 The Museum of the Town of Volkhov is situated on the picturesque left bank of the Volkhov river opposite to the Volkhovskaya hydropower station. The museum was founded in October 1969. It occupies the distinctive building that was home to Genrikh Graftio - the project designer and construction manager of the Volkhovskaya hydropower station.
The museum possesses Graftio personalia and evidence of the area development in the 20th century. Its collection features the growth of the town of Volkhov around the Zvanka railway station and the history of the early grand construction sites of Soviet industrialization era when a newly born Soviet state was undertaking a technological break-through to become an industrialized country. The sites we re the Volkhovskaya hydropower station and Volkhovsky aluminium complex. The Volkhovskaya hydropower station has got to be the firstling and proof of feasibility of the GOELRO plan - the renowned plan of electrification of Russia that was passionately promoted by Vladimir Lenin soon after the Great October socialist revolution of 1917. The plan was considered utopian by many observers including the science fiction author Herbert George Wells who called Lenin "the Kremlin dreamer" after visiting him in Moscow though the history proved the writer's being in the wrong.
The period of the World War II when Volkhov was a center connecting Leningrad with the country and later development of the town are also documented in the museum collection.
Folk art including the traditional Volkhov wood painting and works by local artists are presented here as well.
Address:
27 Oktyabr'skaya naberezhnaya, Volkhov, Leningrad region; phone (8-263) 124-42
Open hours:
daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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Pearls of Russia 