05. Balaklava Tunnels - Ukraine
For more on how I got from the Northern Territories of Chernobyl, Prypiat, and Kiev, see my report here.
Arriving in Balaklava, the mafia presence is overwhelming. In a country where a good annual city salary might be £1,000, it’s a bit of a shock to see this as the hotel car park:
There is a LOT of money here:
My first stop in Balaklava has to be the submarine base. It’s the most ‘James Bond’ location I’ve ever been to. A secret tunnel carved into the side of a cliff with Russian Nuclear subs inside? Oh come on!
It was operational right up until 1993. The base was said to be virtually indestructible and designed to survive a direct atomic impact. During that period, Balaklava was one of the most secret residential areas in the Soviet Union.
Almost the entire population of Balaklava at one time worked at the base; even family members could not visit the town of Balaklava without a good reason and proper identification.
The base remained operational after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 until 1993 when the decommissioning process started. This process saw the removal of the warheads and low-yield torpedoes. Here’s Muffin inside one such torpedo:
In 1996, the last Russian submarine left the base. The area is still extremely soviet – EVERYONE speaks Russian, not Ukrainian. In some shops you even get the told the price in Rubles, despite that you pay in Ukrainian Hyvirnas!
Check out these blast doors!
Anyway time to leave this sanitised, well organised base, and head for the real off limits stuff about a mile away:
Balaklava Off-limits Military Tunnels:
I’m afraid this part of the report is going to be extremely light on history. I cant find anything on this complex. The actual military complex in the mountains however is strictly ‘off limits’. No one is really willing to give any information about it.
The locals, and politicians are extremely upset that the central government extended the lease of this bay to the Russians to store their warships for another 25 years in return for cheap energy. So much so, that last month all the politicians’ took rotten eggs and smoke bombs to parliament just to hurl at el presidente. Makes our parliament look well boring:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfCRyLlyqJI
So information is a bit scarce to say the least.
Looking at Google maps it’s probably about 150m long, and looks South out over the Black Sea.
Blast door still in place:
Sorry cant resist a bit of light painting when I’m underground!
Putting the X in ‘UrbanX’
Shooting slot: I could happily have had this as my view all day!
This poor fella came to an unfortunate sub-terrainian end:
Enjoy
Arriving in Balaklava, the mafia presence is overwhelming. In a country where a good annual city salary might be £1,000, it’s a bit of a shock to see this as the hotel car park:
There is a LOT of money here:
My first stop in Balaklava has to be the submarine base. It’s the most ‘James Bond’ location I’ve ever been to. A secret tunnel carved into the side of a cliff with Russian Nuclear subs inside? Oh come on!
It was operational right up until 1993. The base was said to be virtually indestructible and designed to survive a direct atomic impact. During that period, Balaklava was one of the most secret residential areas in the Soviet Union.
Almost the entire population of Balaklava at one time worked at the base; even family members could not visit the town of Balaklava without a good reason and proper identification.
The base remained operational after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 until 1993 when the decommissioning process started. This process saw the removal of the warheads and low-yield torpedoes. Here’s Muffin inside one such torpedo:
In 1996, the last Russian submarine left the base. The area is still extremely soviet – EVERYONE speaks Russian, not Ukrainian. In some shops you even get the told the price in Rubles, despite that you pay in Ukrainian Hyvirnas!
Check out these blast doors!
Anyway time to leave this sanitised, well organised base, and head for the real off limits stuff about a mile away:
Balaklava Off-limits Military Tunnels:
I’m afraid this part of the report is going to be extremely light on history. I cant find anything on this complex. The actual military complex in the mountains however is strictly ‘off limits’. No one is really willing to give any information about it.
The locals, and politicians are extremely upset that the central government extended the lease of this bay to the Russians to store their warships for another 25 years in return for cheap energy. So much so, that last month all the politicians’ took rotten eggs and smoke bombs to parliament just to hurl at el presidente. Makes our parliament look well boring:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfCRyLlyqJI
So information is a bit scarce to say the least.
Looking at Google maps it’s probably about 150m long, and looks South out over the Black Sea.
Blast door still in place:
Sorry cant resist a bit of light painting when I’m underground!
Putting the X in ‘UrbanX’
Shooting slot: I could happily have had this as my view all day!
This poor fella came to an unfortunate sub-terrainian end:
Enjoy
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