Underground city Ramenki-43 near Moscow turned out to be fiction

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The undergrounds of Moscow have been exciting the minds of researchers for decades. Some of them are conditionally accessible and, if you wish, you can go there for an excursion accompanied by diggers, others are closed and reliably guarded. But there are places where not only there is no way for mere mortals, but also whose very existence can be determined only by indirect signs, for example, the underground city of Ramenskoye-43, covered with legends no worse than the lost library of Ivan the Terrible.

Looking at the map of the Russian capital, one can see that opposite the Moscow State University building complex, in one of the most prestigious and densely built-up areas, there is a garage cooperative with an area of about 50 hectares. This place, called by local "Shanghai", has always been a wasteland and no major buildings and structures have been erected here. Relatively recently, the Moscow authorities announced the construction of a "technological valley" here, but the matter did not go further than talk.

Is it because under a huge garage city there is another, secret one, built for those who are given a chance to survive in the nuclear hell by their high position? Reliable information about the Ramenki-43 project is classified and is unlikely to appear in the public domain soon. But there is something to be learned from observation, rumor, and unverified eyewitness accounts.

The location in the area of the present Lomonosov Avenue has always been a problem. Once it was planned to erect the Cathedral of Christ the Savior here, in honor of the deliverance from the French invasion in 1812, but the work was curtailed barely starting - the place turned out to be swampy and unable to withstand the load of the grandiose structure. The builders came here again in the middle of the 20th century, but did not begin to build up the area of the wasteland, but drained the swampy lakes and swamps with drainages, and also filled the pits and ravines with a large amount of soil taken from nowhere.

Not far from the site, which is now as smooth as a table, a small concrete plant has emerged. On this, in principle, all the work on the improvement of this area ended and, apart from garages, nothing else was built here. No one was interested in this part of the capital until the very perestroika - it was then that rumors spread among Muscovites about the existence of the underground city of Ramenki-43.

The same wasteland and one of the possible entrances to the old concrete plant:

There was so much contradictory information that even the journalists of the American magazine Time became interested in the mystery. It was in this publication that the article first appeared, which for many years inspired romantics and lovers of conspiracy theories. In their material, the Americans referred to a certain KGB officer who shared information on condition that confidentiality was maintained.

It is difficult to say how true the version set out in Time is, but it can be considered quite plausible. As stated in the article, an employee of the Soviet special services said that the complex was created in the 70s according to the project of Yevgeny Rozanov, who at one time served as chairman of the State Committee for Architecture of the Russian Federation. The city was being built by the forces of "Glavspetsstroy" for several years and all the participants in the grandiose project signed a nondisclosure agreement.

Metro-2 might look like:

The underground city of Ramenki-43 is located at a depth of about 300 meters and has a completely autonomous power supply. In addition to its own power plant, there are food warehouses, a powerful radio station, water supplies, air purification systems and even a waste processing plant. The Americans also claimed that they built a gym and even a swimming pool for underground residents.

A huge bunker, in the event of a nuclear strike, could give shelter to 17 thousand residents who had to sit out in it the most dangerous phase of radioactive contamination. After the sensors show a decrease in the level of danger, the inhabitants of the shelter can get to the surface with the help of special equipment, even if all exits are blocked by debris.

Moscow Metro hides many secrets

Time also spoke about Metro-2 - the only transport that allowed the elite to get to Ramenki-43. Metro lines connect important administrative buildings, institutions and security facilities in Moscow. For example, according to an unknown KGB officer, one of them connects the bunker with the Kremlin, as well as NIBO "Science" and the FSB Academy. The terminal station of the line, according to unverified data, is located at Vnukovo-2 airport.

Several branches of Metro-2 are capable of ensuring the prompt evacuation of government officials, high-ranking military officials and scientists. In addition, it is assumed that there are many secret entrances to the underground city. One of them may be located in the basement of the main building of Moscow State University, and several more - on the territory of a concrete plant in Ramenki that has been inactive for many years.

The idea that the plant is related to a mysterious underground shelter suggests that its territory, with apparently abandoned buildings, is always surrounded by new barbed wire and is reliably guarded from intruders by a whole team of professionals. Why such special attention to a non-working object? This version is also supported by the memories of local residents, who for many years observed numerous buses bringing workers here. All these people entered the small factory building in droves and left it at the end of the working day.

Is there really a mysterious city underground? Quite possible. More large-scale special projects were also implemented in the Soviet Union. Another thing is whether it will be possible to use Ramenki-43 today if a military conflict with the use of nuclear weapons suddenly breaks out. Experts argue that maintaining such a grandiose complex in a state of constant readiness, and even stopping strict secrecy, is too difficult a task.

The lack of qualified maintenance even for the shortest time will make a complex of such a scale emergency and unusable. So, given the troubled times that the country was going through after the collapse of the USSR, it is possible with a high degree of probability that Ramenki-43, if they exist, can hardly be used for their intended purpose.