The only River Fleet Museum in Russia

The history of each case is very interesting and informative. In Nizhny Novgorod there is the only Museum of the river fleet in the country, which tells about the evolution of commodity and passenger ships from ancient times to our days.

History of creation

The idea of creating an exhibition hall that would reflect the path traversed by the shipping industry belongs to the first director of the museum, Fyodor Nikolayevich Rodin. In the city of Saratov in 1921 the hall was opened, which was called the Museum of Volgars. But in 1935 the whole exposition was decided to be moved to the city of Gorky. Here, too, the institution changed the address several times, and only in the 70s of the last century was the 4th floor in the building of the Academy of Water Transport, where the museum is still.

Address

Museum of the river fleet (Nizhny Novgorod), whose address: 7 Minina Street, will please visitors with a rich and unique exposition. The halls display original documents, ship drawings, photographs, personal belongings of people whose life is connected with the development of this direction. A lot of interesting tell tour guides to those who look into the museum of the river fleet (Nizhny Novgorod). Working hours: from 9:00 to 16:00 on weekdays. The last Friday of the month is a sanitary day, and the entrance for visitors is closed.

Location of the exposition

Museum of the river fleet is located in two premises. The first consists of seven rooms, and the second - of two. The area of the premises is 500 and 50 m ^2, respectively.

The exposition is exhibited in chronological order, so that visitors can see where the river fleet began and what heights have reached now.

Visiting this institution will be interesting for lovers of history, future engineers, students and schoolchildren, as well as those whose life is connected with ships.

Excursion around the halls

Signal markets informs about the beginning of the excursion. The first hall presents the history of the development of navigation. Visitors are invited to see a small presentation, which tells the story of the Volga River, about the great people who stood at the sources of the fleet.

Here you can see a picture of the canoe, which was raised from the bottom of Lake Ladoga. According to scientists, he is about 5 thousand years old. On such boats began their journey pioneers. Also here are models of later ships that have plowed the waters of a mighty river from the 9th to the 18th century. They are chicles, goslings, whites, plots, bark. Almost all these ships were able to withstand not only the pressure of the water element, they could also be pulled overland from one waterway to another.

The picture "Burlaki on the Volga" is known to everyone from the school bench. The labor of the people harnessed to the strap and dragging the ships was very hard and exhausting. One of the expositions in the hall is devoted to the Volga burlacies. Here are the personal belongings of people who literally killed themselves on such hard work, tags on which the calculation was carried out with mercenaries, and bonded contracts. Stronger feel the unbearable burden, which had to pull these people, helps a diorama, repeating the plot of Repin's picture.

Part of the exhibition is dedicated to the great Russian inventor Kulibin. Thanks to his brilliant creations, the river fleet reached a qualitatively new level. He proposed improvements that helped get rid of the labor of burlaks. The museum of the river fleet exhibits drawings made by a talented engineer, a register of his inventions, and an original spotlight, which the inventor introduced to Catherine II in 1797.

Further the exhibition narrates about konovodnye cars, development of passenger shipping company and appearance of motor ships.

Heroic past

This hall is dedicated to military feats of river men during the Civil and Domestic Wars. A separate topic is devoted to the Battle of Stalingrad. This exposition was opened for the 70th anniversary of the landmark event. Here you can learn about the heroic deeds of people who defended the Motherland and at the cost of their lives who did not miss the enemy.

Engine room

Of course, the story of river navigation would be incomplete without a narrative of how ships evolved. In one of the halls are presented models of diesel installations and steam engines, which set in motion huge ships capable of carrying tons of cargo and hundreds of people.

From Victory to the present day

The war was a heavy wheel throughout the country, destroying in many areas to the bottom all that was created. People returned from the front, inspired by victory, and active construction and development began, including a river flute. In the museum you can see mock-ups of oil trucks, container ships, sea ferry, ships that can not only walk on rivers, but also go out to sea.

The second part of the exposition

After finishing the initial inspection of the exhibits, everyone wishing to go further to continue their cognitive and fascinating excursion. The second room is divided into two halls, the first is dedicated to the passenger fleet, and the second is to the technical one.

Here you can see breadboard models of tourist ships cruising along the Volga, as well as new models of hovercraft, hydrofoils, or so-called ekranoplans, which can pass even through the shallow sections. Technical models of the self-propelled and non-self-propelled chandelier, dredger, icebreakers and other ships capable of carrying tons of cargo.

Museum of the river fleet is worth visiting all those interested in the history of Russia.