I am in Samara, where I have successfully infiltrated the Stalin Bunker. The bunker was build in great secrecy and in great haste in 1941, when Moscow was in danger and Kuibyshev (aka Samara) was the fallback Soviet capital. But Moscow survived and Stalin chose to stay in the city even during its most dangerous […]
Browsing Posts tagged Russia
Samara: Stalin Bunker
March 19, 2013
Magnitogorsk: Steeltown USSR
March 14, 2013
I’m in fabled Magnitogorsk, Stalin’s Steeltown USSR. The steelplant is truly vast, running for miles along the Asian bank of the Ural River. Some parts are old and decrepit looking, others appear sparkling and ultra-modern. Today the plant is covered with a pall of smoke and steam, as hot smokestack gases hit the icy air.
Moscow: Bunker 42
March 7, 2013
Bunker 42 is an authentic Soviet era nuclear bunker in Moscow, now open as a museum. It is extremely cool. The main tunnels provided 7000 sq meters of space, 65 meters under Moscow’s Taganskaya Hill. You enter through a fake building on the surface, which provides four meters of protective concrete around the bunker entrance. […]
Moscow: Stalin Bunker
March 6, 2013
The word “bunker” evokes images of a grim concrete shelter; dark, dank and ugly. Well maybe for most people, but not if you’re the Red Tsar. Moscow’s Stalin Bunker is positively palatial, with faux marble columns, a large domed conference room, and a paneled private office. Between 1933 and 1939 the Soviets built a sprawling […]
The Museum of the USSR
March 5, 2013
The Museum of the USSR is a new and quirky museum at Moscow’s VDNKh exposition center. It’s really a “Museum of Everyday Life” in the USSR, with several large rooms full of everyday Soviet kitsch. Old fashioned electronics, teddy bears, Soviet motivational posters, etc, etc. It’s all reasonably amusing. But the star of the […]
Space Aliens in Red Square
March 3, 2013
While in Moscow, I discovered that the space aliens who landed at Chelyabinsk have now set up camp in Red Square. A giant shimmering force field covers Lenin’s Mausoleum. Of course the authorities claim it’s a bubble tent to shelter repair work on the mausoleum, but this is Russia and who believes the authorities? More […]
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