Description of the attraction
In the second half of the last century, almost immediately after the end of World War II, the world went into a state of cold war - this was the name of the global confrontation between the two superpowers, the USSR and the United States and their allies. The world was actually divided into two parts, one of which supported the ideology of capitalism, and the other - socialism. The Cold War was accompanied by an increase in military and nuclear power on both sides, and if any of the participants in the confrontation dared to press the nuclear "button", World War III would begin, after which the world would turn into a nuclear desert.
One of the facilities built during the Cold War, a former reserve command post for long-range aviation, located on Taganka, was transformed into a museum. Its visitors can experience the maximum degree of immersion in the atmosphere of this conflict, which lasted for almost half a century.
Bunker-42 was a classified object in Soviet times, but at the beginning of this century it was bought out by a private company, which in 2006 opened a Cold War museum there. Its construction was carried out from 1951 to 1956 in strict secrecy, using the same technique that was used in the construction of the subway. The facility was declassified in 1995 after the end of the Cold War.
The entrance to the museum is located near the Taganskaya metro station. Outside, it looks like an ordinary building, but inside it is entirely made of concrete - to protect the entrance to the bunker from a direct hit from a conventional bomb and from a shock wave from a nuclear explosion. The bunker itself is located 60 meters underground. A layer of soil as thick as an 18-storey building was supposed to protect the personnel of the bunker from radiation contamination. The bunker area is about seven thousand square meters. The bunker stored a supply of water, food for three months, the air purification system worked, communications were carried out, the objects of the bunker were electrified.
Today, museum visitors are invited to try on the roles of soldiers and officers who were supposed to serve in the Cold War. The excursion begins with the issuance of a ticket at the checkpoint in the form of an official certificate, and visitors are also offered to take part in an imitation of a rocket launch and in a training alert while donning gas masks.
Among the exhibits of the museum are the bunker interiors themselves, a model of this structure, a model of a nuclear bomb, samples of various weapons, military uniforms, and protective equipment. Visitors are also shown a film about the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis, an event in 1962 that could have brought the world to the brink of World War III.
