Less than two years ago, Object No 2, a gigantic bomb shelter built underneath Samara’s vast Kubyshev Square, was being considered by Russian tourism officials as a museum site.
The original design and decor of the 1940s shelter, built on orders from Joseph Stalin about 40 metres underground with office furniture and other details from the pre-nuclear age, would have been a logical addition to the city’s subterranean attractions. As the Soviet Union’s reserve capital during the second world war, the city sits on top of a huge complex of underground bunkers, of which Object No 2 is thought to be one of the largest.
