The Most Heavily Guarded Places On Earth

This one's such a heavily guarded secret, we're not even sure where it is, and we're definitely not sure if it was ever turned off. In 1985, the US and the Soviet Union were in the middle of the Cold War. Both sides had their safeguards, and the Soviets' was a project called Perimeter, or

This one's such a heavily guarded secret, we're not even sure where it is, and we're definitely not sure if it was ever turned off.

In 1985, the US and the Soviet Union were in the middle of the Cold War. Both sides had their safeguards, and the Soviets' was a project called Perimeter, or more affectionately, Dead Hand. It was a computer-driven system designed to send out inquiries to determine if there had been a nuclear strike on Soviet soil, and if the highest levels of military controls had been compromised or destroyed. If they had been, the system would send a request alert to one final failsafe. It was a person, sealed inside this bunker, watching and waiting for the lights to turn green. If they did, that person was tasked with pushing a button that would send all Soviet nukes toward their Western Hemisphere targets.

Sounds like the plot of some late-night science fiction movie, right? But it's real, and Wired even got to talk to one of the men who helped build the system, Valery Yarynich. Once a member of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces and the Soviet General Staff, Yarynich said the system was built as a guarantee that even if a nuclear strike wiped out most of the Soviet command, they would still be able to strike back and, most likely, end the world. It had another purpose, too: to automate protocols that would need to be followed before button-pushers could get ahead of themselves.

The Dead Hand base was such a closely guarded secret that not only did the American government not know about it, but no Soviet civilians (including arms dealers) did, either. Russia's still not talking about it, and it's unclear as to whether or not Dead Hand was ever taken offline.

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