Metro-2

This article is about a Soviet-era underground facilities in Moscow. For the credit reporting data specification, see Metro 2 format.
Map of the Metro-2 system as supposed by the United States military intelligence.[1]
Line D6
Legend
#3 Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line
 Arbatskaya-3
Chertole
#1 Sokolnicheskaya line
 Frunzenskaya-2
connection to Metro-1
(Sokolnicheskaya line)
Nauchnaya
Universitet-2
to Ramenki
"Underground City"
Stromnaya
Dlinnaya
Ramenki
Vostryakovo
Vnukovo-2

Metro-2 (Russian: Метро-2) is the informal designation for a clandestine and officially unacknowledged deep underground metro system in the Moscow metropolitan area. It was designed to provide the Soviet leadership with secure wartime evacuation routes, communication hubs, and command posts, including a dedicated bunker for the national command authority. One such bunker is located beneath the Kremlin.[2]

The system was supposedly built, or at least started, during the time of Joseph Stalin and was codenamed D-6 (Д-6) by the KGB. It is supposedly still operated by the Main Directorate of Special Programmes and Ministry of Defence.[3][4][5][6][7][8]

Metro-2 is said to have four lines which lie 50–200 metres (160–660 ft) deep. It is said to connect the Kremlin with the Federal Security Service (FSB) headquarters, the government airport at Vnukovo-2, and an underground town at Ramenki, in addition to other locations of national importance.[3]

In 1994, the leader of an urban exploration group, the Diggers of the Underground Planet, claimed to have found an entrance to this underground system.[9]

Historic evidence however paints a much more conservative picture, with one "line" existing by the late 1960s, from the Kremlin, specifically site 103, to the site 54 south from Moscow State University, with a spur going north-west from there, to the area of the Matveevskaya railway platform and the DV-1 there.[10][11] Additional lines, i.e. to Vnukovo, are likely a later invention by the enthusiast community, though with the change in generations of the hardened protective structure design in the 1970/80s a redundant back up of this system may have been at least considered. The Vnukovo line, supposed to be built for government emergency evacuation, connected to the Vnukovo International Airport respectively, when originally built, was an airport originally used for military operations during the Second World War but became a civilian facility after the war. Another supposed line, the Ismaylovo line, was apparently built for Strategic Rocket forces and claimed to be at least partially destroyed in the 1970s.

  1. ^ Kelly, Debra (January 27, 2017). "Metro-2: Is Moscow Home to a Secret Underground Railway?". Urban Ghosts Media. Retrieved June 23, 2017.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b "Metro". Moscow Pass. Archived from the original on 2007-01-12. Retrieved 2022-02-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. ^ Главное управление спецпрограмм Президента. Agentura. 2000-03-23. Archived from the original on 2011-09-11. Retrieved 2011-09-14.
  5. ^ Главное управление специальных программ Президента Российской Федерации. Gusp.gov.ru. 2000-03-23. Retrieved 2011-09-14.
  6. ^ Д-6 и Александр Перелыгин
  7. ^ Alexandr Perelygyn
  8. ^ Alexandr Perelygyn 2
  9. ^ Kalder, Daniel (2008). Strange Telescopes. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-23123-2.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).