The Cold War is alive and kicking in the vast underground complex known as Bunger-42 on Taganka.
Originally built as a top secret communications control centre at the height of the nuclear arms race between the Soviet Union and the West, today the bunker is a museum and entertainments complex.
All visitors have to pre-book tickets online as the two-hour tours are strictly limited but the attraction's website is in English and easy to navigate.The complex can also be tricky to find but is literally on top of the Metro in the Taganskaya area of the city - you'll hear the subway trains rattling past as you make your way down into the bunker. On exiting the Metro, look for a green gate marked with a large red star.
Work on the massive 7000 sq ft complex, 200 feet below a Moscow suburb, started in 1956 as the Soviet Union and the West, the United States in particular, began a nuclear standoff that would last until the 1990s.
Above ground it was nothing more than unremarkable building but the 2500 workers - there were 600 on every shift - who entered through a hidden entrance on the subway were the communications hub that would have continued to operate in the event of a nuclear attack.
The story of how the Soviet hierarchy managed to build the massive complex secretly are revealed to visitors - once the Metro shut down at 1am, heavy machinery was brought in through the subway entrances to construct a bombproof hub that stored food and fuel, a water supply and an air ventilation system that would keep staff alive for up to three months.
A word of warning to visitors with mobility issues - the only way into the bunker is by climbing down 18 flights of stairs, just as the Soviet communications staff did. There are elevators to bring you back to the surface.
The bunker's security checks remain in place with guides playing the role of KGB officers and giving visitors a genuine flavour of exactly what staff there had to go through daily - right down to a flashing red light and siren warning of an impending nuclear attack! The KGB rooms, in fact, are now rehearsal rooms for heavy metal bands.
A film reveals the history of the bunker and the Soviet Union's view on why it felt it had to enter the arms race. Some facts about the number of nuclear weapons manufactured, then decommissioned and literally left on rubbish heaps may prove chilling for some visitors, along with the revelation that there are still some 35,000 nuclear weapons available around the world today.
Relive the closing moments of the Eighties' teen movie War Games on the missile simulator or dress up in Soviet uniform for a photo opportunity with an AK47 or some of the other decommissioned weapons still found in the bunker.
Bunker-42 on Taganka is one of Moscow's most unusual visitor attractions but for a glimpse into the Cold War world that dominated East-West relations for more than a generation, it's unmissable.
