Fred Coleman, an American journalist stationed in Moscow, investigated these rumors during the Brezhnev era. He never saw any signs directing people to the bunkers, any mentions of it anywhere, or any emergency system tests. Nor did any of the Soviet people he talked with have the least knowledge of any massive bunkers built to survive nuclear war; when he asked them what they'd do in case of an attack, they only made dark jokes.

Based on all this, he concludes in his book The Decline and Fall of the Soviet Empire that there was no civil defense system able to house any substantial amount of the population. If there was, he says, wouldn't the people know about it? Wouldn't there at least be signs that people could follow to the bunkers in case of nuclear attack? Wouldn't there be some visible evidence?

(Let me add that, having read his book, I don't think it likely the people he talked to were lying to protect state secrets. Elsewhere in his book, Coleman records conversations where people revealed to him dissatisfaction with the government or other things at variance with the official story. Also, he remained in Russia through the Gorbachev era, when things were much more open. Finally, his other points about the utter lack of directional signs or drills, I think, would prove his case even without interviews.)