Ten kilometers from Sevastopol is a picturesque resort town - Balaklava. More recently, in the second half of the 20th century, it was closed to tourists. The reason for this was the underground naval base in Balaclava.
When the Cold War just began in the fifties of the last century, the United States of America and the Soviet Union began to build up their arsenals of nuclear weapons, threatening them with preemptive strikes against each other, as well as retaliation. It was during this difficult historical period that Stalin gave Beria a secret order: to find a place for basing Soviet submarines and for delivering a nuclear strike.
The choice of special services fell on the peaceful and quiet Balaclava. The city was immediately classified, its name disappeared from the map of Crimea. The city has turned into one of the districts of Sevastopol, but not in the usual, but in a particularly secret: you could enter here only through special passes. Stalin personally considered and endorsed the design of the secret base for the repair and maintenance of submarines. So, the first and only underground harbor in the world appeared, having on its territory a factory for repairing submarines, known as Object No. 825.
Where is the base located?
Once a secret underground base, and today the Balaklava naval complex is located in the bay of the same name, in Mount Tavros. She has two exits, and the entrance to the canal is from the bay. His staff called the adit. In the event of a threat, the entrance to it was blocked by a huge batoport, weighing one hundred and fifty tons.
On the northern hillside, a boat exit to the sea was built. The batoport also covered it. It should be noted that all the holes in the mountain were so expertly covered with various camouflage devices that it was very difficult to notice them even at close range.
Construction history
Today, the underground naval museum complex is the most popular attraction of Balaclava. The history of the secret object began back in 1957. To maintain confidentiality, the facility under construction was given a completely peaceful name - GTS (city telephone exchange) No. 825. There is also a second decoding of the abbreviation - "hydraulic structure." It is more logical: few people could believe in the construction of a telephone exchange in Mount Tavros.
Specialists in the creation of such complexes claim that not one of them (declassified) has surpassed the base in Balaclava in size and power even today. The construction was carried out in stages, while the working day was divided into four shifts. Builders removed from the western cliff of Mount Tavros builders more than two hundred thousand cubic meters of soil.
So, there was a deep-water channel, workshops, dry dock, arsenals, underground roads, storages, moorings, a command post. The breed was taken out late at night, for the purpose of conspiracy, when the small southern town was quietly sleeping. She was taken out by barges and dumped into the sea.
Cooperation with metro builders
Initially, the construction of this facility was entrusted to military specialists, but they unexpectedly encountered difficulties during the drilling of the soil. The government of the country made a decision on involving metro builders, who helped to build an underground canal, the depth of which was more than eight meters. In different areas, its width ranged from eight to twelve meters.
Secret underwater base occupied a huge territory (more than five thousand square meters). The water area under which the object is located is three thousand meters. The first phase of the facility (repair base) was commissioned in 1961. Fuel depots for storing fuel and lubricants, with a volume of nine and a half thousand tons, were included in the second stage, the construction of which was completed in 1963. The underwater plant could accommodate up to seven vessels. I must say that even today's military experts, this figure is impressive.
In the spring of 1994, the last submarine left the base in the sea. Since then, the unique object has been abandoned and simply plundered.
What was the object built for?
This question is of interest to many who today visit the unique museum complex in Balaclava. Recall that the construction of the facility was carried out during the Cold War, when the international situation was tense to the limit.
The base was created for maintenance and repair of class 633 and 613 submarines. Spare parts for submarines and ammunition were stored on the territory of the facility. The central adit included seven boats of these types, but in emergency cases the project provided for the placement of up to fourteen vessels of various classes.
In addition, the designers provided for a special adit (in case of a nuclear attack) for diving boats into the station under water. Here, in addition to conventional types of weapons, there were nuclear weapons.
The disadvantages of the complex
Modern experts often argue, discussing whether the base was really unique and ideal object, or it had flaws. As a rule, objections to the uniqueness of objections do not arise, and as for the construction flaws, they, of course, were.
During the construction of the submarine station, new models began to enter the arsenal of the Black Sea Fleet - submarines of class 625, which operated on diesel fuel. They could no longer fit in the created channels. In addition, it was quite difficult to get into the base even during a light storm.
Naval Museum Complex Balaklava: Description
This huge building, which is located deep underground, was able to protect against an atomic explosion - for example, with the defeat of an atomic bomb with a capacity of at least one hundred kilotons. In this case, all ammunition, submarines and personnel working there would remain unharmed.
Today, the Naval Museum "Balaclava" in Sevastopol is open to all comers. It was founded in 2003, when the object number 825 was declassified. Tours are conducted in groups of twenty people. The tour takes about an hour.
Sightseeing Routes
The Submarine Museum in Balaclava can be viewed along one of the two proposed routes. The basic excursion is an hour-long walk through the mazes of Mount Tavros. This route includes visits to a secret facility for sheltering boats, a navigable canal, and an arsenal of nuclear weapons, which today are transformed into spacious exhibition halls.
The second route is shorter: in half an hour you can explore the Balaklava underground museum complex, driving a boat, make a trip along the underground canal, see the workshop for servicing submarines, visit the 100-meter dry dock, which is eight meters deep and look at a real sea mine, which was intended to destroy enemy’s naval targets and was able to destroy everything within a radius of 100 m.
Factory pattern
This is a huge transport corridor leading to the production facilities. Its length is 296 meters, its height is four and a half meters, and its width is four. This room was used to transport torpedoes from the MCH and to deliver equipment and materials to workshops. In addition, a staff shelter was equipped here.
Underground dock
For everyone who visits the Balaklava Naval Museum Complex for the first time, it is this room where the boat was repaired that makes a special impression. Its length is 505 meters, a width of six to twenty-two meters (in different sections). In addition to the underground, there was a dry dock at the base - a fenced part of the canal, whose length was one hundred and two meters.
Before the boat entered the dry dock, it was filled with water. When the ship came in, the water was pumped out and repairs began, which lasted from two to six weeks.
Arsenal
The Balaklava Naval Museum Complex today can offer tourists a visit to the arsenal where the warheads for torpedoes and missiles, including nuclear ones, were stored. This room was conditionally divided into two parts - technical and local, in which the most secret place of the base was located. Here the warheads were stored and assembled. Only crews consisting of officers and midshipmen could enter here.
Interesting Facts
- Boats entered the canal only at night, and in Balaklava at that time they turned off the electricity.
- The walls and ceiling of the arsenal are covered by a layer of concrete, the thickness of which reaches several meters.
- After the boat entered the dock, water was drained from it. Workers collected and smoked a huge amount of fish left at the bottom. A fragrant haze spread throughout the district, according to which local residents clearly determined that the next boat was for repair.
