This afternoon, we visited the Cold War Museum, located in a nuclear bomb shelter underneath the Jalta Hotel in Wenceslas Square. This is one of about 800 bunkers underground in Prague. This shelter was the secret headquarters of the Czechoslovak communist secret police, conveniently centrally-located and under a luxury hotel which they bugged to eavesdrop on Western, Warsaw Pact members, Soviet, and diplomatic guests. It’s also designed to keep 150 people safe (in terms of combatting radioactive air quality) for two weeks, in the event of a nuclear bomb. The docent was in period police uniform and gave a lively tour of the bunker’s facilities (office, telephone spy room, interrogation room, hospital room, air purifying system, escape tunnels), and described life and police interaction in communist Czechoslovakia (constant watch, arrests and questioning, propaganda, inaccessibility of Western brands and media, Soviet weapons).
Zooming out, the placement of the Cold War Museum inside a communist bunker is a unique way to tell that story. I believe memory and preservation are important for teaching history and perspectives to those who didn’t live them. Visiting the “place where it happened” makes stories more relatable and come to life. There’s a cliche saying, “those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it,” but I’d like to highlight the benefits of studying history: it’s interesting and provides insight into societal development, current affairs, culture, and trajectory.
This is highly applicable to engineering heritage. Many STEM people have some sort of lab notebook, a place to document one’s experiments to have a record of what happened. While important for legal reasons, it’s also a good practice for ensuring continuity in one’s (an individual or a profession) work: to remember what has been done and why, and guide where to go next.
Swanson School of Engineering 