The museum is housed in a Soviet underground ballistic missile launch complex, built in 1962. “We've come across some information, that there is a similar base in Ukraine. But a museum like ours, dedicated to the Cold War, is unique in entire Europe,” says Nijolė Norvaišienė, head of the museum that takes up a space of 3 hectares.
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| Aurelijos Kripaitės/15min.lt nuotr./Missile base |
The Žemaitijos National Park was handed the old underground missile facility in 1994, before scrape metal hunters could take it apart entirely. The park administration set up a militarism museum in the building that used to be a ballistic missile launch complex. Over 15 thousand tourists used to visit it annually. It is hoped that after the renovation and significant additions to the museum collection, visitor flows will increase three-fold.
“While we were preparing the exposition, we kept thinking of words by Albert Einstein: 'I know not with what weapons World War Three will be fought, but World War Four will be fought with sticks and stones',” says Vladimiras Orlovas who heads Military Heritage Centre and has made sure the exposition is supplemented with recently-declassified historical material. During the renovation, about 120 square metres of phenol-contaminated soil was taken out of the territory.
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| Aurelijos Kripaitės/15min.lt nuotr./A photo studio outside the museum |
The museum introduces visitors to the evolution of missile technology and exhibits the only accurate model for SS-4 missile. One room is dedicated to Soviet propaganda: books, newspapers, posters. Visitors can also watch “Vremya”, a popular TV broadcast of the time.
Narrow corridors lead to a place where a tactical ballistic missile used to be stationed for almost two decades. It is a structure of complex design, full of various equipment and communication lines.
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| Aurelijos Kripaitės/15min.lt nuotr./Museum exposition |
Missile base
The missile base in the woods outside Plokščių village near Plateliai was built by 10 thousand workers – most of them from Estonia. Pits running 30 metres deep were mostly dug with simple shovels. There were several shabby houses close to the site. Their owners received 4.5 thousand roubles each for moving further away.
1963-1978 the base housed four mid-range ballistic missiles SS-4, each equipped with a 2-megaton thermonuclear head. The missiles had a range of 2 thousand kilometres. All were directed towards Western European countries.
About 320 soldiers and officers lived in a nearby military village in Plateliai. Local population had no idea what was going on just outside their houses. They could only guess from occasional noises, sounds of military vehicles in the forest and shooting.
In 1978, the US intelligence located the base. Over the summer of that year, all weaponry was taken away and Soviet troops left too.
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| Aurelijos Kripaitės/15min.lt nuotr./Museum exposition |
