Galina Semyonovna Shapovalova

Galina Semyonovna Shapovalova is the founder and first director of the Gorodishchensky local history museum in the Volgograd region. For many years she worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature at Gorodishche Secondary School No. 1, and later became its principal. In that school a school museum of military history was established, which laid the foundation for the future district museum and its collections in the 1980s.

On April 15, 1989, the Gorodishchensky District Council of People's Deputies adopted a decision on the official opening of the local history museum. By that time the museum's collection already comprised 13,000 exhibits. A significant portion consisted of items related to the Battle of Stalingrad, many of which were donated by the families of well-known military leaders: K. K. Rokossovsky, V. I. Kazakov, P. I. Batov, A. I. Eremenko and V. I. Chuikov.

The museum's formal opening took place on June 27, 1989. On that day visitors were presented with a solo exhibition of works by Honored Artist of Russia Alexey Andreyevich Prokopenko, who donated five of his paintings to the museum. In 2016 the Gorodishche Local History Museum was named after its founder and first director, Honorary Citizen of Gorodishchensky District, Galina Semyonovna Shapovalova. Galina Semyonovna passed away on February 8, 2022.