What
is the Padomju Selpenais Bunkurs?:
Another interesting day trip during our visit to Lavtia was to
the Padomju Selpenais Bunkers in nearby Ligatne, a town on the
Gauja River. Shown in the banner above is the Ligatne
Rehabilitation
Centre
or"health spa" as it was known in Soviet
Cold War Lingo. The bunker was apparently planned as early as
the late 1960s, but only became operational in the early 1980s.
It lies nine metres (30 feet) under ground – or rather under the
buildings of the Rehabilitation Centre, and is vast--over 2000
square meters. This extremely secret bunker was one of the most
important facilities in Soviet Latvia in the event of a nuclear
attack. Under the code name of “Rest Home,”it would have been
the place where Soviet Latvian government officials would have
gone in the event of an attack, and apparently it was capable of
housing every communist party member. The entire complex was
designed to be self-sustaining, a place where the Party faithful
could ride out nuclear winter. Its status as a secret
location was lifted only in 2003. The underground installation
has been fully preserved.
A
Tour of the the
Padomju Selpenais Bunkurs:
Owing to the fact that a photo by photo tour along with text
would be rather lengthy, along with the idea that there are no
comprehensive video tours of the site on YouTube (and precious
few video snippets in English), we have arranged our photos into
a sequential video that explains the elements of the bunker
covered on the guided tour. The existence of the bunker
underscores how seriously the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact
members took the threat of nuclear war.
