Museum of Technics in Arkhangelskoye

About half a kilometer from the Arkhangelskoye estate is the exposition of tanks and weapons – the Vadim Zadorozhny`s Museum of Equipment. You can see there a big open-air exposition of military equipment, as well as a very interesting inside exposition of retro cars, motorcycles, and weapons.

The museum of equipment created by a businessman Vadim Zadorozhny in 2001 is now the largest museum of such kind in Russia. The collections of retro cars and military equipment are probably of equal interest.

The presented cars make it possible to trace the evolution of automobile manufacturing. The history of the car industry begins from the first horseless carriage of the American firm Holsman launched in 1902. There were manufactured only 4 such carriages. Automation was at the lowest level. The machine had no ignition key so the engine was cranked with a curved handle. The headlights were lighted with the help of matches.

You can see there even the famous Ford Model Т, colloquially known as the Tin Lizzie, the first automobile, which was affordable for middle-class Americans. You can also see there the other, later Ford models, including powerful Cadillacs known by gangster movies.

Of a special value are the German cars of the 30-40th of the past century: Horch (present Audi), Mercedes-Benz and BMW. It was in these cars that the top of the Third Reich rode. You can also find there several machines of the already inexistent French firm Dalahaye, including the 135СС, «Blue Bird», the famous French racer René Dreyfus once drove. There are also interesting Alfa Romeo sports models of the 1930th, as well as modern race cars, which participated in the Formula 1 races, at the museum.

There are many German military technologies, as well as weapons on the first floor: guns, machine guns and submachine guns, armored personnel carriers, as well as various models of BMW motorcycles. Of a special interest is a fighter aircraft Messerschmitt Bf.109. Over a half of the Luftwaffe was equipped with such Messerschmitts. This particular aircraft was shot down near Murmansk in 1944. After the restoration it was sent to the museum. 

The exposition of Soviet executive cars, mainly GAZ, ZIS and ZIL, is on the ground floor. Many of the cars were once used by the chief executives of the USSR. For example, J. Stalin was driven in armored ZIS-115 cars. In the time of N. Khrushchev foreign delegations were driven in ZIS-110 automobiles. Brezhnev and the higher party nomenklature (governing establishment) preferred ZIS cars. 

At the open-air exposition you can see a great number of various weapons: aircrafts, tanks, guns, MRLSs (Grad, Uragan, etc.), various rockets and air defense systems. Although there mainly presented Soviet weapons, you can also see some American weapons.