Dictators’ Hideouts

Infamous for his bunkers constructed during World War II and throughout the Cold War, Stalin's hideouts have maintained a shroud of secrecy for decades. Now, for the first time ever, new documents, along with a book banned in Russia, unveil the mysteries of the "Man of Steel's" Soviet-era shelters. As we travel from his unassuming dacha in Lipki to the sanctuary hidden in the forest in Sochi all the way through the Moscow metro system, where a clandestine second metro line connects numerous high-end bunkers for the USSR's elite, we will uncover the true extent of the fortifications meant to secure Stalin from the threats of the West.

Having siphoned billions from his people, Ukrainian dictator Viktor Yanukovych spent decades enriching himself and his cadre of oligarchs. In order to obscure his ill-gotten wealth, Yanukovych turned to Mezhyhirya, a sprawling 150-acre estate north of Kyiv. With Mezhyhirya in his grasp, Yanukovych ratchets his corruption to levels never seen before, in a scheme that spans multiple countries, numerous banks, and countless individuals. But when angry protesters storm the estate, they encounter excess on an entirely different level: an 18-hole golf course, a private zoo, a state-of-the-art laboratory, a private car museum, a luxury galleon-themed restaurant, and his piece de resistance, Honka House, a multi-million-dollar mansion connected to a secret tunnel. Can Mezhyhirya save Yanukovych from the wrath of the Ukrainian populace?

In the center of Bucharest stands a monolith that hides a grand secret. Casa Poporlui, known abroad as the People's Palace, is the magnum opus of Romania's most bloodthirsty dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu. Immediately ballooning in both expense and scale, the palace becomes emblematic of Ceausescu's megalomania, resulting in billions wasted on a monolith so large and heavy that it sinks six millimeters into the ground every single year. But could the rumors of an extensive anti-atomic super bunker connected to the Spring Palace bunker through a city-wide network of tunnels below its surface be true?

Fueled by narcissism, Mussolini's tenure as "The Duke" led to numerous disastrous defeats for Italy's Fascists. As his losses mounted, Mussolini fled, jumping from one hideout to the next, desperate to find a base from which to survive the second World War. His ultimate solution? A mega bunker in Monte Soratte so advanced that it would go on to act as a NATO base following Italy's defeat in World War II. Would Monte Soratte be enough to protect Il Duce from the Allied onslaught?

Following the cutting of ties of Albania from its allies, Enver Hoxha drives his country into geopolitical isolation, further fueling his paranoid notions of an imminent invasion and threat to his rule. His first plan, Bunkerization, involves the mass construction of hundreds of thousands of bunkers throughout the country, allowing his citizenry to wage guerilla warfare against the enemy he was sure would come. The plan quickly turns to folly, as the country is driven to financial ruin due to the mass expenditures required for the project. Still left yearning for more security, Hoxha establishes the megabunkers BUNK'ART 1 and BUNK'ART 2, before setting his sights on Corovoda, his mountain bunker also known as The Capital of War.

Countless Nazi prisoners were forced to dig tunnels and chambers spanning kilometers in a remote region of Poland. Codenamed Riese, the network of mega bunkers was Nazi Germany's largest mining and construction project in both scale and theory. With excavation commencing in 1943, deep below Ksiaz Castle, we scrutinize its purpose as merely another of Hitler's headquarters, or if it was meant to house mysterious laboratories for the construction of the atomic bomb. Could Riese have changed the course of World War II?