Surabaya Submarine Monument (KRI Pasopati)

The KRI Pasopati submarine monument is one of Surabaya's most unusual attractions: a fully intact 1960s Soviet submarine that visitors can climb through. The vessel is displayed in a public park in the south of the city, cut open along its length so you can walk through the cramped engine room, torpedo room, and crew quarters.

It gives a visceral sense of what life was like aboard a Cold War submarine — everything is startlingly small and functional, with instruments and equipment intact. The park around it has a fairground atmosphere, and the contrast between Soviet-era military hardware and Indonesian families out for a Sunday afternoon is very Surabaya. Entry is cheap; find it in Taman Hiburan Rakyat on Jalan Pemuda.

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KRI Pasopati was a Soviet-built Whiskey-class submarine delivered to Indonesia in 1962 as part of a weapons package from the USSR during the period when Indonesia maintained close ties with Moscow. It was decommissioned in 1989 after 27 years of service, then dismantled and remarkably reassembled piece by piece in Surabaya's Taman Hiburan Rakyat park — where it now sits landlocked on a concrete plinth.

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