In the Soviet Union, all cities with closed status were always under a veil of secrecy. Only in 1960, three years after the launch of the first intercontinental ballistic missiles, American intelligence managed to establish the location of the Baikonur cosmodrome. On May 1, 1960, an American spy plane piloted by pilot Francis Powers flew over the cosmodrome and was shot down near Sverdlovsk, but a secret interballistic missile formation under the command of Colonel M. B. Grigoriev was already located near the city of Plesetsk in the Arkhangelsk region.
Secret object "Angara"
The creation of the first in the Soviet Union connection of combat ballistic intercontinental missiles "R-7" under the name "Angara" began in January 1957. At the suggestion of Marshal Zhukov, the northern part of the Plesetsk region was chosen as its location,located on the banks of the Yemtsy River in the Arkhangelsk region. Residents of 18 settlements that lived on the territory intended for the construction of a military training ground were resettled to other settlements.
The military was satisfied with the fact that the impenetrable taiga, lakes and swamps facilitated camouflage, and low clouds made it difficult to detect the complex from the air. Thanks to the rocky soil and steep banks of the river, the volume of excavation work was reduced and the construction time for the strategic defense facility, the Plesetsk cosmodrome, in the Arkhangelsk region, was shortened. The formation of the secret Angara complex was completed in 1958, and from January 1960 the personnel took up combat duty.
Mirny City
Mirny owes its appearance to the construction of the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region. Simultaneously with the construction of military technological facilities, the construction of residential buildings for officers and workers serving the Angara complex was started. The first prefabricated panel and block houses were built from logs accumulated as a result of deforestation during the construction of the cosmodrome. In 1958, the construction of stone houses and cultural facilities began: hospitals and clinics, maternity hospitals, kindergartens, schools, a cinema, a library.
Initially, the residential village was called Lesnoye, because it was built on the territory of centuries-old forests. In November 1960, by decision of the regional executive committee, he wasrenamed Mirny, and in 1966 received the status of a closed city of regional subordination. The Plesetsk and Mirny cosmodrome in the Arkhangelsk region were created in secrecy, therefore, regardless of the place of residence, the mailings indicated Lenin Street and the city of Leningrad-300 or Moscow-400 as addresses.
How was the Plesetsk cosmodrome declassified?
A few kilometers from the military training ground Mirny is the regional center of the village of Plesetsk, Arkhangelsk region. Its inhabitants guessed the reasons for the secrecy of the Angara object, since they regularly noticed various special effects in the sky. The first publication that in the Soviet Union, besides Baikonur, there is another cosmodrome, appeared in the Pravda newspaper in 1983. Prior to this, even the inhabitants of the Arkhangelsk region did not suspect the existence of a secret object. "Plesetsk" and after that for a long time remained behind a veil of secrecy for Soviet citizens, but not for Western media.
After the artificial satellite Kosmos-112 was launched into Earth orbit by the Vostok-2 launch vehicle in 1966, British physics teacher Geoffrey Perry processed the inverse ballistics problem mathematically and calculated that the launch The satellite was produced at a distance of 800 km north of Moscow. He published his assumptions that there is another secret spaceport in the Soviet Union in the British aerospace weekly. After launchthe next satellite Perry managed to determine the exact coordinates of "Plesetsk" in the Arkhangelsk region.
Peaceful "Plesetsk" in the Arkhangelsk region today
The Russian cosmodrome "Plesetsk" is located 180 km south of Arkhangelsk. On the area, which occupies more than 176 hectares of land, there are several military units serving technical complexes for preparing missiles for launch, as well as launch complexes for launching launch vehicles. Fuel storage facilities are also located there.
During the years of Plesetsk's existence in the Arkhangelsk region, 12,000 rockets and artificial Earth satellites were launched from it - twice as many as from other cosmodromes in the world. Today, missile systems for troops with a strategic purpose are being tested at the test site, and interballistic missiles are being launched. Without exaggeration, the Plesetsk cosmodrome and the Mirny military training ground can be called Russia's strategic shield.
