Bunker GO-42

Tagansky Protected Command Point - Confrontation Cold War Museum

Useful Information

Location:	Moskow. 11, 5th Kotelnichesky Pereulok, near Taganskaya metro station.
Open:	All year daily 10-21. Bunker secrets (): All year Mon [2020]
Fee:	The Cold War: Adults RUR 2,200, Students RUR 1,300. Groups: Minimum Fee (1-5) RUR 20,000, Additional Adults RUR 3,900, Additional Students RUR 2,000. Declassified Tour: Adults RUR 1,800, Students RUR 1,000. Groups: Minimum Fee (1-5) RUR 18,000, Additional Adults RUR 3,000, Additional Students RUR 1,500. Bunker secrets: Minimum Fee (1-5) RUR 28,000, Additional Adults (6+) RUR 2,800. Soviet Russia: on request. English audio guide RUR 500. There are different prices for citizens of the Russian Federation and the CIS. They also have additional tours. They can book online on the Russian pages. [2020]
Classification:	Secret Bunker
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:	L=600 m, VR=65 m.
Guided tours:	The Cold War: D=75 min. Declassified Tour: D=75 min. Minimum age 8, under 14 only accompanied by adult. Bunker secrets (): D=90 min. Minimum age 16.
Photography:	not allowed
Accessibility:	no, 65 m descent on staircase
Bibliography:
Address:	государственный объект ГО-42, 115172, г. Москва, 5-й Котельнический переулок, д.11 Bunker 42, 5th Kotelnicheski Lane 11, Moscow, Tel: +7-499-703-44-55, Tel: +7-495-500-05-53, Fax: +7-499-500-05-53. Events, Tel: +7-499-703-00-77. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1952	construction started.
1956	completed.
1978	beginning of renovation.
1990	state funding for the facility ceased, further reconstruction funded by Central Telegraph who used the bunker.
1996	bunker was abandoned because maintenance was too expensive, bunker was decommissioned, became publicly known and fell into disrepair.
2006	sold by the State in an auction.
2007	guided excursions and events started.

Description

The государственный объект ГО-42 (Bunker GO-42) is a bunker, originally built in the 1950s as a communications headquarters for the country's military and political leaders. The bunker is also known under the name Tagansky Protected Command Point and Confrontation Cold War Museum. It was equipped with food, medicine, an air recycling system and diesel generators sufficient for up to 3,000 people to live and work there for 90 days. One entrance connects the bunker with the Taganskaya metro station, which allowed workers to reach the bunker secretly with special metro trains which ran at night. During the 1980s it was operated by the State Central Telegraph agency, with both civilians and military personnel working here. They even started to modernize it after thirty years of use, but this ended in the 1990s with the end of the Cold War. The State Central Telegraph agency used the bunker a little longer but was not able to afford the maintenance cost. The bunker was decommissioned and anything of value removed. The passages became a garbage dump.

The bunker is located about 60 m below the surface, covered by a six meter thick reinforced concrete cap. There are four interconnected 150-metre tunnels, which means the bunker has a length of 600 m. The entrance is located at 11, 5th Kotelnichesky Pereulok in an unassuming 19th-century building. Underneath camouflage netting is the entrance to an high-speed elevator down into the bunker. Another entrance which is not available any more is from the Moscow Metro, Taganskaya-Koltsevaya station. There was always a rumour that there is a second Metro which is reserved for military and politicians. It actually exists but is not open for the public until now. And actually most of the rumours are just urban legends. But there is still a theory that this bunker was actually much bigger and the upper part was opened to the public to hide the fact that there is a lower part which is still secretly in use.

The bunker was decommissioned in 1996 but finally in 2006 it was auctioned and sold to private investors. They converted the underground structure into a sort of theme park, with a restaurant and a museum about the Cold War, obviously a good place for such a museum. As most of the equipment was removed the museum tries to reconstruct the original state with items which were donated or bought from their new owners or from other similar locations. This includes for example old telephones, typewriters and devices for measuring radiation.

It is not possible to visit the museum by simply buying tickets at the ticket office. For some reason it is necessary to to pre-book at least a few days in advance. As foreigners you have to do so by phone or email, or you can use an international reseller like tripadvisor. There are different prices for citizens of the Russian Federation and the CIS and they can book their tours online on the Russian version of the website. There are different tours with different topics, the bunker technology, the Cold War era, or the Soviet Russia culture. The last tour includes food, a military choir singing patriotic songs and a dance performance. This is so expensive they avoid to tell the price on their website.

A part of the bunker was transformed into a restaurant and conference center which is used for private parties, corporate functions or even fashion shows. The restaurant is not for individual guests, it is only used for parties and family celebrations and seems to be fully booked out, despite the high prices.