Editing Samara (section)

===Soviet period===
{{More citations needed section|date=May 2020}}
In 1935, Samara was renamed Kuybyshev in honour of the Bolshevik leader [[Valerian Kuybyshev]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Краткая справка по истории административно-территориального деления Самарской губернии |trans-title=Brief Information on the History of the Administrative-Territorial Division of the Samara Province |url=http://regsamarh.ru/State_archival_institutions/Central_Archive/putevoditel/atd/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131026163652/http://regsamarh.ru/State_archival_institutions/Central_Archive/putevoditel/atd/ |archive-date=2013-10-26 |access-date=2024-11-23 |website=Administration of the State Archival Service of the Samara Region |language=ru}}</ref>

During [[World War II]], Kuybyshev was chosen to be the alternative capital of the Soviet Union should [[Moscow]] fall to the invading Germans.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Powell |first=Gordon |date=1942-05-02 |title=Kuibyshev and Why It Became the USSR Capital |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11974382 |access-date=2024-11-23 |work=The Argus |pages=3 |via=Trove}}</ref> In October 1941, the Communist Party and governmental organisations, diplomatic missions of foreign countries, leading cultural establishments and their staff were evacuated to the city. This decision was reversed in the summer of 1943.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nagorski |first=Andrew |title=The Greatest Battle: Stalin, Hitler, and the Desperate Struggle for Moscow That Changed the Course of World War II |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7432-8110-2 |pages=165–166}}</ref> A dugout for [[Joseph Stalin]] known as "[[Stalin's bunker, Samara|Stalin's Bunker]]" was constructed but never used. To mark its role as wartime national capital a special Revolution Day parade was held at the city's [[Kuybyshev Square]] on November 7, 1941, and since 2011 has been remembered in an annual [[military parade]] organised by the city government.{{citation needed|date=September 2011}}

As a leading industrial centre, Kuybyshev played a major role in arming the country. From the very first months of World War II the city supplied the front with aircraft, firearms, and ammunition. Health centres and most of the city's hospital facilities were turned into base hospitals. Polish and Czechoslovakian military units were formed on the territory of the Volga Military District. Samara's citizens also fought at the front, many of them volunteers.{{citation needed|date=September 2011}}

After the war the defence industry developed rapidly in Kuybyshev; existing facilities changed their profile and new factories were built, leading to Kuybyshev becoming a [[closed city]]. In 1960, Kuybyshev became the missile shield centre for the country. The launch vehicle [[Vostok (rocket family)|Vostok]], which delivered the first crewed spaceship to orbit, was built at the Samara [[Progress Rocket Space Centre|Progress Plant]]. [[Yuri Gagarin]], the first man to travel in space on April&nbsp;12, 1961, took a rest in Kuybyshev after returning to Earth. While there, he spoke to an improvised meeting of Progress workers. Kuybyshev enterprises played a leading role in the development of Soviet domestic aviation and the implementation of the Soviet space program. There is also an unusual monument situated in Samara commemorating an [[Ilyushin Il-2]] ground-attack aircraft assembled by Kuybyshev workers in late 1942. This particular plane was shot down in 1943 over Karelia, but the heavily wounded pilot, K. Kotlyarovsky, managed to crash-land the plane near Lake Oriyarvi. The aircraft was returned to Kuybyshev in 1975, and was placed on display at the intersection of two major roads as a symbol of the deeds of home front servicemen and air-force pilots during the [[Great Patriotic War (term)|Great Patriotic War]].