Abandoned Sulak Bomb Shelter (Orenburg)

The abandoned Sulak bomb shelter in Orenburg is a Cold War-era civil defence structure. Shelters like this were always built next to large factories and plants: they had an autonomous power supply and were fitted with ventilation and air filtration systems, letting people shelter underground for several weeks, until the situation outside returned to normal after a nuclear blast.

Today the shelter stands abandoned and draws urban explorers and fans of industrial ruins: the surviving concrete structures, ventilation shafts and leftover equipment give a sense of the scale of the Soviet civil defence system.