15 kilometers from Sevastopol, between the Fiolent and Aya capes, there is one of the oldest Crimean settlements - Balaklava. In addition to unique natural monuments, traces of the Genoese fortress Chembalo and ancient temples have been preserved here. But the most striking are the powerful underground structures with a huge number of labyrinths and a 600-meter channel for the passage of nuclear submarines.
In the 1950s, at the very beginning of the Cold War, the USSR and the USA gradually built up their arsenals of atomic bombs, warheads, missiles and torpedoes, threatening each other with preemptive strikes and retaliation strikes. It was then that Stalin gave Beria a secret order: to find such places where submarines could be based for a retaliatory nuclear strike. The choice fell on the quiet Balaklava: the city was immediately classified, its name was no longer mentioned on the map of Crimea.
The project of the Balaklava underground submarine repair plant was personally reviewed and approved by Stalin.
Submarine base or object 825 in short:
construction began in 1957, completed in 1961;
first built by the military, then the Moscow, Tbilisi and Kharkov metro builders joined;
plant and arsenal anti-nuclear shelter of the first category for 3000 people and autonomy of 30 days
The thickness of the rocky ground above the object is 126 meters at the highest point;
9 (8 + one in the dock) boats of Project 613 and 633 were based in the shelter mode in the channel;
Canal length 505m; the width of the water surface from 6 to 8, 5; depth from 6 to 8, 5
the complex was abandoned in 1995, the museum was opened on June 3, 2003
the plant and the mine and torpedo section are closed for visiting. Shows arenal, dock, canal in the dock area.
General panorama of the Balaklava Bay. Access to the Black Sea, portals, the city and just a beautiful view … In the center there is a mountain, under which there is an arsenal, a canal and a plant for repair, maintenance and equipment of submarines.
Portal for boats to the Black Sea
Arsenal entrance
The underground plant was built in the anti-nuclear relation of the I category of stability with the punching of rocky soil with a high degree of protection and security. It had large production areas, including a dry dock and an underwater channel for the simultaneous entry of eight submarines (both surface and submerged). The entire factory infrastructure was completely isolated from the outside world with the help of closed underwater locks. The combat boats were repaired in an autonomous mode and went out through a special channel directly into the open sea. For conspiracy purposes, only one submarine was allowed into the underground complex and only at night. Therefore, it was almost impossible to count the number of boats on which, moreover, hull numbers were often changed, in Balaklava.
Entrance portal. On the right is the entrance to the plant and to the mine and torpedo section
The submarines climbed into the rock adit under their own power through a canal more than 600 meters long, 8, 5 deep. This unique structure is located both in the underwater part of the Balaklava Bay, and at the water level in the rock, whose height reaches 126 meters. A production workshop and utility rooms with a total length of 300 meters were located nearby. The largest adit diameter is 22 meters. From the side of the bay, the entrance to the adit was blocked by a 150-ton floating botoport, which floated up after being blown up by air. This made it possible to completely "plug" the underground facility. The same botoport, but only of a smaller size, was installed in an underground dry dock. When the boat entered the surface position, the botport was closed, water was pumped out of it and the boat was docked. The exit to the north side was also blocked by a botport, which was diverted to the side, releasing the submarines into the open sea. The entrance to the tunnel on the north side was so skillfully camouflaged that an uninitiated person would never find the adit even at close range. Thus, the underground complex was completely isolated from the external environment. Its protection made it possible to withstand a direct hit of an atomic bomb with a yield of up to 100 kilotons.
Near the adit, a missile weapons depot and nuclear weapons storage were built. The underground storage for fuel, built in the form of underground vertical tanks, made it possible to store up to 4 thousand tons of oil products. Under the protection of a multi-meter layer of rocky soil, torpedoes, missiles, artillery ammunition and other necessary cargo were brought from the storage along a narrow-gauge road to the underground pier. There is also a workshop for preventive inspection and repair of units and parts of ships. The western exit from the canal was closed with a special structure - precast reinforced concrete slabs 2 meters thick, 10 meters long and 7 meters high.
In the secret workshops, there were from 170 to 230 people who served the dock and other engineering systems of the underground facility. Another 50 people were part of the water guard units and were on permanent duty at three posts: at the entrance and exit of the tunnel and near the dock. The total area of all underground structures exceeded 15 thousand square meters, and the channel through which the submarines passed was wider than the Balaklava Bay itself. Some rooms reached the height of a three-story building …
