INSIDE THE SOVIETS’ SECRET NUCLEAR SUBMARINE LAIR: “The local guide explained how the facility was split into two clear sections on either side of the huge submarine channel that ran through the center, one side used for the operational running of the base and the other for arming the nuclear warheads. Then she dropped a bombshell of her own. She had worked on the operational side of the base for five years with level-two security clearance — just one step below the highest possible — yet in all her time at the facility she had never known the nuclear side existed. She was only made aware of it when she began guiding tours here years later.”

Jim Bennett, who sent the link, comments: “I remember when anybody who speculated about the existence of these kinds of facilities was dismissed as a ‘Cold War paranoid’.”