Museum of the History of the Volga–Don Shipping Canal

About museum

The demonstration section of the VDSK technological complex (museum 'History of the Volga–Don Shipping Canal') is the departmental exclusive collection of historical and cultural valuables of the Federal Budgetary Institution 'Administration of the Volga–Don Basin of Inland Waterways'.

The founder and first director of the museum was Rimma Mikhailovna Edelman. A foreign guidebook to the cities of Russia stated that "it was her private collection that turned into a museum." This is partly true, as for almost 30 years she gathered materials on the history of the canal.

Rimma Mikhailovna was hired by the canal administration as an artist-designer (also working as a photographer) on April 24, 1967. Over the years she traveled the entire route of the canal. She often served as the chief reporter at the openings of new hydraulic structures and, together with engineers, descended into lock chambers and internal galleries, shafts, and wells.

Thanks to Rimma Mikhailovna, a planet named "Volgo-Don" appeared in the Solar System—one of the minor planets discovered by Soviet astronomers received that name at her request.

The decision to open the Museum of the History of the Volga–Don Shipping Canal was made on January 20, 1997.

Premises were allocated by the head of the Administration, Igor Ilyasovich Kobleev, and on July 27, 1997, in honor of the canal's 45th anniversary, the first two halls of the museum were opened.

On May 8, 2001, two more halls with new exhibitions and a large model of the canal were opened.

The history of the Volga–Don is presented in four halls of the museum: the historical hall, the hall of the canal's construction history, the operational hall, and the demonstration hall.

The museum is a repository of unique documents not only about the legendary construction and its builders, but also tells about the present day and the prospects of this grand hydraulic structure.

Comprehensive tours include screenings of documentary films about the history of the canal, the Battle of Stalingrad, and the history of the city and the country.

The museum actively cooperates with educational institutions, the city and Volgograd Region administrations, as well as with the region's leading enterprises.

Over the years the museum has welcomed guests from various regions of Russia and from more than 50 countries around the world, who have left their impressions of the Volga–Don in the Book of Honorary Guests. Such books have been kept at the canal since 1952 and have themselves become unique exhibits of the museum.

We invite you to visit the demonstration section of the VDSK technological complex and learn about the history of one of the most significant landmarks of our great Motherland.