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 along 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 initial 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, and unique old estates and three monasteries. 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 materials round table on the problems of the Mologsky region, which took place in June 2003, there is a link to 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 museum collection compiled exhibits evacuated from Mologsky local history museum in 1936. The Mologans themselves and their descendants gave a lot. 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.
O-37-65-B Map of Volgostroy. Yaroslavl region, Mologsky district. Compiled from the filming of Sredvolgostroy and Molog. M.T. Section of the relief every 2 m. Work print (blue, blueprint).
Mologa- since 1777, the district town of Mologsky district in the Yaroslavl province. The city was 120 km away. from Yaroslavl and 32 km. from Rybinsk at the confluence of the Mologa river and the Volga. The first mention in chronicles is 1149 (2 years later than Moscow).
Map of the city of Mologa
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.
Neighborhood Mologa
In the Mologsky district at the beginning of the 20th century, there were 714 villages and 933 land communities. The total population of the county at the beginning of the 20th century was 130 thousand people. List of populated places in Mologsky district as of 1901 .
Flooding of the city
On September 14, 1935, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution to begin construction of the Rybinsk and Uglich hydroelectric complexes. The height of the water surface above sea level of the Rybinsk reservoir was supposed to be 98 m. But subsequently, on January 1, 1937, this value was increased to 102 m, which made it possible to significantly increase the generation capacity of the Rybinsk hydroelectric station. Mologa was at a level of 98 m, so as a result of these adjustments it fell into the flood zone.
The resettlement of city and county residents (a total of about 130 thousand people) began in 1936 and continued until 1940. In the fall of 1940, the Volga channel was blocked and on April 13, 1941, filling of the reservoir began, which continued until 1947.
Volgostroy- a special construction and installation department of the NKVD-USSR, which was engaged in the construction of waterworks on the Volga River. The main labor force during construction were prisoners Volgolaga. In the 30s, Volgostroy topographers carried out detailed topographic surveys of the area, which was planned for flooding. The site contains just such a map worksheet related to Mologa and its northern environs.
Former attractions of Mologa
The archived version contains both the original map sheet and two sheets with overlaid directions for the Rybinsk Reservoir.
Perhaps the time has come to talk about one city that for more than 70 years you have not been able to come to or walk along its streets - this city does not exist. The city that forever disappeared into the abyss of the Rybinsk Reservoir is the city of Mologa!
There will be almost no words of mine in this post; today the text will simply be copied from various Internet pages about the history of Mologa. Also today there will be no photos of me - all the photos were also found on the World Wide Web...
Mologa is an ancient Russian city. The time of the initial settlement of the area where the city of Mologa stood is unknown. For the first time the name Mologa, referring to the river, is mentioned in the chronicle in 1149, when Grand Duke Kiev Izyaslav Mstislavich, fighting with Yuri Dolgoruky, the prince of Suzdal and Rostov, burned all the villages along the Volga all the way to the Mologa River. Presumably at this time there was already a small settlement on the river that belonged to the Rostov princes. Then the chronicles are silent about the Mologa country until 1207. Under the Grand Duke Vsevolod the Big Nest, a new division into appanages followed in Northern Rus', and Mologa, according to Vsevolod’s will, fell to the share of his son, the Rostov prince Konstantin, and Konstantin, in 1218, together with Yaroslavl he gave it to his son Vsevolod.
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The city itself was rebuilt at the end of the 12th century. IN mid-XIII century, Prince Yuri II comes here to gather an army against the Tatar troops.
In 1321, the Principality of Molozhsk appeared - after the death of the Yaroslavl prince David, his sons, Vasily and Mikhail, divided his possessions: Vasily, as the eldest, inherited Yaroslavl, and Mikhail received an inheritance on the Mologa River.
In the 15th century, under Ivan III, the Mologa principality became part of the Moscow principality. He also moved the fair to Mologa, which was previously located 50 km up the Mologa River in the Kholopy town. It was the largest in the Upper Volga region at the end of the 14th - beginning of the 16th centuries, but then lost its importance due to the shallowing of the Volga and the movement of trade routes. However, Mologa remained significant shopping center local significance.
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An ancient palace settlement or merchant settlement, Mologa received the status of county town Mologsky district, and at the same time was assigned to the Yaroslavl governorship and to the corresponding province. The city plan was confirmed on March 21, 1780 and October 26, 1834. Public offices were opened in Mologa on January 4, 1778.
In 1778, the newly discovered city already had 418 houses and 20 shops, and 2,109 residents.
In 1895 there were already 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 to: 1 guild, 1 guild, 2 guild 68, and 1191 for petty trading. The treasury, bank, telegraph, post office, and cinema functioned.
There were 3 libraries and 9 educational institutions: city three-year men's school, Alexandrovskoe two-year 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, a major flax merchant) 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.
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Until the revolution of 1917, Mologa was a wealthy merchant city at the crossroads of water trade routes - the Sheksna, Mologa and Volga rivers.
In addition to trade, the city was well developed agriculture. The endless floodplain meadows provided excellent grass for cows, which had a positive effect on the taste of milk and butter. Molozhskaya oil was known in all major Russian cities. Economic merchants grew rich, built stone houses, erected temples, schools, and hospitals.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, five thousand people lived in Mologa. There were six cathedrals and churches, nine educational institutions, and several factories and factories.
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.
At the time of liquidation, the city was living a full life, there were 6 cathedrals and churches, 9 educational institutions, factories and factories.
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In 1931, by resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council people's commissars A plan for the construction of a cascade of reservoirs "Big Volga" was adopted. Already in September of the following year, equipment and workers from the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station were transferred to Rybinsk. The construction of the Rybinsk hydroelectric power station has begun, capable, according to the plan, of producing 200 MW of electricity around the clock. To do this, it was necessary to create a man-made sea - to flood the area adjacent to the construction site. For normal operation of the station, the water level had to be 98 meters.
On September 14, 1935, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution to begin construction of the Rybinsk and Uglich hydroelectric complexes. According to the original design, the height of the water surface above sea level of the Rybinsk Reservoir was supposed to be 98 m. On January 1, 1937, this figure was changed to 102 m, which almost doubled the amount of flooded land. The increase in the retaining level was due to the fact that these 4 meters made it possible to increase the generation capacity of the Rybinsk hydroelectric station from 220 to 340 MW.
The city of Mologa lay at 98 m above sea level and, thus, fell into the flood zone. This implied the flooding of hundreds of thousands of hectares of land along with the settlements located on it, 700 villages and the city of Mologa.
In the fall of 1936, the young people were informed of the upcoming resettlement. Local authorities By the end of the year, they decided to resettle about 60% of the city’s residents and remove their houses, despite the fact that it was impossible to do it in the two months remaining before the Mologa and Volga froze, in addition, the houses being floated would remain damp until the summer. However, it was not possible to implement this decision - the resettlement of residents began in the spring of 1937 and lasted four years.
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On April 13, 1941, the last opening of the dam was blocked. The waters of the Volga, Sheksna and Mologa began to overflow their banks and flood the territory. The most tall buildings cities and churches were razed to the ground. All buildings had to be leveled at least to the level of the second floor - so that in the future they would not interfere with shipping. Of course, the easiest way was to blow up houses with dynamite. Former residents of Mologa remember how the Epiphany Cathedral was demolished. Built to last, the mighty building only rose into the air from the first explosion, and then sank to its place - safe and sound. Only the fourth or fifth charge of dynamite was able to destroy the cathedral.
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The city began to gradually sink under water, disappearing from the surface of the earth for many decades...
"Only occasionally after a dry summer does the decreasing autumn days Mologa will emerge from under the water, revealing its cobbled streets, foundations of houses, and a cemetery with tombstones. Like a ghost, Mologa will appear and disappear in the muddy green shallow waters of the Rybinsk Reservoir - as if reminding of itself, of its tragic history..."
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- this is not just a territory that unites several central regions of the country: Vladimir, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tver, Tula, Yaroslavl.
- this is a land of picturesque and truly Russian nature: coniferous and deciduous forests, clean lakes and rivers, fresh air and a harmonious climate, familiar to us since childhood.
- These are slow-flowing rivers with wide floodplains, occupied by water meadows. Thick, dark, overgrown with moss, like enchanted spruce trees. Magnificent broadleaf forests, consisting of huge oaks, ash trees, maples. These are sunny pine forests and cheerful, pleasing birch forests. Dense thickets of hazel on a carpet of tall ferns.
And beautiful clearings, strewn with flowers emanating intoxicating odors, are replaced by huge islands of impenetrable thickets, where tall fluffy spruces and pines live their measured, centuries-old life. They seem like incredible giants who slowly make way for uninvited guests.
In the thicket you can see old dried driftwood everywhere, so intricately curved that it seemed like there was a goblin lurking behind the hillock, and a pretty kikimora was peacefully dozing near the stone.
And endless fields, going either into the forest or into the sky. And all around - only the singing of birds and the chirping of grasshoppers.
This is where the largest rivers of the Russian Plain: Volga, Dnieper, Don, Oka, Western Dvina. The source of the Volga is a legend of Russia, the pilgrimage to which never stops.
IN middle lane more than a thousand lakes. The most beautiful and popular of them is Lake Seliger. Even the densely populated Moscow region is rich in beautiful lakes and rivers, sometimes even intact cottages and high fences.
The nature of the middle zone, glorified by artists, poets and writers, fills a person peace of mind, opens your eyes to the amazing beauty of your native land.
Famous not only for its literally fabulous nature, but also historical monuments. This - the face of the Russian province, in some places, in spite of everything, even preserving architectural appearance XVIII-XIX centuries.
In the middle zone there are most of the cities of the world famous Golden Ring of Russia - Vladimir, Suzdal, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Rostov Veliky, Uglich, Sergiev Posad and other ancient ones manorial estates, monasteries and temples, architectural monuments. Their beauty cannot be described; you have to see it with your own eyes and, as they say, feel the breath of deep antiquity.
But the most fruitful and happy thing for me was my acquaintance with central Russia... It captured me immediately and forever... Since then, I have not known anything closer to me than our simple Russian people, and nothing more beautiful than our land. I won't trade Central Russia to the most famous and stunning beauties of the globe. Now I remember with an indulgent smile my youthful dreams of yew forests and tropical thunderstorms. I would give all the elegance of the Gulf of Naples with its feast of colors for a willow bush wet from the rain on the sandy bank of the Oka or for the winding Taruska River - on its modest banks I now often live for a long time.
Wrote by K.G. Paustovsky.
Or you can just climb into some remote village and enjoy nature far from civilization. The people here are very welcoming and friendly.
In the Yaroslavl region, on the Rybinsk reservoir, buildings appeared from the water ancient city Mologa, 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.
These days Mologa would celebrate its anniversary - 865 years.
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 houses. 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 the chairman public organization“Community of Mologans” Valentin Blatov.
The city of Mologa in the Yaroslavl region is called the “Russian Atlantis” and the “Yaroslavl city of Kitezh”. If it had not been sunk in 1941, it would now be 865 years old. The city was located 32 km from Rybinsk and 120 km from Yaroslavl at the confluence of the Mologa and Volga rivers. From the 15th to the end of the 19th century, Mologa was a major trading center, with a population of 5,000 people at the beginning of the 20th century.
On September 14, 1935, a decision was made to begin construction of the Rybinsk and Uglich hydroelectric complexes, as a result of which the city found itself in a flood zone. Initially, it was planned to raise the water level to 98 meters above sea level, but then the figure increased to 102 meters, since this increased the power of the hydroelectric power station from 200 megawatts to 330. And the city had to be flooded... The city was flooded on April 13, 1941.
Incredibly lush grass grew in the fields of Mologa because during the spring flood the rivers merged into a huge floodplain and unusually nutritious silt remained in the meadows. The cows ate the grass that grew on it and produced the most delicious milk in Russia, from which butter was produced at local creameries. They don’t get this kind of oil now, despite all the ultras modern technologies. There is simply no more Molog nature.
In September 1935, the USSR government adopted a decree on the start of construction of the Russian Sea - the Rybinsk hydroelectric complex. This implied the flooding of hundreds of thousands of hectares of land along with the settlements located on it, 700 villages and the city of Mologa.
At the time of liquidation, the city was living a full life, there were 6 cathedrals and churches, 9 educational institutions, factories and factories.
On April 13, 1941, the last opening of the dam was blocked. The waters of the Volga, Sheksna and Mologa began to overflow their banks and flood the territory.
The tallest buildings in the city and churches were razed to the ground. When the city began to be ravaged, the residents were not even explained what would happen to them. They could only watch as Mologa-paradise was turned into hell.
Prisoners were brought in to work, who worked day and night, demolishing the city and building a waterworks. Prisoners died in hundreds. They were not buried, but simply stored and buried in common pits on the future seabed. In this nightmare, residents were told to urgently pack up, take only the essentials and go for resettlement.
Then the worst thing began. 294 Mologans refused to evacuate and remained in their homes. Knowing this, the builders began flooding. The rest were forcibly taken away.
After some time, a wave of suicides began among former Mologans. Whole families and one by one they came to the banks of the reservoir to drown themselves. Rumors spread about mass suicides, which reached Moscow. It was decided to evict the remaining Mologans to the north of the country, and remove the city of Mologa from the list of ever existing ones. Mentioning it, especially as a place of birth, was followed by arrest and prison. They tried to forcefully turn the city into a myth.
GHOST TOWN
But Mologa was not destined to become the City of Kitezh or the Russian Atlantis, forever plunged into the abyss of water. Her fate is worse. The depths at which the city is located, in accordance with dry engineering terminology, are called “vanishingly small.” The reservoir level fluctuates, and approximately once every two years Mologa emerges from the water. Street paving, house foundations, and a cemetery with tombstones are exposed. And the Mologans come: to sit on the ruins of their home, to visit their father’s graves. For every “low-water” year, the ghost town pays its price: during the spring ice drift, the ice, like a grater, scrapes along the bottom in shallow water and takes with it material evidence of past life...
REPENTANCE CHAPEL
A unique museum of the flooded region was created in Rybinsk.
Now on the remaining Molog lands there are the Breitovsky and Nekouzsky districts of the Yaroslavl region. It was here, in the ancient village of Breytovo, located at the confluence of the Sit River into the Rybinsk Reservoir, that a popular initiative arose to build a penitential chapel in memory of all the flooded monasteries and temples resting under the waters of the man-made sea. This ancient village itself revealed the image of the tragedy of the Russian interfluve. Once in the flood zone, it was artificially moved to a new location, and historical buildings and the temples remained at the bottom.
In November 2003, the first monument to the victims of the flooded Mologsky district appeared. This is a chapel built exclusively with human donations on the shore of the Rybinsk Reservoir, in Breytovo. This is the memory of those who did not want to leave their small homeland and went under water along with Mologa and the flooded villages. This is also the memory of all those who died during the construction of the hydroelectric power station. The chapel was named “Our Lady of the Waters.”
Penitential chapel in Breytovo
Icon Mother of God“I am with you, and no one else is with you” or Leushinskaya
Yaroslavl Archbishop Kirill blessed this chapel to dedicate this chapel to the Mother of God “I am with you, and no one else is against you,” the icon that became a symbol of flooded Rus', and to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the patron saint of swimmers. Therefore, the chapel also received another name: Theotokos-Nikolskaya.