Visitors to a Soviet-era bunker in Lithuania can experience life under communist rule in the attraction “1984. Survival Drama”. The three-hour tour includes angry guards, forced confessions, and the threat of nuclear attack. The attraction is popular with younger Lithuanians who want to understand the rigors their older compatriots faced during Soviet rule. The Cold War began in 1946 and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. George Orwell first used the term “Cold War” in 1945.
The Cold War is long gone, but there is a place in Lithuania where it is still 1984. Deep underground in a Soviet-era bunker near the capital Vilnius, visitors to “1984. Survival Drama” can experience what life under communist rule might be like: angry guards scolding “prisoners” with megaphones; cold, dimly lit corridors; forced confessions; isolation; and the ever-present threat of nuclear attack. It’s all an act, of course, staged by a touring-focused crew, but they make sure it looks real. During the three-hour tour inside the bunker, guests must obey the commands of their “Soviet” captors or face harsh discipline and the threat of being hunted down as capitalist traitors. Organizers say the attraction is mostly popular with younger Lithuanians, who often find it difficult to understand what rigors their older compatriots had to face. Lithuania resisted Soviet rule for nearly 50 years, re-establishing self-government in the early 1990s.
A chilling moment in history:
The Cold War is believed to have begun with the announcement of Winston Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain’ speech in 1946.
The Berlin Wall, which divided the city in two, fell in 1989; the Soviet Union dissolved two years later, ending the Cold War.
1984 author George Orwell first used the term “Cold War” in 1945 to refer to his prediction of an eventual nuclear weapons standoff between powerful nations.
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