Russia: Grass and Missiles

We arrived at the village and then drove to the resort, to a small slate career. The nearest underground missile silo was in two hundred meters from that place. Once, the formidable intercontinental ballistic missile R-36M UTTKh lived in the underground missile silo, otherwise called Satan. But now there is no rocket inside it, there only a small house remained. Today my story will be about the house and other underground constructions.

We arrived. We left the car and walked down the thickets of wild pea and hemp fields. Not inclined to think that it is grown especially by locals – too big and chaotic plantations. But I was sure that in the autumn there would be enough harvest for all the surrounding villages. Some individual plants were higher than I.

After half a kilometer, ended both the hemp field and solid soil. Before the gaze stretched not a swamp, not a lake. It was the epicenter of the odor stercoris. The surface springed as the bog trying to swallow the unwary travelers. We are jumping from hummock to hummock, hesitantly moved forward. A couple of times the bumps disappeared, and we had to look for a workaround.

Finally, we found a passage and took to the road. It led directly to the position. The missile silo was mothballed after leaving by militaries. It was very difficult to find it.

Squeezed, I found myself in the little low room with steel walls.

Only little railings to the left and right separate me from the depths of 40 meters.  Down to the very bottom of the mine, there were more open ladders but I hesitated to go down.

On our way back, we were much more competently, we didn’t get on hummocks, but followed the road. After dinner, we began to prepare for the second objective of our trip – to visit the Fortified command post that ruled this (and the five others) missile silo.

The Fortified command post was not within walking distance, so we used a jeep. In general, the FCP is on conservation and protected from looting black metal by the Ministry of Defence. But if you keep quiet, it’s possible to visit it.

The fortified command post is the same as the underground missile silo but inside this is not rocket, but twelve-cylinder level container. Cylinder is suspended on shock absorbers, which allows it to douse the seismic vibrations from possible nuclear explosions.

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It’s quite closely there. The usual way to move between levels was an elevator but now it is paralyzed and lays on the bottom. We have to climb on the side ladders. Red ones are fire ladders that take place throughout the depth of the mine. Yellow ones combine various technology storeys.

Travel between the levels of the cylinder is also not an easy task. In the normal state, there were stairs between floors. Someone cut them off and we had to cling to the edge with our hands, our feet rested against an empty rack hardware, in order to climb to the top. Sharp edges of the hatches, spilled slippery oil and the likelihood of falling on a couple of levels down, gave the spicy thrill to our occupation.

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Actually, this Fortified command post reached us in a very good condition. Yes, someone seized all electronic equipment, cut off manhole covers, internal ladders and robbed fancy chairs. But, at the same time, they retained the rest of the ferrous metal, including diesels full of copper, silver plated wire connections and gold-plated connectors.

There were a toilet and beds on the lowest 12th level. The stopped elevator rested here. I inspected everything and began to crawl up nonexistent ladders. Passed over the 11th, 10th and 9th level.

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On the 8th level, I understood that no longer can easily creep, there was an absolutely empty compartment. I had to climb back but decided to escape through the elevator shaft. There was something to grab to crawl to the fire ladder. Then I got down to the very bottom of the mine, took some photos and then left the Fortified command post.

Mission: complete.

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