[El Gato]

In other words, if the tunnel were left to fill with water and collapse, in four years the earth would open up to swallow the town of Protvino.

That might be the most mercifull thing that could happen.

[historian1944]

No, that would be a bad thing. At least wait for it to fall until after my fiancee leaves Protvino for Michigan.

It's not a bad town, overall. True there really isn't much there. There's a gymnasium type structure that is half completed (construction stopped a few years ago) that everyone plunders the bricks from.

There's a really interesting monument to the men who fell defending Russia from the Germans, with a 76mm AT gun, and what used to be referred to as "Czech Hedgehog" antitank obstacles. It does mark the limit of advance of the Germans from the south, after all.