secret submarine base at Balaclava

Secret Submarine Base Balaclava

submarine base door
Thursday October 29, 2009
Visited today the small seaside town of Balaclava close to Sevastopol and on its own lovely little bay and sheltered harbor. It was here in 1953 that the Soviet Union started building a top secret submarine tunnel for hiding and repairing submarines and to protect them and workers against nuclear attack from the United States. It is now a museum to the Cold War and also a museum of the development of the Ukrainian Navy.
I actually chose not to go into the museum due to foot problems and also time constraints as my guide was chaffing at the bit to get done with me so he could go spread manure on his wife's flower beds. Woe be it to me to come between a man and wife and manure. I did buy the Balaclava booklet on the base which has been translated, semi-badly, into English. The booklet is a wonderful example of "things I never heard of in U.S. history" of “how the other side sees things.” A lovely bit of propaganda is put forth in the booklet.

fish farm and comorants
I am sorry that I didn’t have the time because the place was a marvel for the time that it was built. It could hold up to 9 small submarines and held a dry dock as well. The doors on each end of the tunnel were immense, able to stand a nuclear blast and the attendant water shock wave (based on calculations from Hiroshima and Nagasaki). The town was wiped off the map and clearance was limited to a small number of workers and military personnel for many years.
Of course all has come to light now and it is a beautiful little harbor full of pleasure craft. There are fish farms in the bay (and a lot of cormorants waiting to steal fish), small hotels (and one ugly out of place one yet to open) and fish restaurants. Where no unauthorized man once trod on military soil, now tourists stroll in and out of the secret, secret base. This is definitely a “go back later and see more thoroughly”.