AIR RAID PRECUATIONS IN WORLD WAR II MOSCOW: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 1939-1945. During planning for the Moscow Metro (subway system) in the 1930s, Nikita Khrushchev, the manager of the Metro project, argued that the design should include deep tunnels for use as air raid shelters, in spite of the added cost. Josef Stalin considered the potential civil defense use and approved the construction of the Metro with deep tunnels. Photographic evidence indicates that Soviet air raid precautions measures implemented during Luftwaffe (German Air Force) attacks on Moscow included the use of subway stations, such as the Mayakovskaya Metro Station, as public shelters, with residents sleeping in the stations.

Barbier, M. K., Kursk: The Greatest Tank Battle 1943, London, United Kingdom, Brown Books, 2002. Rose, Kenneth D., California State University-Chico, One Nation Underground: The Fallout Shelter in American Culture, New York, New York, United States of America, New York University Press, 2001.

Entry 0237 – updated 22 June 2006