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HistoryGeorgia

Secret underworlds of the Soviet Union: Georgia

September 12, 2024

Bunkers, tunnels, former torture chambers: Georgia is home to secret underworlds, built during the Soviet era. Hardly any other country in the world has as many underground structures as tiny Georgia. What lies dormant just a few meters underground is being brought to light for the first time.

https://p.dw.com/p/4hFDW

During the Cold War, Georgia was part of the Soviet Union. And it had a NATO country as a neighbor: Turkey. During Russian rule, bunkers were built to provide protection in the event of a nuclear war, secret dungeons were built for political prisoners and mysterious tunnels appeared as well. Tornike Kapanadze has been researching the country's bunkers since 2016. He takes visitors inside the country's largest command bunker: 135 rooms and two kilometers of tunnels. Ana Sepashvili is actually an archaeologist, but also researches the secret prisons of the Stalin era. Traces left behind by prisoners from this era can still be found, today. Zhana Odiashvili discovers one of Stalin’s secret hiding places in an inconspicuous house. A well leads to an underground print shop. In 1907, Stalin helped plan one of the greatest crimes of the time, here - the robbery of the state bank in the Georgian capital city.

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