In light of the “war scare” that gripped a certain small corner of the Internet earlier this month, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pass along news from Moscow about plans to construct a new museum devoted to the Cold War. The most interesting aspect of the proposed project is its location: inside a former military command bunker 200 feet beneath the city.

The nearly 11,000-sq. foot bunker is part of a vast underground complex that was built during the mid-1950s. All totaled, there are more than 75,000 sq feet (7,000 sq. meters) of almost 300 rooms, corridors, galleries, and tunnels that housed a community of 2,500 military and civilian specialists from the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Communications, KGB technicians, and the Air Defense Forces. The complex was designed to sustain upwards of 3,000 people for up to three months in the event of an American nuclear strike.

In the decades that surrounded the collapse of the USSR, the complex fell into a state of complete disrepair. Late last year it was auctioned off to the private company “Novik-Servis” (Новик-сервис). The company has plans to transform the bunker into a multi-use facility that will include a Cold War Museum, nightclub, restaurant, and spa.

Currently, group tours of the dilapidated underground tunnels are available. For information about arranging a visit and for more on the construction and history of the bunker (including contemporary and historic photographs), click here (по-русски) or here (for the less complete English version of the site).

ScP