The official opening of the Regional Airborne Museum “Winged Guards” took place on May 21, 1994. The initiator of the creation of the Airborne Museum and its first director was Natalia Mikhailova, a participant in the Great Patriotic War. Thanks to her initiative and energetic activity, the residential building in Krylova Street 2a was reconstructed and collection of materials devoted to the airborne troops was begun: their creation, development, participation in the Great Patriotic War, the Afghan wars, in combat operations in the North Caucasus, in peacekeeping missions in “Hot spots” in the territory of the former USSR and abroad.
Great help in the organization of the museum was provided by the Verkh-Isetsky District Executive Committee (NPOlgov), the City Council of War and Labor Veterans (NE Skosyrsky), the Metro Administration (VM Sudin), the Commander of the Troops of the Ural Military District Colonel-General Yu. P. Grekov, soldiers of the Sverdlovsk garrison. A lot of forces in the creation of the museum were invested by the deputy director of the museum, Yu. S. Kudryavtsev, senior researcher V. I. Lokshin, the custodians of the funds of MG Molchanov and N. D. Golitsyn. Design work in the creation of the museum’s first exposition was performed by artists – designers O. Istomin, A. Naboishchikov and A. Shagap.
Later on, the director of the museum, S. M. Bykov, Deputy Director V.D. Savin, Research Fellow A. A. Serdyukov, the main guardians of the funds of T. Yu. Djuzhenkov and G. G. Pozimin contributed much to the development of the museum’s exposition. In 2003, by the decree of the Governor of the Sverdlovsk Region, SV Voroshnin was appointed director of the museum. With his arrival, major repairs of the museum buildings began and a cardinal change of the exposition. In two halls of the museum there are expositions devoted to the history of the creation of a parachute and the development of parachuting in our country; The special forces of Russia; Creation and development of airborne troops from 1930 to the present.
The expositions of the museum acquaint visitors with the history of the appearance and perfection of the parachute and parachute equipment from Leonardo da Vinci to the present day; With the history of the formation and development of special forces of the Russian Army, airborne troops, beginning with the first airborne assault that was thrown out on August 2, 1930, and ending today’s day; With the participation of the Airborne Forces in the Great Patriotic War, with the revival and consolidation of this kind of troops in the post-war period, with the activity of Airborne Force Commander General of the Army VF Margelov, which resulted in large-scale rearmament and technical re-equipment of airborne troops, landing in complex geographic and climatic Conditions, the introduction of new methods and means of landing. Visitors will learn about the participation of paratroopers in such armed conflicts as the Hungarian in 1956 and the Czechoslovak 1968, the events in the territory of the Chechen Republic, in the former Yugoslavia, as well as the current state of the airborne troops.
In total, there are more than 1,450 exhibits in the halls. Design decoration of the new exposition of the museum was made by designers N. V. Koksharov and V. E. Nesterov. The work on creating a virtual exposition of the museum is in full swing. Meetings of students, students, cadets, soldiers with veterans of the Airborne Forces, participants in wars and military conflicts, literary and musical and creative meetings, screenings of documentary and feature films, solemn receptions of veterans of the Armed Forces dedicated to the memorable dates of the military history of our country are held in the lecture hall. . The museum holds a large number of traveling exhibitions and creative meetings in general, secondary and higher educational institutions, library and information centers, cultural centers, military units both in Yekaterinburg and outside.
A great contribution to the development of the museum is made by research workers VI Lokshin, MF Kuz’minykh, TM Raeva, SV Ruzaev, Yu. S. Kostylev, deputy director VI Kerimov, and others. With the arrival In the museum of V. V. Lobanov and G. S. Kunyavsky, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, the events held by the museum staff have risen to a new, higher-quality level. Over the years the museum has become truly native to the paratroopers of all generations. It is visited annually by an average of 20 thousand people. The funds of the museum (the main curator of the funds of EV Sosnovskaya) contain more than 10,000 documents, photographs and material.
