Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin - a man who, with his last name alone, causes fear, hatred and a mixture of other negative emotions. The dictator who ruined the lives of more than one hundred people, for many decades was an idol, the center of a cult.
Even Vladimir Lenin conjured not to allow Stalin to power. After all, he knew what kind of person he was. Being not a saint himself, Ulyanov was afraid to even imagine that such a tyrant, like Koba, would rule the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, this happened: the beginning of terrible tyranny was laid. Countless people died, but Stalin himself suffered a blatant death. Lying on the floor in his office, he left this world, and not a single person cried, no one thought to save his leader, leader and most important person of a powerful empire that won the Second World War.
Samara-Kuibyshev
The city of Kuibyshev, or Samara, is a beautiful place. It is located on one of the banks of the Volga River and boasts magnificent architectural monuments, churches belonging to different religious faiths, and other attractions. It is very beautiful in Samara; it is also called an open-air museum.
Kuibyshev is famous for the fact that Stalin’s bunker still exists in it. Samara got it in its possession in the early 40s of the last century, when the war began. Stalin built it to hide from the Hitler invasion. Today, the institution serves as a museum, which receives a large number of visitors.
Location of the Stalinist Refuge
The bunker is located under the modern building of the Academy of Culture and Art in Samara. Previously, in the same house was the Kuibyshev Regional Committee. In his hall on the right side of the main staircase there was an inconspicuous door that was no different from the others. One of the NKVD employees was constantly on duty near her. Immediately behind this door was a sash of iron. Behind it was one of the most secret objects of the USSR. The leader's secret bunker is of tremendous value to scientists today.
Having opened the door, a person gets to the upper platform, which leads to the bunker itself. From it, by the wall stairs or by elevator, you can get to where Joseph Vissarionovich thought to find his refuge. A shaft 14 meters long leads down. It is using a special floor connected to a long transverse corridor. Installations for ensuring the vital activity of the bunker and its auxiliary units were concentrated on this floor.
In the center of the corridor, which leads to the emergency exit, is the entrance to the main compartment of the hopper. The first floor, which is considered the deepest, begins after the 192nd step.
Stalin's bunker (Samara)
It was built in 1942, and the object could only be declassified in 1990. At the present stage, quite a lot of such buildings have been declassified. But Stalin's bunker is the most powerful of them. Its depth is 37 meters. To imagine these options, take a look at a 12-story building. Joseph Vissarionovich was probably more afraid of other world leaders for his life. Judge for yourself: the depth of Hitler's bunker in Berlin was 16 meters, Churchill created a shelter in London no deeper than the height of a two-story building, Roosevelt limited himself to the same dimensions.
The world has not yet seen analogs of the construction that belonged to Stalin in Samara, especially if we take into account the time frame for which it was completed. It took the former dictator less than nine months to create this “masterpiece”. Of course, it was not the leader himself who worked continuously on him, but engineers, builders and other specialists. But what is Stalin's bunker today? Museum, and only.
Hopper inside
Although in modern peacetime only excursions are held here, in case of war you can take refuge in it. It has its own power station and an autonomous installation for air regeneration. All of these units are currently in working condition. Even now, the bunker is leakproof and, if necessary, can provide complete autonomy for five days. There are many floors in the dungeon and they are provided with elevators. There is a conference room for 115 people. It is located on the lowest floor. Stalin's bunker (Samara), whose photo is amazing, is a truly impressive building.
Next to the hall there is a rest room, in which Comrade Stalin himself had to relax. Several upper floors are premises for warehouses, guards, services involved in technical support. The bunker itself "envelops" monolithic concrete, the thickness of which reaches three meters, then there is a layer of sand and another layer of concrete. Therefore, the largest aerial bomb of the Second World War was absolutely safe for Comrade Stalin’s bunker in Samara.
Who was involved in the construction of the bunker?
The bunker of Stalin (Samara) causes a lot of controversy about its existence. The subject of one of them is the question of who exactly took part in the construction work. In the last month of autumn 1941, the Chekists urgently began to prepare for the placement of Mr. Beria in Kuibyshev. Scientists have found that one November night, Lavrenty did come to the city, but whether he visited the construction site of the bunker is not known for sure.
According to one version, the creation of a secret object is the work of hundreds of political convicts Bezymyanlag. They also claim that upon completion of the work, all these people were shot by order of Lorenius Beria. This was done in order to prevent information leakage, and the corpses of prisoners were buried underground in the bunker, in one of the natural failures of karst origin.
Stalin in his Samara bunker
Stalin's bunker (Samara) receives a lot of visitors, but was there the man himself for whom he intended? This is not known for certain. It was established that in Samara, Stalin was only a passage when he was transported in a prison train, and after escaping from prison, when Joseph returned to the Caucasus. Rumor has it that he was in the bunker twice, at night, and stayed there for a short time.
Stalin's bunker, a tour on which is no less intriguing than the story of the asylum itself, can tell its guests much more than any informational publications.