Stalin's Bunker

Samara's most compelling sight is the bunker built for Stalin beneath the city in 1942, when the Soviet government was evacuating east ahead of the German advance. At 37 metres below ground level, it is one of the deepest wartime shelters ever constructed, designed to survive a direct bomb hit. Guided tours descend through the original access shaft to the conference room, Stalin's private suite, and the communications equipment from the wartime period.

The bunker is now a museum — one of three known Stalin shelters in Russia (the others are in Moscow). The tours are informative and the physical experience of descending into the Cold War-era bowels of Soviet paranoia is genuinely memorable. Tours run several times daily; book ahead in summer.

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A story
The bunker was built in complete secrecy between 1942 and 1943, beneath what was then the Kuibyshev Regional Communist Party Committee building. Workers were brought in from Moscow and kept isolated from the local population. The entire project — 37 metres deep, with walls strong enough to survive a direct nuclear blast — was completed in a single year. Stalin never used it.