Russian journalists have reported that the existence of Metro-2 is neither confirmed nor denied by the FSB or the
Moscow Metro administration. However, listed below is evidence for the Metro-2's existence.
Studies of declassified Soviet archival materials In 2021, a book by Dmitry Yurkov was published which covered new research on the history of special fortification in Moscow. Below is a summary of findings. From declassified archival documents, an overall layout of the track system and its main components can be established for the late 1960s (this is limited by the source material officially released so far). While the system was eventually assembled in the late 1960s by the KGB, originally it was a collection of structures built for a variety of purposes and operators.
Deep single-track tunnel This is the oldest component of Metro-2. Construction began in the mid-1950s, and its design was finalized in 1956. It intended to provide a solution to the challenge of extending the red line southwest, beyond the
Sportivnaya metro station and the river. Because of the conflicting requirements - a reasonable cost, a secure river crossing, and a civil defence shelter capacity - the final design included a shallow metro line with a vulnerable bridge backed up by a deep single track tunnel - which spurs from the main line after the Sportivnaya station (the initial part of this spur is seen on normal track maps) - and a high-speed elevator shaft. Originally, there were also other intended peacetime uses, such as nighttime train parking.
Order 10-A Order 10-A is composed out of sites 54 and 54a and was intended to provide protected work spaces for the personnel of the planned Palace of the Soviets behind the
Moscow State University campus. The plans for those administrative buildings were tied to the shafts and other features of this underground infrastructure project but the project was never completed. Order 10-A was made by the 9th directorate of the Ministry for Defence, and for it a new construction organization (US 10-A, presently Transinzhstroi) was set up in 1955. Construction was started in 1956 and completed by 1963. Site 54 is composed of at least 5 shafts (1, 2, 3, 5, 6 explicitly mentioned) and includes extensive supporting systems such as air filtering stations and power generation, with the latter designed to support the planned above-ground administrative complex in case of emergencies. The site is connected to the deep single track tunnel at the depth of 189m. Shaft R6, which was used during order 10-A construction, still exists in Moscow and is a marker for its overall location.
Sites 100, 101, 103 and "Branch" Site 103 is a large U-shaped structure built in central Moscow, designed to enhance the legacy World War II infrastructure by providing: site 1A in Kremlin (at the depth of 55m), a protected work spaces for the leadership; site 15N, a communications node; site 100 shelter (passing under site 101), a protected work spaces for the KGB. There were links to the existing legacy structures such as sites 25 and 25/2 in Kremlin, and site 201 at Lubyanka. It is also connected to the post-war site 101 at Zaryadie, which was intended to provide protected work spaces for officials working in the 8th Stalin's skyscraper; however, the skyscraper was never built, so site 101 was repurposed to support local Moscow region officials. However, this project was plagued with a number of problems, such as slow construction (which went well into the mid-1960s), and uncertainty of how it could be evacuated after a nuclear attack. The latter was solved by the construction of "Branch" (), which linked site 103 in the city center to the deep single track tunnel and enabled moving people to the city outskirts.
The remote air intake (DV) network After some initial work on a network of air filtering and then air regeneration stations, such as site 703 (aka ChZ-703), the decision was made to shift towards using several large air filtering stations on the outskirts of the city and pumping this clean air into the rest of the deep metro from there. Those were quite large structures (600,000–800,000 m3/h productivity) and required extensive supporting infrastructure of their own. While five remote air intakes were planned in Moscow, this was later cut to three, with only two actually being built: "Matveevsky" (DV-1) and "Rizhsky" (DV-2). While the latter was neatly connected to the post-war deep metro line, the former used a proprietary air supply tunnel connecting its location at the Matveevskaya railroad platform to the deep single track tunnel. This air supply tunnel was later retrofitted with track, and joined the network. For construction of this air supply tunnel and other related structures, shaft R6 was transferred from US 10-A. A related additional structure was the special connector line between the red and circle lines, as it would allow transport of air from the deep and nuclear hardened post-war section of the red line to the similarly protected circle line, bypassing the vulnerable area of the red line, which was built in the 1930s. DV-1 could also have been be used as an evacuation exit for the Moscow Metro, due to its location in the city outskirts at the time. Leningrad also received a remote air intake, located at Lenin's square.
Move to KGB custody In the late 1960s, the DV-1 and its related support infrastructure (i.e. the deep single track tunnel) were transferred to the KGB from the Moscow Metro, with a number of modifications being made, such as reworking the deep single track tunnel connection to the red line and adding a hardened hangar for 10 APCs at the DV-1.
Possible causes of the naming confusion and myth generation DV () is quite similar to D6 (Д6), and may be one of the ways this designation came to be used in modern online discussions. The so-called "underground city in Ramenki" is likely the result of urban explorers observing extensive support infrastructure for the DV-1. Alternatively, this term has also been linked to the order 10-A (i.e. with the CIA map drawing a large rectangular box with the known shaft R6 in the center).
Report from the U.S. Department of Defense In 1991, the
United States Department of Defense published a report entitled
Military forces in transition, which devoted several pages to a secret government underground in Moscow. It also included a diagram of the system superimposed on a map of the city. "The Soviets have constructed deep-underground both in urban Moscow and outside the city. These facilities are interconnected by a network of deep interconnected subway lines that provide a quick and secure means of evacuation for the leadership. The leadership can move from their peacetime offices through concealed entryways in protective quarters beneath the city. There are important deep-underground command posts in the Moscow area, one located at the Kremlin. Soviet press has noted the presence of an enormous underground leadership bunker adjacent to Moscow State University. These facilities are intended for the national command authority in wartime. They are estimated to be between and deep, and can accommodate an estimated 10,000 people. A special subway line runs from some points in Moscow and possibly to the VIP terminal at Vnukovo Airfield(...)" —Military forces in transition, 1991, p. 40
Information from officials , University metro station and site 54
Igor Malashenko In 1992, in an interview with
Time, Deputy Director Broadcaster spoke about the existence of Sofrino-2, about to the north-east of Moscow's television broadcasting centers, built at great depths in case of nuclear war. According to Malashenko, the equipment was unusable due to age. He went on to say that the same fate befell many of the underground bomb shelters, and in particular a system of underground bunkers beneath the building of
Moscow State University, which he said were flooded and had deteriorated.
Vladimir Shevchenko In 2004, former advisor of
Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, former
Russian president Boris Yeltsin and then president
Vladimir Putin, confirmed the existence of a secret in the Moscow Metro. "Reports on the number of underground communications are greatly exaggerated. In the days of Stalin, who was very afraid of assassination attempts, there was in fact a single-track underground railway line running from the Kremlin to his so-called "Nearby
Dacha" in Volynskoye. Today, neither the Dacha nor the subway line are in use. In addition, there were underground transport links between the General Staff and several other government facilities. In 1991 a
pneumatic mail tube was constructed between the
CPSU Central Committee building in Moscow's
Old Square and the Kremlin." In 2008, Shevchenko once again touched upon the Metro-2. "Currently, the Kremlin subway cannot be called a transportation artery, and, as far as I know, for its continued operation it required major repairs: for among other things there are a lot of underground utilities which will eventually decay."
Mikhail Poltoranin In 2008,
Mikhail Poltoranin, a minister under Boris Yeltsin in the early 1990s, explained: "Several years ago, among the drivers of the Izmailovo depot there was a recruiting for a service on secret routes, and although there were many willing, they were to select only one. Entering the midst of these tunnels is only for people with special clearance. Most often, these branches used very short trains, consisting of battery-electric locomotive and one passenger car."
ITAR-TASS As stated in a report of ITAR-TASS in 2007: "Line of the Metro-2 has long been in the KGB office, and subsequently came under the wing of the FSB."
Information from defectors Oleg Gordievsky Oleg Gordievsky, a former colonel of the KGB who worked for the
British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) for 11 years and defected in 1985, in an interview with
Argumenty i Fakty called
The supreme secret of the KGB, which has not been disclosed until now stated "You still do not know the main KGB secret yet: a huge underground city, a whole communications network of such facilities. But they will not show you; they will never, of course."
Declassified facilities Museum of the Cold War In 2006, the was opened to the public, located in the old
Tagansky Protected Command Point. Also known as "Bunker-42" this museum is located at the GO-42 site, that took over sites 02 and 20. Site 02 was a deeply buried hardened protective structure housing a secure telephone exchange, while site 20 was some sort of military communications node (little hard archival evidence exists beyond that). Sites 02 and 20 were connected to the regular Metro, with site 02 forming a ring of hardened telephone exchanges together with sites 01 (close to Belorusskaya metro station) and 03 (close to Kievskaya metro station). None of those sites were physically connected to the "Metro-2".
Special fortification museum In 2018, a museum opened at the location of the former ministry for foreign affairs secure archive facility ("Bunker-703, also known as MFA site 2 or ChZ-703) . Around 42 meters deep, it was originally intended as a metro air filtering, then air regeneration station, before the metro began work on a remote air intake network. =="Underground City" in Ramenki==