balaklava naval museum complex (cold war museum)

balaklava naval museum complex (cold war museum)印象

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  Stylegar

  A former top-secret submarine base with lots of facilities - inside a mountain. The museum tells the story about the complex, and about the Cold War. It's a really fascinating place - the only thing missing is a submarine.

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  Norielle

  This is one of the things to do in Krimea you shouldn't miss. It's an old naval base in which nuclear submarines used to be repaired now turned into museum. We had a tour in Russian so can't tell you what would happen should you choose tour in English, but we had fun and it was quite thrilling to walk through the old naval base and had everything explained to us. Only con I can think of is size of tour groups, they are quite huge and you might feel like in a herd.

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  YvonneSylviaC

  The guided visit gave a thorough oversight of the submarine maintenance activities, however of course only in russian language. Fascinating though!

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  Evesmyth

  Being in Balaklava in the heat of the afternoon, we decided to escape into the museum and go deep into the mountain where it was nice and cool. The price to the museum was reasonable and there are loads of buses that you can take from the main area of Balaklava to get to the museum. I had an extraordinary time inside. We opted out of the massive tour in Russian and went into the museum ahead of them. There's a long interesting tunnel of pictures and information about the history of the area and the plans to use the secret base. Random bits of information are in English, but you get the idea just being inside. There are areas that consist of long tunnels for loading the nuclear warheads and the area where the subs would come for maintenance. We found the guards inside extremely helpful and a rich source of historical information. The only downside was the massive tour groups that buzz through hitting the highlights and overwhelming everything in their path. Try to time your trip into the museum before or after they whip through and know that you will be enveloped by at least one group as the go through. Upon exiting, treat yourself to an ice cream after an hour or so inside the depths of the mountain and rest in a folding chair next to stacks of discarded outer shells of missiles. It's an odd experience.

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  Sebmack

  This place is full of promise and lacking on delivery. The idea of visiting a submarine base carved out of a hillside and unknown to the West for many years is what took me to Crimea; but the experience itself sits bottom of my list of Crimea attractions. When you get there, you'll find the boat tours of the sub canals have been cancelled, access is restricted to a relatively limited portion of the base and many exhibits have been replaced by glorification of the Russian navy. It was like one long cold dank tunnel with some metal tubes, some water in it and some propaganda (no - not a look at old propaganda - real current pro Russian stuff). Perhaps with a dedicated English speaking guide specialising in this place, we'd have had a richer experience - but the trouble right now is that it's hard to find someone who isn't either disgusted by the Russification of the museum, or overly delighted by it, so it will be difficult to get a deep experience with real anectodal colour.I loved the German Hospital in Jersey, a missile silo in Arizona and quite enjoyed Bunker 42 in Moscow but this place was totally lost on me and I'm still trying to work out of it was the Russia vs Crimea thing in the background, the jumble of exhibits without any consistent theme or something else. Probably it was the lack of anything that attracted any kind of empathy. It was too much of 'This missile does this. This submarine does this. The tunnel is this long and this deep. This is an XXX' and not enough 'There were XX workers who spend XXX of every year underground working 12 hour shifts and were not allowed to tell their families what they did. They came from across the USSR and were accompanied to Balaklava by their families.' There was just nothing to generate an emotional reaction.The other thing about museums in the losing side of wars (the Cold War in this case) - they are long on celebrating stamina and pain and short on celebrating achievement which largely does away with any desire to empathise! If you're a tunnel engineer, a torpedo specialist or a Russian submariner you'll probably love this. If you're a layperson looking to understand cold war life - you've probably stil got to come here just because it's a rare opportunity, but set your hopes low and get a really good guide.

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  luisr599

  Balaklava is a small sea town near Sevastopol. Nature was friend when build that magnific place. Sea, mountains, and a beautiful bay. Inside the bay we can access the Naval Museum Complex. In truth, a secret submarine base with a lot to see. It is a must see in Crimea Region.

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  608alexanderp

  The museum is under renovation, but opened for visitors who are obligatory guided. ~1,5 km of underground walking allows to appreciate the power of Soviet army and navy.

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  LTW1234

  I toured Balaklava with a guide from the ship I was on. I thought it was a very interesting place. Our tour was in English so I don't know what it would have been like without an English-speaking guide. I think it would be well worth seeing because it's a very visual experience. You actually go down into these amazing tunnels and see the submarine canals--although no submarines, as someone else pointed out... It's such an extraordinary thing that the Soviet Union had this hidden facility and until recently the rest of the world didn't even know this place existed.

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  KenS95

  It was only released to public after the collapse of USSR.It is very interesting for those who are keen on military stuff and see how the base was constructed to defense against nuclear explosion or poisonous gas attack.The only drawback is that there is no submarine inside, as all the submarines were disassembled and the metals were sold or money to save Ukraine.

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  Lovetraveling199

  Don't miss the guided tour of this secret Soviet base for building, repairing, and hiding nuclear submarines during the Cold War. The tour is in Russian, with an appropriately stern Russian guide, so you may not understand much of this, but it is still worth it and you will be able to figure out what was going on here. There is some labeling in English on the later part of the tour. Personal favorite, "Cabinet for Hiding Secret Documents". If you were taught to hide under your desk for protection from a nuclear attack, you will enjoy seeing what it was all about.