Mega-facilities of the USSR. Giant underground fridge

This country will definitely never be defeated ...

Can you imagine a refrigerator that can fit 200 food wagons? Yes, and underground? And not just underground, but carved into the rock ...

Such a refrigerator exists. Where? Of course, in Russia.

Remained a legacy from a colossus called the USSR.

Yes, then did not trifle. If you build something, then on a gigantic scale. So that everyone is fucked up by scale ...

Do you know what it was built for? It was one of the storages of the strategic stock of products in the USSR in case of war. 16,400 tons of food ...

This crazy refrigerator is located on the outskirts of Samara, in a very inconspicuous place. Without knowing about it, you can drive past dozens of times and not pay attention to the wretched two-story building of red brick. And yet this is not such a simple building ...

It is located at the foot of Sokolya Gora, which you can’t even name a mountain ... Here you can see a strange, very long loading ramp, near which there are always wagons nowadays ... But warehouses are not visible ... What is the ramp here for?

Estimate the ramp length? The refrigerator is truly gigantic.

It is interesting that every resident of the Samara region heard about a unique underground refrigerator located in the Falcon Mountains. But to be in it for all the years of its existence was fortunate to few. Only recently, enthusiastic guys have managed to organize organized excursions to these dungeons and, in principle, now anyone can get here. This is despite the fact that the refrigerator continues to remain operational, although the country's strategic stock is no longer stored here.

Initially, these were mine workings, where crushed stone, rubble and dolomite flour were mined. They were built by prisoners in the late 1930s. In 1939, limestone mining in underground mines was completed and a fish products warehouse was equipped in them. The fish went to feed the prisoners who worked during the war years on the construction of industrial and other facilities in the reserve capital, Kuybyshev. After the war, in giant adits, it was decided to arrange a secret storage of ammunition, which began to be brought here from all over the country. I don’t know which clever head made this decision, but the shells were taken out of here as quickly as they were brought in - shells instantly showed signs of corrosion due to the increased humidity inherent in these dungeons. In 1958, by decision of the Council of National Economy, the dug tunnels were transferred to Rosmyasrybtorg, and refrigeration equipment was installed in separate halls.

The total capacity of all the halls and corridors was 16,400 tons (200 wagons)! Fish, canned goods, and meat products were brought here from all over the Soviet Union. So the state-owned enterprise Samara Refrigeration Plant No. 2 arose - one of the oldest distribution refrigerators in the territory of the former USSR. The products here were stored strictly according to GOST, and closer to the expiration date they were distributed among retail chains, filling the vacated space with fresh ones.

The last batch of Soviet products - 300 tons of butter - was taken out of here in 1992, after which the enterprise virtually ceased to function as a state strategic storehouse. In 1997, with the advent of privatization, it was renamed OJSC Kholod. In order to survive in those difficult times, they started production here - they made ice cream, a smokehouse and a bakery worked. But even that enterprise went bankrupt.

Now the refrigerator continues to work, although only part of its adits is used (only 20% of the underground areas are actually cooled). Various private firms, intermediary enterprises and some retail chains store food products here.

Modern refrigeration equipment operating on freon.

It serves lockable chambers in which a temperature of -26 ° C is held.

Of course, the most interesting thing in this place is the abandoned adits. There is an incredible amount of them here, and it’s worthless to get lost in them yourself.

On the left are the columns remaining from the time of the quarry, and on the right is the wall, erected later and enclosing the cooled chamber.

This adit is adjacent to one of the chilled chambers. Because of this, the adit wall is covered with a thick layer of ice, and the decayed logs underfoot are as if watered with frozen foam.

To kill here is to spit.

I love such places!

We go to the galleries where those rusted shells were once stored.

This is a transport adit, equipped during the creation of artillery warehouses here in 1950.

Along the way, there are niches clogged with old barrels from top to bottom.

In these barrels, salted fish was stored, which was included in the diet of prisoners Samaralag and Bezyanlag. During the war, Kuybyshev became the reserve capital of the USSR, and therefore many workers were required at numerous construction sites.

Further adits are becoming more interesting.

One of the cells in which the shells were stored for a short time.

Now they are empty, but not abandoned.

And this is one of the chambers in which the strategic stock of products was stored. It is valid now, and if necessary, supplies can be brought here even today.

Through these pipes circulated ... chilled brine!

From 1962 to 1990, butter was stored in this chamber. Now the entrance to it is so frozen that only one leaf opens.

Inside - the kingdom of permafrost.

Eternal Frost)

Over the long years of operation of the refrigerator, the walls of the mountain were frozen deep by 10 meters, and huge ice crystals grew on the arches.

In some places there are even ice stalagmites.

And these plates appeared on cameras for a reason.

Once, during the years of operation of the refrigerator, one of the workers at the end of the shift was accidentally locked in a chamber with a temperature of -18 degrees. This story ended happily, the worker survived only due to the fact that he kept warm all night by dragging heavy meat carcasses.

When the camera was opened in the morning, he was practically exhausted due to a 12-hour shift for moving carcasses. But alive ...