Why were small houses built on the roofs of "Stalinok"

Many have noticed that small houses are sometimes found on the roofs of houses built by Stalin. As a child, probably everyone asked adults a question about why they were needed. The answers were very different and, most often, humorous or simply incorrect. Let's find out why we need these booths on the roofs and visit inside.

There are many options for the purpose of houses on the roof. My mother told someone that Carlson lived in it, and my father told someone with an intelligent look about fire observation posts. There are also completely exotic versions, for example, about the placement of meteorological equipment for tracking the weather in the building.

Once I heard that the house is a post for a supervisor with a machine gun, watching German prisoners of war working on a construction site. In the 40-50s, there really were a lot of them at construction sites of a country that had suffered a lot from the enemy. But all these are hypotheses born of someone's violent imagination. The houses on the roof are just stationary observation posts in the building.

Of course, it has not become clearer now, but we will explain everything. VNOS is "aerial surveillance, notification and communication". Until 1951, these were separate units as part of the air defense. They were responsible for warning about the threat of an air raid. This service was founded in pre-revolutionary Russia, along with the appearance of the first bombers.

Now there is no VNOS, since units with similar tasks are radio-technical air defense troops. But before high-tech locators and sensors appeared, posts on the roofs of tall buildings were used to monitor the airspace.

Observers with binoculars and special sound traps were on duty in such a house. There was also a powerful siren warning the neighborhood about the danger of an enemy raid.

In each house there was a telephone that provided communication with the central control room at the air defense headquarters. Often there were special platforms for anti-aircraft guns near the outposts or on their roofs.

Posts were built on the roofs of some buildings until the end of the 50s, until effective radars appeared. Then the posts lost their relevance and are still abandoned.

Some of them have adapted mobile communication companies and Internet service providers to install their equipment. But most often they are empty, and their simple equipment, such as C-40 sirens, has been stolen and scrapped.