Historical exhibition "The North — My Fate"

About exhibition

The exhibition is devoted to the history of the development of the oil and gas complex of the northern part of Western Siberia and to the construction and growth of the city of Gubkinsky. It consists of nine sections reflecting the main stages of developing our region. The exhibition begins with the historiographical display "Here Was a Sea...", which introduces visitors to the history of the formation of Western Siberia's natural environment millions of years ago and the process of the earth's subsurface formation. On display are lignites of coniferous tree species, core samples, and aleurolites (siltstones). Onychites and ammonites confirm scientists' hypotheses that millennia ago a warm sea covered the entire territory of Western Siberia. All items were brought up by oil workers during deep drilling. Artifacts from archaeological excavations placed in the "Antiquities of Kharampur" showcase present the findings from excavations in the Nadym–Pur interfluve area and tell of ancient life on the Yamal land. Fragments of ceramic and clay vessels, whetstones, and stone hunting projectile points date to the 4th–5th millennia BC (early Iron and Bronze Age). The infamously known Construction Project No. 503 is recounted in the "Roads of the Gulag" section. Here are items brought from one of the Stalin-era camps located in the Tazovsky district: a bunk board with plywood tags indicating full name, year of birth, sentence, release date and article (for example, "Yanodaev Mikhail Mikhailovich, b.1925, art.4.6, up to 10 yrs, released 13.10.57" and "Egorov Vasily Vasilievich, b.1926, art.136, 10 yrs, released 25.9.58"), a locomotive spark arrestor, tableware, footwear, fragments of barbed wire, a window vent with a grille from a camp barrack, a streetlamp shade, and more. Copies of special settlers' registration cards were provided by the Yamalo-Nenets Regional Museum and Exhibition Complex named after I. S. Shemanovsky. The "Romantics of the '80s" section introduces the first Komsomol youth brigades who came on Komsomol vouchers in the 1980s to build the Surgut–Novy Urengoy railway. The sections "Conquerors of the Depths", "Black Gold" and "Blue Fire" present the development of the oil and gas industry in the region and the main oil and gas extraction enterprises of Gubkinsky. The exhibition is completed by the sections "Hello, New Town!" and "Let There Be a City!", about the beginning of construction and the development of Gubkinsky, its present day, its people and achievements. The exhibition is complemented by a model of an operating oil pumpjack installed in the center of the hall. More extensive information about the exhibition is available via the museum's photo and video archive, located in touchscreen information kiosks. Children can also play the computer game "How Oil and Gas Are Extracted", created by the museum staff.