Based on the fact that about twelve million people permanently live in the capital of our Motherland, plus the metropolis is replenished with three million tourists every day, a natural question arises about the safety of being in it. Indeed, in the event of a war, people should be sure that Moscow's bomb shelters are ready to receive such a number of people. Despite the assurances of the Ministry of Emergency Situations about the full compliance of the safety of Moscow residents and its guests in terms of providing everyone with places in shelters, many still want to receive up-to-date information on the degree of their compliance with modern standards.
As every resident of the capital can understand, the Moscow Metro is the largest refuge in the metropolis. After all, fourteen of its lines and more than three hundred kilometers of underground tunnels have a large capacity and accessibility. The first stage of the metro was put into operation in 1935, and two years later, special shelters were equipped for the country's leadership. One of them was located near the Kirovskaya station, and the other on Sovetskaya Square.
An interesting fact is that on October 16, 1941, when Moscow was preparing for a large-scale evacuation, Stalin almost gave the order to blow up the subway. Only at the last moment did the supreme commander-in-chief change his mind, for which his contemporaries are very grateful. At that time of war, the underground communications of the metro turned into a full-fledged city during the period of air attacks, in which even shops and hairdressers functioned.
History of Moscow's air defense and availability of shelters
The Great Patriotic War became that historical moment when the metro of the capital began to function as a refuge. Remarkable statistics: about twenty-five and a half million people housed the country's bomb shelters.
The capital's civil defense headquarters, created on the basis of the Air Defense Ministry, was founded in 1961. From that moment on, the construction of Moscow shelters took on a large-scale and organized character. The new technical conditions for the construction of protective structures began to focus on weapons of mass destruction, including the nuclear threat. And the global defense system itself included the constant improvement of mobilization plans and a communication system for alerting the population.
In 1967, special schools of civil defense (civil defense) were founded, which were located in seventeen districts of Moscow. And already in 1969, GO courses on chemical, anti-radiation protection and engineering and operational training began to function in the capital.
Since 2005, the Moscow Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation took over the duties of the headquarters of the Civil Defense of Moscow, and the mayor of the city became the head of this department. Currently, within the framework of the Safe City program (2012-2018), comprehensive measures have been implemented aimed at strengthening the capabilities of the capital's civil society.
Despite the secret nature of the full list of protective structures of the civil defense of Moscow, every resident of the capital and its guests should clearly understand that information about the nearest shelter points is publicly available on the Internet and special consultation points, which will be reported below. In addition, more than one hundred and seventy metro stations are fully suitable for performing the functions of bomb shelters, which indicates the full accessibility of underground communications for everyone in need of protection if necessary.
To what extent does the number of places in shelters correspond to the number of people in Moscow?
According to the leadership of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, to protect the population and guests of Moscow, the corresponding shelters are now fully prepared. Interestingly, in 2017, bloggers studied, for example, the readiness of a bomb shelter located in the Altufevskoe highway area. According to them, this structure is fully consistent with its tasks of protecting the population during the war.
According to some estimates, the metro can accommodate about two million people. In addition, there are about 1200 bunkers in the center of Moscow alone. According to the leadership of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, at present, the Civil Defense is guaranteed to decide the entire list of functions to protect people and facilities of the capital from a variety of threats during military operations. In this context, it is said that today the emphasis is on the use of high-precision weapons, the damaging factors of which were studied in sufficient detail during the participation of our troops in combat operations in Syria. Therefore, comprehensive protection is focused not only on weapons of mass destruction (weapons of mass destruction), but also on threats from the destruction of various building structures.
Protective shelters in Moscow are classified as follows: shelters, anti-radiation shelters and shelters. And since 2016, construction activities have been carried out within the framework of the Moscow Civil Defense, which are aimed at increasing the number of premises suitable for these functions. Today, at the design stage of construction projects, requirements for the protection of the population are laid down. For example, modern underground parking lots in apartment buildings fully comply with the protective requirements of the capital city.
Modern shelters are primarily designed to protect against high-explosive and fragmentation weapons, as well as damaging factors from the collapse of buildings and structures. According to the requirements for protecting the population in shelters, they are designed for people to stay in them for two days, while shelters and anti-radiation shelters correspond only to a daily stay in them. Basements of residential, commercial and industrial buildings are used as protective objects in Moscow. Moreover, there are no mothballed protective facilities in the city.
How to find the nearest bomb shelter and rules of conduct in it
The addresses of the nearest bomb shelters in Moscow for all those wishing to receive such information must be provided in the district points of the civil defense. In addition, this information is contained on the websites of prefectures and administrations, on the portal of the Moscow government (section "Services") and in the regional offices of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation.
It is important to know that since the Second World War there have been rules for the use of protective objects, which clearly define the following norms:
- protective shelters are intended exclusively for people (no pets!);
- they are prohibited from drinking alcohol, smoking and behaving aggressively;
- everyone is obliged to provide any possible assistance to disabled people, children and people of retirement age;
- additional rules prohibit the use of modern gadgets equipped with video cameras and telephones.
The general state of Moscow bomb shelters and the role of the metro in the general system of Moscow shelters
Most of the security facilities in Moscow are in federal ownership. Municipal property is only buildings, the construction of which was carried out at the expense of the subject. However, since 2013, a large-scale work has been carried out to analyze the state of all bomb shelters in the country. After that, it is planned to transfer many objects to the ownership of the administrations, assigning them to specific city organizations. In the long term, this will allow the city administration to independently make operational decisions on their maintenance.
According to the Department of Emergency Situations and Civil Defense, the capital's protective structures are ready to provide protection from high-explosive and fragmentation weapons and damaging factors from the collapse of construction projects to the entire population of Moscow. Moreover, the stocks of food and the corresponding inventory in them are not formed in advance. These measures are planned to be carried out only as a direct military threat and by special order.
Important information is that the capital's metro, in order to prepare its transfer to the mode of a protective facility, must be ready within twelve hours. The collective protection will exclude the transport regime, and the duration of a single continuous stay of the population in it is twelve hours. Due to the short stay of people in the metro during the period when it is put into the mode of the protective structure, the food supply is not formed, and water will be provided from special containers, as well as using the city water supply and water intake wells.
Underground communications of the subway are isolated from the outside world by special gates, which play the role of hermetic protection. The filling time for metro stations and tunnels according to the calculated parameters should be 10 minutes (15 minutes in special cases).
In addition to 170 metro stations (deep-level stations), ground-based lobbies without windows will be used as the simplest shelters, and since some tunnels are equipped with pressurized doors, if necessary, it will be possible to create isolated systems consisting of several metro stations.
