Derelict Soviet bomb shelter

Beneath one of the building of some research institute a rather spacious underground bomb shelter is hiding. Part of the space inside it is occupied by a small storage of items needed for civil defense and protection of citizens in case of a nuclear war, chemical contamination or any other apocalyptic scenario.

The storage was created in the 1960s. The lighting here is still working, but the condition of the equipment leaves much to be desired. The shelves are starting to fall apart, the fabrics are rotting away, the boxes are deteriorating, rubber elements are also starting to spoil and so on.

It is worth pointing out that there is a spot inside the room where radiation hazard meters are stored. These devices are so old that they’ve started to fall apart and the control radiation source elements are exposed, so the level of radiation is 5-6 times higher than normal around the spot. The level is not critical but still rather unpleasant.

What else can be found on the site? Multiple things relating to civil defense: posters, slides with projectors, dummies, gas masks, radiation meters, chemical protection suites, medical aid kits, rulers for measuring the impact in case of a nuclear bomb explosion, outdated computing systems and so on.

Upon entering the narrow pathways of the site we turn on the light.

Soon we stumble upon some testing ampoules that were used to measure the level of mustard gas contamination and some other types of contamination.

There are a lot of computing systems and projectors in the shelving units. This one, for example, is an electromechanical control device named “Lastochka K-53”

There are a few individual medical aid kits lying around.

A set of DKP-50A radiation meters.

A field-type PK-36M calorimeter. Opening the box…

A motion picture projector.

A field-type PK-56 calorimeter. Its operation principle is based on matching the color of the solution in the test ampoule to the shade of one of the 11 colored glasses.

Multiple ink bottles.

A curious item — a first aid kit in a paper box made in the 1960s. Inside it there are expired pills of various kinds and rotten bandages.

A view down one of the branches of the hallway. Various kinds of papers and bags filled with gas masks.

A local specialty — a few bottles with poison. Says “POISON!” on the labels.

A set of sign plates. The writing says “Contaminated”.

A couple of genderless dummies.

A Desna radio.

A poster with sanitizing instructions.

Multiple boxes with mist-free lenses for respirators.

In the box and on the shelves there are a lot of films about civil protection – “Means of protection”, “Measures taken when leaving the shelter” and so on.

That very spot with half-rotten radiation meters that are creating a radiation background.

There are multiple flasks with poison remover liquid used to remove traces of chemicals off weapons.

And here is the sealable ventilation window. Which means our tour has come to an end.

See you the next time we visit an interesting site!

Images by alexdoomer2009