Legendary 'Chaika' and 'Volga' Cars: A Tour of a Famous Nizhny Novgorod Museum
The museum is situated in a district with good public transport connections.
One of the interesting places in Nizhny Novgorod is the museum of the history of the Gorky Automobile Plant, which gave the world the legendary «Chaika» and «Pobeda» cars. Not only visitors but also local residents strive to visit it — during the tour you can learn the history of the legendary production and see rare cars with your own eyes. NN.RU also did not miss such an opportunity and is ready to tell you how to get to the museum and what is presented there.
The exhibition route starts on the second floor with the plant«s founding story.
The museum is located in the Avtozavodsky district, with tram and bus stops nearby, as well as the Komsomolskaya metro station. So there will be no problems getting to the place.
Clear signage and available staff help visitors navigate the museum«s halls.
To visit the museum with a guide, you need to book in advance, but you can also explore the space on your own. The museum is open every day except the last Friday of the month. You can buy tickets at the ticket office until 18:00, but the museum itself is open from 09:00 to 19:00.
Tickets can also be purchased online, the entrance fee is 600 rubles (about $7 at current rates) for adults, 300 rubles (about $3 at current rates) for pensioners and full-time students, 250 rubles (about $3 at current rates) for children from 6 to 18 years old.
Visitors are asked to adhere to the time for which the ticket was purchased, and not to touch the exhibits with their hands. In addition, professional photography must be coordinated with the management, but you can take photos with your phone.
A ticket without a guide includes viewing the exhibitions on the first and second floors. On the third floor there is a children«s interactive area, which can be accessed by prior appointment.
The viewing of the exhibitions begins on the second floor. Here, visitors are told how the plant started: about cooperation with the American Ford Motor Company, the first products of GAZ, and, of course, about the legendary cars of the wartime and post-war eras.
The museum has a convenient navigation system: there are arrows so you don«t get lost. As a last resort, there are employees on each floor who are ready to help lost visitors and sometimes recommend which exhibits to pay attention to.
Most of the exhibitions, of course, are cars. And, let«s be honest, it will be interesting to look at them even for those who are not interested in cars and their history. Polished to a shine, the cars definitely please the eye and amaze.
Next to each car, the model number is indicated, and there is a small stand with archival photographs and the history of creation. Next to some cars, interesting facts related to the exhibit are shown with a projector.
Some models even have entire compositions dedicated to them. It is no secret that Nizhny Novgorod«s »Volga« cars often became heroes of films. This is also reflected in the museum: a separate part of the exhibition is dedicated to the legendary GAZ-21 car, where clips from Soviet films featuring them are shown.
In addition to cars, the museum has other exhibitions with historical facts. For example, a stand dedicated to the historical development of the Avtozavod district, some parts of the exhibition tell about famous figures of GAZ and the first workers.
Modern cars are also presented on the first floor of the museum. In one of the modern GAZ cars, people were even allowed to sit, which the visitors took advantage of.
By the way, in the evening there were quite a few visitors in the museum. There were men who enjoyed looking at the retro cars, as well as their companions. In addition, students dropped by, some of them looked with particular admiration at the open-top car GAZ-14-05 «Chaika».
In a word, the museum visit is worth the money. The exhibition tells in detail the history of one of the main enterprises of Nizhny Novgorod.
