The Zhiguli mountains near Samara formed Samarskaya Luka (Samara Bend). Near Samara the Volga turns to the right and there is a narrow bend formed about 3 kms. wide. Samara was founded in 1586 on the very beautiful place in the center of great steppe beyond Moscow, the capital of early Russia. During the Great Patriotic War (the Second World War) Samara was the second capital of the USSR. The Government of the USSR and many foreign embassies were situated there. During the 1889 and 1893 V.I. Lenin worked in this city. He was a lawyer in Samara town court.

Samara has some museums. Art Museum branched of 1937 from the museum of regional studies which was organised in 1897. So did the museum of A. Tolstoy who wrote "Peter the First" and lived and worked in Samara during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the new museums is called "Bunker of Stalin" because it was built during the Great Patriotic War (Second World War) in own city to organise the defence of Stalin if he should come to Samara. Samara has 4 theatres. There are the Drama Theatre, the Opera and Ballet House, the Theatre of Young Spectators and the Puppet Theatre. Old theatre "Olimpus" is now the building of philharmonic society. The circus of Samara is called "The Hat". It's a new building.

Many river tourists visited Samara. Even a French writer Alexander Duma's had paid a visit there in 1858. In 1859 he wrote the book "From Paris to Astrakhan" after his travel where he left his description of Samara. Samara is now one of the biggest cities of Russia. Only part of the buildings where diverse cultural traditions are combined in the unique way, where every mansion in its own way represents the modernistic style remained from bygone riches.