Preserved Cold War Bunkers in Northern England

April 8, 2023 CarloRLeave a comment

The central role taken by Britain in WWII, firstly containing and then countering the expansion of the Third Reich, is duly and proudly celebrated all around the Country, with memorials and thematic exhibitions, often hosted in historical locations, regularly open for a visit.

The United Kingdom joined NATO as a founding member in 1949, and had already been at the forefront of a European anti-Soviet alliance with France since 1947. The strategic political and military ties with the US, pivotal in putting and end to WWII in Europe, were kept over the following decades, against the menace constituted by the Eastern Bloc. Thanks to its geographical position, and bolstering a nuclear arsenal, strategic bombers and submarines of its own, Britain was a major player of the Cold War.

Despite that, the Cold War left behind comparatively less memories than WWII, with only a handful installations open to the public, and somewhat out of the spotlight. In this regard, this reflects an attitude generally widespread in Europe towards the traces of the second half of the 20th century.

However, for people with an interest in the Cold War age, and more in general for those with a thing for (especially nuclear) warfare technology, there are two really unmissable sights in Northern England, which make for a vivid hands-on experience of the ‘era of Soviet threat’.

One is the Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker, with a fascinating history starting in WWII and spanning the entire duration of the Cold War. Here one of the finest collections of nuclear-war-related material in Europe can be found, together with much additional material from the era, in a largely preserved historical site.

Another is the York Cold War Bunker, built in the Cold War age to provide protection to the staff of the Royal Observation Corps (ROC) in case of a nuclear attack, as well as the ability to help coordinating fundamental public functions – health, transportation, food and energy supply, etc. – in a post-attack nuclear fallout scenario.

Both sites are regularly open for a visit, and provide a vivid testimony of civil and military plans and facilities seriously prepared in England for a nuclear apocalypse scenario.

Sights

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Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker
York Cold War Bunker

Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker

The Hack Green site is located deep in the Cheshire countryside, about one hour driving south of Manchester. Actually, it is in a really secluded location, far from any sizable urban center, and away from major roads. Even today, when this facility is working as a top-level museum, some attention to the signs is needed to reach the site.

Once by the gate, you are immediately driven back in time by the appearance of the tall military-style external fence with official government signs, and by the blunt and in impenetrable appearance of the big concrete bunker – what you see is only the part above ground level! – with a big antenna protruding from the top. Nearby, you can see an apparently still off-limits area, with a now-dead radar antenna and an old Jet Provost trainer in RAF colors.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

History

The history of the Hack Green site dates to as back as WWII, when it was established as one of the 12 most developed Ground Controlled Intercept (GCI) centers, out of 21 total nodes in Britain. Essentially based on the airspace scanning radar plants available at the time, the so-constituted ‘Chain Home’ surveillance system was operated by the RAF, and intended to track intruding German aircraft, thus directing air force planes against them. Radar aerials appeared on site at the time, suitable against relatively slow moving propeller-driven aircraft of those years.

With the start of the Cold War, and the need to reconfigure the defense against the USSR and Warsaw Pact forces operating with jet-powered aircraft of increasing speed, several modernization plans were started in Britain, aimed at implementing more effective detection and threat-countering radar technology, like ‘Green Garlic’, and later ROTOR. The latter called for the institution of a chain of detection nodes, not much dissimilar in concept from the older ‘Chain Home’ of WWII, but much more articulated, efficient and technologically advanced. At the time one of the most expensive government-funded operations ever, 66 installations were implemented all over Britain within ROTOR before the mid 1950s, with different roles in the network. The bunker you see today on the Hack Green site was one of them.

Keeping up with the fast-developing offensive technology of the 1950s and 1960s required a continuous update of the defensive network, in particular asking for the addition of intercontinental missiles to the enemy arsenal to counter. The US-led ‘Ballistic Missile Early Warning System’ (BMEWS) included 12 early-warning radar stations around the Atlantic, including a single station in the UK (RAF Fylingdales, Yorkshire, still in operation today). Before BMEWS went operational (early 1960s), triggering a re-organization of all other defense radar systems by the time obsolete, Hack Green took an interim role as one of only 4 radar stations operated by the RAF monitoring all military and civilian traffic through the British airspace, coping with new fast jetliners. The name of the Hack Green radar site in that stage was ‘Mersey Radar North’. Finally, in 1966 the RAF released the site to the government, which put it in mothballed status.

It was in 1976 that a new life began for Hack Green. Starting in 1958, the Home Office invested much in the preparation of an emergency structure, capable of keeping of managing a post-nuclear attack scenario, and keeping the basic public functions active. In the event of a total nuclear war, a failure of the national hierarchy and military chain of command was forecast, as a result of an extensive damage to the infrastructures and communication systems. In order to recover as fast as possible in such an emergency, the UK would split in 11 regions, each with a regional seat of government (RSG). In the region, a civil Regional Commissioner would take a leading administrative role, and would be responsible for coordinating disaster recovery operations, like supplying medical resources, food, water, and reconstructing infrastructures, while waiting for the national government to reactivate its functions. The Commissioner would be aided by the UK Warning and Monitoring Organization (UKWMO), which took over the function and organization of the older Royal Observation Corps (ROC) established during WWII. This structure was further potentiated in the 1960s and 1970s, also introducing a similar regional scheme for the military in case of a nuclear attack.

The seat of the RSG was in the Regional Government Head Quarters (RGHQ). Following some years when it was hosted in Preston, then in Southport, north of Liverpool, the RGHQ for the 10th region (then 10:2, following a split in two halves of this large region) found its home in Hack Green. The former radar facility was potentiated enormously, and set up with the ability to host 160 civil and military staff for 3 months without resupply in case of a nuclear attack on the UK.

Within the framework of the emergency plan for a nuclear attack, the RGHQs all over the UK went on operating until the demise of the USSR in December 1991, to be soon deactivated over the following years. Hack Green was scrapped of all content, and put up for sale in 1993. It was privately acquired in the mid-1990s, and carefully restored in some parts, or being stocked with interesting material from the Cold War era in some of the many rooms.

A tour of the bunker

Access to the bunker is via a concrete slide, and through a metal gate. Originally the male civil servants dorm, the first room you meet is now a kind of storage for items recently incorporated in the collection. These include a jeep, a model of an Avro Shackleton, and interestingly a nuclear warhead. The original system to activate the rooftop antenna is in a cabinet along a sidewall.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

The ticket office and canteen are now in the original canteen area of the Hack Green site. Restored to a 1960s appearance, parts of the kitchen furniture are original from the site. Along the sidewalls are several memorabilia items, including some original Soviet emblems, not unusual today in museums on the other side of the Iron Curtain (see for instance here), but hard to find in the UK.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

An adjoining room reproduces the environment where the ROC would have worked in case of a drill or real nuclear attack. Among their function was the pinpointing of nuclear explosions. The forecast and monitoring of the fallout is strongly bound to the local weather and winds. This was kept under surveillance through reporting stations scattered on the UK territory (more than 1 thousand), which transmitted information to Hack Green and other RGHQ and UKWMO bunkers (see the York bunker later in this post). They could then coordinate recovery operations, avoiding extreme exposure to radiation of the emergency staff.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Monitoring was through dedicated sensors, and communication through specific transmission gear. Two display cases in the same room feature interesting instruments, training documents, and memorabilia items from the rich history of the ROC, documenting also their activities in WWII.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Ground floor

The Hack Green bunker largely retains its original arrangement. It is composed of a ground and an underground floor. Along the main corridors are interesting examples of the papers produced by the UKWMO, and by the civil defense service during the Cold War. Among them, are leaflets for the population, with best practices in case of a nuclear attack.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Also interesting are more technical posters from the era, either outlining the role of the public organizations monitoring a potential nuclear apocalypse scenario, or providing technical details on the effects of nuclear weapons – what to expect in terms of damage or health issues, depending on the type and local condition of a nuclear explosion.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

For sure a focal point in the exhibition of Hack Green today is the display of nuclear warheads, and nuclear-related material. Hosted in a room previously employed by emergency staff, the exhibition retraces with original material, mock-ups, rare pictures and videos, the history of the British nuclear arsenal, managed by the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE).

The WE177 was designed to constitute the backbone of the air-dropped nuclear deterrent of the UK. Examples of this bomb are on display together with technical material employed to monitor their status and manage launch or drills. In service between the 1960s and the 1990s in association with larger strategic bombers like the Vulcan, or smaller fighter-bombers like some versions of the Harrier or Jaguar, it could be assembled in some different versions, sharing the same baseline construction, but with nominal yields ranging between 10 to 450 kilotons.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Also on display are pictures and mock-ups of the old Polaris warhead, together with the original casing employed to transport this 200 kilotons item! A US design, the Polaris was acquired by the UK in 1963, to supply the Royal Navy and constitute the UK underwater deterrent. The Polaris missile featured a three-warheads fuse, bearing a total yield of 600 kilotons.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

A very rare artifact is the warhead of project Chevaline, a British design to improve the potential of the Polaris, which saw limited service with the Royal Navy in the 1980s. The Polaris/Chevaline was replaced by the Trident missile system, still employed today in the nuclear deterrent role.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Besides the central exhibition of nuclear warheads, the display cases in the same room offer a wealth of super-interesting technical gear and memorabilia related to nuclear weapons. These include components and cabinets of radio and radar systems, to be transported on board aircraft or to be employed on the ground. These parts come from different ages, and from several Countries, including the Eastern Bloc – for instance, a very rare Soviet suit to work on high-power radar antennas for maintenance. Powerful radars actually emit rays with a high power-over-volume (power density) ratio especially in the vicinity of the emitting apparatus. This may even turn deadly for humans (roughly like being in a microwave oven would be!), and precautions are needed when working in such environment.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

A really unique collection on display is related to Geiger counters and dosimeters. These include environmental and personal use devices, from various ages and nationality.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Two display cases are dedicated to material coming from beyond the Iron Curtain, most notably from the USSR and the GDR! It is really hard to imagine how this material could manage to come to Hack Green.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Part of the display is dedicated to the civil defense corps of different Countries, with helmets, emblems, papers and uniforms, showing how similar actions in preparations for a nuclear war were carried out in many Nations of continental Europe, also in the Eastern Bloc. Actually, a very close relative of the UKWMO RGHQ control center, with a totally similar function, can be found in a perfectly preserved condition in Poland (see this post).

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

More memorabilia items come from the history of civil defense in the UK. Among the most rare artifacts are the only surviving example of the ‘Queen’s telephone’, which was employed for enforcing the Emergency Power Act, which among other things may have transferred power to the Regional Commissioner. There used to be one such phone in each of the RGHQ, but all were destroyed for security reasons following the shut-off of the bunkers, except this one, and the one at the other end of the line – in the Royal residence.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

An adjoining room hosts a reconstruction of the radar screen room from the age Hack Green was employed as a radar station managed by the RAF. All panels are lit, providing a vivid, pure Cold War experience!

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

To the end of the main corridor, you can reach another entrance to the bunker, which is nowadays normally shut. However, this used to be the main entrance, and close to it are the control room of the bunker and the decontamination area.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

The control room is not accessible, but the large windows allow to take a glance to its original appearance. It is still employed to control electric power and air conditioning. Manned nuclear-proof bunkers are customarily pressurized, sucking contaminated air from the outside, which is carefully filtered for poisons and radioactive particles, and pumping unfiltered bunker air to the outside (see this post for another example in a Soviet bunker).

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

People entering after work out in the fallout-polluted environment were decontaminated through showers, and used anti-radiation suits were left in an isolated sink still on display.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Before leaving the ground floor, you can find on the ground level the female dorm for the staff of the RGHQ bunker. In the same room, an original system for communicating on the very low frequency bandwidth has been put on display. This Cold War relic could be employed to issue orders to the strategic submarine force. This very cabinet was employed by Prime Minister Thatcher for ordering the attack against the Argentinian ship General Belgrano.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

A final room on this floor is the sick bay, sized for the staff of Hack Green only, but equipped to manage health issues resulting from the exposition to a nuclear attack.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Underground floor

Descending to the underground floor is possible via the original stairs. The first room you meet features an exhibition of original Soviet uniforms, belonging to some high-ranking officials from various branches of the Red Army. Really hard to see in this part of the world, their origin is well documented.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Close by, is a small display of military material from the Soviet bloc, ranging from original weapons, to communication systems, emblems and instructional posters for the troops (similar to what you can find in dedicated museums in former Warsaw Pact Countries, like here or here).

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Nearby is a communication room originally employed by the military staff of the bunker, working in parallel with civil servants in the management of the nuclear emergency. Original radio transmission gear of military standard is still in place.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Before entering the core preserved area of the bunker, i.e. the rooms of the RGHQ, you can find the original water and air supply systems, and the corresponding technical cabinets, in a big room on the underground level.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

The rooms of the RGHQ are all interconnected, and located to the side of the corridor on the underground floor. The way they look is from the days of activity of Hack Green as a RGHQ, i.e. the 1980s. Typical Cold War technology from the time is featured in this area.

Firstly, you enter the warning room, which used to be the contact point of the RGHQ with the national surveillance system. By design, the BMEWS at Fylingdales should have picked up an incoming ICBM within 30 seconds from launch, spreading an alert signal at all levels. This would have been received here and by the entire civil defense system within 90 seconds. This would leave roughly 4 minutes (out of a total of around 6 minutes for the missile to come to Britain from the Eastern Bloc) to tell the population of the incoming missile, which would happen through some thousands sirens scattered around the UK. The physical alarm signal management system was called HANDEL, and was employed from the 1960s to 1992. The apparatus on display at Hack Green, a node of HANDEL, is notably still working, albeit disconnected.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

The warning room can be accessed directly from the Commissioner’s room, both an office and private room. Original maps and furniture can be found in this room, the only private one in the bunker. Immediately next to it is the cipher office, a communication office connecting – at least in non-emergency conditions – the center with the external world. Ciphered language was employed for safe communication with governmental offices, both domestic and abroad.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Next are a conference room, for meeting within the staff of the RGHQ, and a broadcast studio. The latter was focused on radio broadcast instead of TV, since the latter would not work in case of a nuclear attack. The idea was for the Commissioner to communicate directly with the administrative region, possibly repeating messages of national significance, or instructing about local disaster recovery actions, evacuation operations, etc.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

The tour goes on with a very interesting area, stuffed with original electronic and communication material. Communication from the bunker to the other similar bunkers withing the UKWMO was possible through a dedicated system called Emergency Communication Network (ECN). The main function was that of constantly updating the map of the fallout and of the operations taking place at all levels, including all surviving infrastructures. Many maps and teletypewriters, original components of the system, are part of the display.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

The ‘brain’ of the system was the Message Switch Exchange (MSX). A top-tier system elaborated by British Telecom in the 1980s, it looks exceptionally complex. The lit cabinets and modules provide a really vivid impression of how it should have looked like back in the Cold War years. The electronic cabinets and wiring driving to the rooftop antenna are still lit as well.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

A rare, incredible portable satellite communication antenna is on display. This was employed in peacetime condition, and stored inside the bunker when under attack.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

The screens where the meteorologists and nuclear scientists displayed all the information gathered and prepared forecasts are another unusual Cold War sight.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Perhaps unexpectedly in a 1980s hi-tech environment, a purely analog, wired telephone exchange system is on display. This is original as well, and was kept in service as a ‘last line’ backup system within the ECN until 1992, should the futuristic MSX system fail under an attack.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

A complement to the exhibition of the RGHQ is the fire control room, where a big screen and several communication consoles were employed for directing firefighting actions at a regional level. Following the experience of Nagasaki and the extensive nuclear tests of the 1950s, it is known that fires resulting from the extreme temperature and radiation intensity associated with a nuclear explosion are possibly even more dangerous to buildings and infrastructures than the shock-wave itself.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

A display which is not original from Hack Green, but found an ideal home in this bunker, is made of a reconstructed room from the Regional Air Operation Center (UKRAOC), which would gather information from the BMEWS. The material on display used to be at RAF High Wycombe, where the UKRAOC facility was located in the Cold War years.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Fed by the BMEWS early warning station at Fylingdales, the apparatus in this room was constantly updated on the defense situation. A Soviet ICBM attack would be detected here, and from here the alarm signal to the entire national civil and military defense system would be triggered. This really one-of-a-kind reconstruction is really evoking, with the original panels all lit, and a dim light background!

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

A final room on the underground floor hosts a reconstruction of a Soviet missile launch room. Perhaps not accurate as a reconstruction, it is however centered on original material and memorabilia items from the Soviet bloc. This area has been employed as a set for movies.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

At the base of a second stair well ascending to the ground floor you can find a reconstruction of one of the more than 1 thousand peripheral posts of the ROC. Such posts, scattered on the UK territory, gathered information for the RGHQ, and constituted the ‘sensors’ of the nuclear attack detection network. The technical gear includes over-pressure and radiation intensity transducers.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Getting there and visiting

The bunker is in a very secluded location, about 25 miles west of Stoke-on-Trent, and roughly 60 miles from Liverpool and Manchester. Very little advertised in the area, and not much known to the general public even in the UK, this hidden gem can be reached very conveniently by car, not much conveniently with public transport. The exact address is French Ln, Nantwich CW5 8BL, United Kingdom.

The bunker was built far from the crowds. Do not be worried as you see the road getting narrower and you feel like your NAV is taking you to nowhere – you are probably on the right path! Once there, you will find a large inside parking, and a top-level management of the entire facility.

Hack Green – Secret Nuclear Bunker – Crisis Regional Government – Cold War – UK

Visiting is on a self-guided basis, with tons of explanatory panels and illustrations allowing to make the most out of your visit even if you have just a normal interest and preliminary knowledge of the topic. For a specialist, this super-interesting, one-of-a-kind site may require at least 2 hours for capturing the details, and possibly take pictures. Website with visiting information here.

York Cold War Bunker

Besides the impressive Minster and the beautiful historic town, York has the distinction of being the seat of one of the few Cold War bunkers preserved in the UK. Differently from Hack Green (see above), the bunker in York was installed relatively late in 1961, in the middle of the Cold War. Since then and until the collapse of the USSR, it acted as a node in the UK Warning and Monitoring Organization (UKWMO), collecting information and coordinating emergency actions around York in the event of a nuclear attack. A cluster of reporting points was linked to the bunker in York, which took the name of Headquarters of the N.20 Group within the UKWMO.

An eminently intelligence collection and information relay facility, the bunker was manned by the Royal Observation Corps (ROC), who provided voluntary civilian staff to support the monitoring and communication functions of the bunker in the UKWMO network. The bunker ceased operations and was basically sealed in 1991. Until that time, the ROC ran the facility, carrying out regularly scheduled drills and simulations. The bunker was designed and sized to offer its staff a self-support ability of a few weeks in a nuclear fallout scenario. Besides all supporting facilities, including water tanks, pumps and power generators, the facility was centered on a set of sensors for nuclear blast detection, as well as provision for fallout forecast and monitoring.

The bunker has been taken over by the English Heritage, a structured nationwide historical conservation association, which restored the site and opened it to the public.

The York Cold War Bunker is not far from the historical center, yet in a quiet residential area. Access is from a small parking area among low-rise buildings. The greenish paint of the concrete walls and the tall metal antenna on top cannot be spotted from much farther away than the parking itself. Curiously, the pedestrian door of the bunker stands some feet above the ground, and can be reached via a concrete stairway. Then once on top and inside, you need to descend some flights of stairs to get underground.

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

Compared to the Hack Green bunker, the York group headquarter is more cramped, with smaller rooms, lower ceilings and narrower corridors.

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

The first part of the visit covers the supporting facilities. These include a ventilation system, which as customary for nuclear-proof bunkers (but the same is true for older bunkers dating from WWII) filtered the incoming air and ejected the inside air, basically pressurizing the bunker environment with respect to the outside atmospheric pressure. This avoided passive ingestion of contaminated air from the outside.

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

A power generator and a water pumping system are also visible. A control panel for all the plants has been preserved, similar to the machinery in this area, dating from the time of construction.

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

The centerpiece of the visit is of course the reporting room. The reason for putting a headquarters in relatively low-sized York was the presence in the area of significant food production industries, as well as of a major railway node in Northern England. Furthermore, military facilities like the only BMEWS station in the UK happened to be in Fylingdales, northern Yorkshire. These features would make York a valuable strategic target for an attacking enemy. The main function of the bunker within the UKWMO was that of ascertaining the position and intensity of a nuclear explosion on the territory covered by its jurisdiction.

Anticipated by the early warning ballistic missile detection system protecting the UK, the hit could be recorded by the sensors available in the bunker or in other reporting points scattered around in the country. The bunker would then try to predict and follow the evolution of the fallout. This would allow coordinating emergency and recovery actions including fire suppression, medical evacuation, water and food transport and supply, etc.

The central reporting room looks mostly like an operations room in a military headquarter. It is structured on two levels, with large maps and boards for visually updating the situation and writing information. Batteries of telephones and teletypewriters allowed obtaining communications and sending updated information to allow emergency services as well as decision centers to carry out post-attack operations. This system was not dissimilar from the counterpart beyond the Iron Curtain (see for instance this center in Poland).

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

Nearby the reporting room, the components of the sensor suite allowing to detect the position and intensity of a nuclear explosion are on display.

The first is the bomb-power indicator (BPI). The working principle is that of reading the over-pressure caused by the shock-wave invariably produced by an explosion, and particularly intense for a nuclear explosion, releasing an immense amount of energy in a small volume and within a very short time. The supersonic traveling shock-wave is responsible for the mechanical breaking of building and superstructures, like antennas, suspended power lines, bridges, piers, etc. Being a wave of pressure, its intensity can be measured by pressure transducers, which for the BPI show the reading on a simple analog dial.

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

The transducer, seen handing from the ceiling in the exhibition, would stand on the rooftop of the bunker, exposed to the explosion. This type of sensor was also installed in smaller reporting points scattered over the territory of the UK.

A second sensor was the ground zero indicator (GZI). Here the working principle was also very simple. The main element in the GZI is a metal drum with a small hole in the side, and a piece of photographic paper covering the inside surface of the cylinder. An explosion would send a high-energy light beam through the hole, producing an impression on a precise point on the paper. By positioning in a very accurate way the drum on its pedestal on top of the bunker, according to a precise fine-tuning, it was possible to retrieve the direction of the incoming beam. By composing the reading of more than one precisely-located drum, it was possible to pinpoint the position of the explosion by triangulation, both in terms of geographical position and altitude. The latter is a very relevant practical information, since for instance the quality and hazard of the fallout are strongly related to the proximity of the explosion to the ground.

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

The GZI, a purely analog sensor, had the odd feature of requiring collection of the photographic paper by venturing outside of the bunker after and explosion, i.e. facing the fallout.

The third and most evolved system on display is an AWDREY computer. The name stands for Atomic Weapon Detection Recognition and Estimation of Yield. This artifact is very rare to see, and a quite refined piece of engineering for the time. It was supplied to 12 headquarter bunkers of the UKWMO, including York, and was operative from the early 1970s. The computer is the computational part of the system, whereas the detection system was based on a sophisticated transducer put outside, on top of the bunker. The working principle was much more sophisticated here, and related to the evolution of the intensity of the radiation coming from the core of the explosions in the first instants of the detonation process. Several stages of a nuclear explosions happen in a row on a scale of a few millionths of a second. These include a predictable oscillation of the intensity of radiation. The exact features of this oscillation are correlated to the yield of the explosion. The ability of AWDREY to collect and interpret data from the early stage of the explosion would allow it to reconstruct the position and yield of the explosion at once.

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

Tuned on experimental data from nuclear testing in the field, this system delivered good general performance, with some inaccuracy in case of intense atmospheric phenomena taking place – or during fireworks, when the York system was apparently misled in one occasion, interpreting it as a Soviet attack!

York Cold War Bunker – York – England

The tour is completed with a view of the dorm for the civil servants of the ROC, and with a short exhibition on some historical and political aspects of the Cold War.

Getting there and visiting

The York Cold War Bunker is professionally managed by the English Heritage. Visiting is only possible with a guide. Please note that as of 2022, pre-booking is strictly necessary, since there is no ticket office on site. The guided tour lasts about 45 minutes, including a well-crafted introductory video. At the time of writing, only the first underground floor is open for a visit, but plans for an expansion of the visible part of the facility are being drafted.

The tour is very interesting and detailed, with some educated humor to make it more enjoyable! For specialists, it will be too quick, especially if you like to take pictures. However, the site indeed deserves a careful look also for the more technically-minded people, especially considering the little number of similar facilities open in Europe – and of course in the UK, where it is a one-of-a-kind destination, and a true must for Cold War historians.

The location is about two miles west of York Minster. Convenient to reach by car, several public parking lots are available in front of the gate or in the neighborhood. The exact address is Monument Cl, Holgate, York YO24 4HT, United Kingdom. Website with full information here.

The Cold War in Hungary – Military Collections, Leftovers & More

December 30, 2020May 12, 2024 CarloRLeave a comment

Many traces of the communist dictatorship can be found in today’s modern and thriving Hungary. The most visited ones, like Memento Park or Terror Haza in capital city Budapest, tell about the inhumane and pervasive aspect of propaganda and political repression. However, the history of this country in the second half of the 20th century is closely bound to the Soviet-backed communist seizure of power, and this has left traces also elsewhere, especially in terms of military leftovers. As a matter of fact, the Soviet Red Army was directly present in Hungary, to keep the status quo and to to be closer to the border with the West in case of an attack – and this of course left traces.

You can find a significant deal of material concerning more urbex-connected destinations in Hungary in another post.

In this one, you will find a mainly pictorial portrait of some of the best known attractions related to the Cold War period in Hungary, as well as some well accessible but less known ones, especially considering the general public visiting from abroad. As usual on this website, a good share of these sites is aviation-themed!

Photographs were taken in August 2020.

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

Iron Curtain Museum, Felsocsatar
Military Park. Zanka
Komarom Monostor Fort
Papa Airbase
Komo-Sky 51 Air Museum, Dunavarsány (Budapest)
Komo-Sky Bunker, Dunavarsány (Budapest)
Museum of Military History, House of Terror, Memento Park, Houses of Parliament, Budapest
Secrets of a Soviet Airbase, Berekfurdo
RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum, Szolnok
Emlekpont, Hódmezővásárhely
Pinter Works Military Park, Kecel
Taszar Airbase Museum, Taszar

Sights

Iron Curtain Museum, Felsocsatar

The Iron Curtain Museum has been created soon after the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989 on the sight of a former small sector of the state border between communist Hungary and free Austria.

The site is mainly the result of the effort of a man, Sandor Gojak, a former border guard in the 1960s, who dedicated this permanent exhibition to those who attempted escaping the repressive communist regime in Hungary towards Austria and the West – both those who succeeded and those who did not, hence facing arrest or losing their lives due to the minefields prepared along the border line.

The site features three examples of the border line placed in the area over the years. They are look less impenetrable than those created between Eastern and Western Germany (see this post), yet they were similarly deadly in scope and facts.

The first is basically a simple line of barbed wire with wooden poles, and it was put in place soon after WWII. Mines were placed in close vicinity to the line. After wooden poles started to rot around the mid-1950s, mines were removed, a dangerous job which cost the health of some border guards, who were severely injured due to accidental explosions.

Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border

For a short while at that time, the border was free of mines, and about 300’000 people managed to leave the ‘paradise of workers’!

Soon after the anti-communist uprising in 1956, suffocated with violence by the Soviets, the border was further fortified with concrete poles, and the mine strip was increased in width.

Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border

Only at the end of the 1960s the mines were removed, after multiple accidents involving Austrian citizens, when the mines slipped into a creek near the border due to a flood, injuring many who touched them incautiously. This time the border security system was strongly potentiated, with the adoption of an electrified system for the immediate detection of proximity, linked to signal collection centers dislocated along the line. This system had been implemented by the USSR on the Pakistani border. Something similar can be found also on the border between Czechoslovakia and West Germany (see here).

Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border

The exhibition is completed by an example of a wooden turret, as well as a more modern fence – a specimen of the one put in place in 2015 between today’s Hungary and neighbor Serbia and Croatia, when a wave of migrants from the Middle East swept the Balkans.

Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border

The museum is full of vivid testimonies, thanks to the many historical pictures and artifacts on display, and to the fact that the founder is actually the man who runs the museum! – he is totally available to answer your questions.

Iron Curtain Museum Vasfuggony Felsocsatar Szombathely Hungary Austria Border

Getting there and visiting

The museum can be reached here: 47.20376801287036, 16.429799972912328, on the border between Hungary and Austria, not far from Szombathely. The coordinates point to a convenient parking. The site is operated as an open-air museum, with opening times and an entrance fee. Moderate climbing is required, as the museum area is on the slope of a nice hill. Only cash accepted. Visiting may take about 45 minutes. Website here.

Military Park, Zanka

This small military park is a nice and cared for exhibition of Soviet-made weapons, located ahead of a resort which used to be an exclusive destination for vacation on the coast of Lake Balaton.

You can find here a couple of Mil helicopters – including the legendary Mil-24 in all its ‘beauty’! – in the colors of the Hungarian Air Force.

Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary

There is a MiG-21, also formerly of the Hungarian Air Force, a T-64 tank, a howitzer, a military snow blower, an amphibious truck and more light trailers.

Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary

Perhaps the most striking sight in this collection is the surface-to-air missile (SAM) SA-2, aka S-75 Dvina in the Soviet codification. A rather basic but powerful – and successful – missile from the 1950s, sold by the Soviets to many satellite Countries and clients over the world.

Military Park Soviet Weapons Zanka Balaton Haditechnikai Hungary

A revolving antenna can be seen on top of a truck. This is an example of the target acquisition antenna for the SA-2 system, code-named Spoon Rest by NATO, and known as P18 in Soviet codification. This radar system had a range of approximately 170 miles, and was an improvement of the previous P12 design. The launch site of SA-2 SAMs was always complemented by a set of antennas, including a Spoon Rest system. Actually, P18 could be coupled with the launch system of more advanced SAMs too.

All items in the collection here are pretty well preserved, making the visit an enjoyable stop along the exploration of the Balaton coastline.

Getting there and moving around

The park can be found here: 46.881838498667996, 17.7098619193198. The site can be visited in 10-30 minutes depending on your level of interest. This is an open-air museum, with ticket and opening times. Website (referral) with some information here.

Komarom Monostor Fort & Soviet Weapons Collection

An incredible, perfectly preserved military fort from the years of the Austrian Empire, Monostor Fort in Komarom can be found on the Danube, marking the border with Slovakia. At the time of construction, the two nations were united in the Austrian Empire, and the fort was erected between 1850-71 as a part of a defense line extending also north in today’s Slovakia.

Despite being extremely interesting for its articulated and complex construction – a brilliant example of military engineering from the time – the fort saw no action in its intended purpose. It was used for training for most of its life, then briefly as a prisoner’s camp in the years of Hitler’s administration, and finally as an immense weapons storage during the Cold War years, when it saw tenancy by the Soviets.

Today, the fort is open as a museum, duly centered on the interesting original construction from the 19th century.

Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary

One cellar has been left as it was in Soviet times, when weapons of all sorts were stored here, moved by means of a dedicated short-gauge railway.

Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary

In a corner of the immense apron, you can find a small collection of Soviet weapons, mainly anti-tank and anti-aircraft cannons. There are also a couple of truck-transported antennas, including a very effective early warning Flat Face radar, aka P19 Danube according to the soviet classification, as well as a PRW-9 Thin Skin target altitude detection radar. Similar platforms are still in use today, and can be coupled with modern SAM launching systems.

Komarom Fort Soviet Weapons Hungary

Getting there and moving around

The fort is a major attraction in the area. It features a large parking ahead of the entrance, address: 2900 Komárom Duna-part 1. Visiting is on a self-guided basis, with a short paper guide in English distributed at the entrance, and the visit will be extremely interesting for anybody interested in history, military engineering, etc. – not only Cold-War-minded subjects.

Visiting may take 1.5 hours, due to the size of the fort. The place is also used as a venue for theater performances and concerts, so timetables may vary. Some info in English can be found on this website.

Papa Airbase

Papa is today an active base of the Air Force, hence it cannot be accessed. However, with a short adventure drive along an unpaved road, you may reach a part of the former premises of the base – from Soviet times – now lying outside the perimeter.

There you can find a pretty unique array of old abandoned aircraft of Soviet make, in the colors of the Hungarian Air Force.

Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21

They are MiG-21 of many types, and also massive Sukhoi Su-22.

Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21

The state of conservation is not so bad – you can find airframes in worse condition in some museums – but some aircraft are missing some parts, possibly due to spare recycling, or vandalism, even though the place is really secluded, and the proximity with privately owned land and a military base is not ideal for vandals and idiot spoilers.

Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21

Of course, a few more years without any attention to these birds and little will remain of this improvised fleet. Hopefully, at least a share of this mighty force will find a due place in some museum or collection over the next years.

Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Sukhoi Su-22 MiG-21

By the way, the former military area where these planes are sitting was perhaps a place for SAMs, put for protection of the base in the Cold War years.

Papa Airbase Hungary Soviet Abandoned Airplanes Blast Deflector Weapons Shelter

Getting there and moving around

This is the only item on this post which is not a museum. It’s hard to tell whether these aircraft are lying on private land or not. However, to reach this strange flock of aircraft, you can move with a standard city car to this crossroads: 47.33966571405878, 17.550239693088113.

From here, you need to take north, until you reach this other waypoint: 47.35812676567956, 17.530436267329513. At some point along this path, the road turns unpaved, but the condition is generally manageable. On the latter waypoint you need to turn sharp left. You may notice old concrete posts, from the original soviet fence of the base.

You will finally land here: 47.35812676567956, 17.530436267329513, where you find an asphalted road, in the middle of a former peripheral area of the base. Driving towards the base along this road, you will find the aircraft here: 47.3541655146187, 17.514827811942904.

Visiting is not a long business, cause you should not move around the aircraft, as they are likely on the border of a private lot (fenced). Totally recommended for Cold War aircraft enthusiasts however.

Komo-Sky 51 Air Museum, Dunavarsany

This wonderful military exhibition is the based on the collection of a Hungarian military pilot, Zoltán Néhai Komócsi, nicknamed ‘Komo’, from which came the name of the museum. Unfortunately, the man passed away years ago in a crash. The collection was publicly put on display only more recently.

Items on display include military aircraft and helicopters, military trucks, trucks from the firefighting squad, engines, and more! Some of the exhibit can be boarded, and reportedly some vehicles are still operative.

Most of the exhibits are in very good condition, a few are still awaiting light refurbishment. An old Mil-2 helicopter can be boarded, revealing an old-fashioned cockpit, made more exotic by the Russian inscriptions.

Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary

Also an attack Mil-8 helicopter in Hungarian colors can be checked inside. A Mil-24 is undergoing restoration (as of 2020).

Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary

The ‘MiG alley’ includes MiG-15, 21 – in various versions – and 23, all in very good condition, refurbished for display.

Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary

Also some trucks can be boarded, revealing once more the excellent state of preservation, as well as abundant Russian signs.

Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary

To the far end of the collection, an Antonov An-2 utility biplane, an ubiquitous workhorse of the Soviet empire, can be boarded up to the cockpit.

Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary

You can sit in the pilot’s seat, getting a nice view from the cockpit of this bird.

Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary

Three deployable radar antennas can be seen on their trailers – apparently a not complete P80 Back Net system from the 1960s is the largest one.

Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary

Finally, a MiG-21 in the colors of the Hungarian national flag can be boarded. This is extremely interesting, as it provides a look in the cockpit of this high-performance and successful fighter/interceptor from the Cold War years, when ‘high-performance’ implied ‘high-complexity’ analog cockpits!

Komo-Sky 51 Base – Aviation Collection Budapest – Soviet Aircraft – Hungary

Getting there and moving around

The museum can be found at these coordinates, 47.292057190313706, 19.029565655926707, corresponding to a convenient parking. The site is about 30 minutes driving south of central Budapest. It is an open-air museum, with timetables and ticket. Information on their website (in Hungarian). Time required for visiting may range between 30 minutes to 1.5 hours for an interested subject, taking all the pictures.

Komo-Sky Bunker, Dunavarsany

A recent addition by the current managers of the Komo-Sky 51 Air Museum is this fully refurbished Soviet bunker, once used for air traffic control. The place is actually in the vicinity of the former Soviet airbase of Tokol, one of the largest in Hungary in its heyday (see this post).

Today the bunker has been partly restored in look, with some rooms changed into ambiances for interactive experiences, including shooting!

Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary

Some rooms host interesting collections of artifacts from the everyday life of communist Hungary.

Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary

Military memorabilia from the Red Army, with conspicuous Russian writings, are scattered everywhere.

Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary

A room of special interest hosts a collection of militaria from the Eastern Bloc, with artifacts ranging from weapons to flight suits, military decorations to aircraft parts. Really something for everybody!

Komo-Sky Air Control Cold War Soviet Bunker Tokol Budapest Hungary

Getting there and moving around

The bunker is a recent (as of 2020) addition to the Komo-Sky 51 Air Museum. No dedicated website available at the time of writing. The place can be reached at the coordinates 47.297663350792774, 19.0351554512774, about 3 minutes driving north of the Air Museum. I visited by invitation of the owner, hence I don’t know about the actual timetable. A website of a hotel nearby – actually on the very same lot of the bunker – is here, with some information on the bunker in Hungarian.

Museum of Military History, House of Terror, Memento Park, Houses of Parliament – Budapest

Budapest is rightly famous for a history spanning many centuries, for its art collections, incredible architectures, thermal baths and many other enjoyable features. However, having been the capital of a communist country in the Eastern Bloc, it also hosted a ‘state security service’, i.e. an agency of the government attempting to control the minds of Hungarian citizens, and keeping everybody’s behavior under strict surveillance. The palace chosen as the seat for this service is named ‘House of Terror’ (‘Terror Haza’ in the local idiom). Here many were kept under arrest, interrogated, and in some instances secretly murdered in the basement.

Terror Haza KGB Headquarters Budapest Hungary

The place is among the most visited museums in Hungary, and can be found right in the city center. Comprehensibly, no photo is allowed in the most sensitive areas of this sad building. Website here.

Another place of Cold War interest, making for a rather popular touristic attraction, is Memento Park. In this small park about 15 minutes driving south of the city center most of the statues and monuments once adorning the capital’s downtown have been collected and put on display.

Some from older times, celebrating the friendship of the Soviet and Hungarian peoples, are unbearably rhetoric.

Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary

Others are more artistically interesting, in the context of official artistic currents authorized by the Communist Party.

Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary

Lenin is of course a favorite subject.

Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary

By the entrance, Marx, Engels and Lenin are kind of ‘gate guardians’.

Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary

In front of the entrance, you can find a reproduction of the base of a statue of Stalin put in place at some point and surviving in pictures, and later dismantled after the death of Stalin. In the basement of the same construction, you can find a weird set of official busts of Lenin and Stalin, as well as a once popular image of Lenin as a child.

Memento Park Communist Statues and Monuments Budapest Hungary

Close by, a small deposit of statues still waiting to be put on display can be found. Website here.

A less visited museum covering the military history of Hungary over the ages, but especially the 19th and 20th centuries, can be found right in the old district of Buda. The display is rather classical and didactic, but for more military-minded people, or those interested in the recent history of Hungary, it is for sure worth a stop when visiting uptown. Website here.

Museum of Military History Budapest Hungary

Finally, in the gorgeous building of the Houses of Parliament, you can find interesting info about the changes implemented to the architecture of the building during the communist period.

Parliament Budapest Hungary

A unique artifact is the big red star once standing on top of the building, emulating the famous ruby stars placed on top of the towers of the Kremlin in Moscow. Website here.

Secrets of a Soviet Airbase, Berekfurdo

This museum is located in the small town of Berekfurdo, in the eastern region of Hungary, just a few minutes from the former airbase of Kunmadaras, which used to be operated by the Soviets in the Cold War era (see this post for the nuclear storage bunker to be found there).

Unfortunately, I could not visit the museum – it is open only rarely, on a very limited timetable. However, in the courtyard you can easily spot a Mil-24 attack helicopter, as well as a MiG-21. Both have been vividly and freshly refurbished – ready for take-off!

Secret of a Soviet Airbase Kunmadaras Berekfurdo Hungary

Getting there and moving around

The website of the museum provides good information, and the folks there appear pretty reactive in case you are writing to get more info. It is really a pity they have a timetable so limited. The place can be reached at these coordinates: 47.38366735314769, 20.84155882970934. The museum is made of a small hangar and an outside apron. Considering the size, I guess visiting might take about 1 hour.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum, Szolnok

This is probably the ‘official’ aviation museum in Hungary, at least concerning the military field. It is clearly a well-financed endeavor, with a remarkable collection of aircraft from various ages, helicopters, engines and missiles. Most of the aircraft are preserved outside in an open-air exhibition, the oldest ones having found a place inside a modern and well-designed building. Everything on display has been recently refurbished, hence the collection looks fresh and well cared for.

Two aircraft will likely capture your attention in the main hall, namely a Spitfire in the colors of a Polish squadron fighting with the RAF, facing a Bf 109 in German Luftwaffe colors. The two opponents are displayed besides one another, allowing also for a configuration and size comparison.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

Not far is the wreck of an Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik, built in huge numbers by the USSR over the years of the Great Patriotic War.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

Interesting specimens in the inside hangar include a Messerschmitt Me-108 trainer, some Soviet trainers, classic Kamov and Mil helicopters.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

A Soviet H-29L semi-active laser homing air-to-ground missile for the Sukhoi Su-22, which the Hungarian Air Force owned and operated, is on display.

A very interesting old analog approach simulator is also presented. It is made of a cabin mock-up and a large model of an airport, with cameras mounted on moving trolleys, likely projecting a magnified image of the ‘terrain’ in the cabin.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

You can board a MiG-21, and see the mysterious content of the noses of some fighter aircraft – typically radar antennas of various levels of sophistication.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

An array of engines, from WWII up to our days, are on display on the first floor.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

Outside you can find a sample list of virtually all popular MiG models, from MiG-15 to MiG-29.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

A colorful example of a MiG-21 will sure capture your eye, similarly to a set of Mil-24 attack helicopters, wrapped in incredible liveries!

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

A MiG-21 has been placed in an enclave resembling an aircraft shelter, an example of the care adopted in designing this top-tier museum. An SA-2 Guideline is on display by the entrance, visible also from the parking.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

To the far end of the external apron, you can find a ‘MiG alley’ with several fighters from that design bureau. Also there is a massive Sukhoi Su-22, and two Lockheed F-104 Starfighter – from Turkey and Germany respectively.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

The SAM part is rather interesting. You can see at least two SA-2 (aka S-75 Dvina, according to Soviet nomenclature), on trolleys or on the launch pad, with a distinctive flame deflector.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

A P37 Bar Lock early warning and target acquisition radar has been put on top of a mound. This type of radar constituted the first line of border defense of many countries of the Eastern Bloc, against intrusion from the West. It featured a range of approximately 250 miles.

Another radar antenna is the P15 Flat Face low-altitude target acquisition radar. With a range of about 75 miles, this scanner operated typically with the SA-3 Goa anti-aircraft system (aka S-125 Pechora in Soviet nomenclature).

The latter is on display on a movable launcher as well as on a four missile rack, prominently placed on top of a rampart, somehow resembling its typical launching position. A battery of more missiles on the same launching rack is typical of this highly successful missile, sold to many Countries, and easier to operate than its older cousin, the SA-2.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

Inside another smaller hangar – apparently a former railway depot – you can find the console for the control of the SA-2 system, together with another example of this SAM.

RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum Hungary

Getting there and moving around

Really an unmissable sight for aviation enthusiasts, military-minded people or the whole family as well! This very nice collection can be found in Szolnok. Address: Szolnok, Indóház u. 4-6, 5000 Hungary. Large parking ahead, restaurant and gift shop. Website here. You may easily spend a whole morning here, but if you are in a hurry, you can have a quick look in about 1 hour.

Emlekpont, Hódmezővásárhely

A rather unusual collection of soviet ‘authorized’ art can be found in this recently renovated building, which also hosts temporary exhibitions. The central part of the display is basically a single room on two floors, with paintings from the Cold War era.

Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary

A huge statue of a Soviet soldier takes the full height of the room! Some paintings refer to the 1956 uprising, clearly on the side of the rebels, hence they might be from a post-1989 time.

Emlekpont Communist Soviet Art Gallery Hungary

Surely worth a stop for those with an interest in Soviet art, like you can find only in Tretjakowsky Gallery in Moscow!

Getting there and moving around

This little museum can be found in Hódmezővásárhely, Andrássy út 34, 6800 Hungary, a few minutes driving from university town Szeged, close to the border with Serbia and Romania. Visiting may take about 30 minutes, more if you know Hungarian. Website here.

Pinter Works Military Park, Kecel

A one-of-a-kind exhibition, this place is hidden deep in the countryside between Balaton and the Serbian border, but it is really worth a detour for anybody interested in Soviet weapons from the Cold War era. It is likely one of the largest displays of heavy military gear you may find in Europe!

The sample list covers anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank guns, field artillery, self-propelled cannons and tanks.

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

But you also get special function trucks, moving bridges, transport, trailers, portable radar equipment.

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

Also SAMs are represented, including the SA-2 Guideline (S-75 Dvina), SA-4 Ganef (2K11 Krug) and the more conspicuous SA-5 Gammon (S-200 Vega). Some of the SAMs feature also transport cartridges on purpose-assembled trucks – some of them on tracks! – which are displayed side by side with field rocket launchers.

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

The huge Square Pair radar, used in conjunction with the modern SA-5 Gammon, makes for a really rare and impressive sight – it is tall like a multi-storey building, but it is on a trailer, implying it can be moved. There are two on display!

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

Also rather rare is the ST-68U Tin Shield early warning border patrolling radar, still in use today, with its movable trailer.

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

Even SCUDs surface-to-surface theater missiles can be found. One is located on board its movable launch-pad, similar to what you can see in Bucharest (see here).

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

Some of the trailers are open, so you can get a view of the inside – with all equipment apparently in place, including radar scopes and huge consoles, resembling an old-fashioned science fiction!

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

Finally, a series of fighter aircraft, including several MiG and Sukhoi models, are on display.

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

Curiously enough, a SAAB 35 Draken from Sweden found its way to here, whereas a T-72 and a T-34 make for gate guardians, together with an Antonov An-24.

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

Finally, what looks like a monster-size ballistic missile encapsulated in a canister completes the show…

Soviet Military Gear Weapons Huge Collection Pinter Works Kecel Hungary

All in all, as said this is really an impressive collection, both as an ensemble, and for some of the pieces in it. The origin of the collection is rather mysterious – nobody spoke anything except Hungarian there, but if I got it right through much gesticulation, the place is owned by somebody residing in Dallas area, TX. The military park sits in the premises of a metal-recycling company, so maybe there is some connection between the two, even though it does not look like they are fueling recycling with the items on display. Actually, the military park is well maintained and presented as a very nice open-air museum.

Getting there and moving around

The museum is located at the address Kecel, Rákóczi Ferenc u. 177, 6237 Hungary. The website is here, with accurate visiting info. Please note they accept only cash. Visiting may easily take 2 hours for an interested subject, taking all the pictures. For a quick overview, you may spend 30-40 minutes on site.

Taszar Airbase Museum, Taszar

Another unique museum, somewhat far from the major touristic paths in Hungary, can be found on the premises of the currently (as of 2020) inactive military airbase of Taszar, in southwest Hungary. This airbase was operated by the Hungarian Air Force over the years of the Cold War, with training and fighter units flying MiGs of many sorts over the years. Curiously, the base was lent to the US in the 1990s, and was used for attacks over Serbia and more support functions during the Balkan crisis in the late 1990s, and up to the early 2000s. After the American troops left, the base was shut down, and is now waiting for a novel use.

The museum is located in the building of the US chapel, itself in the middle of the now deserted living area of the base.

This museum is the display of a collection of artifacts, put together over many years by a former officer of the Hungarian Air Force, Sandor Kontsagh, who is the owner and who personally runs the place – you are likely to meet him, if you are going to pay a visit! An extremely kind and knowledgeable person, more than available to spend his time showing his collection in detail.

The most massive items on display include several aircraft parts, ranging from canopies, to entire cockpit panels, to parts of the innermost plants onboard Soviet-made fighters, including their electronics. What multiplies the value of this assortment is the fact that every single piece has its own history, as you will be told by Mr. Kontsagh.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

The original survival kit from an early MiG, similar to a soviet flight suit from the 1950s, are among the many invaluable collection items.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Also the machine guns and cannon of a MiG-15 can be found – compare the size to the cap of my wide lens!

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

The panel of a MiG-15 has been refurbished, linking it to electric power to light the electro-optical gunsight – hi-tec from the early Cold War.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Photography is of special relevance to the owner of the museum – he was tasked with technical photography functions during his career, and he has a real thing for this activity. Cameras usually mounted on the gunsight of fighter jets are part of the collection – for the first time, I could carefully look inside what always appears as a bulky black box impeding the pilot’s view on most aircraft from the Cold War period!

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Some of the cameras are accompanied by the their original technical registry, showing annotations from the 1950s – incredible.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Of special interest are also the cathode ray tubes to be found for instance on MiG-21. You would not suspect they are so long, looking at their flat appearance, besides other goggles on the panel of that fighter.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Interesting historical pictures are many. Among them, some are from decoy aircraft – inflatables – to fool enemy analysts watching satellite pictures taken above military bases. Others are from visits of president Clinton and princess Diana to Taszar. You can also find an aerial view of the base from Cold War times.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

In an adjoining room you can find a collection of radio equipment, with very interesting pieces made in the USSR. These include an original wire recorder.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Maps, trophies and models complete this room, together with a unique collection of cameras, from different countries and makes.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Another room hosts mainly uniforms – including the one belonging to Mr. Kontsagh – and flight suits. Also arresting parachute canister of a MiG-21 is on display.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

A corner of the main hall is dedicated to memorabilia from the US tenancy period. These include original uniforms, pictures, papers and even meals, proudly prepared in SC for American troops. By comparison, Hungarian packed meals, also on display, are much heavier!

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

More memorabilia include training progress registries from pilot’s training – in Russian – as well as textbooks from the training group operating on the base.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

All in all, I would say this museum alone is a good reason for a trip to this area!

On the outside, you find yourself in the setting of the old Taszar base, with some gate guardians of Soviet make, and an incredible mural on what was likely an academy building.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Access to the airport is interdicted, as the base is inactive but not abandoned.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

Getting there and moving around

When I visited in August 2020, the place was not even pinpointed on Google Maps, but later things have rapidly changed, so you can spot this as an attraction on Google Maps to the west of the airport in Taszar (‘Katonai repulo muzeum’ is the name you find). However, here are the coordinates 46.377887110631455, 17.89899149846632, which take you to a former living area of Taszar airbase, where you can enter with your car. The place is not abandoned, even though most buildings are now unused. The aura is a bit strange, for you have the sensation of intruding into a governmental property – but soon you realize this part of the base is not any more off-limits.

When I visited there was no info about opening timetables whatsoever available in advance, so we just popped up there, finding a closed door with a telephone number. We called and the man – Mr. Kontsagh – told us to wait a few minutes, and came in by foot, opening the place just for us.

I attach the phone number, in case you want to call in advance.

Taszar Airbase Museum Katonai Repulo Hungary

There is no website as of 2020, but the place is totally worth the effort of planning a visit anyway! You might spend a time ranging from 30 minutes to some hours, especially if you are interested in the topic of the museum, or you are simply into military aviation with a technical mind, and also have questions for the knowledgeable owner, who will answer in detail. In case you don’t know Hungarian, understanding a little German and a technical preparation will allow you to take much out of your visit (little English spoken, unfortunately, but this is not strange in this part of the world).

Spomenik – Iconic Modern Art from Tito’s Yugoslavia

May 5, 2019January 5, 2020 CarloRLeave a comment

Soon after the end of the war Tito and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia started a fight against the Soviet Union to escape Stalin’s direct control – a fight where they succeeded, creating in Yugoslavia a unique, truly communist dictatorship totally under Tito’s power, and not just another soviet satellite country.

To make differences from the USSR more apparent, artistic production, often representing an internationally recognized value for a country on the international stage, needed to part from the rhetoric of socialist realism of Stalin’s years. New, original aesthetics were sought, capable of expressing the modernity of Yugoslavia, while being not free from the control of the State, celebrating and promoting unity in a country which had never enjoyed national unity – something later reflected in the bloody split of the 1990s.

Tito’s aesthetic views for the new post-WWII Yugoslavia are greatly reflected in the project for the realization of an array of hundreds of monuments, to be designed and erected in locations scattered over the whole territory of the former Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia. These monuments go under the name of ‘spomenik’ – an internationally known word in the local idiom, simply translating into ‘monument’.

Most of these spomeniks commemorate some bloody facts of the Second World War – most often a local battle between Yugoslav communist partisans and the German Wehrmacht, or the Italian Army of the ‘Duce’, but also clandestine congresses of local subversive communist groups, mass murders by the Axis invaders, and so on. The realization of the project, sometimes fueled by the local interest to keep the memory of a historical fact of regional relevance, but in any case coordinated by the Communist Party, took a long time span, with most of the monuments designed and built over the 1960s and 1970s, before Marshall Tito died (1980).

Besides the historical significance bound to the events they commemorate, two facts make spomeniks an interesting target for curious travelers. The aesthetics of these monuments is often non banal, showing an attention to details and an artistic sensibility which is not usual to communist-ruled countries. In this sense, spomeniks sometimes stand out as very original, interesting – and pretty massive… – works of art. Secondarily, as the events they commemorate often took place in remote areas, spomeniks can be found in incredible natural spots of the former territory of Yugoslavia, immersed in the wilderness or in the middle of a gorgeous natural scenery, not easy to reach and isolated from civilization.

After the end of communism and following the secession wars of the 1990s in the Balcans, many spomeniks fell into disrepair. Today, some of them have been refurbished, while others have been completely demolished, reflecting a mixed feeling of the local population towards this artistic heritage. A good share of them has been simply left behind, gaining the typical ‘ghost aura’ of the architectures of former communist countries.

For hunters of historical relics, spomeniks are double-attractive – not only are they tangible traces of a bygone communist dictatorship with unique traits, but they stand out for their often severe appearance, like traces of a mysterious alien civilization, now long gone.

This chapter presents a handful of these monuments, which you can find along an ideal itinerary connecting the capital cities of todays republics of Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia & Hercegovina and North Macedonia. These are just a very small set out of the total, yet some of them are among the most famous and artistically valuable. Furthermore, except those in North Macedonia, they can be reached without any substantial detour from the major roads connecting Podgorica, Belgrade and Sarajevo, thus making for an interesting ‘side visit’ on your way from one of these nice cities to the next, on a cultural trip to the area. Similarly, many spomeniks in North Macedonia can be found close to touristic locations. Photographs were taken during two visits, a week-long tour in Spring 2019 (Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia & Hercegovina) and a long week-end in late Summer 2019 (North Macedonia).

If you are interested in a deeper analysis on the history and art behind spomeniks, or you are looking for a more complete directory of these monuments, please refer to this great resource site.

Map

The following map shows the detailed location of all the spomeniks listed in this post. I personally checked all of them, so the location is very precise. As you will notice, most of them are fairly easily accessible from major or paved roads. Some of them will require a little bit of walking from a parking area to the monument itself.

Sights

Kolašin, Montenegro

This spomenik is actually a one-of-a-kind example of ‘spomen-dom’, i.e. a monument not designed just to be admired from the outside, but conceived as a building, to host meetings and services inside. The site is right in the central square of the village of Kolašin, in the southeast of Montenegro not far from the Serbian border. This town has been a vital center of the anti-fascist resistance in WWII, when the territory was first subjugated by the Italians, and later by the Germans.

KolasinMontenegroTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

The spomenik was designed and built under the supervision of the renowned architect Marko Mušič in the early 1970s. Its age is especially reflected in the use of gray concrete for most of the visible structure. The triangular shape dominating the highest part of the building may recall the typical shape of the traditional houses built in the area – chalet-type, with a triangular roof – or even the tops of the Dinaric Alps all around.

KolasinMontenegroTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

Being a building more than a monument, this spomenik is rather big. Today, the village is an active skiing center, thanks to the great position in the mountains. The spomenik is being used for administrative functions, and blends effectively in the central square of the village. Yet its appearance is today so-so, and maintenance is clearly not enough to preserve it for long. As a matter of fact, inspite of the architectural value which gained it a place in books of architecture, a long future for this spomenik is reportedly not assured.

Getting there and moving around

The spomenik is easily reachable right in the city center of Kolasin, a small town with some up-to-date touristic structures for the winter season – the location is really gorgeous. Free parking all around the central square. You can walk around the spomenik without restriction, but stepping inside is possible only compatibly with the local administrative functions.

Berane, Montenegro

Possibly one of the most elaborated spomeniks, the monument in Berane was built on the spot of an ancient Turkish fortress, now totally gone, in a secluded location immersed in a forest close to this contended town. In the close vicinity of the spomenik, nine students suspected of being part of the resistance were executed by the Italians in 1941. The town of Berane changed hands several times during WWII, and it is estimated that about 6’000 people were killed in the area in the military and para-military actions over the war years.

BeraneMontenegroTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

The spomenik, designed by the Serbian designer Bogdan Bogdanović, was inaugurated in 1977 on a small grassy field, a really nice spot in the forest. It is mainly composed of a more than 50 ft tall conical dome, with a number of massive dark stone slabs delimiting a regular curved perimeter around it. These slabs are carved with interesting symbolic ideograms, telling – among other things the story – of a local clan.

BeraneMontenegroTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

Today, despite its relative remoteness with respect to the town center, the place is actively maintained, frequented by the locals, and in a definitely good shape. Thanks to the secluded position, as well as to the inscriptions in a fantastic archaic language, this spomenik is very mysterious and particularly fascinating – it resembles a megalithic alignment, or a setting from the Lord of the Rings!

Getting there and moving around

The spomenik in Berane cannot be approached by car directly. You will need to face a steep climb uphill on a well-prepared and maintained trail. A 10 minutes walk uphill is needed for a well-trained person. The location has been used for local concerts and commemorations, and is carefully maintained as a park area.

Ostra, Serbia

This spomenik was built on the site of a battle which took place between opposing factions of locals – some of them collaborating with the Axis forces – in 1943. This was just an episode in the larger confrontation between these groups, taking place in the area of the nearby center of Cacak. Notably, the soviet Red Army contributed to the struggle in the last stages of the Axis occupation period, obviously on the side of the local communist partisans.

The monument, designed by Miodrag Živković and Svetislav Licina, was inaugurated in 1969, and was composed of a concrete slab with an inscription in Cyrillic, and a perspective leading to the focal point of the spomenik – an abstract aluminum sculpture, with a sober appearance, pointing diagonally towards the sky. By looking closely to this monument, you can see stylized human faces in the side of it. The metal sculpture is located on top of a hill, with a very scenic view of the surrounding hills.

OstraSerbiaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

Despite the metal sculpture being today still in a fairly good condition, the original appearance of the site has been heavily altered by the building an Orthodox church between the concrete commemorative stone and the prominent sculpture. This happened around 2010. Strangely enough, at the time of my visit the church was not open, with parts of furniture provisionally stored ahead of the main door, giving a bad sense of neglect.

OstraSerbiaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

Clearly, a church built right in the middle of the spomenik area means that there is not a particular good feeling about this monument. Also the inscriptions by the entrance of the perspective are largely spoiled, with many letters now missing. Yet somebody put flowers by the metal sculpture, which is not heavily spoiled by writers.

OstraSerbiaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

All in all, despite the bad general shape and the strong alteration, the location dominating the area and the imposing, sober appearance of the aluminum part is particularly suggestive, and makes for good photo opportunities.

Getting there and moving around

Accessing this spomenik is rather easy. The road reaching the top of the hill is a local asphalt road, which does not pose any special difficulty. Close to the church there is a small parking area, and the metal monument can be reached from there walking on a flat, open grassy area.

Kragujevac, Serbia

What you can find in Kragujevac is not just one spomenik, but a huge and very nice city park with several monuments scattered around. Construction of this park was started by an official decree back in the early 1950s, on the site of the major massacre of Kragujevac. This bloody episode is one of the worst suffered by the civilian population in occupied Yugoslavia, when by the order of the Nazi governors, more than 2’300 from the local population – selected based on race, political views or religion – were systematically killed in a field. The general governor of Yugoslavia responsible for issuing the order – which can be traced back to the German OKW in Wünsdorf – was later trialled for this in Nürnberg after WWII.

The park is still today very well-kept, interdicted to road traffic and only open for walking. Several spomeniks can be found scattered over the park, together with a museum dedicated to the massacre close to the main road access. One of them, and likely the oldest, is the monument called ‘Pain and Defiance’, dating from 1959.

KragujevacSerbiaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

The most famous, and one of the most internationally well-known, is dedicated to pupils and teachers killed in the massacre. It was designed by architect Miodrag Živković in a distinctive ‘V’-shape, about 25 ft tall and 45 long. Despite looking granite, it is made of almost-white concrete. On the face of the monument, it is possible to spot the shapes of human faces and figures. This monument was inaugurated in late 1963.

KragujevacSerbiaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

Located on a gentle slope on the side of a grassy valley, this spomenik occupies a really nice and quiet spot. The nice and peaceful walk leading to it encourages remembrance.

KragujevacSerbiaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

Getting there and moving around

The park is a very well-kept city park, crossed by a few roads which are interdicted to general traffic – basically no cars can enter, I guess these roads can be accessed by car only on special commemorations or similar occasions. Parking is easy close to the museum – itself a rather distinctive construction. A big map of the site can be found on a post close to the parking area (see pics above), and several signs allow you to tour the park, meeting the many monuments according to your interests. Reaching the ‘V’-shaped monument from the main access involves a 10-15 minutes walk along a perfectly prepared road.

Kosmaj, Serbia

Possibly one of the most iconic of all spomeniks, the Kosmaj monument is located on top of a hill, and partly visible from quite a distance, emerging from the treetops. The location was chosen as the foundation site of the Kosmaj partisan detachment, who contributed substantially to the resistance efforts against German occupation forces, with thousands effectives killed or wounded.

The monument was designed by sculptor Vojin Stojić, and unveiled in 1971.

KosmajSerbiaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

The sinister shape of this monument, looking like an alien creature landed on top of the hill, on an isolated spot far from civilization, may strongly appeal to hunters of weird places. What further adds to the ‘mystery aura’ of the place is the fact that, while generally not in a bad shape and far from rotting, the monument appears somewhat forgotten – far from everything, little maintained or looked after.

KosmajSerbiaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

Another impressive feature which is rarely captured by photographs, is that this object is about 90 ft tall! Access is via a poorly maintained stair, or by a little longer access walkway. Getting closer, you have a clearer impression of its gigantic size. The five concrete pinnacles composing the monument and making for a spiky whole from the distance, are actually separated from each other. The monument appears to change shape continuously as you walk around and under it, making it very interesting to watch from different angles.

KosmajSerbiaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

Considering the remote, silent location, the late evening time of my visit, and the wind blowing in the trees, this was possible the most mysterious and magnetic of the spomeniks I could see on this trip!

Getting there and moving around

Due to its size and prominence, the Kosmaj spomenik was conceived as the focal point of an area for war commemorations, as well as for more widely themed social events. The area on top of the hill comprises a football field, a playground and parking areas. All this today is far less used than in the communist era, and its ‘ghost appearance’ adds greatly to the mystery aura of the place. The spomenik can be accessed along a one-way loop road, going around the top of the hill. Today you can freely get access to this road and get very close to the spomenik with your car. The monument can be finally reached via a poorly maintained, short concrete staircase, or via a longer walkway. I would say access is of course very easy. The location is also reasonably close to Belgrade, with a modern highway connecting the area with the Serbian capital city.

Avala, Serbia

This monument stands out of the crowd of the Yugoslavian spomeniks for it is not built to commemorate an event of WWII, but instead it remembers the fatal crash of a passenger flight, which occurred in approach to Belgrade. The year was 1964, and the flight was carrying 22 Soviet war veterans, who had participated in the ‘Liberation war’ of Yugoslavia against the Germans, from Moscow to a commemoration ceremony to be held the following day. The cause of the accident was never clearly determined, but it was likely due to a technical mishap.

AvalaSerbiaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

The bronze spomenik you can see today was designed by sculptor Jovan Kratohvil on the very location of the crash, and inaugurated in 1965 on the first anniversary of the fatal accident. The names of the war veterans who perished are recorded on a stone.

AvalaSerbiaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

This monument is more modest in size than most famous spomeniks, and the good quality of materials, its proportion and the great view over the hills leading to Belgrade – the famous Avala tower, with its famous panoramic deck, is less than a mile from here – make for a very nice and scenic ensemble. Furthermore, the mint state of conservation is really noteworthy.

Getting there and moving around

This spomenik can be reached along the same loop road going to the Avala WWI memorial and to the Avala tower with its panoramic view. There is a small parking nearby, and access is via a short staircase which is already part of the monument. The monument is well cared for, and the area is rather busy with local and international tourists.

Kadinjača, Serbia

The scenic spot where this extensive monumental ensemble has been arranged was the setting of one of the first battles between the partisan army – a group called the ‘Workers’ Battalion’ – and the German Wehrmacht. The latter was trying to reach the town of Užice, giving shelter to the top ranking staff of the Liberation army, including Marshal Tito. The battle was finally lost by the partisans in 1941, but they allowed the local population and the partisan commanders to flee the area, before the Germans troops poured in.

The area of the final fight was selected for a national monument as soon as 1952. A plain obelisk was put in place. Years later, in 1979, a huge monument designed by Miodrag Živković was unveiled at the presence of Tito, with a huge crowd attending.

KadinjacaSerbiaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

The plan of the monument has its focus in the old prismatic monument of 1952. Around it, an interesting ensemble was added in 1979, with an amphitheater on one side, and two sets of granite and concrete abstract sculptures on the other.

KadinjacaSerbiaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

A first group of sculptures, with very stylized human faces emerging from the sides and on top of the stones, constitute a first circle.

KadinjacaSerbiaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

A second group is made of massive white slabs, culminating in one loosely resembling an armor pierced by a bullet. The installation is about 300 ft long, and the ‘pierced armor’ piece is about 45 ft tall. Yet the group is well proportioned and blends perfectly in the panorama around it.

KadinjacaSerbiaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

The great state of conservation is testified by a modern multi-language placard with explanations about the history of the place. The spomenik is complemented by a museum and by a few weapons permanently displayed outside – themselves a memorial of the battle fought in the area.

This is a popular tourist destination, on the road going to nearby Visegrad (in Bosnia & Hercegovina), with its famous ancient Ottoman bridge.

Getting there and moving around

This spomenik is difficult to miss, visible from quite afar and perfectly accessible from a major road. Extensive parking ahead of the museum. Walking around does not pose any particular difficulty.

Tjentište, Bosnia & Hercegovina

Really an iconic masterpiece in the panorama of Yugoslav spomeniks, the monument in Tjentište benefits also from the fantastic location in the mountain range marking the border between Bosnia & Hercegovina and the republic of Montenegro. The proportions of the scenic views of this mountainous area are really more typical to the Americas than Europe!

This famous ‘winged’ monument is located on the area of a bloody battle fought in spring 1943, when the Axis force attacked some partisan groups commanded directly by Marshal Tito, in a deliberate attempt to kill their commander, hoping that in so doing they would succeed in undermining the rebel force. In the ensuing battle of Sutjeska around 7’000 besieged partisans were killed, but Tito finally was able to escape the area.

This battle acquired a special, almost mythological meaning in the history of communist Yugoslavia. A first commemoration stone – actually a mass grave for some thousands partisans – was put in place already in 1958, whereas the huge spomenik you see today, designed by Miodrag Živković, was unveiled in 1971 at the presence of Tito, who reportedly put much personal attention on the realization of this very monument.

TjentisteBosniaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

The two massive concrete wings are enriched by human faces, only sketched and arranged so to form the roots of the wings themselves. Looking closely, you realize that the two monoliths are different from one another. Furthermore, their irregular, strongly 3D shape makes them look different depending on the point of view.

TjentisteBosniaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

The monument is located half way on an ascending slope. Going further uphill you meet a termination point of the perspective, where the names of several partisan brigades are recorded. Looking down to the wings, you see them taking yet another shape!

TjentisteBosniaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

This monument blends really well with the majestic scenery around. While being a sober and proportioned work of art, it is at the same time massive and sinister. The ensemble is really an artistic masterpiece, yet it bears some authentic ‘Yugoslav-communist style’ marker, making it a somewhat paradoxical ‘official communist ghost’!

TjentisteBosniaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

On the side of the perspective leading to the winged monument, there is another spomenik – actually a ‘spomen-dom’ – which is known for hosting commemoration inscriptions and rare war-themed artistic frescoes, which were unfortunately damaged in the 1990s wars.

TjentisteBosniaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

While in the years of Tito this was one of the most visited national monuments in the Country, its fame went down dramatically with the end of communism and with the following wars of secession, which struck heavily in this uninhabited valley reaching to ill-fated Sarajevo. With this in mind, the main perspective and the winged monument are surprisingly well kept, and they are gaining further popularity among relic-hunters, thanks to the undeniable charm of this spomenik. There are reportedly several other less prominent spomeniks in the area of the 1943 battle, including the ‘spomen-dom’, but unfortunately I had not the chance to investigate further about their state of conservation.

Getting and there and moving around

Getting there is possible along a national road going from Sarajevo to central Montenegro. Free parking is available at the base of the perspective leading to the winged monument. Getting closer to the latter involves climbing a flight of stairs. To get to the far end of the perspective you will need to climb another conspicuous flight of stairs. The winged spomenik is very well kept, and the area is really scenic – today it is a national park -, really justifying a detour from Sarajevo, or choosing this road to go to Montenegro from the Bosnian capital city.

Obadov Brijeg, Montenegro

This spomenik is an example of smaller designs, which constitute the majority of these monuments around former Yugoslavia.

The ‘bird-like’ monument in Obadov Brijeg, not far from the famous Orthodox monastery of Ostrog – built in the side of a mountain ridge nearby -, commemorates the victorious fight against the retreating Germans in fall 1944 of a coordinated force of local partisans troops, British artillery and Allied aircraft.

ObadovBrijegMontenegroTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

The spomenik was designed by the renowned architect Slobodan Vukajlović, and unveiled in 1974.

Unfortunately, as of today, this small monument appears little respected – mostly used as a roadside dump by travelers.

Getting there and moving around

Totally easy to reach if you are traveling north on the M18 road. The site is immediately visible when passing by, it is easily accessible thanks to a small rest area nearby, but unfortunately not well maintained and even dangerous to come close to, due to the garbage around it.

Golubovci, Montenegro

This monument by the local architect Vukota Tupa Vukotic was erected in 1974 close to the airport of Podgorica, the capital city of Montenegro, which received the name of Titograd in the years of communist Yugoslavia. This happened in recognition of its sacrificial role in the years of WWII, when after the Germans took over control of the area conquered by Italians, following the end of fascism in Italy in 1943, the city was stricken by heavy Allied aerial bombing, causing its almost complete destruction.

Podgorica was strategically located along a communication route going to the occupied territories of Albania and Greece, and for this reason the German Army was particularly present in the area – thanks to the airbase already in place in WWII. As a result, attrition with local partisans caused further casualties.

GolubovciMontenegroTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

The monument commemorates the action of the partisans in the area. The abstract sculpture is sober and well proportioned. Besides the focal point – the sickle-shaped object in the middle of the construction – there are metal panels with a more traditional iconography, portraying battle scenes, as well as writings and tombstone-like stone panels.

GolubovciMontenegroTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

The ensemble is located in residential area very close to the airport, and is actively maintained, so it has a sober, not derelict aspect.

Getting there and moving around

Very easy to reach along a major local road on the western side of the airport. Parking nearby is easy, and there are no major obstacles impeding access. The monument is well-kept and cared after.

Barutana, Montenegro

This spomenik honors the many losses experienced by the population from the area west of Podgorica in the Balcan wars, WWI and WWII. Three distinct monuments based on the same design are located on the side of an ascending path, leading to a double terrace on top of the monument.

BarutanaMontenegroTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

Half of the double terrace features a full-scale amphitheater, with small granite seats forming a nice ensemble. The focal point of the double terrace is a torch-like sculpture about 30 ft tall, made of several separated adjoining components.

BarutanaMontenegroTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

Between the torch-shaped sculpture and the amphitheater there is a stage. The object was created for meeting purposes, especially for schools but more generally for social events. Traces of the lighting for night performance can be still be seen.

BarutanaMontenegroTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

This nice ensemble was completed in 1980 after a five-years-long construction work. The design is due to the local architect Svetlana Kana Radević.

Unfortunately, the place is not maintained any more, and while still in a relatively good shape – sufficiently far from downtown Podgorica to be spared misuse and vandalism – it is apparently falling into oblivion. This adds to the ‘communist ghost’ aura of the place, which you can perceive also in plain sunlight!

Getting there and moving around

This spomenik can be spotted from the road going from Podgorica to the coast. It is located immediately on the side of the road, but the only feature you see when driving by is the torch-like monument – vegetation is hiding the base of the monument. There are three small access roads, and once there you find a large parking area. The monument is not degraded – no garbage around – but it is clearly in need of restoration works. The stairway gently ascending to the top terraces are consumed and will be soon unserviceable.

Botun, North Macedonia

The Botun monument commemorates the struggle of the local partisans from all over the area, known as Debarca. This is located northeast of Ohrid, a very nice touristic town on the coast of a beautiful lake, close to the border with the Republic of Albania. The combatants from this area managed to liberate the area from the Italian-backed occupying forces in Spring 1943, well before Italy surrendered to the Allies in 1943. The Wehrmacht then retook control of the region until 1944, when communist partisans finally repelled the Germans.

This rather unique episode is celebrated through a rather simple monument, apparently composed by two stone wings or flames, surrounding a central body bearing a commemorative inscription.

BotunNorthMacedoniaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

Unfortunately, the monument is in complete disrepair, the pavement basically disintegrating due to poor maintenance.

BotunNorthMacedoniaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

The overgrown vegetation hides luckily hides small deposits of garbage. Yet the location in the deep of a wild valley makes it potentially interesting as a stop along a major road.

Getting there and moving around

The Botun monument is easily reached along the E65, connecting Ohrid Airport to the north and Skopje. It is immediately on the side of the road, easier to access when driving south. There is small parking space at the level of the road where the small access roads depart to the monument apron. The site is not maintained, but not difficult to access or tour either.

Struga, North Macedonia

The spomenik in the town of Struga, on Ohrid Lake, designed by Vojislav Vasiljević, was delivered in 1974. It commemorates the more than 300 casualties in the Macedonian ranks from the Struga area during WWII. The area fell under control of the Italian-backed kingdom of Albania until mid-1943, when after a short independence it was occupied by the Germans.

The monument is rather simple, but differently from the majority of spomeniks it is located right in the city center. The composition, made of a small mound with access stairs and a white spike on top of it, is rather difficult to miss.

StrugaNorthMacedoniaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

On one side of the monument, abstract in nature, a rather kitschy representation of an infantry charge has been added possibly in a later stage.

StrugaNorthMacedoniaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

There is also a side commemoration panel with writings in Cyrillic. The monument has been reportedly refurbished in 2019, and its appearance is consequently good (apart from small vandal printing on the sides you can see in the pictures).

Getting there and moving around

Reaching the monument is possible by foot. It is located in the middle of the town, on Marshal Tito square. You may leave your car in one of the many parking areas around central Struga and walk along the river to get to the monument.

Oteševo, North Macedonia

Little is known of this monument, unveiled in 1973 on the side of a hill overlooking Prespansko Lake, on the border between North Macedonia, Albania and Greece. The architects are Jordan Grabul and Boro Josifovski.

The area appears to be a former touristic location for lakeshore activities. Today it is still very nice from a natural standpoint, yet the touristic centers – hotels, camping area, … – from the communist era are now closed, and make for a mysterious setting.

The spomenik resembles a flame, put on top of a stone stair. You can see an original inscription, as well as a star decoration in the base of the flame. On one side you can still find a flagpole.

OtesevoNorthMacedoniaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

The monument is in a so-so condition. It is sufficiently far from the road to having been spared major vandalism. The staircase is in a relatively good condition, and vegetation is not excessively overgrown. On the other hand, it is apparently not of great interest for the local population, which do not advertise it at all.

Getting there and moving around

The monument can be reached very easily from the road R1307 in Oteševo. The village is rather unapparent, and the monument is shrouded in the vegetation. You may notice the stair access from the road. Parking at the base of the stairs is difficult, but you may find a parking place ahead of the gate of the nearby camping site – as of 2019, apparently largely abandoned.

Kruševo, North Macedonia

This spomenik is possibly one of the best known in and outside of former Yugoslavia. This is somewhat paradoxical, as the monument came out with significant delay and after much controversy. On the other hand, maybe its fortune especially after the end of communism is partly due to its dedication – it was built to celebrate a huge uprising of the local population against the Turks in 1903, led by a local school teacher named Nikola Karev, settled in blood by an entire army of the Ottoman empire.

The lack of an immediate link to WWII events and communist-led struggles generated some criticism, but this actually came after some years were spent trying to find a compromise concerning the design itself. The architects, Jordan and Iskra Grabul, despite a proven communist faith, had a very hard time with the state commission who had issued the design.

The monument was finally unveiled in 1974, on a hill just out of the Krusevo village. It is composed of a gently ascending access road, with small monuments resembling broken chains. A first stop along the access road is a kind of open air crypt, with protruding cylinders bearing the names of places and people linked to resistance actions in the history of Macedonia. Apparently, no one from WWII years is included.

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At the end of the road, on top of the hill, you can find a small open-air theater surrounded by curved walls decorated with colored tiles and sculptures.

KrusevoNorthMacedoniaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

The axis of the theater is aligned with the main body of the monument, a very peculiar construction, roughly spherical, with many tubular protrusions pointing radially from the surface. Whatever the intended meaning, it looks like a virus or something else from a biology book. Access to the sphere is through an inclined footbridge leading to a door.

KrusevoNorthMacedoniaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

During my visit, the door was unfortunately locked closed. Inside you can find the grave of Nikola Karev, as well as interesting wall reliefs.

Another interesting feature are the four stained glass windows. Colored with different palettes, the light produces nice reflections inside the spomenik. Luckily, something can be seen also from the outside in a sunny day.

KrusevoNorthMacedoniaTitoYugoslaviaCommunistMonument

One of the most celebrated spomeniks – even portrayed on local currency notes and recently photographed in international reviews – this item is maintained in perfect conditions as a national shrine, and social events like music festivals are held on its premises.

Getting there and moving around

Accessing this spomenik, aka ‘Macedonium’ is easy to the far end of the village of Krusevo. Thanks to its official role, it boasts a large parking ahead of the access road, with some explanations on dedicated panels. Beware of a big museum just on the other side of the parking – it is dedicated to a local music star prematurely died in an accident, it is not linked to the spomenik.

Plokstine – A Preserved Nuclear Missile Site in Lithuania

April 21, 2019April 21, 2019 CarloRLeave a comment

While almost all nuclear sites you can find in European Countries once beyond the Iron Curtain are today totally abandoned and fairly unaccessible, there exists a perhaps unique exception. The Plokstine site in northwestern Lithuania has been selected around 2010 for complete refurbishment with the help of public money, and in 2012 it has opened its doors as a museum. Located in a beautiful natural setting crowded with hikers – namely Zemaitija National Park, a national recreation area around Plateliai lake – it has quickly grown to international fame, and is now recording several thousands visitors per year, with guided tours in multiple languages – including English – offered on a regular basis during the warm season.

What is today an intriguing tourist destination, used to be part of a large Soviet installation for launching ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads. It is worth mentioning that Lithuania was a ‘Soviet Socialist Republic’ in the realm of the USSR, i.e. not just a satellite country of the Soviet Union, but part of it. Actually, this small country on the shores of the Baltic Sea, on the extreme western border of Soviet territory, was an ideal location for deploying weapons to hit European targets from within the Union. Furthermore, the Plokstine forest was – and still is – a little populated area, where construction works for a large top-secret military facility for storing and operating offensive cutting-edge hi-tech warfare would go likely unnoticed.

The missile complex was completed in December 1962, in the years of Khrushchev and Kennedy. The Plokstine site comprises of four interred silos and an extensive underground command station in the middle – the ensemble constituted a so-called ‘Dvina’ launch complex.

The ‘Dvina’ site in Plokstine was actually the last part of the missile base to be built. Two more sister surface sites, with four launchpads each, had been completed one year before, just west of the nearby village of Saiteikiai. These surface sites were similar to those you can find in Latvia (see this post), a neighbor country where unfortunately the last remaining ‘Dvina’ site was demolished in 2017, but abundant traces of the Soviet presence can still be found.

All three launch complexes in this region were designed around the R-12 missile. The R-12U missile was actually used in the underground ‘Dvina’ complex, slightly different from the surface-launched R-12. This weapon was better known by its NATO designation – SS-4 Sandal – and was a 2.3 megaton, single warhead, single stage nuclear missile. It reached true international notoriety before the base in Plokstine was activated, for this was the type deployed to Cuba in the missile crisis of 1962. Coincidentally, part of the staff transferred to Cuba in the days preceding the crisis was from the same rocket regiment of the Red Army (the 79th) stationed in Plokstine. Sandal missiles from here were reportedly transferred in complete secrecy to Cuba, via the port town of Sevastopol in Crimea in that occasion.

The base remained operational until the last missile – by then obsolete – left in 1978.

The Baltics were the first republics to leave the dying Soviet Union, openly defying the military authority of neighbor Russia. After the collapse of the Union and the end of communism in Europe, these three states – which historically do not belong to Russian culture – quickly joined the NATO and European Union, to escape Russian influence as much as possible. Most Soviet military installations were shut down and abandoned, and have been for two decades an interesting destination for explorers and war historians (see this post for many examples). Later on, most sites have been slowly demolished or converted into something else. Really a few of them have been preserved for posterity.

In this post you can find photographs from the Cold War Museum now open in the former ‘Dvina’ site of Plokstine, from a visit in 2017. Close to the bottom, you can find a few further photographs from a previous visit made by appointment in 2009, before the site was selected for renovation – these may be more appealing for Soviet-aura lovers!

Sights

What can be visited today is all in the area of the old ‘Dvina’ complex. The complex is mainly composed of four interred silos, covered by heavy steel & concrete bulged covers, placed on the four corners of a square. These gigantic caps are the most prominent components of the site from the outside. Today, an observation deck has been erected on the south of the area. From there, you can appreciate the distinctive plan of the ‘Dvina’ complex, with an access road terminating in a loop touching all four armored silo covers.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

The weight of each cover is told to be around 100 tonnes, as it was armored to withstand a nuclear explosion. The covers would be pulled sideward with a sled mechanism, to open the silos before launch. Unmovable missile launch complexes, like the ‘Dvina’ site in Plokstine, were easy and attractive targets for western weapons, thus requiring a very strong defense barrier. Similar considerations led the design of the Titan missile sites in the US, which albeit more powerful and capable of a greater range, are roughly from the same era (see this post).

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

To get near the silos or get access to the museum, you need to pay a ticket and join a guided tour. The visit includes a tour of the Cold War Museum, which has been prepared inside the rooms of the former control center. The tour will start from the visitor center, a new modern building. You will soon go through a specimen of the original fences which ran around the ‘Dvina’ complex, and which included barbed wire and high-voltage electrified lines. Close by, you can find traces of original unarmored constructions, likely service buildings. The missile site was operated by more than 300 troops stationing in a number of smaller centers in the area around the complex.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

The guide will lead you along a walk around the surface part of the complex, where you can see the construction of the caps from very close. The metal part is very rusty, but the concrete cover has been refurbished and looks like new – a pretty unusual sight, for connoisseurs of Soviet military relics!

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

Access to the underground missile service and control center is via a small metal door, right in the middle of the square formed by the four silos.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

A few rooms in the control center today host the exhibitions of the Cold War Museum. A room displays a quick time-line of the Cold War, since the end of WWII to the end of the USSR. In the adjoining rooms you can find propaganda items

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

Another room is about defense against nuclear threat. This is interesting, with many artifacts like dosimeters and medical tools, plus easily readable instructions of ‘dos and don’ts’ in case of nuclear attack.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

Another room is about the evolution of weapons over the Cold War decades, with original material from the time, including heavier tactical weapons.

The exhibition is modern, small but not superficial, and may appeal to any public, including children. Besides the exhibits, you can appreciate the relatively small size of all rooms and connecting corridors in the former control center.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

As you are driven next to the missile operation part, you can find a scale model of the ‘Dvina’ complex and a cut-out of a R-12U silo, together with a map of the relatively few missile sites in Lithuania – from the map, it can be argued that, for some reason, many more sites were prepared in nearby Latvia.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

Resting quarters for the troops and a communication station with original electronic gear have been reconstructed based on original footage and pics. Communication with the military headquarters was clearly an essential task – it was the only way an order to launch could be issued – and the serviceman on duty was responsible for assuring a permanent link with the chain of command. In other words, he was instructed not to leave his headphones under any circumstances, during a several hours-long shift!

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

On the sides of the corridors you can see holes for the extensive network of cables and pipes. Further on, you meet the most ‘hardware’ part of the exhibition. First, the original diesel-fueled power generator has been refurbished and is standing in its original room. The underground complex was designed not only to withstand a nuclear blast, but also to provide shelter for all servicemen for several days following an attack. This meant air filters, food, water, technical supplies and of course electrical power, were all essential assets. Oil for the generator was stored in a container in an adjoining room.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

Finally, you get access to one of the four silos. You need to go through a tight door opened on the wall of the concrete structure of the control center. Writings in Cyrillic can be spotted on the walls in this area. From there, you will see the cylindrical shape of the metal structure of the silo from the side. This metal canister is really big, the ‘Dvina’ silos featured a much greater diameter than the SS-4 missile they were built for. This was somewhat different from their US counterpart (see this post), where the missile diameter fits the size of the silo without much margin.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

You can get access to the silo via the original hatch, cut in the metal wall close to the rim on top of the silo, just beneath the external cap. Going through this hatch is incredibly difficult – it is extremely narrow, much longer than the size of a human step, and tilted upwards! It is hard to understand why the Soviets built it in a size so small – this applies to the control center too, for all corridors are really narrow and the ceiling in the rooms is so low you may easily need to bend forward! For those who don’t want to try the original entry to the silo, there is now a non-original door cut in the side of the canister.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War

The inside of the silo can be observed from an original service deck, immediately under the external cover. From here you can clearly appreciate the size of the construction – the missile was more than 70 ft long, and sat here in a vertical position. The SS-4 was among the first missiles to make use of a storable liquid propellant, which allowed it to stay in almost-launch-ready conditions for a prolonged time, if resting in a silo. Nonetheless, the time for opening the armored caps was about 30 minutes, which meant this was not exactly quick to launch. The understructure of the armored caps can be clearly appreciated from inside the silo.

Photographs Before Restoration Works – Ghost Base

When I visited this site for the first time in 2009, it was open only by appointment. Unfortunately, I had only a compact camera at the time, and the very low light inside plus a rainy day outside, meant I could take only a few acceptable pictures.

However, they provide an idea of the state of the ‘Dvina’ complex before it was decided to reconfigure it as a museum.

As you can see, the armored silo caps were in a worse shape than today, yet not heavily damaged. The barbed wire fence around the four silos was probably original Soviet.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War Old Before Restoration

Inside, the control rooms were basically empty, except for some communist emblems and flags. Green wall paint and Cyrillic writings could be found even at the time, so what you see today is likely original. The generator, whilst in bad shape, was there.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War Old Before Restoration

The silo could be accessed only via the original hatch, and except for the partial darkness, its appearance is similar today.

Dvina Plokstine SS-4 Sandal Soviet Missile Base Lithuania Cold War Old Before Restoration

It is out of doubt that the ‘Soviet ghost aura’ of the base was somewhat lost in the restoration process, yet credit must be given to the effort of the local government in preserving a rare and relevant trace of military history through an expensive restoration process.

Getting there and moving around

The Cold War Museum (Šaltojo karo muziejus in the local idiom) is located in the Zemaitija National Park, northwestern Lithuania, east of lake Plateliai. Access is via the road 2302. The place is totally accessible and well advertised locally. Visiting the outside of the armored caps and inside is possible only with a guided tour, offered in many languages including English, and lasting about 50 minutes. No fee is required for climbing on top of the observation deck. Full information through the official website here.

Minsk – A Soviet Capital of the New Millennium

October 20, 2018May 9, 2020 CarloRLeave a comment

Belarus is exceptional in the panorama of post-soviet countries. Maybe thanks to its geographical location, next to the heart of Europe yet in the closest vicinity of todays Russian Federation, this large piece of almost flat and fertile land is the contact point of two civilizations and ways of life – Russia and core Europe – which merge here in an inexplicable harmony. And this is perfectly reflected in the appearance of its unique capital town – Minsk.

If you have never been there but you are not new to former-communist countries in Europe, what you might expect from the capital of very little-mentioned Belarus, a republic once in the realm of the USSR, is a chaotic town, full of rotting, stripped buildings built with the huge volumes typical to the peripheral areas of Moscow and St. Petersburg, old and smoky Ladas and Chaikas rumbling along rough roads full of puddles, like ten years ago in Sofia or Bucharest (see for instance this chapter). Once there, you will soon understand the picture is really different.

The impression is that of a rich country, with infrastructures right at the level or even above those of western Europe, large and paved roads, modern cars, gas stations everywhere, freshly painted buildings, leveled walkways, colored lights and nightlife.

Of course, the soviet grand architecture is all there. Actually, since Minsk was totally destroyed in 1944, in a fierce battle between the Red Army and the slowly retreating German Wehrmacht – an episode which gained the town the high honor of ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’, still eagerly displayed today – after the war was over, a master-plan for the reconstruction in a perfect Stalinist style was put in place. As a result, Minsk is a rare – perhaps unique – example of a Soviet model-capital from the early Cold War era, when the USSR ruled by Stalin had just triumphed on the stage of a world conflict, and it was setting about to keep up its hold on all eastern Europe. In this sense, at least for a westerner Minsk looks today a town more soviet than others in Russia.

Another element you perceive clearly, not so typical to bigger and way more populated metropolitan areas in the nations of eastern Europe and even in Russia, is a strong sense of order. Nightlife is quiet and not bombastic, cars move around at moderate speed and without creating jams, everything is very clean and calm. Minsk is both busy and quiet, thriving and disciplined – maybe this is just how a soviet capital should have looked like? Belarus suggests how the Soviet Union might have evolved in our days, had it survived its own social and economic failure.

Still today the strong ties with the Russian Federation help feeding the economy on the one hand, but on the other make entering this country a complicated business, like the case is for Russia – anticipated invitations, visas, stringent time frame limitations, … All these rules are gradually being lifted, but the country remains oriented mainly towards its huge eastern neighbor – something you see confirmed looking at the airport timetable in Minsk, from where you can fly to anywhere in Russia, but almost nowhere in Europe. While possibly difficult to deal with, all these controls and bureaucracy help preserving some ‘soviet aura’, which may add to an uncommon travel experience.

This post presents some photographs from central Belarus, taken during a visit to Minsk and some neighbor sites – conveniently reached with a car in less than two hours – in spring 2018.

Map and Visiting

The majority of the sites listed on this chapter can be reached with a relatively short walk from whatever hotel in the city center. Nonetheless, the city is not small and some perspectives are really broad and long. For a more relaxed visit as well as for reaching Khatyn and the Stalin’s Line a car is highly recommended.

Entering the country with a car can be a nightmare, but flying into Minsk and renting a car is indeed possible – I landed in Minsk from Kiev in the Ukraine, and got my car from Avis. Differently from most former countries of the Eastern Bloc, roads are well in line with the highest European standard. Gas stations are abundant, and they accept credit cards. Plus traffic is really well-disciplined, totally different from the Balkan states or even Russia. Parking is generally not a problem, so hop-on/hop-off from your car allows for a time-saving, very effective way of moving in downtown Minsk.

Of course, if you are not planning to go beyond the city limits, you may choose to move around with the public transport system, with a fairly extensive network. Generally speaking, everything is like in the western world from the viewpoint of services, most top-tier western hotels are represented, there are shopping malls with international brands, and so on.

Minsk and its surroundings are unrealistically ordered, you feel perfectly safe both day and night – totally to the other end of the spectrum, compared to other post-soviet cities in eastern Europe.

I spent three full days visiting Minsk and its surroundings, including some historical sites not covered in this chapter, located farther west in the country. I would say this is a good compromise for getting a decent insight of this city.

Navigate this post – click on links to scroll

Minsk
Around Minsk
- Khatyn
- Stalin’s Line History and Heritage Museum

Sights in Minsk

Praspyekt Nyezalyezhnastsi – World’s longest boulevard

The backbone of the Stalinist architectural master-plan put in place in Minsk is a multi-miles boulevard called Praspyekt Nyezalyezhnastsi, the longest boulevard in the world at least in Minsk’s tradition, cutting through the most monumental districts and connecting the executive airport to the southwest of downtown to the eastern peripheral belt of the city. The end of the boulevard to the east is not evident, for at some point it changes into a highway, leaving Minsk behind, heading for Smolensk and Moscow.

If you are coming in town from the main airport, located well out of the urban area to the southeast, you are likely to be driven along the full length of this boulevard – with its unpronounceable name.

Along this boulevard, or very close to it, you will meet the majority of the sights described in this chapter.

You may get a really striking impression from this boulevard visiting at night, for every building along it is lighted. The pictures below give some examples.

Minsk Belarus Worlds Longest Boulevard

Minsk Belarus Victory Monument

Minsk Belarus Worlds Longest Boulevard

Independence Square

Locating the actual focal point in the center of Minsk is not easy, but a choice may be Independence Square, once Lenin’s Square – as the name of the underground station recalls. This may be also a trail-head for your tour of the town.

This long and narrow square hides an underground shopping mall. The crystal cupolas on the ground are a distinctive feature of the square. The central monument is centered on the stork as a subject. This bird is not uncommon in this part of Europe, and is the national bird of Belarus.

Minsk Belarus Lenin Square

Minsk Belarus Lenin Square University

Around the square you can find some notable buildings. On the northern side is the Roman Catholic church of Saint Simon and Saint Helena, dating from the beginning of the 20th century, and closed for the long decades of the communist dictatorship.

Minsk Belarus Lenin Square

Minsk Belarus Catholic Church

In the northwest corner it is impossible to miss the huge Palace of the Government, with a prominent statue of Lenin. Similar to Russia, the father of pragmatic communism and of the Soviet Union is still kept in high respect.

Minsk Belarus Lenin Square Statue

Continuing around the square, the tallest building to the west and the adjoining facades on the southern side are all part of the Belorussian State University. To the southeastern corner you can spot an office of the Department of Justice.

Minsk Belarus Lenin Square University

Minsk Belarus Lenin Square Court

Minsk Belarus Lenin Square

Central Post Office

Leaving the square along Praspyekt Nyezalyezhnastsi to the east, a first distinctive building is the central post office. The hammer and sickle emblem is still proudly standing on top of the eclectic, soviet-classicism façade. You can find also an interesting clock, looking like a gigantic copy of a vintage radio alarm from the 1960s.

Minsk Belarus Central Post Office

Minsk Belarus Lenin Square Post Office

Minsk Belarus Lenin Square

Minsk Belarus Lenin Square Post Office

Inside, the small cupola covers a fully functional post office, where also many items of philatelic interest from the Eastern Bloc can be found (they accept credit cards).

Stately apartment and office buildings can be found on both sides of the boulevard as you walk east.

Minsk Belarus Central District Worlds Longest Boulevard

Minsk Belarus Central Buildings

Minsk Belarus KGB Building

Minsk Belarus Central Buildings

Minsk Belarus Central District

Minsk Belarus Central District Worlds Longest Boulevard

KGB Headquarters

Yes, the name is correct. It is not an exaggeration. Differently from the Russian Federation, the Belorussian government did not change the name of the world-famous State’s security service since the time of the USSR. The huge building of the headquarters is clearly the same. The façade looks impenetrable and grim.

Minsk Belarus KGB Building

Minsk Belarus KG Building

Minsk Belarus Worlds Longest Boulevard

The shield and sword emblem is still prominently standing on the wooden front door.

Minsk Belarus KGB Building

Minsk Belarus KG Building

Minsk Belarus KGB Building

The ‘soviet aura’ around here couldn’t be more intense. This building is really magnetic, a living witness of a bygone era.

Cross the street, where a nice boulevard – with the very Soviet name of Komsomolskaya Ulitsa – takes to the south going slightly downhill, you can even spot a bust of Felix Dzerzhinsky, a Bolshevik, Lenin’s friend, revolutionary, and founder of the Cheka – the revolutionary executive repression service, years later to evolve in the KGB.

Minsk Belarus KGB Building Dzerzhinski

Minsk Belarus Worlds Longest Boulevard

Dzerzhinsky was the armed hand of Lenin, and due to its clear and heavy responsibility in the killing of many of the early victims of the October Revolution, he was put aside even in Russia, his statue being reportedly removed from ahead the Lubjanka, the KGB headquarter in Moscow. The same did not happen in Minsk, possibly because the man was from a noble family from around here.

Crossing with Ulitsa Lenina

Moving on, you will find more buildings with nice soviet-themed friezes and decorations, including the building of the Central Bank of Belarus.

Minsk Belarus Worlds Longest Boulevard

Minsk Belarus Bank Worlds Longest Boulevard

The crossing with Ulitsa Lenina – not unexpectedly – is another focal point of the architectural master-plan. Clearly, here is McDonald’s – probably the neatest in the world!

Minsk Belarus Lenin Street

Minsk Belarus Worlds Longest Boulevard

Minsk Belarus Dzerzhinski

Minsk Belarus Art Museum

Minsk Belarus Downtown Buildings

One block to the south from this crossing along Ulitsa Lenina, you can find a house with tons of marble commemorative tablets on the front, where many notable people have lived. They include Felix Dzerzhinsky.

Kastrycnickaya Square

Taking again Praspyekt Nyezalyezhnastsi and going west, you soon find to the north of the road a huge square – Kastrycnickaya Square – with the modern-soviet building of the Palace of the Republic right in the middle. This building was designed in the 1980s and partly built under soviet leadership. Following the collapse of the USSR, construction was halted for years, and the building was completed only in the late Nineties. It is basically an auditorium for artistic performances, conventions and public governmental meetings as well.

Minsk Belarus Palace of the Republic

Minsk Belarus Metro Stop Worlds Longest Boulevard

Minsk Belarus Palace of the Republic

Minsk Belarus Metro Stop Worlds Longest Boulevard

Minsk Belarus Worlds Longest Boulevard

To the eastern side of the square the Labor Union Palace of Culture is a great example of soviet classicism, with sculptures adorning the façade and corners of the greek-temple-like building.

Minsk Belarus Labor Union’s Culture Palace

Minsk Belarus Trade Union’s Culture Palace

Presidential Palace

Cross the road there is a garden going gently uphill. There is no car access to the eastern side of the garden, and you can spot the stately, grim front of a building of the Armed Forces – once the Soviet Red Army. Today this is mainly a representative building, featuring also a theater. On the southern side of the park you can find the Presidential Palace, a pure soviet-style monster occupying the majority of the block. You will see policemen discreetly keeping a watch on the area.

Minsk Belarus President’s Palace

Minsk Belarus Hotel President Palace

Minsk Belarus President’s Palace

There are other smaller government-connected buildings around, some with soviet insignia. On a corner of the park there is the Yanka Kupala National Academic Theatre, which for the location and style may be one of the few remains of pre-soviet Minsk in the area.

Minsk Belarus President’s Palace

Minsk Belarus Armed Forces Palace

Minsk Belarus President’s Palace

Minsk Belarus Theater

Minsk Belarus President’s Palace

Minsk Belarus Armed Forces Palace

Television Center and Lee Harvey Oswald’s Home

Again on Praspyekt Nyezalyezhnastsi, the road goes downhill and crosses a small waterway. The area is really nice, and looking northeast from the bridge you can spot the Television Center, with a distinctive tower made of iron beams and likely dating from soviet times.

Minsk Belarus Television Center

Minsk Belarus Lee Harvey Oswald Home JFK

Getting close to the center, you see the building right ahead of the tower, still today hosting a TV channel, is just another Soviet neoclassical building, still part of the Stalinist master-plan.

Minsk Television Center Belarus

Minsk City Center Television Center Belarus

Minsk Victory Monument Belarus

The nice apartment building to the the southern side of the TV channel headquarters has some historical significance, since it was there that Lee Harvey Oswald used to live when he spent some years in the Soviet Union in the Fifties.

Minsk Lee Harvey Oswald Home JFK Belarus

Much has been said about the intricate plot leading to the shooting of President Kennedy, and the actual part of Oswald will probably remain largely unknown (see this post). Especially his relationships with the USSR are shrouded in mystery, but looking at the building – stately and very nice even for todays standard – the idea that Oswald could live there while being a poor, anonymous worker in a soviet factory does not seem very credible.

House of the First Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party

This small and modest house belonging to the pre-soviet era was until the end of the USSR a pilgrimage destination from all over the Union. It was here that the embryo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, namely the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, held its first congress. This happened back in 1898, and the reportedly largely unsuccessful meeting was held in secrecy among only a few notable political figures, known as troublemakers to the government of the Tzar.

Minsk House of the First Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party USSR Communist Belarus

Besides the political-historical interest, the small museum offers interesting memorabilia and furniture from the late Tzar’s era. This house was visited also by communist dictators and dignitaries from around the world, including Nikita Khruschev, Walter Ulbricht and Fidel Castro, whose visits are witnessed by signed documents and photographs.

Victory Monument

Going back to Praspyekt Nyezalyezhnastsi and proceeding slightly farther east, you immediately find an oval square, with an eternal flame and a tall obelisk in the middle. This is the Soviet Victory Monument, celebrating the triumphal march of the Red Army against the invading forces of Nazi Germany. Passing under German control soon after the invasion of the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, Minsk was hit with extreme violence by the maneuvers of both contending armies three years later, in a crucial battle which opened the Red Army the gate to the last rush through Poland to Berlin. The town was besieged by the Red Army, and as a result of the heavy fighting it was almost leveled when the front line moved west.

Minsk Victory Monument Belarus

The monument celebrates without excesses the sacrifice of many soldiers and civilians in the struggle. Minsk and a handful of other Soviet towns – Stalingrad, Kursk and Murmansk, to name a few – were later decorated with the title of City Hero of the Soviet Union. These towns, which were the stage of as many fierce battles, are remembered here with stones bearing their names.

Minsk Victory Monument Belarus

The monument is particularly striking at night, thanks to the eternal flame ahead of it and the accurate lighting of the buildings nearby making for a nice scenery.

Minsk Belarus Victory Monument

Yakuba Kolasa Square

Further east along the Praspyekt Nyezalyezhnastsi buildings start to look more average, but there are also more nice examples of soviet architecture. You soon meet the Yakuba Kolasa square, with a the philharmonic theater and other office buildings presumably from Stalin’s time or a little later.

Minsk Belarus Philharmonic Building

Minsk Victory Monument Belarus

Minsk Belarus Central Buildings

National Library of Belarus

Closer to the eastern border of Minsk, where big apartment buildings from soviet times as well as more modern ones frame the road, you can find one of the most prominent modern buildings of Belarus, the state’s National Library, dating from 2006. The large glass volume over the main building is nicely lighted at night, but unfortunately I could not get a picture.

Minsk Belarus National Library

Close to this point, the long Praspyekt Nyezalyezhnastsi changes into the M2 highway, leaving Minsk to the east.

Mound of Glory

An incredible Soviet relic lies about ten miles along the M2, right on the interchange with the road leading to the main airport of Minsk a few miles south. This monument is a further celebration of the victorious battle of 1944 against Germany.

Mound of Glory Soviet Victory Monument Minsk Belarus

It is built in the form of a mound with an assembly of four bayonets on top, representing the cooperation of various armies and local partisans, and a victory crown with the faces of representatives of the branches of the army and of soviet society. The monument is really soviet in style, and while not necessarily esthetically pleasant, is not excessively bombastic either.

Mound of Glory Soviet Victory Monument Minsk Belarus

The monument on top of the mound can be reached with a flight of stairs. From there you can enjoy a 360° view of the hilly and relaxing countryside around.

Mound of Glory Soviet Victory Monument Minsk Belarus

The monument is lighted at night, but I could not take a picture at that time.

Belorussian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War

This fantastic museum alone may easily justify a trip to Minsk! It is hosted in a building prepared on purpose, overlooking a huge green area in the city center. At the base of the hill you can spot a kind of triumphal arch, presumably built with the main building itself and forming an interesting ensemble.

Belarus Museum of the Great Patriotic War Minsk WWII Red Army Soviet

The always growing collection relocated from a previous venue, where it had been opened to the public back in 1944, before the war had ended! By the way, the Great Patriotic War is WWII in the Soviet/Russian culture. Website here.

The collection is really huge, with rooms devoted to the many major battles fought by the Red Army in WWII. There are tons of memorabilia, including a very good collection of light weapons, and even a few larger crafts – tanks, aircraft, Katyusha rocket launchers, anti-aircraft guns, field cannons, …

Belarus Museum of the Great Patriotic War Minsk WWII Red Army Soviet

Similar to other museums in the USSR, it is packed with material from Nazi Germany, which by comparison cannot be found in Germany, nor in this measure in western Europe or the US. Among the countless items, you can find also display cases devoted to soviet war spies in the west, modern dioramas and uniforms from the time.

Belarus Museum of the Great Patriotic War Minsk WWII Red Army Soviet

On the top floor there is a large modern commemorative installation, with the names of fallen soldiers, and hammer and sickle insignia. This installation is recent – or recently refurbished – so the presence of abundant Soviet symbolism produces a strange ‘dystopia effect’.

Belarus Museum of the Great Patriotic War Minsk WWII Red Army Soviet

Outside, on top of the building you can find a further monument, with an obelisk, some sculptures, and a Red Banner waving above the cupola. Behind, there is a Lisunov Li-2, a licensed USSR-built Douglas C-47.

Belarus Museum of the Great Patriotic War Minsk WWII Red Army Soviet

Minsk hosts an excellent aviation-themed museum, centered on warplanes and transport aircraft from the soviet era. This is covered in this dedicated chapter.

Palace of Independence

This palace not far to the back from the Museum of the Great Patriotic War is apparently another building of the Government or where the president lives – not very clear. On the rare occasions when Belarus is mentioned internationally, this is what appears on TV. It is very big and carefully watched, so the only pictures I could get were from cross the road.

Minsk Belarus President’s Palace

Zamcyska District

This central district is located roughly between the KGB building and the Museum of the Great Patriotic War. It features a large and nice pond in the middle. Here some of the few remaining notable buildings from pre-soviet age in Minsk can be found. The main group is composed of a handful of churches making for a nice sight on a low hill to the south of the pond.

Minsk Belarus City Hall

Minsk City Center Trinity Hill Belarus

Minsk Belarus Lenin Street Catholic Church

There are an Orthodox and two Catholic churches, surrounding the old city hall. The area is really nice to tour, and at night it is very lively and fully lighted.

Minsk City Center Trinity Hill Belarus

Close by, the Trinity Hill displays some rebuilt or refurbished buildings from the 18th century or earlier, giving an idea of how Minsk would have looked had it not been totally destroyed. Also this district is very picturesque at night, definitely a nice place for a relaxed stroll.

To the far end of the pond you can spot an unimaginable residential building, with a façade roughly as long as an airport, made a little more digestible when lighted at night.

Minsk Belarus City Center City Hall Trinity Hill

Minsk Belarus City Center Church Trinity Hill

Minsk Belarus City Center Trinity Hill

Minsk Belarus Palace of the Republic

In the same area there are a large soviet-themed metallic sculpture on the front of a building, and multiple huge banners in neon lights with celebration exclamations and slogans.

Minsk Belarus City Center Trinity Hill

Minsk Belarus Lenin Street

Minsk Belarus City Center Trinity Hill

Minsk Belarus Lenin Street

…More!

The city is full of majestic perspectives and interesting buildings. One of them is the totally ‘Stalin’s gothic’ Gate of Minsk, right behind the central railway station. It is composed of two bulky towers, with the façade adorned in a way resembling Kutuzovsky Alley in Moscow, or Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin, two eminent examples of this style. See this chapter for more examples of this iconic architecture.

Minsk Belarus Gate of Minsk Railway Stalin’s Gothic

There are also churches dating back to before the USSR era, or rebuilt after it. One of them is quite central, and surrounded by an Orthodox cemetery still used today.

Minsk Belarus City Center Church

To the west, the peripheral belt has been built functionally, with large infrastructures but also very big – let’s say, excessively big! – apartment buildings, in a style which is typical to post-soviet countries. Yet, as previously observed, even these areas do not look degraded, but on the contrary rather well looked after and actively maintained.

Minsk Belarus City Peripheral Buildings

Minsk Belarus

Sights around Minsk

Khatyn

Much confusion exists about this location, which is actually where the forces of Nazi Germany burned an entire village with its occupants back in 1943. By chance – or may be not – in a place with the same name but some 100 miles to the east in Russian territory the NKVD (later to evolve in the KGB) by direct order of Stalin had deported and mass executed a substantial quota of the officials of the Polish Army – in the order of the thousands – in 1940. The responsibility for this tragedy was fully recognized by Russia only after the end of the USSR.

The memorial in (Belorussian) Khatyn is a celebration monument made in the 1960s to remember the local tragedy with typical soviet pomp, with statues, stonewall retracing the area of the village and stones with inscriptions.

Khatyn Memorial Minsk Belarus

There are also bells producing a sad rhythmical tone. The place stands as a memorial of all similar horrible episodes for which the Nazis are responsible.

Khatyn Memorial Minsk Belarus

This location is very popular since the Cold War years, and it still attracts many visitors from Belarus and nearby Russia these days. There is also a very small indoor museum, which I had not the chance to visit.

Stalin’s Line History and Heritage Museum

Similar to other countries in the inter-war period – for instance, France and Czechoslovakia – the Soviet Union invested in the preparation of a long defensive line, to fortify the western border against an invasion from central Europe. The name of the USSR’s defensive line, which passed close to Minsk, was ‘Stalin’s Line’.

This was composed of a backbone of reinforced concrete bunkers, with a capability to withstand fire from the tanks of the enemy’s armored divisions. In these bunkers, often prepared in groups of interconnected pillboxes, anti-tank cannons and machine guns were installed for effectively counteract an invasion.

The strongholds of the line were surrounded by various obstacles, including anti-tank obstacles, barbed wire traps and so on.

Construction of the Stalin’s Line was interrupted after the Ribbentrov-Molotov agreement between the USSR and Hitler’s Germany in 1939. The unfinished line turned little effective in containing the surprise aggression by the Wehrmacht in 1941, when the country fell under German controls.

Nonetheless, parts of this line are duly preserved as monuments. The Stalin’s Line History and Heritage Museum is centered on one such fort, which can be visited thoroughly. The inside of most of the bunkers have been restored to a mint condition, and are really interesting to visit.

Stalin Line Minsk Belarus

The size of the rooms in the bunkers is generally smaller than the French, Czechoslovakian or Finnish counterparts. All bunkers are painted in a camo coating.

Stalin Line Minsk Belarus

The museum presents also a reproduction of the border line with the Soviet Union, with a watchtower, anti-penetration barriers and green-red posts with the emblem of the USSR. In the same area, a collection of turrets from more countries is displayed.

Stalin Line Minsk Belarus

A second, very large part of the museum is composed of a world’s class collection of weapons, dating from various ages from WWII and the Cold War, and providing an insight on the USSR’s warfare capabilities.

On a first apron there are field cannons, motorized cannons, rocket-launchers and armored vehicles. Close by, you can try shooting with a machine gun or even an anti-tank cannon! This unique feature of the museum makes it very lively, for you are often distracted by the loud bang of a firing weapon!

Stalin Line Minsk Belarus

In another area you can spot a group of soviet aircraft and helicopters, a steam locomotive, and a full array of prefabricated structures, intended to be buried to form bunkers with various purposes – missile storage, interred barracks, … These are extremely interesting, as you can see here the actual shape of the items often found elsewhere in the former Eastern Bloc, typically in abandoned bases covered in other chapters (see for instance this chapter).

Stalin Line Minsk Belarus

Furthermore, there are both tactical and strategic missiles with their launching and monitoring equipment. Of particular interest is the SS-4 ‘Stiletto’

– involved in the Cuban crisis of 1962 – with its launching gantry. Notice the rig anchoring the gantry to the ground – you can find similar items even in Germany (see for instance this chapter), witnessing the deployment of this type of missile in eastern Europe.

Stalin Line Minsk Belarus

Finally, if you dare, you can enjoy a run on an armored vehicle. The place is reportedly active with reenactments, and actually you can find a good reconstruction of a theater of war from the WWII years.

Stalin Line Minsk Belarus

A striking feature, a recent bust of Stalin has been placed in the parking – close by an Orthodox chapel, to suitably exorcise his deadly presence.

Stalin Line Minsk Belarus

The place is managed like a top class museum, and reportedly there are many visitors, also due to the close proximity with Minsk. Website with full information here.

The Estonian Aviation Museum

December 3, 2017September 22, 2023 CarloRLeave a comment

A nice and lively university town in the heart of the Estonian countryside, Tartu has really something for every kind of tourist – including those interested in aviation history. The Estonian Aviation Museum, or ‘Eeesti Lennundusmuuseum’ as they write it in the tricky local idiom, boasts a substantial and heterogenous collection of aircraft preserved in exceptionally good condition, which will not leave indifferent even the most knowledgeable aviation expert.

Having being for long a socialist republic in the realm of the Soviet Union – and today sharing a border with Russia – Estonia had access to massive surplus reserves after the end of the Cold War, so it is no surprise that Soviet aircraft are well represented in an Estonian museum. This already might appeal to western tourists, for the exotic, menacing silhouettes of MiGs and Sukhois are not often to be found except in less accessible spots in the former Eastern Bloc. Yet some more unexpected and rare models have been added over the years, including some SAAB aircraft from Sweden which are authentic collectibles.

The following photographs cover almost every plane that was there in summer 2017.

Sights

Most part of the collection has been preserved in a cleverly designed structure, made of small open-walled hangars with translucent canopies. The aircraft are illuminated by natural light, helping much when taking pictures, but they are not exposed to direct sunlight, rain or snow, which tend to damage both metal and plexiglas on the long run. Furthermore, the lack of doors and frames allows you to move around freely, and the place is not suffocating nor excessively warm.

The aircraft are basically all from the Cold War era, but some of them have outlived the end of the USSR and were retired more recently. The portraits are grouped here roughly based on the nationality of the manufacturers or aircraft mission.

Designs from the US

The American production is represented in this museum firstly by a McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, operated by the West-German Luftwaffe. The General Electric J79 turbojets have been taken out of the airframe, so you can see them separately.

McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom

McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom with J79 engine

A pretty unusual sight, also the antenna and electronic group in the nose cone have been taken out and are on display. This Phantom is a F-4F, a version specifically developed for West Germany from the basic F-4E. The former inventory number was 99+91.

McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom Radar Avionic Targeting

Another iconic model on the menu is a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, formerly from the Italian Air Force. This exemplar is actually an Italian-built ‘S’ version, and among the latest to be retired by the Aeronautica Militare. The engine, again a J79, is on display elsewhere in the museum. An unusual crowd of instruction and warning stencils populate the external surface of the aircraft.

Lockheed F-104 Starfighter Italian Air Force

Soviet Military Models

The majority of the aircraft on display were designed in the Soviet Union or other countries of the Warsaw Pact.

Two aggressive aircraft include a MiG-21 and a MiG-23. The first, present here in the colors of the Polish Air Force, is a MiG-21bis Fishbed, the latest development of this fast delta-wing fighter/light-interceptor.

MiG-21 Fishbed Polish Air Force

Possibly one of the most ubiquitous fighters of the jet age, the MiG-23 Flogger is part also of this collection. The aircraft you see in the pictures is a MLD variant, representing the last upgrade of this iconic fighter, which was also the basis for the very successful MiG-27 design.

MiG-23 Flogger Ukrainian Air Force

MiG-23 Flogger Ukrainian Air Force Tumansky R27

MiG-23 Flogger Ukrainian Air Force

It bears the markings of the Ukrainian Air Force, therefore it is likely an ex-USSR aircraft. The engine is sitting besides the aircraft, and two rocket canisters are placed beneath the fuselage, close to the ventral GSh-23 twin-barreled cannon.

MiG-23 Flogger Ukrainian Air Force

A less usual sight is a MiG-25 Foxbat, a super fast interceptor/recce aircraft. Conceived in the late Fifties when the race for speed was in full swing, it was developed into a high performance platform to counteract the threat of the SR-71 Blackbird. It was built around two massive Tumansky R-15 afterburning turbojets, rated at a pretty high wet thrust of 110 kN, resulting in an incredible top speed around Mach 3.2! The aircraft is pretty sizable, and you can appreciate that looking at the picture of the main landing gear – search for the cover of my Canon wide lens close to the ground and compare sizes!

MiG-25 Foxbat Red Army Tartu Estonia

The menacing silhouette of this huge bird, with red stars on the vertical fins and a bare metal fuselage, will likely make relive in you an ‘Iron Curtain feeling’!

MiG-25 Foxbat Red Army Tartu Estonia

One which will not go unnoticed is a Polish Air Force Sukhoi Su-22M4 Fitter in a flamboyant, very colored livery. This massive fighter-bomber represents the export version of the Su-17M4 built by the USSR for domestic orders.

Sukhoi Su-22 Fitter Polish Air Force

Despite the shape, roughly similar to that of the MiG-21 also on display, the size of this aircraft is much bigger – you might think of Su-22 as a case for a MiG-21…

Sukhoi Su-22 Fitter Polish Air Force

Soviet bombers are represented by a pretty rare Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer, which is today still in service in Russia. The example on display bears the markings of the Ukrainian Air Force, meaning it was once a Soviet aircraft.

Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer Ukrainian Air Force (ex-Soviet Red Army)

This massive twin-engined beast outsizes all other military aircraft on display. The aircraft is on display with three support tanks under the fuselage and the inner wing pylons.

Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer Ukrainian Air Force (ex-Soviet Red Army)

A less common sight is a Yakovlev Ya-28P Firebar, a long-range intercept version of this multi-role platform from the early Sixties. This design is very interesting, with a four-points undercarriage and a very long nose cone, where a radar system for a target-tracking and missile guidance system was located. The two turbojet engines are mounted in cigar-shaped underwing pods. The relevant sweep of the wing suggests a significant speed capability, yet many variants of this aircraft were developed to exploit also its good range performance. The antenna originally placed in the nose cone is on display besides the aircraft, which bears original Soviet markings.

Yakovlev Yak-28 Brewer-E Soviet

Soviet Transport Aircraft

Two aircraft which could not find their way in covered shelters mainly due to their bigger size, are a Tupolev Tu-134A-3 and a Yakovlev Ya-40. Both can be accessed, so you can get a view of the inside, including the cockpits.

The Tu-134 twin jet, with its distinctive glass bulge in the nose ahead of the cockpit, has been for long a ubiquitous aircraft in the USSR and in many countries of the Eastern Bloc. The exemplar on display was taken over by the Estonian company Elk Airways, created after Estonia left the USSR.

Tupolev Tu-134A-3 Elk Airways Estonia

Notwithstanding this, the aircraft betrays its Soviet ancestry and ownership in every particular, from the all-Cyrillic writings to the hammers and sickles here and there, from the design of interiors to the exotic cockpit, painted in a typical lurid Soviet green and with prominent unframed black rubber fans for ventilation.

Tupolev Tu-134A-3 Elk Airways Estonia

The Yak-40 is an interesting three-jet executive/small transport aircraft. The one on display went on flying for at least some good 15 years after the collapse of the wall in Berlin.

Yakovlev Yak-40 Soviet Executive

Yakovlev Yak-40 Cockpit

Yakovlev Yak-40 Soviet Executive

Yakovlev Yak-40 Cockpit

Yakovlev Ya-40 Tartu Estonia

The internal configuration features an executive room ahead of a more usual passenger section and tail galley. The style of the cabin and of the pure analog cockpit is really outdated for todays standards!

Yakovlev Yak-40 Tartu Estonia Executive Cabin Soviet

Yakovlev Yak-40 Tartu Estonia Executive Cabin

Yakovlev Yak-40 Tartu Estonia Executive Cabin Soviet

Yakovlev Yak-40 Tartu Estonia Executive Cabin

Yakovlev Yak-40 Tartu Estonia

A rugged workhorse still flying today in many countries is the Antonov An-2, a single propeller, radial-engined, biplane tail-dragger transport. There are two of them in the collection. One is under a shelter and can be boarded. The interiors are very basic, but the visibility from the cockpit is very good especially for a tail-dragger with an engine on the nose.

Antonov An-2 Tartu Estonia

Antonov An-2

Antonov An-2 Tartu Estonia

Antonov An-2 Cockpit

Swedish Aircraft

An unusual chapter in air museums except in Sweden is that of SAAB aircraft, which are represented in this collection by two iconic models, a Draken and a Viggen, and an extremely rare, very elegant Lansen. All are in the colors of the Royal Swedish Air Force.

The Saab 35 Draken features a very distinctive double-delta wing, and was developed in the Fifties for reaching a high supersonic speed. The design turned out to be pretty successful, and was operationally adopted primarily as a fighter by Sweden and other European countries as well.

SAAB 35 Draken Swedish Air Force

The one in the collection is painted in a bright yellow livery. The infra-red pod under the nose cone of this aggressive attack aircraft looks like the lidless eye of an alien!

SAAB 35 Draken Swedish Air Force

SAAB 35 Draken Swedish Air Force Radar

SAAB 35 Draken Swedish Air Force

The Viggen is a an attack aircraft from the late Sixties, developed for the domestic military needs into some sub-variants. With the JA 37 version displayed here, the Viggen went on to constitute the backbone of the intercept fleet of neutral Sweden, and was retired only in the early 2000s. The aerodynamic configuration features a prominent canard wing, and the Viggen was notably the first in such configuration produced in significant numbers.

SAAB JA 37 Viggen Swedish Air Force

The most unusual of all three SAAB designs on display is surely the SAAB 32 Lansen. A very neat design from the Fifties, loosely recalling the Lockheed P-80 and the Hawker Hunter, the Lansen was a jet fighter of the early Cold War developed specifically for Sweden and gaining a good success. The ‘E’ version on display was converted from the original fighter variant (‘B’) for the ECM role, and kept flying almost until the end of the 20th century. The green painting of the Royal Swedish Air Force is really stylish, definitely adding to an already elegant design.

SAAB J32 Lansen Swedish Air Force with RM5/Avon engine

SAAB J32 Lansen Swedish Air Force

Soviet Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAM)

Curiously enough, an extensive collection of SAMs is part of this rich collection. All major missiles from SA-2 to SA-6 are represented, some of them in multiple exemplars. The size of these missiles, especially the oldest, is really striking. They are stored outside, besides some cases for missile transportation, deployable radar antennas, and what appears to be a flak cannon from Hitler’s Germany – a bit of an outsider…

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-2

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-3

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-5

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-3

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-5

SAM Container

German Flak Cannon

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-2

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-5

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-4 SA-6

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-4

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-6

Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) Russian SA-4 SA-6

Jet Engines

Many of the engines of the aircraft on display have been taken out of the corresponding airframes and put on display besides the plane where they used to belong, or in a dedicated part of the museum together with others. The J79 belonging to the Italian-built F-104 can be recognized from the Italian plaques on many components.

Soviet Jet Engine Tartu Estonia

Sights

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Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker

History

A tour of the bunker

Ground floor

Underground floor

Getting there and visiting

York Cold War Bunker

Getting there and visiting

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Sights

Iron Curtain Museum, Felsocsatar

Getting there and visiting

Military Park, Zanka

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Komarom Monostor Fort & Soviet Weapons Collection

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Papa Airbase

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Komo-Sky 51 Air Museum, Dunavarsany

Getting there and moving around

Komo-Sky Bunker, Dunavarsany

Getting there and moving around

Museum of Military History, House of Terror, Memento Park, Houses of Parliament – Budapest

Secrets of a Soviet Airbase, Berekfurdo

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RepTar Szolnok Aviation Museum, Szolnok

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Emlekpont, Hódmezővásárhely

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Pinter Works Military Park, Kecel

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Taszar Airbase Museum, Taszar

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Sights

Kolašin, Montenegro

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Berane, Montenegro

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Ostra, Serbia

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Kragujevac, Serbia

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Kosmaj, Serbia

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Avala, Serbia

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Kadinjača, Serbia

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Tjentište, Bosnia & Hercegovina

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Obadov Brijeg, Montenegro

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Golubovci, Montenegro

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Barutana, Montenegro

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Botun, North Macedonia

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Struga, North Macedonia

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Oteševo, North Macedonia

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Kruševo, North Macedonia

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Sights

Photographs Before Restoration Works – Ghost Base

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Sights in Minsk

Praspyekt Nyezalyezhnastsi – World’s longest boulevard

Independence Square