Viru KGB Museum, Tallinn

Viru KGB Museum, Tallinn - darkometer rating : 4 - Not so much a museum as such but a guided tour through the somewhat "museum-ized" parts of the Viru Hotel in Tallinn where the KGB used to operate its surveillance technology to listen into guests' conversations and so on. The tour is a very tongue-in-cheek, even sarcastic, and certainly entertaining affair that tries to provide an insight into the Soviet era without making it too gloomy. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: The Viru hotel was once the crown jewel of the original “Intourist” agency – the official state tourism agency during Soviet times (founded by Stalin and partly run by the KGB ), which virtually every foreign tourist wishing to travel to the USSR had to use. Intourist's hotel for foreigners in Tallinn was a prestige project. For that reason, a foreign, namely Finnish construction company was commissioned to build the hotel (also using quality foreign materials). Construction started in 1969 and the hotel was opened in 1972 (delayed by a fire – which was of course hushed up). Once competed, it instantly became a major landmark of Tallinn , having been the first high-rise building of its type in the Baltics. Postcards from the 1970s and 80s bear testimony to that status of the hotel. It even featured on official tourist brochures' front pages (instead of anything in the Old Town, as invariably would be the case today). The place also quickly became a mysterious legend. There had always been rumours about spying activities, and after the Soviets left and the hotel was in independent Estonia 's hands, the rumours were proved correct.