Samara, Russia
- This article is not about Samarra, which is in Iraq.
Samara (Russian: Сама́ра), from 1935 to 1991—Kuybyshev (Russian: Ку́йбышев), is a major city situated on the Volga River in the southeastern part of European Russia, Privolzhsky (Volga) Federal District, the administrative center of Samara Oblast. Geographical location .
It was founded in 1586 as a defense outpost, and later grew into a major grain-trading center for the Volga region. Important manufactures include motor vehicles, railroad equipment, chemicals, and machinery. The city also has an aerospace industry, producing the Soyuz spacecraft. Due to this industry the city was a closed city during the Cold War. It was the reserve capital of the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1943 when German troops threatened Moscow. The city is served by highways and railways, as well as international airlines, among them Lufthansa flying to and from Frankfurt. Airport code is KUF. It also has a subway line. One popular tourist location in Samara is Stalin's bunker, a World War II bunker built to house military operation in the event that Moscow was taken. This monument is located south west of Kuybyshev Square, behind a series of apartment complexes. As of 2002, the population of the city was 1,157,880. Samara is also a model name of a Lada car made by the VAZ auto company in Togliatti, in Samara Oblast.
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