Stalin and tunnel as secret weapon in WW2

Kyiv Post. Independence. Community. Trust - Lifestyle - General - Stalin saw underwater tunnel as World War II secret weapon

To Soviet leaders Josef Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev, it was one of two top secret underwater tunnels being built to connect the banks of the Dnipro River, a possible ace-in-the-hole to help win World War II for the Allies.

If the Nazis bombed all of the river bridges, this tunnel would be counted on to move soldiers and supplies.

To the more than 12,000 employees working under tight watch, it was a part of “Object No.1,” since using the word “tunnel” in a conversation was enough to get sent to a labor camp for 10 years.

Yet in today’s high-tech world of satellites that could spot a dime on a city sidewalk, there’s nothing secretive about the unfinished caisson in the Obolon district. Its GPS coordinates are: 50°29'56''N 30°31'26''E.

But back in 1936, Khrushchev was the tunnels’ project leader. They were supposed to extend 6.5 kilometers underwater, be built in nine years and go as deep as 32 meters, according to Kyiv historian Arseniy Fineberg.


The northern tunnel was supposed to link what was then uninhabited marshland in Obolon with today’s Troyeshchyna neighborhood on the left bank. The southern tunnel was supposed to connect Zhukiv Island with Osokorky, then sparsely populated and still yet unincorporated into Kyiv.

Coupled with removable railroads, the tunnel was supposed to allow for the movement of tanks, soldiers and supplies underwater in case the city’s bridges got blown up during war. But, by 1941, when Germany and its allies invaded the Soviet Union, the construction was only 10 percent completed. That amounted to a 15-meter diameter caisson buttressed inside by a 0.5 x 10-meter brick wall.

 

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