Underground passages, caves and grottos under Moscow have always interested me. But I did not have a chance to see them. Recently my friend Viktor Buinov invited me to visit Moscow underground communications. I finally realized my long-standing dream.I took a sweater, a ski cap, an electric torch and a ski flask filled with vodka. The uncertainty of this adventure worried me: whether Viktor knows Moscow underground communications well or he can get lost there, and if we can be attacked by mutant rats and caught by criminals hiding from the authorities.At 3 pm I was in Viktor"s apartment in Tsvetnoi Boulevard. Viktor had a skeptic opinion of my outfit: "Nobody goes underground wearing this". He gave me a suit for chemical attack, a miner"s helmet, a powerful railway torch, a piece of kapron rope ten meters long, a set of mountain-climbing hooks, a hammer, food supplies for a week. Viktor had the same set of things for himself, just added a sapper spade and a pickaxe. As he explained, many things can happen underground, and we must be ready for this. We put on orange jackets of repair workers not to be stopped by the police when going underground.We headed for the Trubnaya Square. We were able to imperceptibly enter the half-destroyed house where a powerful grandee"s palace was located during the period of Queen Sofia"s rule at the end of 17th century. The grandee constructed the underground passage to the palace of the amorous queen. Viktor discovered the passage after reading archeology books, dug out its entrance and started using it for going underground. He put aside the concrete plate closing the entrance, and we started climbing down.

It was hard to breathe and the eyes were watering because of the bad stink. The warm clothing did not keep me warm in the wet underground atmosphere. Absolute darkness terrified me. I looked upward and could see only a small piece of the cloudy sky. I thought I might see it for the last time. Viktor called me: "Don"t lag behind!" We started our underground tour.We stepped through stinky liquid. The stone walls of the passage were covered with mucus. It was black, red, yellow and colorless and smelled terribly like sauerkraut soup spiced with rotten eggs. One could vomit smelling this.

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