Stalin Built a Subway Beneath the Kremlin — Then Shot Every Worker Who Could Find the Entrance

Summary

Key Points

• —This clandestine railway was engineered to be exceptionally deep, ranging from 50 to 300 meters below Moscow, making it impervious to any known bomb and far exceeding the depth of the public metro. 1:59
• —Its construction involved audacious engineering, utilizing massive drilling machines, custom-fabricated cast-iron tunnel linings, and complex ventilation systems to maintain a breathable atmosphere at extreme depths. 5:55
• —The D6 system comprised a vast network connecting the Kremlin to critical command bunkers, government airports, and an extensive underground town at Ramenki designed to house 10,000 people, including private residences for the Central Committee. 6:29
• —The project was built under conditions of absolute secrecy by Gulag prisoners, engineers, and scientists, who, upon completion, were systematically executed and their records erased to prevent any knowledge of the system from leaking. 9:41
• —Despite Stalin's efforts to bury the secret, American intelligence eventually uncovered D6's existence through satellite imagery and other means, publishing diagrams of the hidden network in 1991. 12:24
• —Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the immensely expensive D6 system fell into disrepair, with parts flooding and lines being abandoned, as the new Russian government faced more pressing issues. 13:07
• —The existence of "Metro 2," a term coined by a novelist, became public knowledge in the 1990s through media reports and urban explorers, though its current operational status remains officially unconfirmed by Russian authorities. 15:50
• —Ultimately, D6 stands as a chilling monument to Stalin's paranoia and the Soviet regime's brutal disregard for human life, a colossal engineering feat built by ghosts for an apocalypse that never arrived. 19:39
• —Driven by extreme paranoia and the threat of nuclear war, Stalin ordered the construction of a secret, deep-underground railway system, designated D6, to ensure the survival and evacuation of Soviet leadership from Moscow. 20:51