The birth of the term and the legend
In the summer of 1992, the literary and current-affairs magazine "Yunost'" published the novel "Preispodnyaya" ("The Abyss") by writer Vladimir Gonik, set in the underground bunkers of Moscow. It was Gonik who put the term "Metro-2" into wide circulation — a name that became the common designation for the capital's secret underground transport system.
The writer claimed to have gathered material for twenty years, while working as a doctor at a Ministry of Defense clinic and talking with patients connected to the construction and operation of secret facilities. According to him, the novel was written between 1973 and 1986, though some details about the routes and locations of the facilities were deliberately distorted.
According to Gonik, the Metro-2 bunkers were meant to house the leadership of the Politburo and the CPSU Central Committee, along with their family members, in the event of war. Every Central Committee member was allotted apartments of up to 180 square meters, with an office, a rest room, a kitchen area, and a bathroom. Leonid Brezhnev allegedly personally visited the main bunker in the early 1970s.
Thus was born the legend of a parallel underground city beneath Moscow — a city closed to ordinary mortals.
What is reliably known
Declassified documents
From the 1990s to the 2010s, archival data on many government and departmental underground special facilities in Moscow from the 1930s to the early 1960s was declassified. This information made it possible to confirm the existence of a secret transport system, although many details remain classified to this day.
Information was partially declassified about the Kremlin's Complex No. 103, with its narrow-gauge rail line, the metro's remote air intakes, the deep single-track tunnel under the Moskva River, and the "Vetka" facility (ChZ-1090). It is these facilities, taken together, that acquired the unofficial name "Metro-2."
In 2021, Dmitry Yurkov's book "Soviet Secret Bunkers" was published, summarizing information from declassified archival documents. But part of the information about their further development in the 1970s and 1980s remains classified to this day.
The 1991 American report
In 1991, the US Department of Defense published a report titled "Military Forces in Transition," several pages of which are devoted to a secret government metro in Moscow. The data was gathered from publications in the Soviet and Russian press.
The report stated:
"The Soviet government built command posts deep underground both in Moscow and beyond it. These facilities are connected by a network of special deep metro lines, providing a fast and safe method of evacuation for the country's leaders. One of them is located under the Kremlin. The Soviet press has noted the existence of a huge underground government bunker near Moscow State University. These facilities are intended for the national command authority during wartime. They are located at a depth of an estimated 200-300 meters, and are rated to hold an estimated 10,000 people. A special metro line runs between certain points in Moscow, and possibly to a VIP terminal at Vnukovo Airport."
The testimony of officials
In 2004, Vladimir Shevchenko, chief of protocol for Presidents Gorbachev and Yeltsin, became the first former senior state official to effectively confirm the existence of a secret metro. He mentioned a single-track line from the Kremlin to the Blizhnyaya (Near) dacha in Volynskoye, built under Stalin.
In 2005, in his book "Everyday Life in the Kremlin Under the Presidents," Shevchenko described in more detail the tunnel from the Kremlin to the administrative building on Staraya Ploshchad. He called it "more like a little tram," noting it was hardly comfortable. According to him, the line continues on to Volynskoye, to the Near dacha, and is meant for the emergency evacuation of people from the Kremlin.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Poltoranin spoke of a branching network of tunnels and a backup command post for wartime, from which the country's nuclear forces could be commanded. According to him, it could shelter a large number of people, and its branches extend into the Moscow suburbs, so that the command could relocate further from the epicenter of a nuclear strike.
Former Moscow mayor Gavriil Popov told Ekho Moskvy radio that the secret line led to the Central Committee building, and had an exit to the government airport, Vnukovo-2. He believed this line was used to evacuate Central Committee staff after the failure of the August 1991 coup.
Former head of the Moscow Metro, Dmitry Gaev, when asked in 2007 about the existence of Metro-2, answered: "I'd be surprised if it didn't exist."
In 2008, Svetlana Razina, head of the independent Moscow Metro workers' union, said that machinists at the "Izmailovo" depot had been recruited for service on the secret lines. On these lines, very short trains are used, consisting of a battery-powered locomotive and a single passenger car.
A correspondent for the state news agency ITAR-TASS reported in 2007 that the Metro-2 lines had long been under the jurisdiction of the KGB, and later passed under the wing of the FSB.
The testimony of defectors
Oleg Gordievsky, a former KGB colonel who spent 11 years working for British intelligence and defected to the UK in 1985, called Metro-2, in 2001, "the KGB's main secret, still undisclosed to this day." According to him, underground there exist "huge cities, entire communications networks, a network of such facilities," but they will never be shown.
The main lines of Metro-2
Facility No. 100: the Kremlin special line
Facility No. 100 is a transport-and-pedestrian shelter-tunnel between state institutions in central Moscow. In declassified documents, it is called the "connecting branch."
The system connects:
- The Moscow Kremlin (facilities No. 1a and 25)
- Bunker No. 101, under Zaryadye Park (previously under the Hotel Rossiya)
- The Presidential Administration building on Staraya Ploshchad (formerly the CPSU Central Committee)
- The state security building on Lubyanka (facility No. 201)
The tunnel's parameters are impressive: about 2 kilometers long, 6 meters in diameter (like an ordinary metro tunnel), 31 meters deep, and, due to a rise in terrain under the Kremlin, 55 meters deep there.
As of the 1960s, a narrow-gauge rail track had been laid inside the tunnel, from the Kremlin to the buildings on Staraya Ploshchad, along which a small electric car with a 12-passenger capacity traveled — conceptually similar to the cars of the US Capitol subway system.
The entire system of connected bunkers, along with the line, is designated Facility No. 103, and has junctions with the running tunnels of several ordinary metro lines.
Construction began under Stalin in 1951, but was suspended after his death. By that point, only two underground shelters had existed under the Kremlin, built during the Great Patriotic War. In 1958, it was decided to build a new government special facility, No. 1a, with an elevator shaft, capable of withstanding the impact of a nuclear strike. As of 1964, construction of the complex was still underway, but in its final stages.
Metrostroy worker Alexander Dobrovolsky recalled: "We drove our tunnels below the level of the 'civilian' metro. All our facilities, for extra secrecy, were designated by numbers. For example, in the area of Nikolskaya Street there was a shaft called 'Construction Site No. 100.'"
The "Vetka" (ChZ-1090, D-6): Metro-2's main artery
The "Vetka" ("Branch") is the main and most extensive part of the Metro-2 system. Its primary purpose is evacuation from underground government complexes and Ministry of Defense bunkers in the city center, to more protected special facilities in the Ramenki district.
In declassified documents from the 1950s-60s, it carries the design designation ChZ-1090. It is also often referred to as "the D-6 system," though the origin of this name has not been established, and it is not official.
The main characteristics of the system:
- The main part was built in the second half of the 1950s and in the 1960s
- Construction was fully completed in the 1980s
- The line's length, with all branches, is just under 25 kilometers
- Depth ranges from 50 meters in the center to 189 meters near the "Universitet" station
- The system is connected to the Moscow Metro, and uses the same tunnel gauge and track width
In the "Vetka" tunnels, standard-gauge track has been laid, but there is no contact (third) rail, and the rails are set into concrete slabs to allow vehicles to drive through. Given its evacuation-and-service purpose, the system is single-track.
The stations are small platforms in a running tunnel, with exits to special facilities, similar in type to the technical platforms found in turnback sidings of the ordinary metro. They lack the familiar cladding and lavish decor of ordinary metro stations.
Because there is no contact rail, the system operates special autonomous rolling stock — diesel trains and rail cars, different from the civilian metro's passenger rolling stock.
The history of the "Vetka's" creation
Order 10-A: bunkers in Ramenki
In the early 1950s, it was decided to build a new complex of government and ministerial buildings, on a vacant lot behind the main building of Moscow State University, between Vernadsky Prospekt and Michurinsky Prospekt. Instead of a single gigantic Palace of Soviets in central Moscow, it was proposed to build a whole complex of shorter, but more functional, buildings in the southwest of the capital.
Even before the design work on the buildings began, in 1954-1955, the Ministry of Defense's 9th Central Directorate designed Order 10-A, for building a complex of deep underground special fortified structures. These shelters were to serve as protected workspaces and command posts for government figures, and were to be connected by shafts to the government buildings on the surface.
In May 1955, a special Directorate 10A of Glavtonnelmetrostroy (now JSC Transinzhstroy) was created, which began building underground Facility No. 54 near Vernadsky Prospekt. Because of difficult hydrogeological conditions, the facility was built at a record depth of 189 meters, where dry limestone was found. Construction of the main structures was completed in 1963.
The facility had at least six shaft heads. At its core was one large cylindrical tubbing-lined block, including at least 3 levels. Besides work and living quarters, the facility had its own filter-ventilation chambers and a diesel power plant, sized to supply power not only to the facility itself, but to the future government buildings on the surface as well.
Because of a difficult financial situation, however, construction of the government complex's surface buildings never began. In the 1970s, low-rise restricted-access buildings belonging to security agencies were built over the facility's entrances instead.
The deep single-track tunnel under the Moskva River
In 1954, alongside the decision to build the government special facilities, it was also decided to extend the metro's Frunzensky radius toward the Luzhniki sports arena under construction, and further, across the Moskva River, to Moscow State University, with a terminus station "Universitet."
Builders faced the difficult task of choosing a route. Four options were developed — two above-ground, via a metro bridge, and two underground, via a deep tunnel.
The deepest option involved routing the tunnel under the river, going down to a depth of 189 meters. Its advantage was high protection from a nuclear strike, and the possibility of linking it to Facility No. 54; its drawbacks were high cost and inconvenience for passengers. The shallowest option involved a station at a depth of 26 meters, crossing via a metro bridge, which was cheaper and more convenient, but the bridge could be destroyed in the event of a nuclear strike.
A hybrid option was chosen: a shallow, double-track line with a vulnerable metro bridge, inside which the station "Leninskiye Gory" was placed, plus an additional deep single-track tunnel at a depth of 189 meters, with a technical platform and an exit to Facility 54.
Between 1957 and 1959, a 4.1-kilometer metro tunnel was built, which became the first part of the future Metro-2 system. It was planned to connect the main station and the deep tunnel via a shaft with three high-speed elevators, to allow the evacuation of citizens.
The Matveyevskoye remote air intake
The next stage was a project for supplying the metro with air under emergency conditions, including a nuclear strike, when air could not be pumped in directly from the surface because of contamination.
It was decided to place, on the city's outskirts, in forest-park zones, several powerful, well-protected command posts for remote air intake (DV), equipped with powerful fans and air filters. From these, purified air was pumped through special tunnels to the nearest metro lines.
The first was to be the Matveyevskoye air intake, DV-1, near the "Matveyevskoye" platform, given the design designation ChZ-2057. It was located a significant distance from the Sokolnicheskaya line, so it was decided to build a special air-supply tunnel from it to the deep single-track tunnel. The facility was placed at a depth of about 190 meters, and equipped with two escalator inclines, to allow the evacuation of large numbers of people.
Construction began in 1962, and in 1966 the facility was transferred to the KGB's balance sheet. Work was completed in 1969.
Construction of the "Vetka" and its transfer to the KGB
At the same time, the question arose of air supply for the Kremlin complex (Special Facility No. 103). It was decided to use the Matveyevskoye air intake, building a separate deep tunnel-air duct.
It soon became clear that this tunnel could be used not only to supply air, but for the independent evacuation of government and KGB members as well. In the event of a nuclear strike on the city center, all exits from the facility would be destroyed, and evacuation through the ordinary metro would be hampered by the presence of large numbers of sheltering passengers.
In 1959, it was proposed — and in 1960, decided — to build a full-fledged special-purpose metro tunnel between the Kremlin complex and Facility 54, which received the name "Vetka" and the design designation ChZ-1090. This became the key decision in creating a separate secret transport system.
The new line could serve as a transport-evacuation tunnel not only for the Kremlin, but for the Ministry of Defense bunkers under the buildings on the Arbat and Frunzenskaya Embankment as well.
After the air-supply tunnel from the Matveyevskoye DV was transferred to the KGB's balance sheet, it was also made part of the "Vetka" under construction, for which a railway track was laid and technical platforms built. At the point of junction with the deep single-track tunnel, a switchback chamber with a turnout was built.
In this way, a full-fledged evacuation route was created, from Complex 103 and the Ministry of Defense facilities in the center, to the Matveyevskoye air intake and Facility 54. At the top of the single-track tunnel, near "Sportivnaya" station, airtight doors with a concrete block were installed, to seal off entry from the civilian metro into the special-metro section.
Construction of the "Vetka" was, by rough estimate, completed in 1973, since rolling stock began arriving in the system during that period.
Expansion of the system in the 1980s
In the mid-1980s, the "Vetka" system was expanded, as evidenced by the purchase of additional rolling stock. Precise information about the routing of the new tunnels is absent from declassified documents.
It is known that another branch was built, to a facility in Troparyovsky forest park, which was under KGB jurisdiction, and was designated the "Moscow Metro Measurement and Testing Laboratory," although it was located far from any operating civilian metro lines.
Connection to the ordinary metro
To transfer rolling stock between the civilian metro and the "Vetka" system, a single-track service connecting branch (SSV) is used, beginning as a branch off the southern direction of the Sokolnicheskaya line, after "Sportivnaya" station.
In technical operating documents, this SSV is called "Connecting Branch No. 1," and also serves as the third station track. It was originally built as an independent deep single-track tunnel to Special Facility No. 54, to preserve a connection to the center in the event of a nuclear strike and the destruction of the Luzhnetsky metro bridge.
The tunnel contains steel grated gates, before which the contact rail ends, 20 meters short. Then follows a short section with rebar mesh and hatches, after which are airtight doors separating the civilian metro's territory from Metro-2. The section on civilian-metro territory can be used as a turnback siding.
As the "Popular Mechanics" website notes: "Apparently, there aren't all that many 'points of contact' between 'Metro-2' and the ordinary metro. It's said that passages to the secret lines exist at almost every central station of the ordinary metro, but this is clearly not so."
The modern "Transinzhstroy" system
Besides the partially declassified systems of the 1950s-80s, a newer network of facilities exists in Moscow, being built by the company Transinzhstroy. Information about it is extremely limited. One of the first press mentions dates to 2002.
Open sources reveal the location of the system's construction sites, listed as Transinzhstroy metro-construction facilities, but not connected to civilian metro construction. Most are located in the city center, in the area of Lubyanka, Kitai-Gorod, Ivanovskaya Gorka, and Zamoskvorechye, though several sites are a significant distance away, to the south.
Known construction sites include:
- Shaft No. 732, Krivokolenny Lane
- Shafts No. 731 and 731-bis, Bolshoy Spasoglinishchevsky Lane
- Shaft No. 830, between Podkolokolny and Petropavlovsky lanes
- Shaft No. 633, 2nd Kadashevsky Lane
- Shaft No. 990, Maronovsky Lane
- Several shafts in southern Moscow
- Shaft R-6, in Ramenki
In 2016, the so-called "diggers' case" received wide publicity, directly linked to the system's facilities. In 2014, the defendants in the criminal case repeatedly entered Transinzhstroy's underground structures. Its construction sites are usually labeled as civilian metro-construction facilities, and the defendants in the case were not formally holders of state secrets, and had no idea of the facility's secret status.
Original technologies are used in building the company's facilities, which later found application in civilian metro construction — for example, monolithic concrete lining, cast behind a non-removable metal formwork. The first civilian metro facility to use this technology was the station "Park Pobedy."
Why all of this was built
The logic of the Cold War
To understand the scale and complexity of the Metro-2 system, one must recall the context of the era. The Cold War was in full swing. The threat of nuclear war between the USSR and the US was seen not as an abstract possibility, but as a very real scenario to prepare for.
After the Soviet hydrogen bomb tests of 1953, and the American ones in 1954, it became clear: nuclear war meant the destruction of entire cities with a single strike. Moscow, as the capital of the USSR, would be a priority target. In the event of war, the city center would become a radioactive wasteland.
But the state had to keep functioning even under such conditions. Troops needed to be commanded, missile forces managed, defense coordinated. This required preserving the country's top leadership, army command, and employees of key ministries.
The ordinary metro could serve as a shelter for the population, but not for command staff. Shallow stations wouldn't survive a direct nuclear hit. Metro bridges would be destroyed. And, most importantly, the ordinary metro, in the event of war, would be filled with hundreds of thousands of sheltering Muscovites. Evacuating government members through the crowd would be impossible.
A separate system was needed — deep, protected, secret.
Depth as protection
The depth of the Metro-2 system is striking. If ordinary Moscow Metro stations sit at depths of 10 to 80 meters, "Vetka" stations go 50 to 189 meters underground. This isn't designers' whim — it's necessity.
At a depth of 189 meters lies dry limestone. No quicksand, no water-saturated soil. Stable rock, able to withstand impact without subsiding. At such a depth, one could be confident that even a direct hit by a nuclear bomb wouldn't destroy the bunker.
The American report estimated the facilities' depth at 200-300 meters. This may be an exaggeration, or it may reflect information about even deeper secret facilities, whose details remain undisclosed to this day.
The system's autonomy
Metro-2 was built as a fully autonomous system. Remote air intakes in forest-park zones provided purified air even if the surface was contaminated. Its own diesel power plants supplied energy independently of the city grid. Reserves of water, food, and medicine allowed sheltering people to survive underground for extended periods.
The facilities were calculated to hold up to 10,000 people. This isn't just leaders — it's support staff, guards, technical specialists, communications personnel, medics. An entire underground city, ready to function under conditions of nuclear war.
Evacuation routes
The system's most important function was evacuation. In the event of a threatened strike, top leadership had to leave the Kremlin and central buildings within minutes, descend into the bunkers, and use the special line to relocate to protected facilities on the outskirts or beyond Moscow.
Hence the connection to Vnukovo-2 airport (the government airport). If the situation became critical, leadership could be flown out to remote command posts beyond the Urals, or to secret bases.
The Matveyevskoye air intake, with its two escalator inclines, served not only to supply air, but as an evacuation exit as well. Through it, large numbers of people could be brought to the surface in a safe forest-park zone, where transport would already be waiting.
Technical features of the system
Differences from the ordinary metro
Although Metro-2 uses the same tunnel gauge and track width as the ordinary Moscow Metro, there are many differences between the systems:
- No contact rail — autonomous rolling stock, on diesel or battery power, is used instead
- The system is single-track — movement is organized on a shuttle principle, rather than a continuous flow
- Rails are set into concrete slabs, allowing vehicles to travel through the tunnels
- Stations are simple technical platforms, with no architectural decoration
- Airtight seals and concrete blocks fully isolate sections of the system
- Significantly greater depth
Rolling stock
Witness Svetlana Razina mentioned "very short trains, consisting of a battery-powered locomotive and one passenger car." This matches the system's intended use — not mass passenger transport, but evacuating small groups of people, or delivering cargo.
It is known that rolling stock began arriving in the system in 1973, and that additional units were purchased in the mid-1980s. The exact specifications of this rolling stock remain classified.
Autonomy of movement was critically important. In an emergency, the city's power supply could be disrupted, and the ordinary metro's contact rail would be left without power. Metro-2's diesel trains and rail cars could operate independently of external power sources.
The scale of the unknown
What remains classified
Despite the partial declassification of documents, the bulk of information about Metro-2 remains closed. We know about systems built in the 1950s-60s. But what was built in the 1970s and 1980s?
Oleg Gordievsky spoke of "huge cities underground, entire communications networks." The American report mentioned facilities for 10,000 people. This is significantly more than the bunkers known to us could hold.
Transinzhstroy's construction activity in central Moscow continues to this day. The numerous shafts in the area of Lubyanka, Kitai-Gorod, and Zamoskvorechye suggest the system is still being developed in the present day.
Lines into the Moscow suburbs
Mikhail Poltoranin mentioned branches extending into the Moscow suburbs, so that command could relocate further from the epicenter of a strike. The American report spoke of a possible connection to Vnukovo-2. Gavriil Popov claimed to have known of a line to the government airport.
This information isn't confirmed by declassified documents, but it is logical. It seems unlikely the evacuation system would end at Moscow's outskirts. More likely, tunnels exist leading to country residences, command posts, and airfields.
Such lines could run for dozens of kilometers. The distance from central Moscow to Vnukovo-2 is about 25-30 kilometers. These are exactly the distances mentioned in connection with possible suburban branches.
The current state
Vladimir Shevchenko noted, in 2005, that continued operation of the Kremlin metro would require major repairs. Igor Malashenko said, in 1992, that many underground bomb shelters, including the system under the Moscow State University building, had been flooded and fallen into disrepair.
Perhaps part of the system built in the 1950s-60s really has become outdated and isn't in use. But Transinzhstroy's continuing construction of new facilities suggests the concept of a secret underground transport system has not been forgotten.
The Metro-2 lines, according to ITAR-TASS, were long under KGB jurisdiction, and later passed under the FSB's wing. They are now under the jurisdiction of the Special Facilities Service of the Presidential Administration's Main Directorate for Special Programs — an organization about whose activities extremely little is known.
Metro-2 in the consciousness of Muscovites
From secret to legend
Before the publication of Vladimir Gonik's novel in 1992, Metro-2 was practically never discussed publicly. It was one of the most closely guarded secrets of the USSR. Builders signed non-disclosure agreements. Facilities were hidden behind numbers and code designations.
But after the Union's collapse, the veil of secrecy began to lift. Press publications appeared, along with interviews with former officials and declassified documents. Metro-2 turned from an absolute secret into a semi-secret — everyone knows it exists, but the details remain under seven seals.
This spawned a wave of speculation, conspiracy theories, and urban legends. Diagrams of the secret lines circulate online, along with diggers' accounts of getting into closed tunnels, and stories of encounters with security guards at special facilities.
Diggers and researchers
The "diggers' case" of 2016 showed that interest in Metro-2 hasn't faded. Enthusiasts try to get into the secret facilities, study their layout, and compile diagrams. For them, this isn't espionage, but research — an attempt to uncover their home city's secrets.
But the authorities see it differently. Secret facilities remain secret. Entering them is punishable by law. The "diggers' case" became a warning to all the curious.
Its symbolic significance
Metro-2 has become a symbol of the duality of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. On one hand — the luxurious stations of the ordinary metro, "underground palaces" for the people, open to everyone. On the other — secret tunnels for the chosen few, a parallel reality that most citizens can only guess at.
It is a metaphor for a society where, behind the facade of official life, a hidden life of the elites exists. An ordinary Muscovite rides to work on the Sokolnicheskaya line, while somewhere far below him, at a depth of 189 meters, a tunnel may pass, through which, in the event of war, those who started that war would make their escape.
Conclusion: a secret that will remain a secret
Metro-2 exists — that is a fact, confirmed by declassified documents, official testimony, and American intelligence data. But the full picture of the system remains hidden.
We know about the "Vetka" (ChZ-1090), about 25 kilometers long, connecting the Kremlin with facilities in Ramenki and the Matveyevskoye air intake. We know about the Kremlin's special line (Facility No. 100), with its narrow-gauge rail track. We know about the deep single-track tunnel under the Moskva River, built as a backup to the Luzhnetsky metro bridge.
But this is only what was built in the 1950s-60s, and partially declassified. What was built in the following decades? What is the system's full length? How many bunkers does it connect? Are there exits beyond Moscow? All of this remains questions without answers.
Perhaps someday new documents will be declassified. Perhaps, decades from now, we'll learn the full history of Metro-2's construction. Or perhaps this secret will be kept forever — as the last secret of a Cold War that never turned hot.
But one thing is clear: when the hero of Vladimir Gonik's book, or the hero of any modern novel, rides a long stretch of the Moscow Metro, and it seems to him that the train has left the city behind, this is not merely a literary exaggeration. Somewhere down there, tunnels really do exist, extending far beyond Moscow. Tunnels through which, in the event of catastrophe, those meant to be saved would make their escape.
Metro-2 is not simply a transport system. It is the Cold War's philosophy, embodied in concrete and metal — a materialized fear of nuclear apocalypse, and an equally materialized belief that the state must survive at any cost.