Samara Region

Samara Region is one of the largest centers of the space industry in Russia. Samara used to be a closed city (from 1935 to 1991 the city was called Kuibyshev).

During the Great Patriotic War, Samara-Kuybyshev was considered the “reserve capital” of the USSR. In 1941, dozens of defense factories were evacuated here, military airfields were urgently built, as well as four bunkers for Stalin, Kalinin, Beria and Zhukov.

And Samara is also home to ‘Zhiguli’, one of the country’s oldest breweries. It was founded back in 1881 by Austrian nobleman and philanthropist Alfred von Wakano.