HISTORY & CULTURE

See the abandoned Soviet bunkers hidden beneath Georgia's capital city

A photographer ventured underground to explore the Communist-era ruins.

A massive door separates two wings of a Soviet-era underground bunker in Tbilisi, Georgia. If one area of the shelter was damaged in an attack, the door would protect the other half.

Story and photographs byDavid Tabagari

February 22, 2022

8 min read

There is an underground city beneath Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union allocated a large budget to prepare for nuclear and other attacks. Under Tbilisi alone there are about 450 bunkers, one of which includes a huge control panel to provide communication with bunkers below other Georgian cities.

In the 1980s, a huge water reservoir was planned below one of the suburbs of Tbilisi, but the project was never completed.

I always wanted to witness and photograph this hidden part of Tbilisi. I knew the location of several of the bunkers, and my friends and I found others through our research. With a trained eye, it is not difficult to locate them. (See how Communist-era bunkers were transformed into museums in Albania.)

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the bunkers were abandoned, although some still require special permission to access. I am not making public their exact locations to prevent vandalism. Entering the bunkers is dangerous: Many are damaged and partially collapsed. Bats and stagnant water present other perils. I never knew what to expect. Preparation and special equipment were required to remain safe.

A tunnel called Rustaveli 2 provides a way to move below the center of Tbilisi. Access to it today is controlled by the government.

Posters from the late Soviet era decorate the walls of a bunker.

Since these places are cloaked in darkness, I brought my own light and tried to capture the mysterious mood of these places during my voyage below Tbilisi.

The phosphorescent control panel on a diesel generator glows green in the dark.

An unfinished tunnel reveals efforts to supply air and remove earth underground.

A dark staircase leads back to the above-ground city, in this case near the Tbilisi airport.

The bunkers are littered with objects accumulated during their dark history, including Soviet reading material (left) and a bottle of Stalin vodka (right).

In the event of a nuclear attack, a control panel would allow communication with other Georgian cities, which are labeled on the buttons.

Photographer David Tabagari shines a flashlight on the ventilation pipes in the main government bunker.

The bunker near Tbilisi Airport was designed to shelter 150 people. The massive airtight doors would have protected them from whatever dangers lurked above.

David Tabagari is a Georgian photographer. Follow him on instagram. The text was edited and translated by Natia Khuluzauri, the editor in chief of the National Geographic magazine - Georgia.

This story was originally published in the February 2022 issue of National Geographic magazine's Georgia edition.