Such a phrase as "Stalin's Bunker" is shrouded in some mystery and mysticism. Perhaps this is due to the fact that information about these secret hideouts of the first person of the state for so many years has been overgrown with many legends and rumors. According to the already declassified information, Stalin's first bunker was built in the 30s as part of the state program to ensure the country's defense. It is located in the eastern part of the capital, Izmailovo district.
Many Muscovites and guests of the capital did not even suspect that this huge secret object was located in the immediate vicinity of the Cherkizovsky market (no longer operating) under the territory of the old stadium. Today this bunker is known as the museum "The reserve command post of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army IV Stalin during the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945".
The construction of the bunker in the 1930s was due to the fact that, despite the ongoing negotiations with the top officials of Germany, the Soviet government was preparing for their worst outcome - a military confrontation.
It should be noted that at that time, for the efficient use of the country's resources, all significant projects under construction had a dual purpose. So the metro was considered not only as a convenient form of transport, but also as a fairly protected bomb shelter. Tractor factories could quickly switch to the production of tanks. Pasta factories were able to start producing gunpowder without changing equipment. And also bottle and cartridge factories? The secret bunker in Izmailovo was also disguised as a completely civilian object - a sports complex. The announcement became a public version of the grandiose and at the same time secret construction: “To ensure the appropriate holding of the Spartakiad, build the USSR Central Stadium (Peoples Stadium) in Moscow. During the construction of the stadium, proceed from the construction of auditoriums for at least 120,000 numbered seats and a sufficient number of various kinds of physical culture facilities of auxiliary value for educational and public use. When designing, provide for the construction of the 2nd stage of the Palace of Physical Culture with scientific institutions, academy, institute."
The Metro-2 project was also successfully implemented in the shortest possible time. It included not only a secret bunker, but also a 17-kilometer underground road that connected the facility with the Kremlin.
In 1939, after the completion of the underground construction of the bunker, the creation of a sports complex was suspended.
According to the assurances of Stalin's former comrades-in-arms, the country's leader visited this bunker for the first time in 1941, having made a car trip through an underground tunnel. In the most difficult days of the siege of Moscow by the Nazis (November - December 1941), the "father of all peoples" worked in this bunker. It was here that the question of either leaving Moscow or defending it was decided. How can one not recall the famous council in Fili during the invasion of Napoleon in this connection? On December 5, 1941, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive near Moscow, and Stalin moved to the Kremlin, where he continued to work.
What was Stalin's secret bunker like? The object was protected from air raids by powerful reinforced concrete floors 8 meters thick. And its location was not chosen by chance: there were three military airfields nearby, including the government one - "Monino". The bunker itself was a well-provided working block, which included a meeting room, a study and a rest room for Stalin, a generals office and combat service rooms, a canteen and rooms for support services.
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Due to the rapid advance of the Germans in 1941, the State Defense Committee (GKO) decides to build similar protective shelters for the government of the country in cities deep in the USSR: Kuibyshev (modern Samara), Saratov, Gorky (modern Nizhny Novgorod), Yaroslavl, Ulyanovsk, Kazan, Stalingrad (modern Volgograd).
When the German divisions were already at a distance of 16 km from the capital of the Soviet state, an urgent evacuation of the people's commissariats and embassies began to Kuibyshev. All these institutions were located beyond the Volga until the summer of 1943 (the victory of the Soviet troops at the Kursk Bulge became a turning point in the course of the war), but Stalin remained in Moscow.
The bunker in Kuibyshev was ready to receive the "father of all nations" in February 1942. 600 metro builders from Moscow took part in the construction of this secret building. This bunker could be fully autonomous for about 5 days. It was believed that even if all the exits were blocked, Stalin would have been dug up during this time, even if this required the entire population of the district to be driven to this work. For the first time, when arranging such a structure, air regeneration units, devices for maintaining the required pressure level in the premises and elevators were used. Also, the bunker was provided with the necessary food supply, drinking water, compressed air cylinders, and had its own power plant.
The uniqueness of this object is that in the very center of the city, under one of the government buildings, a huge "hole" was dug 37 meters deep (this is the height of a 12-storey building) and no one even knew about work of this scale. By the way, Hitler's Berlin bunker was 16 meters deep, Churchill's in London, and Roosevelt's in the United States, the bunkers were two stories high.
On the top floor of the bunker in Kuibyshev there was a meeting room for 115 people. Nearby there is a recreation room, premises for security, technical services, warehouses. The bunker could withstand a direct hit from the most powerful aerial bomb. An interesting fact is that not far from the bunker, Stalin's daughter Svetlana lived in evacuation. There is information that during the raids of enemy aircraft, the girl was hiding in this bunker.
Soviet court architects tried to create a feeling of spaciousness and maximum comfort in the bunker.
Today Stalin's bunker in Samara is the most visited museum in the city. Especially Americans and Germans strive for it. One of their excursionists, who turned out to be the son of Field Marshal Rommel (now he is the mayor of Stuttgart), was offered to be photographed at Stalin's table, to which he jokingly said: I am afraid that the owner will enter here.
The construction of the bunkers was not completed after the victory over fascism. So in the 50s, in the Garden Ring area, another secret underground facility was erected at a depth of 65 meters. Its area was 7 thousand square meters. This was due to the onset of the Cold War, when there was a great threat of using nuclear weapons against the USSR. Today, this object has become not only a museum, it houses banquet halls and rooms for official meetings.
Stalin's times still cause controversy - too many crimes committed on the orders or with the knowledge of the "father of nations", many broken lives. And at the same time, it was under Stalin that the country became strong and powerful, capable of breaking the back of such a monster as fascism. Under Stalin, it was possible to create nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, the presence of which stopped American, British and European hawks from destroying the Soviet state. And the bunkers, which have now become museums, are only part of our history, which we can rightfully be proud of.