Museum of MSCO history

Museum of the history of MSCO was open in 1977. First, the exhibition devoted to the history of the fleet, occupied a small room. It contained valuable documentary photographs, albums, sport awards, prizes and other things, which were given to the museum by the crew of different vessels. During 31 years of its activity the museum has extended, has increased its displays. Today it is situated in Volodarsky Street 6, on the 3 d floor. Its stands, showcases and exhibitions display good deeds of the seamen, past and present of icebreakers and arctic carriers.

The symbol of the museum is the picture of a legendary scientist Otto Yulyevich Shmidt, the head of the first arctic expedition, and a well-known captain Vladimir Ivanovich Voronin.

There are four exhibit rooms: "History of development of icebreakers and arctic carriers", "Vessels and people of the nuclear fleet", "Diorama of developing of the Northern Sea Route", "Tanker fleet of the Company". One of permanent expositions "From Ermak to nuclear icebreakers" shows visitors the history of development of domestic icebreakers. Photomaterials and features of steamers and diesel-electric icebreakers, that sailed on the arctic routes, photos of the crew are displayed there. A log-book A book of record of the crew of the "grandfather of icebreakers "Ermak" The first record in the book is dated 1899. Here you can see a bell of "a younger brother' of "Ermak", icebreaker "Svyatogor" and an abstract of record of a log-book, made by Pavel Akimovich Ponomarev, who was the captain of these ships and then became the first captain of the Nuclear icebreaker "Lenin".

Here you can see equipment removed from old ships: side lights of the steamer "Vologda", a life buoy on which the last crew signed their names. Stoker's tools of the ship "Volodarsky" is represented by a primitive shovel, a crow-bar, and mighty, two-meter irons. Fire-bars are extant too.

Stuffed penguins, that attract children very much, are situated in front of the stands devoted to Murmansk sailors who took part development of Antarctica.

Each exhibit has its unique fate. For example, "Golden cane", an honourable captain's prize. It belonged to captain Eduard Kupri, who won the prize in January 1, 1974. Motor ship "Pavlik Larishkin" won in a hard, 24-hour race. She was the first to call the port of Montreal, though the speed of the rival, a Swedish container vessel "Montmorency", was higher.

Quite often even seamen are surprised to see the gong of the mother ship "Lepse". You cannot see such gongs on modern vessels. Photos of the explorers of arctic ice are displayed in the museum. A portrait gallery of distinguished people is represented by portraits of seamen. Quite often, their relatives come to the museum just to stand in front of the portrait and revere their memory. The museum has got a collection of the bells, dismantled from old ships.

A lot of models of icebreakers and carriers of MSCO are displayed in the in the exhibit rooms of the museum. This exposition is being constantly replenished as our local craftsmen can build models of both historical and modern vessels.

There you can see a unique collection of 1x500 micro-models, made by Vladimir Samokhin. His tiny works of art are admired by the visitors.

"Diorama of exploration of the Northern Sea Route" attracts attention of the visitors because it looks very realistic. It depicts vast expanses of the Arctic Ocean, the process of unloading of the ship, some seamen on the fast ice, northern lights in the arctic sky, white bears …

You can hear mellow chime of the bells and gongs, to speak on the radiotelephone, to see a film about Arctic, cruises to the North Pole, about famous captains.

The museum is also a place of meeting of the seamen who work in MSCO, their families, schoolchildren from Murmansk region, Russian and foreign tourists.

It is a traditional place where veterans of the Company meet. The museum has become the place of meetings fro participants of Arctic Convoys. Since 1999 the museum has received participants of Arctic Convoys from Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Great Britain, the USA and other countries. In August 2001 the museum was the place where British seamen and Russian veterans met. It was the 60-th anniversary of the first allied convoy ship "Dervish" that entered the port of the USSR. Members of non-government organization "Association of arctic explorers" have been holding their meetings for 9 years. People of different ages – schoolchildren and old seamen, scientists and specialists, who love Arctic and are eager to learn more about its nature, about riches of arctic shelves, about difficulties of arctic navigation. Academicians A.F. Fedorov and A.A. Kiselev, chief of naval staff N.G. Babitch, well-known captains L.S. Seliverstov and V.S. Smolyagin, researchers of G.Ya. Brusilov and V.Z. Kuznetsov' expedition, scieintists of Murmansk Marine Biological institute and a lot of others came to the museum and told the visitors about their work and research. The members of the "Association" are acquiring a complete set of books on the Arctic for the library. The first ones were unique books published in the 19-th century, donated by Rostislav Gaydovsky and Boris Kuporosov to the library.

The exhibition "Pole - 2000" was open in 2001 in the foyer of the museum. Over 50 colourful photos, taken by Murmansk photographer Lev Fedoseev, are displayed there. They depict the voyage of the nuclear icebreaker "Yamal" to the North Pole. The exhibition is being constantly renewed. The visitors were greatly impressed by photographs "Colours of Arctic" (taken by N. Golovin) and "Dwellers of Polar seas" (taken by the captain of the motor ship "Polaris" I. Karavka).

We organize parties to celebrate historical dates, birthdays of the seamen, and arrange meetings with famous arctic captains. Book presentations are also held at our museum.

The main task of the museum is to unite people who are not indifferent to the history of the Arctic exploration and Russian fleet.

Head of the MSCO history museum - Valentina Ivanovna Karepova.

Telephone +7(8152) 481 354

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