The present Moscow subway, which is about 43 to 45 miles long, could shelter from 1 to 2 million persons in the lower stations and tunnels. The Soviet manual indicates it may be feasible to use the tunnels for shelter purposes. This would represent about 20 to 40 percent of the city's population. During the present 7-year plan it is to be expanded by about 35 miles. SOVIET BASEMENT SHELTERS The Soviet basement shelter is a special structure built inside the basement of an apartment house or public building and designed to protect people against some blast as well as against radiation, fire, collapsed buildings and debris, chemical and bacteriological agents. This shelter is completely below ground level. Its roof is made of various thicknesses of reinforced concrete supported by steel or reinforced concrete beams capable of withstanding at least the collapse of the building above. Depending on the type of building used, such shelters may occupy part or the entire width of the basement, but where possible, it will be built without using the basement walls in order to increase the shielding effect. This is the ideal part, so that you have the space and the added shielding from the outside wall. If this cannot be managed, you will use one wall. If the building is too narrow, they will use both. Inside it is divided into compartments for added strength and to protect people against partial blast damage. Depending on design and materials used, the basement shelter can withstand blast in the range of 10 to 100 pounds per square inch. The recommended capacity of such shelters is 100-150, but it may be larger. EQUIPMENT FOR BASEMENT SHELTERS The basement shelters are equipped with double airtight steel doors edged with rubber, toilets, water, heating, light, storage batteries, double bunks and possibly bottled oxygen. (See fig. G-14, p. 284.) The standard filter ventilation unit, which has been in production for a number of years, is hand or electrically operated, and capable of filtering out radioactive dust as well as chemical and bacteriological agents. It has three large chemical filter cannisters. These are quite elaborate, incidentally, and will take out most of the agents previously listed. This is a fairly expensive unit and some of the pipes are made of high-grade steel. Its air output is sufficient for about 150 persons, providing them with 1.17 cubic feet of air per minute per person. (See fig. G-15, p. 285.) SHELTER EXITS The basement shelters are also provided with emergency exits. These consist of tunnels whose length is at least half the height of the building above, and which terminate in concrete exits with one or more openings usually located in the backyards or adjoining gardens. (See fig. G-16, on opposite page.) In addition, basement shelters in adjoining buildings may be interconnected in order to provide further exits. PLANS FOR FOOD AND WATER Although equipped for long-term occupancy, no food is stored in apartment house basement shelters as it is not feasible under Soviet conditions, partly because the doors are kept locked and partly because they dont use the canned food, as we do, and partly because no Russian, in his right mind, would trust his food outside of his apartment, since his neighbors might take it. Instead, the population is instructed to take along food for several days when seeking cover. This fact and the absence of cooling equipment is likely to restrict the occupancy time. Of course, additional food might be obtained when the level of radiation has declined to the point where people can leave the shelter for short periods of time and the doors of the shelter can be kept open once the fallout has settled. The population has been instructed in methods of protecting food and water against contamination. EMERGENCY SHELTER TO BE BUILT AFTER WARNING The Soviet authorities plan to build a variety of fairly simple fallout shelters in the cities and especially in the countryside when the Soviet Government announces a "threatening situation" alert. This is one of the warning signals of the Soviet civil defense system and is to be announced when the Government has strategic warning of a possible attack or when it thinks that war threatens. In the Soviet civil defense system, many important prophylactic and preparatory measures are to be put into effect only when this alert is announced. Most of the emergency fallout shelters consist of earth-covered trenches, dugouts, or galleries in hillsides and make use of whatever material is handy. (Lumber, precast concrete slabs or pipes, sheet metal, and so forth.) These are built with approximately 3 feet of dirt over them. They are not designed for long-term occupancy except the dugouts. They are built for 25 to 100 persons and with some exceptions, such as dugouts, are not equipped for long-term occupancy. Soviet sources claim that a simple shelter can be built in 24 hours by the population at presurveyed sites and civil defense units are trained in the speedy tracing and laying out of such shelters. (See figs. G-17 and G-18, pp. 288 and 289.) |