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.
