I exit my taxi and walk up a short gravel driveway in the middle of a forest outside of Vilnius, facing nothing but a two-story concrete building and a lot of trees. I cautiously enter the building, where I see several dozen people milling around, all in bulky blue jackets. Soon, a man tells me to deposit my belongings in a small closet and hands me a matching padded jacket. It weighs heavily on my shoulders and the sleeves hang far past my hands. A smell of mustiness overcomes me and as I try to push up the sleeves, they feel grimy and damp.
Thus begins my three hour excursion into a Soviet bunker, circa 1984.
A clean shaven man in an olive uniform stomps into the room, yelling commands in Russian as my companions and I hurry to line up in front of him. We form two lines, perfectly straight, hands by our sides. Even though I know this isn’t real, a feeling of nervousness flushes over me. I try not to turn my head to look directly at our commander lest he notice and single me out.
We soon march outside. Left, right. Left, right. We line up again, single file, behind a white line. As a slight drizzle falls, the red flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is raised on a nearby flagpole as the anthem plays loudly behind us. We then count off and are divided into two groups, first and second, before finally marching to our destination.
The bunker was built in 1980 as a backup television station in case of nuclear war with the United States.
We descend a flight of concrete stairs but the officer stops us before we reach the bottom. Instead, we line up on the narrow stairs, one person per step, squished tightly together. I struggle to keep my balance. Our leader shouts more instructions in Russian before asking if anyone doesn’t speak Russian. About 3 or 4 of us tentatively raise our hands, to which the officer simply says “eta vasha problema.” That’s your problem.
Over the next few hours, the officer leads us through a maze of rooms and dark corridors spread out over two levels and 3,000 square meters. Metal planks line the floors, which in turn are covered in peeling turquoise paper. I squint in the dark to see where I am going so I don’t trip. We go up and down the stairs so many times I lose track of what level of the bunker we may be on. Loudly barking dogs seem to be around every turn.
One room has red walls with the words “Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin will live” written in large Cyrillic letters on the wall.
A video plays on a small black and white television set and we dutifully clap when instructed. The officer barks questions at people and chiding them for incorrect responses. Then he starts yelling out sentences for us to clumsily repeat. I have no idea what it means.
Another room has two long tables lined with about 25 small canvas bags. We open the bags to find gas masks and, after soaking cotton balls in alcohol to clean the masks, we are instructed on how to put them on. After donning the mask, it isn’t long before my breathing feels a little strained. The man next to me removes his mask, eliciting an angry response from our leader.
By the time we reach a room with a nurse and basic medical equipment, we are used to the routine of lining up against the wall, hands at our sides. The nurse calls us up one at a time to show her our bellies as she quickly slides what feels like a dull pin across them. She starts singling people out and I am one of the first. She sits me down on a metal stool and holds a device next to one side of my forehead as I feel a vibration. Then she moves it to the other side. She asks what I feel, I answer and she dismisses me.
Minutes later, I am standing in the middle of the room, facing the wall, arms out in front of me, eyes closed
.
The nurse instructs me to touch the finger on my right hand to my nose, then my left. I succeed, and again get to return to my place by the wall. I look on as she invites three men to do the same, but this time standing on one leg. Then she sits another man down in a dentist chair, shoves cotton in his mouth and revs up a loud drilling machine as she makes like she is going in to drill. A look of panic washes over his face while the rest of us laugh, confident she won’t actually do it.
Each time we enter the corridors, it seems we are urged to move faster and faster. I get nervous that I won’t keep up and will get lost.
We find ourselves in a dark room with a large desk in the middle.
A solitary light shines brightly and I immediately infer that this is an interrogation room. Sure enough, an older man starts barking orders, this time instructing us to keep our hands behind our backs, not just at our sides. He circles around the room, alternating between shouting orders and asking questions. When he comes to me, I don’t understand a word he says but he gently slaps me on the cheek and moves on, not waiting for a response.
Slowly, our numbers start to dwindle as members of the group are singled out for questioning, forced to write “confessions” and then led out of the room by a guard with a large dog.
Eventually, we reunite in the dining hall. Two long tables stand on either side of the room, each set with a newspaper place mat, a small tin cup of tea and a small tin fork. We line up to receive our meals on a narrow tin plate: a piece of bread and one or two large hot dogs with a small dollop of very spicy mustard.
After dinner, we are released from the bunker, ending our brief glimpse into the lives of former Soviet citizens.
No photos were allowed during the excursion, so all but the first picture above are courtesy of Soviet Bunker. For more information about an excursion to the bunker, visit www.sovietbunker.com.
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Hi katie – I have been planning a trip around this but just found that you can’t buy the tickets the from the website. Where did you get yours from?
Thanks a lot!
Hi – I discovered it very last minute when I was in Vilnius and just sent them an email and then I paid for the ticket when I arrived.
Sounds like a really cool experience. Love Soviet stuff.
Did you see Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber hiding out in the forest?
Wow- intense! Putting on the gas mask would be surreal!
Wow! What a once-in-a-lifetime experience! I like how you walked the reader through the experience, while offering historical information at the same time. Gotta be honest, really envious of your travels in Russia and the rest of Eastern Europe. Wish it was a trip I could make. Ahh, maybe someday! In the meantime, I’ll live vicariously through your posts. Thanks, Katie!
Thanks Ellen – I appreciate it! I’m glad you’re enjoying following along! 🙂
wow I’m surprised they have such a tour. Scary. I think I would feel paniced during this tour. Thanks for sharing.
Really interesting experience Katie. It’s amazing how realistic they seemed to make this tour! I think I would be terrified if a man was barking out Russian at me and slaps me over the face. I suppose it is the best way to feel what it was like.
I’m a 60 yr. old who’s hoping to visit Russia in the next year or two. Just found your posts online and have been enjoying them immensely! This post was exceptional. As others before me have said, you are quite a gifted writer. Looking forward to reading more Katie. Thanks for the “free” tours.
Wow. I would love to do this – and I think at the same time I’d be terrified. It sounds so fun, yet so real! Officers have a way of being intimidating, even if they are just actors dressed as officers. 🙂
Wow. I think this might have given me nightmares, but it certainly does sound interesting. I love the line about it being your problem to not speak Russian, seems appropriate somehow.
Are the photos somehow standard or were they taken by the company? The one with the gas mask seems too appropriate with your description not to be of your group.
Yes, it was definitely nerve-wreaking even though I knew it wasn’t “real.” We even had to sign a form saying we understood we might be subject to harassment (or something like that) and that we could be expelled for failure to follow instructions.
The photos are the company’s stock photos from their website (used with permission of course!). They cover the main stops during the excursion so it was easy to fit them with what I experienced.
I really like how this experience was so hands-on – really interesting!
Yeah once I heard about it, I knew I had to try it!
Really fascinating look at what it was like back then!
I know – fascinating and a little unsettling too. I got a ride back to Vilnius afterwards with a woman whose parents actually experienced drills and such to prepare for possible nuclear war.
Yay, they sent you some photos to use!
This is an awesome post, but the experience seems kind of terrifying! Lol. I would be so lost; at least you know a bit of Russian! This is definitely not something you get to do every day though, that’s for sure!
Ha, even knowing some Russian I was pretty lost. Especially when they were yelling things out and we were supposed to be repeating afterwards, I was soooo clueless! They only run the excursion a couple times a month so I was lucky to get in.
(very happy they let me use their photos – the post would’ve have been nearly as interesting without them I think 🙂 )
Awesome post! And crazy experience! I’m not sure I could’ve handled this, even knowing it was a tour!
Thanks! Yep, definitely was a bit scary – especially with the language barrier! The worst part was going through the corridors – I could barely see a thing and we had to move so fast. That my jacket just felt disgusting, it was so damp and musty!
I agree, great writing. One of my favourite posts of yours to date 🙂
Thanks Jess! 🙂
ah, the good ole days …..
you describe it all superably
right out of Dostoyevsky it seems
beautiful writing honestly – a tinge of Gogolian humor too
you are of a select few bloggers who I reckon travels for all the right reasons, and knows how to write objectively
your descriptive narrative can easily be made into a book
keep up the good work
enjoy following
Thanks Joseph – I appreciate the compliment 🙂