Soviets / Russians Drilling Into Hell (Urban Legend)

[RaM]

There was a program on this not long ago, they showed the abandoned but caped top of the well,
I cant remember the thinking behind this project but they gave up due to the heat from the earth and
friction from the drill making it impossible to continu.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

Could this urban legend be based on, or at least inspired by, Conan Doyle's 1928 sci-fi novel "When the Earth Screamed", which featured a bore-hole piercing the Earth's mantle?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_the_World_Screamed

 

[Kondoru]

That was one of his Professor Challenger works, yes?

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

That was one of his Professor Challenger works, yes?

Yes - the mention of Prof Challenger on the Sherlock Holmes thread reminded me of it and the remarkable similarity to this urban legend.
OK so in the Conan Doyle story, there's some sort of sentience inside the Earth, rather than a hole to hell, but the core details (pun sort of intended) are pretty similar.