There were real ghost towns in the Soviet Union. They were not marked on maps, and residents of neighboring cities were often unaware of their existence. If a simple-minded passer-by, by pure chance, wandered into the vicinity of strange cities, he was invariably greeted by a fence with barbed wire and a gloomy-looking armed military who politely advised the uninvited guest to leave. What secret were they guarding?
There is such a word "ZATO"
The planned economy, which turned the young Land of the Soviets from an agrarian outsider into the second most important economic superpower, became the cause of a curious phenomenon - the so-called municipalities with a single-industry economy or just single-industry towns. These include settlements in which most of the working citizens are employed in one city-forming enterprise or several industries of the same industry, united in a technological chain. And although this phenomenon is not so unique - suffice it to recall Detroit, the former automobile capital of the United States, or the German mining Ruhr - it was in the socialist countries that monotowns became an integral part of the administrative system. In the USSR, the share of cities focused on servicing a single production reached 40%, which is why the population in them rarely exceeded 100 thousand.man. But behind the screen of motley settlements-enterprises - seemingly different, but completely indistinguishable from each other - were hidden special cities. Highly classified, not marked on any map, they are real ghost towns that exist and do not exist at the same time. Any information about them was closed not only for foreigners, but also for Soviet citizens who did not have special access. These cities did not even have a name of their own - only a number attached to the name of the nearest municipal center. We are talking about ZATO - closed administrative-territorial formations, within which industrial enterprises of the military-strategic, space or nuclear complex were located, representing a state secret.but completely indistinguishable from each other - special cities were hidden. Strictly classified, not marked on any map, they are real ghost towns that both exist and do not. Any information about them was closed not only to foreigners, but also to Soviet citizens who did not have special access. These cities did not even have a name of their own - only a number attached to the name of the nearest municipal center. We are talking about ZATO - closed administrative-territorial formations, within which industrial enterprises of the military-strategic, space or nuclear complex were located, representing a state secret.but completely indistinguishable from each other, special cities were hidden. Highly classified, not marked on any map, they are real ghost towns that exist and do not exist at the same time. Any information about them was closed not only to foreigners, but also to Soviet citizens who did not have special access. These cities did not even have a name of their own - only a number attached to the name of the nearest municipal center. We are talking about ZATO - closed administrative-territorial entities within which industrial enterprises of the military-strategic, space or nuclear complex were located, representing a state secret. Any information about them was closed not only to foreigners, but also to Soviet citizens who did not have special access. These cities did not even have a name of their own - only a number attached to the name of the nearest municipal center. We are talking about ZATO - closed administrative-territorial entities within which industrial enterprises of the military-strategic, space or nuclear complex were located, representing a state secret. Any information about them was closed not only for foreigners, but also for Soviet citizens who did not have special access. These cities did not even have a name of their own - only a number attached to the name of the nearest municipal center. We are talking about ZATO - closed administrative-territorial formations, within which industrial enterprises of the military-strategic, space or nuclear complex were located, representing a state secret.space or atomic complex, representing a state secret.space or nuclear complex, representing a state secret.
Big story of what is not
Although ZATOs are essentially single-industry cities, they differ significantly from other single-industry cities. Not only by the very fact of secrecy, but also by the circumstances of its appearance. The idea of creating closed cities was born thanks to an event that seemed to be in no way connected with them and that took place far beyond the borders of the Land of the Soviets. The mother of the first ZATOs was the Hiroshima nuclear tragedy.
Beginning in the 1920s, when the world was just groping for inexhaustible prospects for harnessing the energy of the atom, Soviet scientists carried out fundamental work in the field of radiochemistry. At the turn of the 30s and 40s, the Stalinist government, worried about the genuine interest of Nazi Germany and the United States in this topic, strictly classified all developments and was forced to reduce the volume of tests. Of course, the loss of interest in atomic energy was purely demonstrative. Soviet intelligence did not sleep and was fully aware of the successes of American specialists in the field of creating a nuclear bomb within the framework of the Manhattan Project. Although the true scale of the danger of games with the energy of the atom, then few people realized, except for a narrow circle of scientists. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki changed everything. Literally everything. Senseless muscle flexing that cost more than 150,000 lives (not only Japanese,but also the Americans who were in Japan), at the end of the bloodiest conflict in the history of mankind, seriously affected international relations, unambiguously indicating the position of the United States. A handful of sugar for old yeast has become the notorious one and a half century Great Game between the "Russian" and "Western" worlds, an irreplaceable stimulus for an endless arms race and division of spheres of influence.
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On August 20, 1945, exactly two weeks after the Stars and Stripes Air Force dropped its uranium "Kid" on Japan, which refused to surrender, the State Defense Committee of the USSR formed a Special Committee under the Council of Ministers headed by Lavrentiy Beria. The importance of the newly-made state structure was already indicated by the fact that Comrade Stalin personally supervised it. The special committee became the first highly specialized body for managing work on the use of atomic energy, within the framework of which the first closed cities appeared in 1946-1953. And since the organization of the infrastructure and the secrecy regime on the ground was supervised by a former member of the top of the NKVD, deputy head of the SMERSH counterintelligence department, and later by the deputy head of the First Main Directorate under the Council of Ministers Pavel Meshik,orders in strategically priceless cities were appropriate. In 1953, after Beria and Meshik were sentenced to death for treason, the nuclear project management structure underwent significant changes. The entire nuclear industry, including classified cities, was transferred to the department of a state structure with an impersonal name, the Ministry of Medium Machine Building.
The first Soviet atomic bomb was born behind the closed doors of the ZATO laboratories. But ghost towns weren't the only ones living in nuclear power. Soon, settlements at industrial enterprises specializing in the development, manufacture, storage and disposal of weapons of mass destruction (including chemical and bacteriological), as well as military and missile facilities with a strict security regime, fell into the category of ZATO.
High security cities
The life of the closed Soviet cities was saturated with an atmosphere of complete secrecy. Accommodation in the closed city was possible only with a residence permit or a temporary permit. KGB officers studied each candidate almost under a microscope: the biographies of the applicant and his relatives were thoroughly checked, if even the slightest suspicion arose - the way to the secret city was ordered. All adult residents signed a nondisclosure agreement about their real place of residence and occupation. Inappropriate questions from the uninitiated were supposed to be answered with a typical legend. For violation of the terms of the subscription, responsibility was assumed, including criminal.
For greater secrecy, during the statistical census, the population of ghost towns was "smeared" over regional centers or nearby settlements. The fact that ZATO did not have its own name is flowers. Even the numbering of houses, schools, hospitals and public transport routes either continued the numbering of the administrative center, or began with a digit indicating the number of the city in which it was located, so as not to attract too much attention with suspiciously small numbers.
Entry into the territory (as well as exit) was allowed only to persons with a permanent residence permit in the closed city administrative center, their relatives (which still needed to be tried to prove) and specialists with a travel order or a special temporary permit. The strict observance of these rules depended on the secrecy of the city. The strategically important objects from among those that attract the increased attention of foreign special services were distinguished by a particularly tough access control. For example, the residents of Arzamas-16, until the city had grown sufficiently, could not leave its territory for many years, even on vacation. An exception was made only to business travelers, while the rest had to meet with unfriendly checkpoint officers or a barbed wire fence. At the same time, in cities where the access control was softer, the servants of order often caught the "lost mushroom pickers", of course,accidentally wandered into a secret facility through the forest. Usually, such citizens, before "accidentally wandering around," had to "accidentally" climb over a high fence, or even "accidentally" hang on a "thorn." In such cases, the truth was quickly found out, and if there was no malicious intent, the offender was sent home. The spies were treated differently. To the fullest extent.
Utopia behind the "thorn"
It may seem that ZATOs were the most real secret high-security prisons for high-class specialists, where the best hands and minds of the Soviet people worked day and night without the right to rest. This is fundamentally wrong! In fact, secret monotowns, without exaggeration, were exemplary islands of victorious proletarian socialism.
In compensation for the hardships and deprivation of life under the hood, the inhabitants of the closed cities tried to provide everyone with the best; they were entitled to all kinds of benefits and privileges, and the standard of living was an order of magnitude higher than the national average. The best specialists from all over the USSR were selected to work in ZATO, and this concerned not only employees of target enterprises, but also teachers, doctors, cultural workers and service sectors. Therefore, the crime rate tended to zero, because disadvantaged social elements were simply not allowed to live. The keepers of state secrets could count on better social conditions, medicine, education for their children, amenities and an uninterrupted supply of high-quality goods. What was considered a scarcity in neighboring settlements was abundant on store shelves in ghost towns. Despite the terrible words "access control", "checkpoint", "barbed wire", "nondisclosure agreement" and the like, people tried to register in the closed city. Moreover, among other benefits, for the secrecy and increased danger of production, a solid increase in salary was relied on.
After the collapse of the USSR, the conspiratorial dust intended for the eyes of Western agents settled a little. Many ZATOs were declassified and renamed, but not all of them rushed to meet the guests with open barriers, although in general the access regime was really softened. But even many years later, the closed Soviet cities continue to lure tourists and fans of conspiracy theories with their terrible secrets hidden in abandoned catacombs.
Magazine: Historical Truth No. 1. Author: Ignat Volkhov