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All Estonia Tallinn KGB Museum

KGB Museum

"There's nothing there," and other lies the KGB told us.

Tallinn, Estonia

Added By
Melissa Marshall
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The KGB Museum.   Ben Pipe / Alamy
The view from the KGB Museum   Melissa Marshall
Special recording devices  
Two phones, one for regular calls, other for direct contact with KGB headquarters  
The KGB left high-tech spy gear   Melissa Marshall
Tour guides show off the KGB gear   Melissa Marshall
KGB as documents they left them   Melissa Marshall
An officer’s pistol.   Adam Jones/CC BY-SA 2.0
  Lana Velkov / Atlas Obscura User
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About

After the Soviets built Tallinn's luxurious, but imposing, Hotel Viru in the 1970s, Estonians joked that the building was made of microconcrete, as in concrete and microphones.

Few people were ever allowed on the hotel's top floor, which the Soviet managers insisted contained only technical rooms. When the KGB fled the country in the early 1990s, the newly liberated Estonians discovered that the technical rooms housed elaborate, vintage James Bond-esque listening equipment.

The hotel's new owners kept the rooms exactly as the KGB left them. On the door of those technical rooms is now written "There's nothing here" in both English and Estonian, which alludes to the official answer given when anyone asked what was behind the door. Visitors can take guided tours that focus not only on the more absurd elements of living in a surveillance state, but on the strange history of the hotel, which includes sex work, espionage, and some of the best chicken to be had during the occupation.

Related Tags

Museums Crime Museums And Collections Secret Secret Museums Crime And Punishment Collections

Know Before You Go

The museum itself is located on the top floor of Hotel Viru, but you may only access it via guided tours which begin in the hotel lobby.

Community Contributors

Added By

Melissa Marshall

Edited By

ahvenas, cepps, Kerry Wolfe, Lana Velkov

  • ahvenas
  • cepps
  • Kerry Wolfe
  • Lana Velkov

Published

June 24, 2016

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Sources
  • https://www.sokoshotels.fi/en/news/news/hotel-viru-ja-kgb-museum <Note to editors, this is not really a source but the official site, the link currently listed is broken but I can't find any way to update it>
  • https://www.sokoshotels.fi/en/news/news/hotel-viru-ja-kgb-museum/01965068_392922 <so sorry, this should be the full working URL>
KGB Museum
4 Viru Square
Tallinn, 10111
Estonia
59.436532, 24.754941
Visit Website
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