil Rocks began with the advent of cheaper Siberian oil, which made offshore production unprofitable. However, the seaside town still did not become a ghost town; in the early 2000s, capital works began there renovation work and even began laying new wells.

Failed collider: abandoned accelerator elementary particles, Protvino, Moscow region

In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union planned to build a huge particle accelerator. Podmoskovny science center Protvino - the city of nuclear physicists - in those years was a powerful complex physical institutes, where scientists from all over the world came. A circular tunnel 21 kilometers long was built, lying at a depth of 60 meters. It is still located near Protvino. They even began to deliver equipment into the already completed accelerator tunnel, but then a series of political upheavals struck, and the domestic “hadron collider” remained uninstalled. The institutions of the city of Protvino maintain the satisfactory condition of this tunnel - an empty dark ring underground. There is a lighting system there, and there is a functioning narrow-gauge railway line. All sorts of commercial projects were proposed, such as an underground amusement park or even a mushroom farm. However, scientists are not giving this object away yet - perhaps they are hoping for the best.

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But here is a whole city that you can take a closer look at, holding back in your chest completely natural emotions that tend to overwhelm every person with a memory and a heart...

Gudym - Soviet secret city
When you see abandoned cities, you often feel a nagging feeling of melancholy, an involuntary desire to bring them back to life; one of these places is the Soviet city of Gudym in Chukotka.
A top-secret facility located just 200 km from America, a military nuclear base, one of the USSR’s trump cards in the Cold War.
Missiles launched from here could destroy the Empire of Good if it dared to attack the Soviet Union, turning half of the territory of the aggressor country into desert.

Gudym is one of the many names of the secret city. Officially, the military one was often called Andyr-1.
It was here that Soviet nuclear bases were located, and if the situation became more violent, missiles from Gudym were supposed to destroy half the continent.
Externally, the city looks quite normal: several three-story houses, a school and a shopping center.
Now all this is completely abandoned and half destroyed.
However, the most valuable thing in Gudym was underground - a giant multi-level dungeon where rockets and fuel were stored.

Rusted portrait of a soldier.

Posters in honor of naval sailors.

Gudym was one of the 15 secret, or closed, cities of the USSR. This city was not marked on the map, and the entry of foreigners here was strictly prohibited. The city was built in the 1950s; since 1961, about 5 thousand people (military personnel and their families) have lived here. At the base there were three RSD-10 missile systems, called “Pioneer”. In the event of a nuclear war, they were supposed to hit Alaska, Washington state, California and South Dakota.

Entrance to the park.

Despite the geographical remoteness and secrecy status, local residents were satisfied with the living conditions in Gudym. There were high salaries here, there was no shortage of anything, shopping center Chukotka had everything that other cities of the USSR could only dream of.

It was not saved by high-tech military scientific bases, the genius of its scientists, the work of its builders, the courage of its military, the patriotism of its people - the betrayal of the greedy, cynical, corrupt and narrow-minded degenerate elites, “stupidity and treason,” turned out to be stronger.
Russian - not yet, but how dangerously the situation today resembles the period of the last Soviet years and decades.
But the elites - the elites remained, in many ways, the same and their motives - remained the same...

The Soviet Union was a huge power with equally large-scale projects in a variety of industries. Unfortunately, history has turned out that not every one of these projects was implemented.
But it also happened that an already implemented project, which seemed like such a promising project, turned out to be unnecessary and fell into decay over time. This review is about 13 mysterious, frightening, and sometimes downright creepy places on the territory of the former USSR.

1. Ball near Dubna

A protective dome that was accidentally dropped.
In the forest near Dubna, in Russia, a huge hollow ball with a diameter of approximately 18 meters can be found. Finding it yourself will be a bit salty, but local residents will always be happy to tell you how to get to the local “attraction”. From a bird's eye view, the ball can be mistaken for a UFO, but in reality it is a dielectric cap for a parabolic antenna space communications. The cap was transported by helicopter, but the cable broke during transportation. Removing the dome turned out to be too problematic an undertaking. By the way, it is made of fiberglass with a honeycomb structure. It amplifies any noise many times over and produces a powerful echo.

2. Khovrinskaya hospital

It's funny, but the cases resemble a sign of a biological threat.
An eleven-story abandoned, unfinished hospital in Moscow. Traditionally, it is included in all sorts of unofficial ratings of the most terrible places on the planet. The construction of a multidisciplinary hospital began in the 80s. It was designed for 1,300 beds. Construction was stopped after 5 years, when all the buildings had already been erected. Ironically, over the next decades, the Khovrinsk hospital does not save, but maims and takes lives. Homeless people, drug addicts and thrill-seekers have long been “registered” here. Accidents on the territory of patients are a sad reality.

3. Crimean Nuclear Power Plant

Completely plundered.
Unfinished nuclear power plant, which is located near the city of Shchelkino. The first design calculations were made back in 1964. Construction began in 1975. It was assumed that this nuclear power plant would provide electricity to the entire Crimean peninsula. It was also supposed to be the starting point for further development industry in these places. The first reactor was planned to be launched in 1989, construction proceeded without any deviations. However, the shaken economy of the USSR, together with the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, put an end to the Crimean project. At that time, more than 500 million were spent on the station Soviet rubles, and in the warehouses there were materials and equipment worth another 250 million Soviet rubles. All this was stolen in subsequent years. It is worth adding that the Crimean nuclear power plant was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive power plant of this type.

4. Balaclava

Today this facility can be visited by anyone.
In 2003, for the first time in 46 years of its existence, the Balaklava submarine base appeared on public display for the first time. Today it is exclusively a tourist site, but the base was once one of the most secret sites of the Soviet Union. The huge underground complex housed submarines. The base could withstand a nuclear attack with powerful charges and was built in case of a nuclear war. The base consists of a water canal, a dry dock, numerous warehouses of various types and buildings for military personnel. The facility was closed in 1994, after the last submarine was removed from it. For many years, the pride of the Soviet Union was simply stolen.

5. Object 221

The alternate command center is now abandoned and looted.
Not far from Sevastopol, in addition to the already mentioned submarine repair base, you can find another, once secret, facility of the Soviet Union. It's about about the bunker - object 221. It had many names, but behind all of them was hidden a reserve command post for the Black Sea Fleet. You can find the object near the village of Morozovka. It was a real underground city. Construction began on it in 1977. The object lies at a depth of 200 meters, where there are 4 floors of buildings. The total area of ​​the underground part of the complex is 17 thousand sq.m. To date, the facility has been completely looted and destroyed.

6. Nuclear lighthouse at Cape Aniva

The unique lighthouse stands idle and is almost completely plundered by looters.
On Sakhalin you can find Cape Aniva, where a unique atomic lighthouse is located. The lighthouse is the height of a nine-story building. Previously, up to 12 people could be on duty there. Today, this once unique complex has been completely looted by looters and is not functioning.

7. Dvina missile system

The Soviet legacy is flooded.
The collapse of the Soviet Union “gave” the former republics a huge arsenal of a wide variety of weapons, including launch silos. So, near the capital of Latvia, in the forests, you can find the once unique, secret Dvina launch complex. It was built in 1964. This is a huge complex consisting of bunkers and launch shafts, most of which are currently flooded. Visiting the complex is highly discouraged due to the remains of extremely toxic rocket fuel there.

8. Workshop No. 8 of the Dagdizel plant

This is not Fort Boyard, this was once a super secret workshop.
In Kaspiysk, in Dagestan, you can find a unique factory workshop built right on the water. The workshop belonged to the Dagdizel plant. It was built to test naval weapons, in particular various torpedoes and missiles. The plant was unique for the USSR. It was built on a pit with a volume of 530 thousand cubic meters, which was dug using special shells. An “array” was installed into it, onto which a 14-meter all-metal structure was later lowered. Total area The constructed workshop exceeds 5 thousand sq.m. The station was equipped for permanent residence and work. However, by the mid-60s of the 20th century, the project was abandoned as unnecessary due to too quickly changing trends in the field of weapons design. Since then, the building has been abandoned and is gradually being destroyed by the Caspian Sea.

9. Lopatinsky phosphate mine

The mine is almost stopped, plundered and abandoned.
Not far from the city of Vokresensk, in the Moscow region, you can easily find a huge mine for the extraction of phospharites. This deposit is unique in Europe and the largest. The first developments here began in the 30s of the 20th century. All types of multi-bucket excavators were used in numerous quarries: crawler, rail and walking. Rail shovels had special equipment to move the rails. Since the 90s, the mine has been virtually abandoned, the quarries are flooded with water, and expensive special equipment is simply rotting in the open air.

10. Ionosphere research station

Today this scientific facility is visited only by stalkers.
In Zmeevo, a district city in the Kharkov region of Ukraine, you can find a unique station for studying the ionosphere. It was built almost before the collapse of the USSR. It was a direct analogue of the American Harp project, which was deployed in Alaska and is successfully operating to this day. The Soviet complex consisted of several antenna fields and one giant parabolic antenna with a diameter of 25 meters. Unfortunately, after the collapse of the union, no one needed the station. Today, incredibly expensive scientific equipment simply rots or is stolen by stalkers and hunters for non-ferrous metals.

11. "Northern Crown"

The most sinister hotel.
Initially, the Northern Crown Hotel was called Petrogradskaya. Its construction began in 1988. The hotel is famous not for its beauty, but for the huge number of accidents during construction. The fact that Metropolitan John died of a heart attack within its walls did not add to the popularity of the complex, immediately after the building was illuminated.

12. Particle accelerator

The USSR could have had its own collider.
The USSR could have its own hadron collider. Construction of a unique complex began in the Moscow region, in Protvino, in the late 80s. As it is not difficult to guess, the collapse of the USSR actually put an end to scientific project. A 21-kilometer tunnel was already completely ready for the collider. They even began to deliver equipment to the site. Work continued after that, but very sluggishly. Funding was literally only enough to illuminate the tunnels that were falling into disrepair.

13. "Oil Rocks"

A real city on the water.
In Azerbaijan you can find a real sea city. We are talking about the so-called “oil stones”. It appeared after Soviet geologists discovered huge oil deposits in the Caspian Sea in the 40s of the 20th century. Thanks to the development of mining, an entire city appeared on embankments and metal overpasses. Power plants, hospitals, nine-story buildings and much more were built right on the water! In total, there were about 200 platforms with residents on the water. The total mileage of streets was 350 km. However, cheap Siberian oil that appeared later put an end to local production, and the city fell into decay.

Heritage cold war, the results of the collapse of the USSR or simply someone’s negligence. Abandoned factories, military units and even spaceships. A country that no longer exists, technology frozen in time.

Here is only a small part of the abandoned objects to get an idea of ​​the scale of the sad picture.

Selection: hi-tech.mail.ru

The Project 903 ekranoplan missile ship “Lun” is the Soviet “aircraft carrier killer,” as it was called in the United States. And this was not far from the truth.

The ekranoplan was designed to combat surface ships by launching a missile strike.

Lun has come a long way from the start of development in the 70s to its transfer into trial operation in 1990. And already in 1991, operation was completed.

Thanks to its high speed of movement and invisibility to radars, the Lun can sail to aircraft carriers within the distance of an accurate missile launch.

This sad picture in the photo is an abandoned hangar near the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. A few years ago, photographer Ralph Mirebs visited the hangar. Assembled space shuttles Product 1.02 “Storm” - the USSR’s answer to the American Shuttles. (Photo by Ralph Mirebs):

In 1988, the Buran space shuttle (product 1.01) made an automatic flight into space. In 2002, during the collapse of installation and testing building No. 112, Buran was destroyed. (Photo by Ralph Mirebs):

Aralsk-7, Renaissance Island. A ghost town where biological weapons were rumored to be tested. The completely autonomous city was urgently abandoned in the early 90s.

The Duga radar had cyclopean dimensions! Height - 140 m, length - 500 m. 200 thousand tons of metal were used for construction. The station was not on combat duty and did not pass tests.

Over-the-horizon radar station "Duga" (radar station "Duga", Pripyat, Ukraine) - created for early detection of launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Construction was completed in 1985 near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Abandoned collider, Protvino, Moscow region.

The 21-kilometer-long ring tunnel, located at a depth of 60 meters, is now located near Protvino, a city near Moscow, a city of nuclear physicists.

It is less than a hundred kilometers from Moscow along the Simferopol highway. They even began to bring equipment into the already completed accelerator tunnel, but then a series of political upheavals struck, and the domestic “hadron collider” was left to rot underground.

The Kola superdeep well (Murmansk region) is the deepest in the world. Its depth is 12,262 meters; the diameter of the upper part is 92 cm, the diameter of the lower part is 21.5 cm. (Archival photo of 1974):

Kola superdeep well. This is what the object looks like today. In 2008, the facility was abandoned, the equipment was dismantled, and the destruction of the building began.

Station for studying the ionosphere (Ukraine, Zmiev). It was built as an analogue to the American HAARP project in Alaska in the late 80s.

Kyiv Electric Transport Plant has a long history. The opening took place on May 1, 1906.

During 1974 - 1985 About a hundred new KTG freight trolleybuses rolled off the assembly line every year. And this is what the Kyiv Electric Transport Plant looks like these days. (Photo by technic-man):

Nuclear power plant in Shchelkino. There are many Crimean secret (and not so secret) abandoned objects, because the peninsula was a line of defense in the south of the USSR and Russian Empire. This nuclear power plant, for example, was supposed to supply electricity to the entire Crimea.

They started building the station in 1974, and in 1987, after the Chernobyl tragedy, construction was frozen. The station had already managed to take a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive nuclear reactor in the world.

Object No. 221, Crimea is a truly secret object. The photo shows a dummy building that hides a chain of bunkers underground. Fearing nuclear strike The USSR leadership built a bunker for the Reserve Command Post.

Tunnels of object No. 221 (Crimea). In addition to the command post, 10 thousand people - officers and their families - were to be evacuated underground in the event of a nuclear threat.

The Crimean bunker was abandoned in 1992. According to some reports, it was 90% ready.

Object 825 GTS - underground submarine base in Balaklava. Secret military facility during the Cold War. The underground complex was built over 8 years, from 1953 to 1961. After its closure in 1993, most of the complex was not guarded. (Photo by Alexander “Russos” Popov):

The object "Object 825 GTS" is located in Mount Tavros and is a structure of the first category of protection (direct hit atomic bomb 100 kt). (Photo by Alexander “Russos” Popov)

Anti-nuclear doors of “Object 825”.

It's hard to believe, but there are entire "cemeteries" military equipment, left by various reasons back in the days of the USSR. In the photo: Equipment involved in the liquidation of the accident at Chernobyl nuclear power plant. A familiar picture for fans of “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.”

Amderma, radar "Lena-M". Village on the shores of the Kara Sea in Soviet era was the center of the largest military infrastructure in the Arctic. Large radar installations were installed here and fighter aircraft were based. (Photo by Ralph Mirebs):

Amderma, radar complex control center.

Amderma. Balls of radio-transparent shelters for mobile radars. (Photo by Ralph Mirebs):

And this is the Moscow region, our days. A whole arsenal of military equipment abandoned in the forest.

Such a picture, as they say, is not so rare in our country. Entire military bases stand completely abandoned.

Skrunda - once a secret military unit of the USSR - an entire Latvian city stands abandoned. There are many such “ghosts” throughout the former Soviet Union.

The abandoned eighth workshop of the Dagdizel plant in the city of Kaspiysk. Naval weapons testing station, which was commissioned in 1939. Located at a distance of 2.7 km from the coast.

Missile system R-12 "Dvina" (Postavy). The complex was built in 1964 and was in service until 1994. One of the objects from the Cold War.

According to some reports, this photo was taken the day before the death of K-159 during transportation for disposal.

Project 613 submarines are a series of Soviet medium-sized diesel-electric submarines built in 1951-1957.

Aug 15, 2019 Alexander

The USSR authorities did not skimp on financing projects that were supposed to ensure the strength and power of the communist system, and, if necessary, to protect it. But in the early 1990s, the huge country fell apart, some military and scientific facilities were transferred to newly formed states - yesterday's union republics. Others were simply abandoned.

Biochemical testing site "Barkhan"

From 1942 to 1992, a military biochemical training ground was located on Vozrozhdeniya Island, which was located in the middle of the Aral Sea. Its code name is “Darkhan”. For half a century, bacteriological weapons were tested there on experimental animals - dogs, monkeys, sheep, horses. Samples of drugs were supplied from all military biochemical laboratories of the USSR - Stepnogorsk, Kirov, Sverdlovsk-19, Omutninsk, Sergiev Posad, Obolensk.

The facility was carefully guarded; access to the island by outsiders was strictly prohibited. The degree of secrecy was such that most of the employees who participated in maintaining the landfill did not even know where they worked.

A whole complex of bioengineering institutes was located on the island - buildings and laboratories, vivariums, equipment warehouses. Very comfortable conditions were created for military scientists in the town. But in the 90s. everything has changed. In 1992, President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree closing the site. The military contingent was redirected to Kirov, and the biological laboratory was dismantled.

Now no one will say what kind of research the scientists were doing on Vozrozhdeniya Island. The equipment was stolen by looters, taking away everything that was of any value. Only abandoned buildings remained.

By the way, in 1995, American military bacteriologists came to the test site - they were invited by the authorities of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, which, after the collapse of the USSR, owned the territory of the island. Foreigners took samples from several burial grounds and found that the anthrax spores with which Soviet scientists worked did not die completely and remained somewhat dangerous.

Dvina installation in Latvia

Since 1964, in the forests near Kekava (17 km from Riga) there was a missile complex - four launch silos 35 m deep, an underground command post, fuel component storage facilities and equipment rooms.

The facility was built in 1964. But in the second half of the 1970s, the R-12 and R-12U missiles began to be removed from service in connection with the deployment of the RSD-10 systems, and first of all, missile systems with silo launchers were eliminated. So the Dvina was no longer needed by the Soviet government.

After the collapse of the USSR, mines in Latvian forests and a significant part of the premises were partially flooded and looted. All metal has been cut off. Experts in extreme tourism warn that going to this abandoned site without an experienced guide is dangerous. And it’s not just that the mines are filled with water. They say that vapors of poisonous rocket fuel - heptyl - can escape from their depths.

Former ZCP near Aksai

The reserve command post of the North Caucasus Military District (ZKP) was built in the 50-60s. last century, when the USSR was preparing for a large-scale nuclear war and in the surrounding area major cities erected underground recessed command posts various types troops.

Inside the hill on Mukhina Balka (this place is located in the Aksay region in the Rostov region) tunnels 8 m high and 85 m long were laid. They were designed in such a way that the structure could survive even a direct hit from an atomic bomb. The two-tier bunker had an extensive system of corridors with sealed doors, many rooms and vast halls. It was officially believed that the gigantic structure was intended for the repair and storage of armored vehicles. But research into underground explosions was also carried out there.

Round openings still lead into the buildings of the former command post. But no tests have been carried out here since the mid-1980s. And in 1993 it was finally closed. Local residents removed furniture and fixtures from the premises. In 1998, a military history museum was opened on the territory of an abandoned bunker. Now anyone can legally come here as a tourist.

Radar "Duga" ("Russian Woodpecker")

In order to timely detect launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Soviet military command decided to create the Duga early warning system. It was based on two nodes located in different parts USSR: the first was in Chernobyl (now Ukraine), the second was near Komsomolsk-on-Amur.

Rocket launches were supposed to be determined by starting flares, the radiation of which should be reflected by the ionosphere (the upper part of the atmosphere). Therefore, the size of the structures was impressive: the antennas consisted of 30 masts, which reached a height of up to 150 m, and the length of the structure reached 800 m. The capabilities of the project at that time were unique - the technology allowed scientists and engineers to look beyond the horizon. The facility's top secret status remained until the mid-1980s.

The antenna near Chernobyl consumed a lot of energy - that is why they decided to build it near nuclear power plant. Next to the radar there was a garrison where military personnel and their families lived. The town was named Chernobyl-2.

The station made a characteristic sound on the air, similar to knocking, and in the lexicon of the alleged enemy it received the nickname Russian Woodpecker (“Russian Woodpecker”). It was accepted for combat duty in 1985, and a year later the system was modernized. However, in the same year there was an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and the operation of the Duga radar was stopped. It was not closed immediately - until 1987 the station remained mothballed. But over time, it became clear that it was impossible to carry out combat duty there. The country's leadership decided to complete the project. The main components were dismantled and taken to Komsomolsk-on-Amur. But the huge radio masts towering above the forest remain - they can be seen from anywhere in the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

"Nora" in Crimea

At the Reserve Command Post Black Sea Fleet(ZKChF) there were three more names - “Object No. 221”, “Alsu-2” (in honor of the nearby tract) and “Nora”. From here the combat operations of Soviet ships in the Black Sea were to be controlled in the event of war.

Construction of the top-secret facility began in 1977, but was never completed, although very little remained - to carry out finishing work and start the equipment. But it was already 1992, Crimea remained part of Ukraine, and it did not need a huge bunker. The object was mothballed, not knowing what use to find for it. Then the security was removed and thereby opened up access for the looters...

The structure is located at a depth of more than 200 m, and its underground part consists of four tiers. A truck or two cars can easily pass through the tunnels side by side. The buildings on the surface were carefully camouflaged. Let's say the two entrances leading to the Burrow are concrete slabs on which window openings are painted. From a distance it looks like a residential building.

At the top of the mountain there are exits of ventilation shafts with a diameter of 4.5 m. They are also camouflaged - blocked by concrete buildings.

A secret submarine base, an abandoned missile silo, giant excavators, an over-the-horizon radar "Duga", a sea city on the "Oil Rocks" platforms, a Soviet hadron collider - an elementary particle accelerator and a station for studying the ionosphere. The once mighty communist empire spared no expense on either defense or science. And from Pacific Ocean Huge antennas aimed into space rose to the middle of Europe, and secret military bunkers were hidden in the forests. With the collapse of the Union, the heirs found it unaffordable to maintain many of these facilities. And the newly formed young states were not interested in science, and the task of border defense was assigned to powerful neighbors. Here are just a few structures out of thousands of secret and not-so-secret objects hidden in the mountains and forests that characterize the full power of the collapsed empire. But these are only the least valuable ones, which turned out to be unclaimed during the period of division of property between the once fraternal republics.

Balaclava (Ukraine, Crimea)

The secret submarine base in the small Crimean town of Balaklava is one of the largest military facilities abandoned after the collapse of the USSR. Since 1961, under Mount Tavros there was a complex where ammunition was stored (including nuclear) and submarines were repaired. Up to 14 submarines could hide in the docks of the base different classes, and the entire complex was able to withstand a direct blow nuclear bomb power up to 100 kT. The object, abandoned in 1993, was stolen for scrap metal local residents. Without accurate maps, walking through the numerous tunnels of the base was dangerous, as there was a real danger of getting lost or falling into one of the many hatches (they are open, since the locals sold the covers for scrap metal). In 2002, it was decided to turn the remains of the submarine base in Balaklava into a museum complex dedicated to the confrontation during the Cold War.

Abandoned missile silo (Latvia, Kekava)

After the collapse of the empire, the young republics inherited a lot of military property, including ballistic missile launch silos scattered throughout the forests. Very close to the capital of Latvia are the remains of the Dvina missile system. Built in 1964, the facility consisted of 4 launch shafts approximately 35 meters deep and underground bunkers. Much of the premises is currently flooded and visiting the launch site without an experienced guide is not recommended. Residues of toxic rocket fuel also pose a danger.

Giant excavators (Russia, Moscow region)

Until 1993, the Lopatinsky phosphorite mine was a completely successful operating deposit, where the most necessary for the Soviet agriculture fossils. And with the arrival market economy abandoned quarries with giant bucket excavators have become a place of pilgrimage for tourists. Lopatinsky mine interesting place not far from Voskresensk. There are interesting things there - giant excavators (paragraphs) and prehistoric fossils (ammonites and fragments of marine reptiles). Until recently, it was possible to climb through ownerless paragraphs, but now they have been dismantled and only the active ones remain, which are protected.

Over-the-horizon radar "Duga" (Ukraine, Pripyat)

The titanic structure, built in 1985 to detect launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles, could function successfully to this day, but in fact it worked for less than a year. The giant antenna, 150 meters high and 800 meters long, consumed such an amount of electricity that it was built almost right next to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and, naturally, stopped working with the explosion of the station. IN present moment Excursions are taken to Pripyat, including to the foot of the radar station, but only a few risk climbing the 150-meter height.

Sea city "Oil Rocks" (Azerbaijan)

The Union needed oil, and in the 40s of the last century, offshore production began in the Caspian Sea, 42 kilometers east of the Absheron Peninsula. And around the first platforms a city began to grow, also located on metal overpasses and embankments. During its heyday, power plants, nine-story dormitory buildings, hospitals, a cultural center, a bakery and even a lemonade shop were built on the open sea, 110 km from Baku. The oil workers also had a small park with real trees. Oil rocks are more than 200 stationary platforms, and the length of the streets and alleys of this city at sea reaches 350 kilometers. But cheap Siberian oil made offshore production unprofitable and the village began to fall into disrepair. Today only about 2 thousand people live here.

Abandoned particle accelerator (Russia, Moscow region)

In the late 80s, the dying Soviet Union decided to build a huge particle accelerator. The 21-kilometer-long ring tunnel, located at a depth of 60 meters, is now located near Protvino, a city near Moscow, a city of nuclear physicists. It is less than a hundred kilometers from Moscow along the Simferopol highway. They even began to bring equipment into the already completed accelerator tunnel, but then a series of political upheavals struck, and the domestic “hadron collider” was left to rot underground.

Station for studying the ionosphere (Ukraine, Zmiev)

Almost before the collapse Soviet Union An ionospheric research station was built near Kharkov, which was a direct analogue of the American HAARP project in Alaska, which is still successfully operating today. The station complex consisted of several antenna fields and a giant parabolic antenna with a diameter of 25 meters, capable of emitting a power of about 25 MW. For some time the station was abandoned and was an object for tourists and hunters for non-ferrous metals, but fortunately, now everything is functional and the station even has a website: //www.iion.org.ua/