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 against 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 rather significant and even hill and stretched along the right bank of the Mologa and along the left 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 stone - 58, wooden - 51. Population in the city: total - 7032, of which 3115 were men, 3917 were 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 Rybinsk reservoir was supposed to be 2.5 thousand km2, and the height of the water surface above sea level was 98 m. In this case, the city of Mologa, located at elevations of 98-101 m, would have remained alive. However, the gigantomania of the Stalinist five-year plans forced a revision of the plans, and in 1937 it was decided to raise the water level to 102 m. The power of the hydroelectric power station increased by 65%, the area of flooded land almost doubled. At the same time, 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 Mologa's memorial day.
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 specific principality. It included more than 700 villages and villages, unique ancient estates and three monasteries. Water meadows, the pride of the Mologo-Sheksninskaya lowland, which had the status of a breeding ground for seed production of grassland grasses, have gone under water. union value. The ecosystem of the region was disturbed, the climate began to change. But the most important thing is that the fate of 130 thousand people who suddenly lost their homeland has changed dramatically. The eviction proceeded in accordance with the sequence established by Volgostroy. Documents have been preserved in the archives of the museum, in which people asked to postpone the move until spring in order to be able to dry the logs after the rafting and assemble the houses before the onset of cold weather. They received disastrous answers: "You are talking anti-Soviet." "Volgostroy" was under the jurisdiction of the NKVD, and according to official data, 150 thousand prisoners, convicted mainly under the 58th, anti-Soviet article, died during the construction of the Rybinsk hydro facility.
However, there were other victims of the great construction. In materials 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 preferred death to forced resettlement, chaining themselves up with chains 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 water meadows of the Mologo-Sheksna lowland, which was regularly flooded. The majority consoled themselves with the thought that this was necessary for the good of the country. It is difficult to move to an empty place, it hurts to leave houses, households, the graves of relatives, but there is no other way out! “Our HPP supplied Moscow with electricity throughout the war,” says Nikolai Novotelnov, who for 30 years was a representative of the Molgozhan community. - The Volga became navigable. Then it was important."
hydroelectric power station
HPP complex in the Volga-Kama river basin. During their construction, seven reservoirs were formed: Ivankovskoye, Uglichskoye, Rybinskoye, Gorky, Cheboksary, Kuibyshevskoye and Volgogradskoye. Many cities were flooded, some partial and some complete. In the middle of the Uglich reservoir, the bell tower of St. Nicholas Cathedral in Kalyazin rises like a monument to the lost lands. Two-thirds of this city fell into the flood zone, including the Trinity Monastery, once the largest in Tver. The bell tower was saved from complete destruction by the decision to adapt it for training paratroopers. Later, an island was built around it to protect it from the destruction caused by water and ice drift.
Round glass porthole submarine. Behind it is a white-stone church, leaden waters closed over the neat onion domes. This model is one of the exhibits of the Museum of the Mologa region in the city of Rybinsk. In reality, however, no buildings have been preserved at the bottom of the reservoir, only piles of stones. What they failed to disassemble and move to a new place before flooding, they tried to blow it up. 20 out of 140 churches doomed to destruction did not manage to destroy the region. For many years they stood out of 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 artificial lake falls, which exposes the skeletons of houses, protecting the traces of ancient streets, along which you can again walk. And pass - those people who managed to keep in their hearts the memory of their small homeland.
The Rybinsk reservoir occupies 13% of the territory of the Yaroslavl region, in addition, partially capturing the Vologda and Tver regions.
Museum
The Museum of the Mologa Region is located in the building of the former chapel of the Afanasevsky Monastery. The monastery itself, located 3 km from the city of Mologa, perished during the flood. The chapel built on his Rybinsk farmstead managed to survive. When the museum was opened in 1995, it was re-consecrated. Where generations of Mologzhans who came to Rybinsk prayed, and now you can put 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 Mologa Museum of Local Lore in 1936. Much was given by the Mologa residents themselves and their descendants. Another source of income came from expeditions to the flooded city, organized by the founder of the museum, Nikolai Alekseev, during the years when Mologa was opening, emerging from drought-pacified waters.
From Rybinsk to Mologa - 32 km. They go there on a specially rented motor ship, then sail on boats. “Imagine: people who are over 80 years old are moving into boats from the high side of the ship. It shakes - the wind is creepy there, ”says the director of the museum.
Winter this year turned out to be little snowy and the remains of Mologa appeared on the surface of the Rybinsk reservoir - the ancient Russian city would have turned 865 this year if it were 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 power station at the invitation of RusHydro.
The water itself after the drought in the Volga region of 1921-22 was considered as strategic resource and filling the future Rybinsk reservoir in those years was strategically important decision- the main water artery of the capital - the Moskva River became very shallow and polluted, and the overpopulated city threatened to soon be left without a 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: "... fundamentally 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 of Moscow is the Volga). Initially, it was planned to build three hydroelectric facilities with a capacity of 220 MW in Myshkin, Yaroslavl and Kalyazin. Later, this scheme was changed and two hydropower plants 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 flowing into the Mologa River was possible only in high water.
Deepening work was carried out, but this did not lead to results, because the level immediately sat down. When the Rybinsk, Uglich and Ivankovskoye reservoirs were created, a navigable passage 4.5 meters deep was formed.
We go to the Rybinsk hydroelectric power station. 
The construction of the hydroelectric complex began in 1935 near the village of Perebory at the confluence of the Sheksna into the Volga, and the main work at the hydroelectric power station began in 1938-1939. 
Some sources claim that Stalin was personally interested in the progress of the construction of the Rybinsk hydroelectric complex, and raising the mark from 98 to 102 meters was his initiative. The main goal: to increase the capacity of the Rybinsk HPP and ensure a 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, the filling of the Rybinsk reservoir began. The retaining level of the water table 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 the maximum mark of 97.5 m, in 1942 - to the mark of 99.3 m. Mologa is located at the mark of 98-101 m. 
Now a favorite place for local fishermen is downstream, where a slightly stunned fish ends 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 HPP units were put into operation in succession, and in 1998 and 2002 two of the six hydro units were reconstructed.
It is difficult to find a worker in the hall - the whole process is automated. 
The control panel provides round-the-clock monitoring of the systems and units of the HPP. 
On July 30, 1955, the Uglich and Rybinsk hydroelectric complexes were accepted into commercial operation, forming Cascade No. 1 of Mosenergo. In 1993, the company changed its name to DOAO "Cascade of the Upper Volga HPPs". 
The original chandeliers of the 40s have been preserved in the building. 
The workers are joking. 
Bloggers tweet. 
In the engine room, a beautiful picture giving general idea about the hydroelectric power plant. 
And now the journey to Mologa.
From the central Rybinsk pier on a steamboat to Mologa, it is more than two hours' walk along the Rybinsk reservoir and the first point is the locks. 
The gates at the lower level are closed, it takes about 10 minutes to fill the lock with water and we enter the reservoir zone. 
For seagulls, the process of filling or filling the lock with water is most beneficial - stunned fish are easier to catch - just like fishermen near the hydroelectric power station. 
In connection with the current shallowing of the reservoir by almost 2.5 meters, the number of steamboats has decreased and the employees of the locks are glad to see rare visitors. 
We pass by the monument to Mother Volga.
Kamennikovskiy peninsula.
While we are sailing, we are going to listen to the history of Mologa from local history keepers and local historians. 
To create the Rybinsk reservoir with an area of 4580 km2, it was necessary to relocate, in addition to Mologa, more than 600 villages. The filling of the reservoir lasted longer than the design one - it was flooded to the required level only in the high-water year of 1947. This happened because during the war, water was dumped to the lowest levels for maximum electricity generation. 
Soon a strip of earth and several stones appeared on the horizon.
Mologa has a rich history - the city was the same age as Moscow, and in the annals it is mentioned as the city that saved Yuri Dolgoruky during the war with the Kyiv prince Izyaslav Mstislavovich. Then the Kiev squad burned all the cities Suzdal Principality, and a misfire happened with Mologa - the Volga rose and flooded all the surrounding fields and roads. As a result, the Kyiv 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 annalistic 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 6100 people lived in it, it was a small, built-up mainly wooden buildings town. 
Before reaching a couple of kilometers to the place where the highest points of Mologa appeared, we change 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 from buildings. Wooden houses either dismantled and transported to a new location, or incinerated. In Mologa, most of the inhabitants dismantled their houses, built rafts from them (so that they could later reassemble the house) and, having loaded everything that could be taken away, melted 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 out. 
It can be fairly confidently assumed that by 1940 the resettlement was practically completed, since the local Soviet authorities took a 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 then - the most high point city, which this year leaned out of the water. 
Yaroslavskaya street now. 
The pride of the then Mologzhans is the tower, designed by the brother of Fyodor Dostoevsky. 
The Mologa district, the city of Mologa and 6 village councils of the Mologa 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 an open field and waiting for the 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, is filled rather slowly - a few centimeters a day. This is not a tsunami and not even an ordinary flood, you can get away from the rising reservoir just on foot and not really straining. 
It was possible to walk further, but the matter was approaching sunset and it was necessary to urgently set off before it got dark. 
By a fatal coincidence, the coat of arms of the city of Mologa, approved back in 1778, seems to predict its flooding - an earthen rampart in the "azure field" turned out to be 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 Mologa Region, and former Mologa residents gather every year to honor the memory of the sunken homeland.
And do not believe the pictures on the Internet, showing that something survived on the site of Mologa - there is no bell tower, as in Kalyazin, or domes sticking out of the water - only stones and a self-made monument remind of the ancient Russian city that once stood here. ..
The report partially uses photographs from the museum of the Mologa region and from my personal archive of 2006 (hydroelectric power station on top).
is not just a territory uniting several central regions of the country: Vladimir, Kaluga, Moscow, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tver, Tula, Yaroslavl.
- this is the land of picturesque and truly Russian nature: coniferous and deciduous forests, clear 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. Dense, dark, overgrown with moss, like enchanted spruce forests. Magnificent broad-leaved forests, consisting of huge oaks, ash-trees, maples. These are sunny pine forests and cheerful, pleasing to the eye birch forests. Dense thickets of hazel on a carpet of tall fern.
And beautiful clearings, strewn with flowers exuding intoxicating smells, 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 everywhere you can see old dried-up snags, which are so bizarrely curved that it seemed that there, behind a hillock, a goblin lurked, and a pretty kikimora peacefully dozes near the stone.
And endless fields, leaving either in the forest or in the sky. And 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.
AT 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 not even mutilated cottages and high fences.
The nature of the middle lane, sung by artists, poets and writers, fills a person with peace of mind, opens his eyes to the amazing beauty of his native land.
Famous not only for its literally fabulous nature, but also historical monuments. It - face of the Russian province, in some places, in spite of everything, even retaining the architectural appearance of the XVIII-XIX centuries.
Most of the cities of the world-famous Golden Ring of Russia are located in the middle lane - Vladimir, Suzdal, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Rostov the Great, Uglich, Sergiev Posad and others, ancient landowners' 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 the deep antiquity.
But the most fruitful and happy for me was my acquaintance with the middle zone of Russia ... It took possession of 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 change Central Russia to the most famous and stunning beauties the globe. Now, with a condescending smile, I recall 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 banks of the Oka or for the meandering river Taruska - on its modest banks I now often live for a long time.
Written 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, 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.
Disappeared from the face of the earth more than 50 years ago, the city of Mologa in the Yaroslavl region again appeared above the surface of the water as a result of low water 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 watch an unusual phenomenon. They said that the foundations of houses and the contours of streets appeared from the water. Mologa residents are going to visit their former houses. Their children and grandchildren are planning to swim to the ruins of the city on the motor ship Moskovsky-7 in order to walk around their native land.
“We go to visit the flooded city every year. Usually we put flowers and wreaths into the water, and the priests serve a prayer service on the ship, but this year there are unique opportunity set foot on land,” said the chairman public organization"Community of Mologzhans" Valentin Blatov.
The city of Mologa in the Yaroslavl region is called "Russian Atlantis" and "Yaroslavl city of Kitezh". If it had not been flooded in 1941, it would have been 865 years old by now. 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 shopping mall, with a population at the beginning of the 20th century of 5,000 people.
On September 14, 1935, a decision was made to start construction of the Rybinsk and Uglich hydroelectric facilities, as a result of which the city was in a flood zone. It was originally planned to raise the water level to 98 meters above sea level, but then the figure increased to 102 meters, as 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 juicy 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 gave the most delicious milk in Russia, from which they produced milk at local oil mills. butter. They don’t get such oil now, despite all the ultra modern technologies. There is simply no mologa nature anymore.
In September 1935, a decree was adopted by the USSR government on the start of construction of the Russian Sea - the Rybinsk hydroelectric complex. This meant 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 lived a full life, it housed 6 cathedrals and churches, 9 educational institutions, plants 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.
Most high buildings cities, churches were razed to the ground. When the city began to be destroyed, the inhabitants were not even explained what would happen to them. They could only look at how Mologu-paradise was turned into hell.
For work, prisoners were brought in, who worked day and night, broke the city and built a hydroelectric complex. Hundreds of prisoners died. They were not buried, but simply stored and buried in common pits on the future seabed. In this nightmare, the residents were told to urgently pack up, take only the most necessary and go for resettlement.
Then the worst began. 294 Mologa residents refused to evacuate and remained in their homes. Knowing this, the builders began flooding. The rest were forcibly taken out.
Some time later, a wave of suicides began among the former Mologans. They came with whole families and one by one to the banks of the reservoir to drown themselves. Rumors spread about mass suicides, which crawled to Moscow. It was decided to evict the remaining Mologzhans to the north of the country, and delete the city of Mologa from the list of ever-existing cities. Mentioning it, especially as a place of birth, was followed by arrest and prison. They tried to forcibly turn the city into a myth.
GHOST TOWN
But Mologa was not destined to become the City of Kitezh or Russian Atlantis, forever immersed in the abyss of waters. Her fate is worse. The depths at which the city is located, in accordance with dry engineering terminology, are called "vanishingly small." The level of the reservoir fluctuates, and about once every two years Mologa is shown from the water. The paving of streets, the foundations of houses, the cemetery with tombstones are exposed. And the Mologanes come: to sit on the ruins home, visit father's graves. For each “low-water” year, the ghost town pays its price: during the spring ice drift, ice, like a grater, scrapes along the bottom in shallow water and takes with it material evidence of past life ...
PENITATION CHAPEL
A unique museum of the flooded region was created in Rybinsk.
Now the remaining Mologa lands are occupied by the Breitovsky and Nekouzsky districts of the Yaroslavl region. It was here in the ancient village of Breitovo, which stands 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 showed the image of the tragedy of the Russian interfluve. Once in the flood zone, it was artificially moved to a new location, while historical buildings and temples remained at the bottom.
In November 2003, the first monument to the victims of the flooded Mologa district appeared. This is a chapel built exclusively on human donations on the banks of the Rybinsk reservoir, in Breitovo. 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 at the construction of the hydroelectric power station. The chapel was named "Theotokos-on-the-Waters".
Penitential chapel in Breitovo
Icon Mother of God“I am with you, and no one is with you” or Leushinskaya
Archbishop Kirill of Yaroslavl blessed this chapel to dedicate to the Mother of God “I am with you, and no one is against you”, an icon that has become a symbol of flooded Russia, and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the patron saint of the floating. Therefore, the chapel also received another name of the Mother of God-Nikolskaya.
O-37-65-B Map of Volgostroy. Yaroslavl region, Mologskiy district. Compiled according to the shooting of Sredvolgostroy and Molog. M.T. Relief section after 2 m. Working print (blue, blueprint).
Mologa- since 1777, the county town of the Mologa district in the Yaroslavl province. The city was 120 km. from Yaroslavl and 32 km. from Rybinsk at the confluence of the Mologa and Volga rivers of the same name. The first mention in the annals 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, of which about a hundred were made of stone, and 200 shops and stores were located on the market square and near it. The population did not exceed 7 thousand people.
Neighborhood Mologa
By the beginning of the 20th century, there were 714 villages and 933 land communities in the Mologa district. The total population of the county at the beginning of the 20th century was 130 thousand people. List of populated places in the Mologa district for 1901 .
city flood
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 on the start of construction of the Rybinsk and Uglich hydroelectric facilities. The height of the water surface above sea level of the Rybinsk reservoir was supposed to be 98 m. But later, on January 1, 1937, this value was increased to 102 m, which made it possible to significantly increase the output of the Rybinsk hydroelectric power station. Mologa was at a level of 98 m, therefore, as a result of these adjustments, it fell into the flood zone.
The resettlement of the inhabitants of the city and the county (a total of about 130 thousand people) began in 1936 and continued until 1940. In the autumn of 1940, the Volga channel was blocked, and on April 13, 1941, the filling of the reservoir bowl began, which continued until 1947.
Volgostroy- a special construction and installation department of the NKVD-USSR, which was engaged in the construction of hydroelectric facilities on the Volga River. main labor force during construction were prisoners Volgolaga. In the 1930s, topographers from Volgostroy carried out a detailed topographic survey of the area, which was planned for flooding. The site just presents such a worksheet of the map relating to Mologa and its northern environs.
Former sights of Mologa
The archived version contains both the original sheet of the map and two sheets with superimposed directions from the Rybinsk Reservoir.
Loading...