Samara: Joseph Stalin’s secret bunker has become the unlikely meeting point for thousands of fans who have descended here for the World Cup.
Emerging from the underground shelter more than 120 feet (37 meters) below ground level, Mexicans donning traditional sombreros and Colombians and Uruguayans carrying national flags were fascinated with this remnant of Soviet history that remained unknown for 50 years.
“It’s amazing to see so many Latin Americans gathered here. Soviet history is so foreign to us, and getting to know this part of history, which is new to us, is so cool,” said Edly Mortera, a Mexico fan wearing the green shirt of the national team here, Friday.
Her husband, Edgard Ramirez, surfaced from the bunker with a wide-brimmed embroidered sombrero in his hand, and some local residents asked him if they could take pictures.
“It’s a great experience because even though our plan is to follow our team and do some sightseeing, we didn’t really understand Russia’s war history till we visited this country,” Ramirez said. “I’ve been told this is the largest, deepest bunker in the world, even deeper than (Adolf) Hitler’s or (Winston) Churchill’s.”
Stalin’s bunker was built here in 1942. The city, which during Soviet times was known as Kuibyshev, became a strategic point during World War II because it was far from the conflict and it provided an escape route through the Volga River.
Many of the government’s offices were transferred to Samara when Moscow was under the threat of a German attack and Stalin became the main target of the Nazis.
For more than half a century, the bunker that could shelter about 100 people remained one of the world’s best-kept secrets. Few could imagine that in a nondescript common alley there was a house with an underground passage with a depth equivalent to a 12-story building.
Now dozens of tourists line up outside the fortress, while a local resident offered photo opportunities with rented replicas of Stalin military uniforms adorned with Soviet hammer and sickle medals.
“I was really impressed by the way that it was built,” Daniel Astesiano, an Uruguay fan who wore his team’s sky-blue shirt, said deep inside the bunker. “The steel doors that are unbreakable, the roofs with arches that are similar to the subway stations in Russia,” he added.