CNN told about the most mysterious sights of the Chernobyl zone

The quiet, untouched forests north of the Ukrainian capital are, at first glance, an ideal place for outdoor recreation. If not for one fact: this is where the Chernobyl exclusion zone, contaminated with radiation, is located, formed after the world's largest nuclear disaster in 1986.

The exclusion zone has been attracting adventurers for many years, but the local forests hide another legacy of the Cold War with a much more sinister and mysterious reputation. This is the Duga radar. You've most likely seen it in photographs - from a distance the structure looks like a giant wall, but upon closer examination it looks like a huge dilapidated structure of hundreds of antennas and turbines, writes CNN.

It can be seen for kilometers. Once a closely guarded secret, it is now a surreal sight. At one time, the Duga radar was one of the most powerful military facilities in the Soviet Union. It still rises 150 meters high and stretches almost 700 meters in length. But left to fend for itself in the radioactive winds of Chernobyl, the radar is now in a sorry state. If you get closer, you'll come across abandoned vehicles, steel barrels, broken electronics and metal debris - signs of a hasty evacuation shortly after a nuclear disaster.

Threat to long-range missiles

For decades, “Duga” stood in the middle of nowhere, and no one witnessed its slow death. Since 2013, visitors exploring the Chernobyl exclusion zone have been allowed access to the radar installation as part of a controlled group. Yaroslav Emelianenko, director of Chernobyl Tour, a company that conducts trips to this zone, says “Duga” amazes even those who know about its presence.

“Tourists are amazed by the sheer size of the installation and its aesthetic, high-tech beauty,” he told CNN Travel. “Nobody expects it to be so big.” They are very sorry that it is dilapidated and is in danger of being completely destroyed.”

Even decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the story of the Arc still raises more questions than it answers, and its true purpose is not entirely clear.

The project, doomed to failure

Construction of Duga began in 1972, when Soviet scientists were looking for a way to mitigate missile threats from long distances. They came up with the idea of ​​creating a huge radar located below the horizon that would reflect signals from the ionosphere to monitor the curvature of the Earth. Despite the gigantic scale of the project, scientists lacked a complete understanding of how the ionosphere works. Therefore, the project was doomed to failure even before construction.

Part of what is known about “Dug” (also called “Chernobyl-2”) was told by the former commander of the radar complex, Vladimir Musiyets.

“The object was part of the missile and space defense of the Soviet military and was created for a single purpose,” he told the Fakty newspaper. “Detect a nuclear attack on the USSR in the first two to three minutes after the launch of a ballistic missile.”

The Duga radar was only a signal receiver, the transmitting center was built about 60 kilometers from the city and was called Lyubech-1, now it is also in an abandoned state. These top-secret facilities were heavily guarded.

"Unfinished Hotel"

To confuse the “enemies,” the Soviet command often designated such objects with numbers or fake names. On Soviet maps, the Duga radar was marked as a children's camp.

Legend has it that Phil Donahue, one of the first American journalists allowed into Chernobyl after the disaster, asked his official guide about the surreal sight of the Arc on the horizon. He was told that it was an unfinished hotel.

According to Musiyets, during operation, Duga allegedly used short radio waves capable of traveling thousands of kilometers. The technique was called “beyond the horizon radar” and was supposed to detect the exhaust gases of launched missiles. In 1976, the world first heard an eerie, woodpecker-like, repeating pulse that emanated from transmitters. Conspiracy theories followed immediately, generating headlines in Western media about mind control and weather control.

"Russian Woodpecker"

Amid growing fears of nuclear war, some have argued that the low-frequency "Russian signal" could alter human behavior and destroy brain cells. Such strange speculation was caused by the fact that the USSR denied the very existence of the radar - you remember, it was a “children's camp”. While it is highly unlikely that the Arc was used as a mind control weapon aimed at Americans, its true purpose and important operating details have remained a mystery.

Was there a connection between Duga and the neighboring Chernobyl nuclear power plant? It is believed that the facility was built in a specific area to power the huge radar. Proponents of this idea point out that the Duga radar cost the Soviet Union twice as much as the power plant, despite its dubious military capabilities.

The 2015 Sundance Award-winning documentary Russian Woodpecker delves into this theory, drawing on Ukrainian artist Fyodor Aleksandrovich's research into the causes of the Chernobyl tragedy. The Duga radar plays an important role in the conspiracy.

Soviet ghosts

The explosion at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986 was the beginning of the end of the Arc. The complex was closed due to radiation contamination, and its workers were evacuated - there was silence, broken only by the crackling of Geiger counters monitoring radiation. Due to the top-secret status of "Duga", all documents about its work were either destroyed or archived in Moscow - all this is the case to this day. Vital antenna components are transported to Moscow or are stolen by looters.

Despite periodic diplomatic tensions between East and West, this does not mean that there are fewer people willing to explore such relics. Yaroslav Emelianenko says that the majority of visitors who want to see the Arc are visitors from the United States between the ages of 30 and 60. The fates of many of them are somehow connected with the history of the Cold War.

Emelianenko, who is part of a group of Ukrainian professionals working to include the Exclusion Zone on the UNESCO World Heritage List, adds that for many, visiting the Arc is the highlight of the trip.

Although the ominous woodpecker has long since gone silent on the airwaves, “Duga” continues to create an eerie impression in the abandoned forests of Chernobyl. The Soviet Union has disappeared forever, but its ghosts still live in its former territories.

Read also on ForumDaily:

The first nuclear disaster in Russia, of which very few people know, through the eyes of an eyewitness

Not only Beirut: 11 terrible human-induced disasters

“Lift everyone!” - dispatchers talks in the first minutes after the Chernobyl explosion

“Without people, the world would be more beautiful”: life in Chernobyl through the eyes of an eyewitness

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