Undeground Submarine Base, Balaklava, Ukraine
Posted by: Torgut
N 44° 30.122 E 033° 35.808
36T E 547442 N 4927807
An underground submarine base built by the Soviets in 1961
Waymark Code: WMEQX7
Location: Ukraine
Date Posted: 06/29/2012
Views: 13
The whole area of Sevastopol, in Crimea, was not accessible to the normal Soviet (and then Ukrainian) citizen until 1993 (I think); in short, it was a militarized area, a huge base formed by dozens of facilities. And from the whole lot, Balaklava was the most well protected, the most secret. There, the Soviets built an underground base for submarines. It took five years to build and it became finally operational in 1961. It was designed to host up to seven class 613 or class 633 submarines.
With the collapse of Soviet Union the site was later abandoned, in 1995. For a while it became just a strange ruin, where people could enter and freely explore. A dangerous situation, with at least three deaths recorded due to accidents with explorers there.
Finally, in 2005, due to the efforts of the city of Sevastopol, a museum was open in this former military facility. Nowadays the visitor will have to pay a ticket and wait until a group is ready to start the tour, which is available in Russian and English. The cots of the ticket is approximately 7 Euros. Tours take about 90 min and include a walk of about 3 km underground. At least I was told so.
Era: Post WW II
General Comments: Not listed
Related web site: Not listed
|