Workers find WW2-era explosive at Moscow hotel

Yahoo! News

Workers demolishing a Stalin-era Moscow hotel on Sunday discovered a tonne of explosives that would have been used to blow the building sky-high if Nazi troops had taken the Soviet capital, media reported.

"The boxes held only explosives without detonators so there was no risk of an (accidental) explosion in the hotel," a police spokesman told Russian news agencies.

After its opening in 1935, the hotel Moskva was one of the Soviet Union's flagship hotels and stood opposite the Russian parliament and only a stone's throw from Red Square.

The hotel has been demolished in what officials say is a drive to improve and modernise Moscow's tourist facilities. Media have reported that city officials intend to build a new hotel looking exactly the same.

Many architectural historians say the demolition is a shameful end for a key Moscow landmark that should have been preserved.

And with a story like that? If they building was left up, you'd have tourists and WW2 Families of vets coming in flocks! Provided they can afford the trip out, that is.