Flooded villages during the construction of hydroelectric power stations. Central Russia

The city of Mologa was located 32 km from Rybinsk and 120 km from Yaroslavl in an area rich in water, at the confluence of the Mologa River with the Volga. The width of the Mologa River opposite the city was 277 m, the depth was from 3 to 11 m. The width of the Volga was up to 530 m, the depth was from 2 to 9 m. The city itself was located on a fairly significant and flat hill and stretched along the right bank of the Mologa and the left bank of the Volga.

By the beginning of the 20th century, 34 stone houses and 659 wooden houses were built in Mologa. Of the non-residential buildings, there were 58 stone, wooden - 51. Population in the city: total - 7032, of which 3115 were men, 3917 women.

Victims of electrification

The resolution on the construction of the Rybinsk hydroelectric power station (one of the seven Volga-Kama cascade of hydroelectric power stations) was adopted in 1935. According to the original project, the area of ​​the Rybinsk reservoir was to be 2.5 thousand km2, and the height of the water surface above the level of the world ocean was 98 m. In this case, the city of Mologa, located at levels 98-101 m, would remain alive. However, the gigantomania of Stalin's five-year plans forced a reconsideration of plans, and in 1937 it was decided to raise the water level to 102 m. The power of hydroelectric power stations increased by 65%, and the area of ​​flooded land almost doubled. Then the migration of people began. And on April 14, 1941, the last opening of the dam was blocked and the filling of the reservoir began, which lasted about six years. In 1991, this date was recognized as the day of memory of Mologa.

As a result of the construction of the Rybinsk hydroelectric power station, an original city with an 800-year history, which was once the center of an appanage principality, disappeared from the face of the earth. It included more than 700 villages and hamlets; unique ancient estates and three monasteries also perished. The flooded meadows, the pride of the Mologo-Sheksninskaya lowland, which had the status of a nursery for seed production of grassland grasses of Union importance, went under water. The area's ecosystem was disrupted and the climate began to change. But most importantly, the fates of 130 thousand people who suddenly lost their homeland changed dramatically. The eviction proceeded in accordance with the order established by Volgostroy. The museum archives contain documents in which people asked to postpone the move until spring in order to be able to dry the logs after rafting and assemble their houses before the onset of cold weather. They received answers that threatened disaster: “You are talking anti-Soviet.” “Volgostroy” was under the jurisdiction of the NKVD and, according to official data, during the construction of the Rybinsk hydroelectric facility, 150 thousand prisoners were killed, convicted mainly under Article 58, the anti-Soviet article.

However, there were other victims of the great construction. In the materials of the round table on the problems of the Mologa region, which took place in June 2003, there is a reference to an archival document according to which 294 residents of Mologa chose death over forced relocation, chaining themselves or locking themselves in flooded houses.

For the sake of objectivity, it is worth saying that some migrants left for new places with pleasure. For example, those who lived near the flooded meadows of the Mologo-Sheksninskaya lowland, which was regularly subject to flooding. The majority was consoled by the thought that this was necessary for the good of the country. It’s hard to move to an empty place, it’s painful to leave homes, farms, and the graves of relatives, but there is no other way out! “Our hydroelectric power station supplied Moscow with electricity throughout the war,” says Nikolai Novotelnov, who was a representative of the Molgostan community for 30 years. - The Volga has become navigable. It was important then."

hydroelectric power station

Hydroelectric power station complex in the Volga-Kama river basin. During their construction, seven reservoirs were formed: Ivankovskoye, Uglichskoye, Rybinsk, Gorky, Cheboksary, Kuibyshevskoye and Volgogradskoye. Many cities were flooded, some partially and some completely. The bell tower of St. Nicholas Cathedral in Kalyazin stands as a monument to the lost lands in the middle of the Uglich reservoir. Two-thirds of this city fell into the flood zone, including the Trinity Monastery, once the largest on Tver land. The bell tower was saved from complete destruction by the decision to adapt it for paratrooper training. Later, an island was built around it to protect it from destruction caused by water and ice drift.

Round glass of a submarine porthole. Behind it is a white stone temple, leaden waters closed over the neat onions of the domes. This model is one of the exhibits of the Mologsky Region Museum in the city of Rybinsk. In reality, however, no buildings remained at the bottom of the reservoir, only piles of stones. What they were unable to disassemble and move to a new location before the flooding, they tried to blow it up. They did not have time to destroy 20 of the 140 churches in the doomed region. For many years they emerged from the water as lonely ghosts, collapsing gradually and steadily. But the flooded city does not want to accept its fate. In dry years, the water level in the artificial lake drops, exposing the skeletons of houses, preserving the traces of ancient streets that can once again be walked. And those people who managed to keep in their hearts the memory of their small homeland pass by.

The Rybinsk Reservoir occupies 13% of the territory of the Yaroslavl region, in addition partially covering the Vologda and Tver regions.

Museum

The Mologa Region Museum is located in the building of the former chapel of the Afanasyevsky Convent. The monastery itself, located 3 km from the city of Mologa, was lost during the flooding. The chapel built on his Rybinsk courtyard was able to survive. When the museum opened in 1995, it was consecrated again. Where generations of Mologans who came to Rybinsk prayed, you can still light a candle in front of the icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow.”

The basis of the museum collection was made up of exhibits evacuated from the Mologsky Museum of Local Lore in 1936. Much was given by the Mologans themselves and their descendants. Another source of income was expeditions to the flooded city, organized by the founder of the museum, Nikolai Alekseev, in those years when Mologa was opening, emerging from the waters pacified by drought.

From Rybinsk to Mologa - 32 km. They go there on a specially rented ship, then sail on boats. “Imagine: people who are over 80 years old are moving into lifeboats from the high side of the ship. It’s shaking - the wind there is terrible,” says the director of the museum.

In the Yaroslavl region, on the Rybinsk reservoir, the buildings of the city of Mologa appeared from the water, which was flooded in 1940 during the construction of a hydroelectric power station. Now there is low water in the region, the water has gone and exposed entire streets: the foundations of houses, the walls of churches and other city buildings are visible.

The city of Mologa in the Yaroslavl region, which disappeared from the face of the earth more than 50 years ago, again appeared above the surface of the water as a result of low water levels that came to the region, ITAR-TASS reports. It was flooded in 1940 during the construction of a hydroelectric power station on the Rybinsk Reservoir.

Former residents of the city came to the banks of the reservoir to observe the unusual phenomenon. They said that the foundations of houses and the outlines of streets appeared from the water. Mologans are going to visit their former homes. Their children and grandchildren plan to sail on the motor ship "Moskovsky-7" to the ruins of the city to walk around native land.

“We go to visit the flooded city every year. Usually we lower flowers and wreaths into the water, and priests serve a prayer service on the ship, but this year there is a unique opportunity to set foot on land,” said Valentin Blatov, chairman of the public organization “Community of Mologans.”

In September 1935, the USSR decided to build the Rybinsk hydroelectric complex. According to the project, the water level was supposed to rise by 98 meters. But already on January 1, 1937, the project was revised and a decision was made to increase the level to 102 meters. This made it possible to increase the capacity of the Rybinsk hydroelectric power station by one and a half times, but at the same time, the area of ​​flooded land should have almost doubled.

The grandiose construction threatened the existence of the city of Mologa and hundreds of villages in the Yaroslavl region. When the residents of Mologa were informed that their small homeland would soon cease to exist and disappear under water, no one could even believe it. At that time, the regional center of Mologa had about 7,000 inhabitants.

The resettlement of residents began in the spring of 1937. Most of the Mologans were sent to the village of Slip, not far from Rybinsk. But some residents stubbornly refused to leave their homes. The NKVD archives contained a report that 294 people did not want to voluntarily leave their homes, and some of them even threatened to chain themselves with padlocks. Soviet propaganda explained this as a “mental disorder of backward elements.” According to the instructions of the NKVD, methods of force were used against them.

On April 13, 1941, the last gate of the dam was closed near Rybinsk, and water poured into the floodplain. The city of Mologa, whose history spanned almost 8 centuries, went under water. Its entire territory was flooded in 1947, only the heads of some churches remained above the water, but a few years later they disappeared under water.

Apart from Mologa, about 700 villages and hamlets were flooded, with a population of about 130,000 people. All of them were resettled to other regions.

But sometimes “Russian Atlantis” can be seen. The water level in the Rybinsk Reservoir fluctuates frequently, and a flooded city appears above the surface of the Volga. You can see preserved churches and brick houses.

The descendants of those who had to leave their hometown do not forget about their roots. Back in the 60s, former residents of Mologa began to hold meetings. And since 1972, on the second Saturday of August, Mologans organize a boat trip to the area of ​​the flooded city.

In 1992-93, during a drop in the water level in the reservoir, local historians organized an expedition to the city. Interesting materials on the history of Mologa were collected. Many of them became exhibits of the Museum of the Mologsky Region, opened in 1995 in Rybinsk.

Scheme of the Rybinsk Reservoir. River beds before flooding are marked in dark blue.

When flooded with water in 1941–47 in the lake part of the Rybinsk reservoir, three monastic complexes disappeared under water, including the Leushinsky convent, which was patronized by the holy righteous John of Kronstadt (photo by Prokudin-Gorsky).

Up to 700 nuns lived in the monastery.

The Leushinsky monastery was not blown up, and after the flooding its walls rose above the water for several years until they collapsed from waves and ice drifts. Photo from the 50s.

Today, the shore of the “Rybinsk Sea” in some places really looks like a resort.

The receding water exposed wide strips of sandy beaches.

Due to the drop in level, stones, pieces of foundations and islands of earth came out of the water here and there. In some places, right in the middle of big water, you can walk, the water is no higher than your knees.

South of the city of Mologa. The remains of the city look strange in the middle of flat water, and this strangeness attracts tourists here.

Remains of the pier south of Mologa.

The shoals and rocks south of Mologa are marked with a lighthouse.

If you climb onto the lighthouse, you can see the muddy silhouettes of the foundations under the water.

Almost nothing has been left of Mologa itself for a long time. Before the flooding, everything that could be was dismantled and taken away; what couldn’t was blown up and burned; the rest of the work was done by waves and sand.

On the desert shallows you can only find seagulls, seaweed and driftwood covered with shells.

Plan of the city of Mologa.

Before the city was ordered to be “abolished,” it had about 5 thousand inhabitants (up to 7 in winter) and about 900 residential buildings, about 200 shops and stores. The city had two cathedrals and three churches. In the north, not far from the city, stood the Kirillo-Afanasyevsky Convent. The monastery ensemble consisted of a dozen buildings, including a free hospital, pharmacy and school. Near the monastery in the village of Borok, the future Archimandrite Pavel Gruzdev, revered by many as an elder, was born and raised.

Photo of the Mologa embankment during the white nights.

As of 1914, Mologa had two gymnasiums, a secondary school, a hospital with 35 beds, an outpatient clinic, a pharmacy, a cinema, then called “Illusion”, two public libraries, a post and telegraph office, an amateur stadium, an orphanage and two almshouses.

Yaroslavskaya street Mologi.

Mologa fire station, built in 1870 according to the design of A.M. Dostoevsky, brother of the great writer.

Residents of Mologa.

Preparing for flooding. City residents remove their property on trucks and convoys.

The settlers recalled that during the flooding, frightened animals could be seen on the islands formed in the middle of the water, and out of pity, people made rafts for them and felled trees to build a bridge “to the mainland.”

The houses were rolled out onto logs, piled into rafts, and floated down the river to a new location.

The press of that time described numerous cases of “red tape and confusion, reaching the point of obvious mockery” during relocation. Thus, “Citizen Vasilyev, having received a plot of land, planted apple trees on it and built a barn, and after a while he learned that the plot of land was declared unsuitable and he was given a new one, on the other side of the city.”

And citizen Matveevskaya received a plot in one place, and her house is being built in another. Citizen Potapov was driven from site to site and was eventually returned to his old one. “The dismantling and reassembly of houses is happening extremely slowly, the workforce is not organized, the foremen are drinking, and the construction management is trying not to notice these disgraces,” reports an unknown newspaper from the Mologa Museum exposition. Houses lay in water for several months, the wood became damp, pests infested it, and some of the logs could be lost.

On the site of the central square of Mologa.

There is a photograph of a document circulating on the Internet called “Report to the head of Volgostroy-Volgolag of the NKVD of the USSR, state security major comrade. Zhurin, written by the head of the Mologa department of the Volgolag camp camp, state security lieutenant Sklyarov." This document is even quoted by the Rossiyskaya Gazeta in an article about Mologa. The document says that 294 people committed suicide during the flooding:

“In addition to the report I submitted earlier, I report that the number of citizens who voluntarily wished to die with their belongings when the reservoir was filled was 294 people. Absolutely all of these people had previously suffered from a nervous health disorder, so the total number of citizens who died during the flooding of the city of Mologa and the villages of the region of the same name remained the same - 294 people. Among them were those who firmly attached themselves with locks, having previously wrapped themselves around blind objects. Methods of force were applied to some of them, according to the instructions of the NKVD of the USSR".

However, such a document does not appear in the archives of the Rybinsk Museum. And Mologda resident Nikolai Novotelnov, an eyewitness of the flooding, completely doubts the plausibility of this data.

“When Mologa was flooded, the resettlement was completed, and there was no one in the houses. So there was no one to go ashore and cry,” recalls Nikolai Novotelnov. – In the spring of 1940, the dam doors in Rybinsk were closed, and the water gradually began to rise. In the spring of 1941 we came here and walked the streets. The brick houses were still standing and the streets were walkable. Mologa was flooded for 6 years. Only in 1946 was the 102nd mark passed, that is, the Rybinsk Reservoir was completely filled.”.

Mologzhanin Nikolai Mikhailovich Novotelnov on the ruins of his city. Now Nikolai Novotelnov is 90 years old, and at the time of the flooding he was 15, he is one of the few surviving eyewitnesses of the resettlement.

Walkers were selected for resettlement in the villages; they looked for suitable places and offered them to the residents. Mologa was assigned a place on a slip in the city of Rybinsk.

There were no adult men in the family - the father was condemned as an enemy of the people, and Nikolai's brother served in the army. The house was dismantled by Volgolag prisoners, and they reassembled it on the outskirts of Rybinsk in the middle of the forest on stumps instead of a foundation. Several logs were lost during transportation.

In winter, the temperature in the house was minus and the potatoes froze. Kolya and his mother spent several more years plugging the holes and insulating the house on their own, so they had to uproot the forest to plant a vegetable garden. Livestock, accustomed to water meadows, according to the memoirs of Nikolai Novotelnov, almost all the settlers died.

Nikolai Mikhailovich Novotelnov

– What did people say about it then? Was the flooding worth the result?

– There was a lot of propaganda. People were encouraged that this was necessary for the people, necessary for industry and transport. Before this, the Volga was not navigable. We crossed the Volga on foot in August-September. Steamboats sailed only from Rybinsk to Mologa. And further along Mologa to Vesyegonsk. The rivers dried up, and all navigation along them ceased. Industry needed energy, this is also a positive factor. But if you look from the perspective of today, it turns out that all this could not have been done, it was not economically feasible.

Epiphany Cathedral, photo from the beginning of the twentieth century.

In an area rich in water, at the confluence of the Mologa River and the Volga. The width of Mologa opposite the city was 277 m, the depth was from 3 to 11 m. The width of the Volga was up to 530 m, the depth was from 2 to 9 m. The city itself was located on a fairly significant and flat hill and stretched along the right bank of Mologa and along the left bank Volga. Before the railway communications, from which Mologa remained aloof, the busy St. Petersburg postal route ran here.

Since the 17th century, the settlement has been classified as a city Epsom salt(named after the river flowing nearby), located 13 km up the Mologa River from the city. Immediately outside the city there began a swamp and then a lake (about 2.5 km in diameter), called Saints. A small stream flowed from it into the Mologa River, bearing the name Kop.

Middle Ages

The time of the initial settlement of the area where the city of Mologa stood is unknown. In the chronicles, the name of the Mologa River appears for the first time in 1149, when the Grand Duke of Kiev Izyaslav Mstislavich, fighting with Yuri Dolgoruky, the prince of Suzdal and Rostov, burned all the villages along the Volga all the way to Mologa. This happened in the spring, and the war had to stop, as the water in the rivers rose. It was believed that the spring flood caught the combatants exactly where the city of Mologa stood. In all likelihood, there has long been a settlement here that belonged to the princes of Rostov.

From the inventory compiled between 1676 and 1678 by the steward M.F. Samarin and the clerk Rusinov, it is clear that Mologa at that time was a palace settlement, that there were then 125 households in it, including 12 belonging to fishermen, that these latter, together with the fishermen of Rybnaya Sloboda, they caught red fish in the Volga and Mologa, delivering 3 sturgeon, 10 white fish and 100 sterlets each year to the royal court. It is unknown when the residents of Mologa stopped paying this tax. In 1682 there were 1281 houses in Mologa.

The coat of arms of the city of Mologa was Supremely approved on August 31 (September 11), 1778 by Empress Catherine II along with other coats of arms of the cities of the Yaroslavl governorship (PSZ, 1778, Law No. 14765). Law No. 14765 in the Complete Collection of Laws of the Russian Empire is dated June 20, 1778, but on the drawings of coats of arms attached to it, the date of approval of the coats of arms is indicated - August 31, 1778. In the complete collection of laws it is described as follows: “a shield in a silver field; part three of this shield contains the coat of arms of the Yaroslavl governorship (on the hind legs there is a bear with an ax); in two parts of that shield, part of an earthen rampart is shown in an azure field; it is trimmed with a silver border or white stone.” ). The coat of arms was created by a fellow herald, collegiate advisor I. I. von Enden.

The reason for the city's prosperity was discovered by accident. At the opening of the city duma, the residents passed a secret public verdict of the following content: since the established duma can only dispose of the income specified in the law, and for purposes also determined by law, under the control of the highest authorities, they decided to maintain the previous public administration under the supervision of the same city mayor and the same members of the Duma and at the disposal of this management to provide special capital, formed according to a general layout. Thus, from 1786 to 1847, there were actually two city governments in Mologa: one official, with 4 thousand rubles of income; another secret, but essentially real, with an income of 20 thousand rubles. The city flourished until the state accidentally learned the secrets; the head was put on trial, the illegal capital was transferred to the government and as a result, as I. S. Aksakov, who audited the city administration of the Yaroslavl province in 1849, wrote, “the city fell into decay and quite quickly.”

In 1862, it was announced in Mologa that there were 1 merchant capital for the 2nd guild and 56 for the 3rd guild. Of those who took guild certificates, 43 were engaged in trade in the city itself, and the rest - on the side. In addition to the merchants, 23 more peasants traded here at that time. Among the trading establishments in Mologa at that time there were 3 shops, 86 shops, 4 hotels and 10 inns.

On May 28, 1864, a terrible fire occurred, destroying to the ground the best and largest part of the city. Within 12 hours, more than 200 houses, a guest courtyard, shops and public buildings burned down. The loss was then calculated at over 1 million rubles. Traces of this fire were visible for about 20 years.

In 1889, Mologa owned 8.3 thousand hectares of land (first place among the cities of the province), including 350 hectares within the city limits; stone residential buildings 34, wooden 659 and non-residential stone buildings 58, wooden 51. All residents in the city were about 7032, including 3115 men and 3917 women. Except for 4 Jews, all were Orthodox. By class, the population was divided as follows (men and women): hereditary nobles 50 and 55, personal 95 and 134, white clergy with their families 47 and 45, monastics - 165 women, personal honorary citizens 4 and 3, merchants 73 and 98, burghers 2595 and 3168, peasants 51 and 88, regular troops 68 men, reserves 88 men, retired soldiers with families 94 and 161. By January 1, 1896, there were 7064 residents (3436 men and 3628 women).

There were 3 fairs in Mologa at that time: Afanasyevskaya - on January 17 and 18, Sredokrestnaya - on Wednesday and Thursday of the 4th week of Lent and Ilyinskaya - on July 20. The cost of bringing goods to the first place was up to 20,000 rubles, and the sale was up to 15,000 rubles; the rest of the fairs were not much different from ordinary bazaars; weekly trading days on Saturdays were quite lively only in the summer. Crafts in the city were poorly developed. In 1888, there were 42 craftsmen in Mologa, 58 workers and 18 apprentices, in addition, about 30 people were engaged in the construction of barges; factories and factories: 2 distilleries, 3 gingerbread-bakery-pretzel factories, a cereal factory, an oil press factory, 2 brick factories, a malt factory, a candle and tallow factory, a windmill - 1-20 people worked at them.

The townspeople mainly found their means of living locally, although there were also absences. Residents of the Gorkaya Sol settlement, when free from field work, were hired to raft barges. Some of the residents of Mologa were engaged in agricultural work, renting arable and meadow lands from the city for this purpose. In addition, there was a huge meadow opposite the city; all the inhabitants who signed up for the unit used the good and plentiful hay from this meadow. The mowers were hired by the city, and the hay was raked by the shareholders themselves.

In terms of income, Mologa, among other cities of the Yaroslavl province, ranked fourth in 1887, and in terms of expenses - fifth. Thus, city revenues in 1895 amounted to 45,775 rubles, expenses - 44,250 rubles. In 1866, a bank was opened in the city - it was based on money collected by residents for emergencies since the 1830s; by 1895 its capital reached 48,000 rubles.

At the end of the 19th century, Mologa was a small, narrow, long city that took on a lively appearance during the loading of ships, which lasted only a short time, and then plunged into the usual sleepy life of most of the county towns. From Mologa began the Tikhvin water system, one of three connecting the Caspian Sea with the Baltic Sea. Despite the fact that out of about 4.5 thousand ships passing through, only a few stopped here, their movement could not but affect the well-being of the residents, opening up the opportunity for them to supply the ship workers with food supplies and other necessary items. In addition to the passage of the mentioned ships, more than 300 ships were annually loaded at the Mologskaya pier with grain and other goods worth up to 650,000 rubles, and almost the same number of ships were unloaded here. In addition, up to 200 forest rafts were brought to Mologa. The total value of unloaded goods reached 500,000 rubles.

In 1895 there were 11 factories (distillery, bone grinding, glue and brick factories, a plant for the production of berry extracts, etc.), 58 workers, the amount of production was 38,230 rubles. Merchant certificates were issued: 1 guild, 1 guild, 2 guild 68, for petty trading 1191. The treasury, bank, telegraph, post office, and cinema functioned.

There was a monastery and several churches in the city.

• Afanasyevsky Monastery(from the 15th century - male, from 1795 - female) was located 500 m outside the city. Had 4 churches: cold (1840) and 3 warm (1788, 1826, 1890). The main relic was the miraculous icon of the Tikhvin Mother of God from the early 14th century.
• Resurrection Cathedral was built in 1767 in the Naryshkin style and restored by the merchant P. M. Podosenov in 1881-1886. The cathedral church had 5 altars - the main one of the Resurrection of Christ and the side altars - the Prophet Elijah, Nicholas the Wonderworker, the Dormition of the Mother of God and Saints Athanasius and Cyril. The bell tower of three decreasing octagons is built like the Uglich bell towers. Separately from this temple (cold) built in 1882 in the Russian-Byzantine style, warm Epiphany Cathedral, which had three thrones - Epiphany, the Protection of the Mother of God and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The same P. M. Podosenov, together with the merchant N. S. Utin, took the main part in the construction of this cathedral. Attached to the cathedral was also a wooden structure, plastered on both sides, the former cemetery Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, built in 1778.
• Ascension Parish Church built in 1756; it contains three thrones: the Ascension, the holy princes Boris and Gleb and the Archangel Michael. Baroque elements were used in the design of its facades.
• All Saints Cemetery Church, built in 1805, with two altars - in the name of All Saints and John the Baptist.
• Church in the village of Gorkaya Sol, built in 1828 by the same F.K. Bushkov. She had 2 thrones - the Apostle Thomas and the Kazan Mother of God.

There were 3 libraries and 9 educational institutions: a city three-class men's school, the Alexander two-class women's school, two parish schools - one for boys, the other for girls; Alexandrovsky orphanage; “Podosenovskaya” (named after the founder of the merchant P. M. Podosenov) gymnastics school - one of the first in Russia; bowling, cycling, fencing were taught; Carpentry, marching and rifle techniques were taught, and the school also had a stage and stalls for staging performances.

There was a zemstvo hospital with 30 beds, a city hospital for incoming patients and with it a warehouse of books on popular medicine, available for reading for free; city ​​disinfection chamber; private eye clinic of Dr. Rudnev (6,500 visits per year). The city, at its own expense, supported a doctor, a nurse-midwife and two nurses to care for the sick at home. There were 6 doctors in Mologa (1 of them was a woman), 5 paramedics, 3 paramedics, 3 midwives, 1 pharmacy. For walks on the banks of the Volga, a small public garden was built. The climate was characterized as dry and healthy, and it was believed that it helped Mologa avoid epidemics of such terrible diseases as plague and cholera.

Charity for the poor was staged beautifully in Mologa. There were 5 charitable institutions: including the water rescue society, guardianship for the poor of the city of Mologa (since 1872), 2 almshouses - Bakhirevskaya and Podosenovskaya. Owning enough timber, the city came to the aid of the poor, distributing it to them for fuel. The guardianship of the poor divided the entire city into sections, and each section was in charge of a special trustee. In 1895, the trusteeship spent 1,769 rubles; there was a canteen for the poor. It was very rare to meet a beggar in the city.

Soviet power in the city was established on December 15 (28), 1917, not without some resistance from supporters of the Provisional Government, but without any bloodshed. During the Civil War, there was a food shortage, especially acute at the beginning of 1918.

In 1929-1940, Mologa was the center of the district of the same name.

In 1931, a machine and tractor station for seed production was organized in Mologa; its tractor fleet, however, numbered only 54 units in 1933. In the same year, an elevator for seeds of grassland grasses was built, and a seed-growing collective farm and technical school were organized. In 1932, a zonal seed production station was opened. In the same year, an industrial complex arose in the city, combining a power plant, a mill, an oil mill, a starch and syrup plant, and a bathhouse.

In the 1930s, there were more than 900 houses in the city, about a hundred of which were made of stone, and there were 200 shops and shops in and around the shopping area. The population did not exceed 7 thousand people.

Flooded City

Most of Mologzhan was settled near Rybinsk in the village of Slip, which for some time was called Novaya Mologa. Some ended up in neighboring regions and cities, in Yaroslavl, Moscow and Leningrad.

The first meetings of Mologans date back to the 1960s. Since 1972, every second Saturday in August, Mologans gather in Rybinsk to commemorate their lost city. Currently, on the day of the meeting, a trip by boat to the Mologa region is usually arranged.

In 1992-1993, the level of the Rybinsk reservoir dropped by more than 1.5 meters, allowing local historians to organize an expedition to the exposed part of the flooded city (paved streets, contours of foundations, forged gratings and gravestones in the cemetery were visible). During the expedition, interesting materials were collected for the future Mologa Museum and an amateur film was made.

In 1995, the Museum of the Mologsky Region was created in Rybinsk. In June 2003, on the initiative of the public organization “Community of Mologans”, the Administration of the Yaroslavl Region organized a round table “Problems of the Mologa region and ways to solve them”, at which V. I. Lukyanenko first put forward the idea of ​​​​creating the Mologa National Park in memory of the flooded city .

In August 2014, the region experienced low water, the water receded and entire streets were exposed: the foundations of houses, the walls of churches and other city buildings are visible. Former residents of the city come to the banks of the reservoir to observe the unusual phenomenon. The children and grandchildren of the Mologans sailed on the motor ship “Moskovsky-7” to the ruins of the city to set foot on their “native land”.

see also

Notes

1. Now flooded.
2. Trinity. History of the Mologa country, p. 39. - Gorodsk. settlements in Russia. empires. T. V, part 2. St. Petersburg. 1866 vol., p. 463.

This year's winter turned out to be light and snowy, and the remains of Mologa appeared on the surface of the Rybinsk reservoir - the ancient Russian city would have turned 865 years old this year if not for the decision to build the Rybinsk hydroelectric power station in 1935.

In September, we went to look at the “Russian Atlantis” and visit the Rybinsk hydroelectric station at the invitation of RusHydro.

Water itself, after the drought in the Volga region of 1921-22, was considered a strategic resource and filling the future Rybinsk reservoir in those years was a strategically important decision - the main water artery of the capital, the Moscow River, became very shallow and polluted, and the overpopulated city threatened to soon be left without vital source.
On June 15, 1931, at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, a resolution was adopted: “... to radically solve the problem of watering the Moscow River by connecting it with the upper reaches of the Volga River.”

It all started with the construction of the Moscow Canal (the old name was Moscow - Volga). Initially, it was planned to build three hydroelectric power stations with a capacity of 220 MW in Myshkin, Yaroslavl and Kalyazin. Later, this scheme was changed and two hydroelectric power stations were built in Uglich and Rybinsk with a total capacity of 440 MW (110 MW and 330 MW, respectively).

The construction of the Rybinsk hydroelectric complex pursued another important goal - the creation of the Volga-Baltic waterway. Navigation on the Upper Volga before its confluence with the Mologa River was possible only during floods.

Work on deepening was carried out, but this did not lead to results, because the level immediately sank. When the Rybinsk, Uglich and Ivankovskoe reservoirs were created, a navigable passage 4.5 meters deep was formed.

We are going to the Rybinsk hydroelectric station.

Construction of the hydroelectric complex began in 1935 near the village of Perebory at the confluence of the Sheksna and the Volga, and the main work on the hydroelectric station began in 1938-1939.

Some sources claim that Stalin was personally interested in the progress of construction of the Rybinsk hydroelectric complex, and raising the level from 98 to 102 meters was his initiative. Main goal: increasing the capacity of the Rybinsk hydroelectric power station and ensuring more reliable navigation. Many residents were against the construction of the Rybinsk hydroelectric power station and the state regarded their actions as a betrayal.

In April 1941, filling of the Rybinsk Reservoir began. The retaining water level was supposed to be about 98 m, but by 1937 this figure had increased and amounted to 102 meters.

In 1941, the reservoir rose to a maximum of 97.5 m, in 1942 - to 99.3 m. Mologa is located at 98-101 meters.

Now a favorite place for local fishermen is downstream, where slightly stunned fish end up after passing through the whirlpool.

The first two units of the Rybinsk hydroelectric power station were launched in November 1941 and January 1942 - the war and energy famine began. Moscow defense enterprises and machine-building plants needed electricity.

In 1945-50 Four units of the hydroelectric power station were successively put into operation, and in 1998 and 2002, two of the six hydroelectric units were reconstructed.

It is difficult to find a worker in the hall - the entire process is automated.

The control panel provides round-the-clock monitoring of the systems and units of the hydroelectric power station.

On July 30, 1955, the Uglich and Rybinsk hydroelectric complexes were put into commercial operation, forming Cascade No. 1 of Mosenergo. In 1993, the company changed its name to DOJSC "Cascade of Verkhnevolzhskiye HPPs".

The building retains original chandeliers from the 1940s.

The workers are joking.

Bloggers tweet.

There is a beautiful picture in the turbine room that gives a general idea of ​​the hydroelectric power station.

And now a trip to Mologa.

From the central Rybinsk pier by boat to Mologa it takes more than two hours to travel along the Rybinsk reservoir and the first point is the locks.

The gate at the lower level closes, it takes about 10 minutes for the lock to be filled with water, and we enter the reservoir area.

For seagulls, the process of filling or filling the sluice with water is most beneficial - stunned fish are easier to catch - just like for fishermen near a hydroelectric power station.

Due to the current shallowing of the reservoir by almost 2.5 meters, the number of steamships has decreased and the lock staff welcomes rare visitors.

We pass by the monument to Mother Volga.

Kamennikovsky Peninsula.

While we sail, we listen to the history of Mologa from local history keepers and local historians.

To create the Rybinsk reservoir with an area of ​​4,580 km2, it was necessary to resettle, in addition to Mologa, more than 600 villages. Filling of the reservoir lasted longer than planned - it was flooded to the required level only in the high-water year of 1947. This happened because during the war water was released to the lowest levels to maximize electricity production.

Soon a strip of land and several stones appeared on the horizon.

Mologa has a rich history - the city was the same age as Moscow, and in the chronicle it is mentioned as the city that saved Yuri Dolgoruky during the war with the Kyiv prince Izyaslav Mstislavovich. Then the squad of Kievites burned all the cities of the Suzdal principality, and Mologa misfired - the Volga rose and flooded all the surrounding fields and roads. As a result, the Kiev squad went home, and the founder of Moscow was saved.

Apparently, there is some kind of evil irony of fate in the fact that the first chronicle mention of this city almost completely coincides in meaning with the last mention of Mologa - with the only difference that the grateful descendants of Dolgoruky flooded Mologa itself.

According to the first edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, in 1936 there were 6,100 people living in it, it was a small town built up mainly with wooden buildings.

Before reaching a couple of kilometers to the place where the highest point of Mologa appeared, we transfer to a boat - the fairway does not allow the steamer to go further.

The boat approaches the shore very carefully - in some areas the water depth does not even reach half a meter.

Mologa was famous not only as a trade and transport hub of the country, but also as a producer of butter and cheese, which was even supplied to London.
Previously, the view of Mologa from our place was like this. The photo was taken before 1937.

Now it is a bare island with thousands of scattered bricks and remnants of everyday life.

Before filling the reservoir, it is mandatory to clear its bed of buildings. Wooden houses are either dismantled and transported to a new location, or burned. In Mologa, most of the residents dismantled their houses, built rafts from them (so that they could later reassemble the house) and, having loaded everything that could be taken away onto them, they floated down the river to a new place of residence.

People were forced to leave their stone houses, the graves of their relatives and friends.
Stone buildings were destroyed to the ground, and this was done long before the reservoir was filled. Everything valuable that could be useful on the farm and could be carried away was taken away.

We can confidently assume that by 1940 the resettlement was practically completed, since local Soviet authorities took a very direct part in the resettlement process - they issued exit certificates, on the basis of which the settlers received financial assistance from the state. In total, about 130 thousand people were overpopulated.

Yaroslavskaya Street was then the highest point of the city, which this year poked out of the water.

Yaroslavskaya street now.

The pride of the Mologans of that time was the tower designed by the brother of Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Mologsky district, the city of Mologa and 6 village councils of the Mologsky district, falling into the flood zone, were officially liquidated by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR on December 20, 1940.

Rumors that more than 300 people drowned without leaving the city are not true. Sitting for months in the middle of an open field and waiting for water to come is a surprisingly strange and painful way of committing suicide. The Rybinsk reservoir has a small backwater, but a large volume, and, accordingly, fills quite slowly - a few centimeters per day. This is not a tsunami or even an ordinary flood; you can get away from the rising reservoir simply on foot and without much effort.

It was possible to continue walking, but it was nearing sunset and we had to urgently set sail before it got dark.

By a fatal coincidence, the coat of arms of the city of Mologa, approved back in 1778, seemed to predict its flooding - the earthen rampart in the “azure field” ended up being the Rybinsk Reservoir.

In memory of the ghost town, a museum was opened in 1995 in Rybinsk, which became known as the Museum of the Mologsky Region, and former Mologans gather every year to honor the memory of their sunken homeland.

And don’t believe the pictures on the Internet showing that something has survived at the site of Mologa - there is no bell tower, like in Kalyazin, or domes sticking out of the water - only stones and a homemade monument remind of the ancient Russian city that once stood here. ..

The report partially used photographs of the Mologsky region museum and from my personal archive from 2006 (hydroelectric power station above).