Soviet Kunmadaras Soviet Airbase findings

[GC*]

Gentlemen,

I would like to share with you all the photos of some of my most relevant findings coming from former Soviet Airbase in Kunmadaras, Hungary.

I recently ended a 5-months long stay in Budapest and during that time I had the chance to visit two former Soviet bases, the one in Kiskunlachasa (not far from Budapest itself) and the one in Kunmadaras (..nearer to Rumania than to Budapest! Three changes to reach it by train!).

These experiences have been both great and I am still astonished by how some places I visited there looked like if nobody changed anything since 1991.

Kunmadaras was one of the biggest Soviet Airbases outside the SU; bunkers for fighters and bombers cover a 7x7 km area and in the former "village" you can still find everything.. The hospital, the school, the gymnasium, with its swimming pool, the theatre..and so many blocks that it would have taken ages to visit them all. Then of course all airport facilities.

Luckily or sadly (make your own decision) the base in Kunmadaras is currently being used in summer for motorcycle races and there are 2-3 private small planes. Some buildings are still in use and some have been used as dump for trash.

But in the deepest part of the blocks, where only the asphalt is free from trees and briars you can still ask yourself wether you are in Pripyat or not. This is not a funny joke, but a real description of how those places look. In the Kiskunlachasa base me and my colleagues found a Serbian film crew which was shooting a movie about Chernobyl..

Anyway. The experience was great and in Kunmadaras we also met the very nice guardian, which welcomed us with a loud "Здравствуйте!". We managed to have a nice conversation in Russian, being both our and his Russian definitely not so good.

He explained us that before the end of WWII the area was used by the Wehrmacht, he gave us indications about twhere to find what and gave us a map (I will post a photo of it..as soon as I will find it in the mess I am living in right now..).

Now, Gents, the photos of what I found. These things you will se might have a great value, but since years I have a special passion for field research..and the one I had the chance to accomplish in Kunmadaras was definitely great!

Some measurements. The USSR Coat of Arms measures nearly 3 feet / half-a-meter and the Soviet Airforce logo 1-and-a-half-foot tall.

I am particularly proud of these two things and of the VDV photo (found in the destroyed armchair of a paratrooper).

Regards

GC

[GC*]

Airforce.

[GC*]

VDV!

[GC*]

Reviews and on the top, left a drawing found in the school..

The review down-left has no name, the one on the right shows in details the Moscow-Lisbon car trip of some Soviet motorists.

[GC*]

Trud! July 24, 1990.

[GC*]

Found where now corn grows..

[GC*]

Moreover, here some information about the bases I visited and others, http://www.mil-airfields.de/hu/list.htm, here an online gallery of photos of Kunmadaras, http://www.panoramio.com/photo/10164478 and here the site of the museum in nearby Berekfurdo, http://www.soviet-airforce.com/en_index.html.

[Gordon Craig]

GC,

Very interesting stuff. I didn't visit any of the ex-soviet airfields while I lived in Budapest but I wish now that I had. Too busy visiting flea markets I guess. The reference to a two volume set of books on Soviet air fields is one I was not aware of. I have an excellent book by Károly Vándor called "Soviet Air Forces in Hungary & Austria 1944-1991. A description and the history of Kunmadaras starts on page 60 and finishes on page 80. The pictures in your links definitely adds to my understanding of these airfields.

Regards,

Gordon

[Paul R]

Very nice!! How were you able to remove the murals? How you have them displayed in your museum?

[GC*]

Gordon, if you will have the chance in the future it would be definitely worth to pay a visit to those military bases.

The photos I linked are from a gallery I found on the internet, but since I did not share anywhere on the web my own photos I chose that gallery because, as you noticed, it gives a very clear picture of the base itself.

In some time I will share online my photos, taken in a gloomy winter day, which added to the already existing atmoshpere something magic and at the same time scary (it makes a sinister effect the big wooden cross which has been erected on the raceways used by riders, where one of them died some years ago..).

I will surely find tomorrow the map of the base and it will make things even more clear (I myself had some problems in orienting myself in the base, even having a map of it in my hands!).

I had the chance to read the book you are talking about even if unfortunately I don't own it personally. Definitely an interesting source of informations.

Paul, I actually found the USSR CoA and the Airforce symbols on the ground, in the ground floor of a building near the take-off strip. The image is painted on a thick and paperboard and together in the same place, all piled up together, there were others.

I clearly remember there was one I even took a picture of which was a CPSU Congress propaganda one.

The original one from which the pieces I took were part of was a little bit bigger, but damaged and it prooved impossible to move it without damaging it (the USSR CoA presents also intentional damages: right in the middle of the globe there is the clear sign of a fist or a kick which broke the paperboard). All the others were already damaged and broken. I luckily made it to preserve basically all the painted parts of the one I decided to "save".

Of course also now the pieces I got are very fragile. After bringing them home to Budapest I cleaned them from the dust they got in the last 20 years as careful as I could, so I would not damage the colours, but the whole thing is so fragile..

Bringing it back home in Italy meant packing them with all the due care and checking them as baggage on my flight.

Now I brought them to a framer-restorer which is giving me some suggestions about how to take care of them. The basic idea would be to additionally clean them and maybe rub their surface with some special oil that would help preserving the integrtity of the colours, finally framing them behind a solid glass that would allow me to hang them on a wall and at the same time be sure that nothing but the time-passing could damage them.

The sad thing is that even there were I found these paperboards there were others that would have been worth to be brought away (even if far less intact), but went to the base by train and then..on foot! And had to carry with me the paperboards for all the going back trip, which rppoved far more demanding than what I thought. Unfortunately the building were I found the paperboards was way too near to places where during the races people definitely go; I even saw some kind of sweepers doing something near there..and the sad thing is that such things, if found, would be very probably destroyed and thrown away as garbage. The way they were pilled up and the presence of quite clear footprints on the ground even suggested me that somebody already prepared them to be removed and destroyed. If they would have been in the "heart" of the forgotten zone, somwehere in a basement, I would have felt sure that nobody would have touched them.

Anyway, I did put all my effort in preserving at least something of what was there. I clearly felt that if I would have come back some time after, maybe better organized, I could have not found the paperboards there anymore.

Regards,

GC

[Wild Card]

Great stuff! Thank you for posting it.

Above all, it is good to know that this material has been rescued from oblivion.

[Paul R]

Awesome! When do you think you will be able to head back there? I am glad that you were able to save what you did.

[GC*]

Thank you for your comment Wild Car.

Paul, if it would be up to me I would probably be still there, passing every room of every house, documenting with my camera all those places and trying to find something to save a preserve.

I will be back for short in Budapest on the 7th of March, but I do not think I will have the chance to reach Kunmadaras. Maybe I will pay a second visit to Kiskunlachasa. I am anyway planning a second visit to Hungary entirely devoted to various vists to former Soviet bases.

However, I will spend at least 3 weeks of March in Berlin and since I recently bought a very interesting photographic book about the demobilization of the Soviet Army in former DDR, I will maybe try to find some interesting places to visit also there!

Regards,

GC

[Gordon Craig]

GC,

A trip to fomer Soviet military bases in Germany sounds like a very interesting project. This is something that occured to me after your post on visiting former soviet bases in Hungary. Now I just have to find the time and the money!

Regards,

Gordon

[GC*]

You are right Gordon! And also Poland should definitely be explored in these terms. Legnica must be a very interesting place, even if I am not sure about what remains of the former Soviet Airbase (there is even a Polish movie about it, Mala Moskva - not bad one).

But, sitcking to Germany, this is the book I was talking about; interesting text, however in German and many wonderful pictures! http://www.amazon.de...72&sr=8-2-fkmr0

Finally, forgive me for the delay, but finally I found the map of Kunmadaras airbase. Sorry for the low quality of the photo, I will upgrade my membership in the forum so that I will be able to post better pictures and better the quality of the topics I am debating with you Gentlemen. I have to say that I really found a very interesting and stimulating environment in this forum.

Anyway, here it is!

Briefly: from the bottom of the map, you will find a orizontal road and near to it a black line which stands for the pailway tracks (as you can notice there was a separate piece of railroads which entered directly into the base - that part is now completely abandoned). There are two entrances, the first was closed (I think permanently), while at the second one we met the keeper.

From there, going up, on the right we find the blocks and all the other main non-military structures (gymnasium, school, hospital, theatre etc). Returning at the antrance, if we go straight we find the airport facilities and right on the left of the main road the first hangars appear. As you can see most of the remaining structures are hangars.

The keeper explained us that fighters were kept in the hangars near to the entrance, while bombers more up, in bigger hangars I unfortunately did not have the time to reach.

Regards,

GC