Gold Museum in Berezovsky was founded on the same place and was devoted to the same events, which, in the middle of the 18 century, had a great influence on the economy of Russia and predetermined its development for future centuries.
The first room of the museum is devoted to a peasant from the village of Shartash Yerofey Markov who was the first to discover gold in Russia. In 1745 he found the placers of gold at the 19th kilometer of Rezhevskiy road (now the site is marked by a memorial obelisk). However, there were no gold veins in the indicated place. Markov was put to prison and tortured to know where he found gold. Two years later the gold deposits were still found and in 1757 in Berezovsky there appeared the first gold mine in Russia. Ten years later by the order of a mine foreman Nikifor Kleopin there was launched a flushing plant but its performance was low.
Eventually, for the development of Berezovsky gold deposit there were built over a thousand mines. This gold deposit is mentioned in all geology textbooks in all countries of the world as the richest and the oldest one. Gold is still extracted in 4 mines, one of which is considered the oldest continuously operating mine in the world.
In the museum there is also a room devoted to an engineer Lev Brusnitsyn who invented a revolutionary gold-mining technology in 1814. This technology made it possible to significantly increase the production of gold. After Markov had found gold there appeared a great number of gold-diggers. And this technology helped them to extract much more gold at the Berezovsky gold mines, even working in small groups. It was there, in Berezovsky, that the world`s first gold-fever took place.
In the 19 century, several decades after all these discoveries, Russia became the gold-mining country in the world. It also had the world`s largest gold reserve. It had a significant effect on the economic, political and military power of the Russian Empire.
The other rooms of the museum house the expositions devoted to the tools and living conditions of gold-diggers at the Berezovsky mines. At the passage of the museum there was restored the atmosphere of a gold mine. And the last room houses the exposition devoted to the gold-mining industry of the Soviet period.
