The Volgograd debarkader is a floating pier on Lake Money. Burned in the fire

It no longer exists, the cargo-passenger Volgograd debarkader, is a favorite vacation spot for young people, the hero of numerous amateur photo sessions. The floating pier had a chance to enter the list of objects of cultural heritage of the Soviet period. Restored, he could be listed among the leaders of the local tourism industry. It did not come true ...

Subject of admiration and controversy

The fire that lit up the Money Lake, near the Bobr Farm (Sredneakhtubinsky district), where the gray-haired giant was living out his life, crossed out all plans. They burned down on July 26, 2013 along with the "subject of admiration and controversy".

It is no secret that among the local population there were also those who believed that the dilapidated landing stage was only for firewood. The source of the fire has not been established: the poor fellow has flown - the ends into the water. Well, let's remember the "old man". His "life" was not easy, but glorious, friendly to people.

The Volgograd debarkader descended from the shipyards of Gorodtsa, Gor'kovo region (now Nizhny Novgorod) in 1954 (some want to believe that the "grandfather" was more than a hundred years old). In the courtyard there was a time when the Soviet Union consistently overcame the devastating consequences of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945).

The people, who experienced a lot of grief, were happy to create at all costs. Everywhere grew plants, factories, steamers were built, piers multiplied. Cute "floaters" on the Volga banks became a phenomenon so familiar that the older generation of the inhabitants of our country could not imagine that the time would come when convenient miniature river stations would hardly become.

He remembered Alexei Maresiev

Meters, "Comets", "Rockets" (high-speed passenger hydrofoils) moored to the stations near the eternal Volga waters and, of course, the pride of the expanses of the river with history - motor ships. The Volga was known as a highway with an active traffic, almost independent of the time of day.

Peacefully swaying on the waves of the river Kamyshinki in the town of Kamyshin with the same name, the cargo-and-passenger debarkader served the people honestly. Old residents still remember this typical wooden double-decker structure, typical for the pre-war and post-war period of the USSR.

Beautiful, albeit without frills, a cozy place for boarding passengers was, it seems, the main place of the historic town in which the Hero of the Soviet Union, the pilot Alexei Petrovich Maresiev was born and grew up and many other heroes of war and labor.

There is an opinion that it was on this pier that a real person would go in 1959, on his first visit to his small homeland, after he went to build the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur at the age of 17. Here his fellow countrymen met him with bread and salt.

From the Canyon to the Money Lake

The quay, reminiscent of the ship-house, was extremely popular among the reeds: "station facilities" at that time were used, in particular, as restaurants. All would be well, but one day it was time to change the "point of registration".

In 1966, the landing site was planted on Lake Denezhnoe near Krasnoslobodsk. Overnight, his haven became the Sredne-Akhtuba district of the Volgograd region. "The Traveler" became the rowing base of the sports society "Dynamo" (later VGAFK - Volgograd State Academy of Physical Culture).

Has the tradition of holding youth parties in this picturesque part of the Volgograd region gone from those sports days? The attraction of the place was preserved even after the "old man" was emptied, gradually plunging into oblivion. But it was already "aliens". And why did the hosts leave?

Decided to demolish

It's simple. After the completion of the construction of a new bridge across the Volga (opened in October 2009), it turned out that the lake is becoming shallow. The process of lowering the level of the reservoir led to the fact that the Volgograd debarkader was surrounded by trees and shrubs. The water approached him only in the spill. What is this rowing base? For years, the object, which was not completely repaired, finally fell into decay.

In 2013, at the very beginning of April, the balance-holder (Volgograd Academy of Physical Culture) decided to dismantle the landing stage. According to Alexander Shamardin, rector of the CIAFK, the pier has decayed so much that it was not worth reconstructing it, which means "it's time to part."

The motivation for demolition was the fact that three hectares of land occupied by a local landmark is costly. The Ministry of Sports pays the tax practically for nothing. Many residents of the famous Stalingrad stronghold, including eminent ones, spoke out against liquidation.

They were convinced that the Volgograd debarkader could not disappear without a trace. A small but very popular museum of Einstein (Volgograd) suggested creating an exposition devoted to the Volga River on a rarity basis. But the proposals remained unclaimed.

Circular defense

Debriefing began in late April. From the words of the guard, unknown people drove up the excavator and began to destroy the facade. And then the angel of heaven decided to close his long-suffering old harbor with his wing. In a short time, the case could not be completed: a spill appeared, which made it difficult to deliver people and equipment allocated for demolition.

Activist defenders used a hitch, built a raft, reached it on the landing stage, and occupied "circular defense." Another part of the "fighters" collected signatures under the petition for the rescue of the perishing landmark. There was a kind of "Battle of Stalingrad", with threats and attacks on the "garrison", pouring gasoline on the camp followed by arson. The leader of the indifferent Daniel Angel went on a hunger strike. It seemed to him that this measure would speed up the decision of the authorities to preserve a unique object.

Sad end

While the brave men and their supporters negotiated with the balance-holder of the unique to ensure that "not to finish off" the Volgograd debarkader, the most optimistic representatives of the "debarkadier brotherhood" claimed that there were investors ready to revive the dilapidated history. The most "culprit of the conflict" during this period was not guarded by anyone except activists.

Nevertheless, everything was developing as well as possible: the landing site was theoretically recognized as an object of cultural heritage of regional importance. Before the actual (legal) confession, he was separated by several steps, which the hero of the Volga coasts could not "go through" without protection. Firefighters arrived at the call of local residents who sounded the alarm right away, as soon as they saw clubs of black smoke above the tops of trees on Money.

They say that there were no activists nearby at that moment. When they arrived, the pier practically did not exist. Volgograd debarkader burned down.