Soviet Nuclear Missle Base “Z”

Who controls the key?

Walking through the woods around the abandoned Soviet Nuclear Missile Base Z, never quite sure what I might run into, was exhilarating.Â It goes without saying that coming across an intact nuclear storage bunker was quite surreal.Â The side you see here is the back side of a 100 meter long storage bunker, covered entirely with trees and dirt.Â Anyone flying over this thing back in the day would have had a dang hard time finding it, I’d wager.Â Sure wish I could have gotten in to see what the inside looked like.Â Come to think of it, I wonder how many RADs this place would register on a Geiger counter these days?

We can be Heroes

It’s hard to describe my reaction after walking into this abandoned room, during Friday’s (4 March 2011) Urban Explore of abandoned former Soviet Military Base “H”, to discover this hidden “heroic” wall mural.Â It was a sight to behold, and I’ve tried to convey the feeling in today’s photograph.Â In 1958/59, the Soviet might deployed Nuclear weapons to his location, deep in the heart of the German Democratic Republic.Â This was the first time the Soviets had deployed nukes outside its own vast borders.Â And the soldiers and officers at this facility were, I imagine, a special breed, entrusted with the the unenviable responsibility of remaining always prepared to launch a Nuclear strike/counterstrike against the West, if ever commanded by the Kremlin.Â Thankfully, that day never same, but I’ll bet the soldiers here trained for that day as if it would.Â During my research prior to shooting at this location, I learned that the weapons here were 300 kilotons each, with a range of 1200km).Â By the way, I listened to the Gregorian’s re-imagining of David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ while processing this photo and writing the text for this post.Â Check it out!

Defenders of the Realm

What a glorious day it was to be out on Urban Exploration (URBEX) this Friday.Â Sure, my dogs are tired after ten-plus hours of running around in my LPCs (Leather Personnel Carriers) amongst the ruins of this once super-secret Soviet Nuclear Missile base, deep in the bowels of former East Germany.Â One of the many interesting things about this particular area, is that none of the East Germans who lived around the base had any idea of what lay hidden here, nor of the lethal mission this base was given, to strike nuclear terror deep into the heart of Western civilization.Â I can imagine, especially with all the “heroic” painted murals on the walls of some of the buildings, that the Russian soldiers posted here saw themselves as defenders of the realm, as it were.Â Today’s photo is of a pill box, a last line of defense between the outside world (far off to the left beyond the icy swamp) and the bunker where the nukes were stored (just beyond a concrete wall a short distance to the right of this shot).Â I’ll show you more in the coming days, and tell you more about this interesting site.Â For now, enjoy Defenders of the Realm, and listen to the song ‘Defenders of the Realm’, by Nox Arcana (click the link to go to the song) to get you in the same mood I was in when I came across this cold war relic.