Possessions of designer Sergey Korolev handed over to Kazan Museum of Soviet Life

Photo: Rustem Valiakhmetov

The furniture belonging to designer Sergey Korolev was handed over to the Museum of Soviet Life in Kazan. It was presented by the family of Academician Valentin Glushko, director of the museum Rustem Valiakhmetov told Realnoe Vremya.

The famous Soviet scientist, designer of rocket and space systems, Sergey Korolev, lived in Kazan from 1942 to 1945. He lived under armed guard right in the building of the plant management in a specially allocated room, along with 23 other representatives of the “special prisoners”, among whom there was imprisoned Valentin Glushko, who became the founder of the domestic liquid rocket engine building.

Korolev, among other employees of the Kazan “sharashka” (what they called similar institutions), was released in July 1944 after the Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Glushko and Korolev in the same year settled in a house on Lyadova Street, 5, in two neighbouring apartments, got furniture and other household items. Korolev lived on the fifth floor, Glushko — on the third.

In 1946, the OKB-16 moved to Moscow. Korolev left Kazan, and the furniture that belonged to him remained in Tatarstan. It was preserved by the daughter of Academician Glushko — Yevgenia Valentinovna Glushko, who still lives in Kazan. She is the one who gave the pieces of furniture to the Kazan Museum of Soviet Life.

In addition to the furniture, she decided to hand over the family archive to the museum: photographs, books, newspaper and magazine clippings, and her father's correspondence.

“We believe that this is a great gift for both the capital of Tatarstan and the entire museum community of Russia, especially on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the first flight into space," said Rustem Valiakhmetov, the director of the Museum of Soviet Life.

The exhibits will be presented personally by the daughter of Academician Valentin Glushko at the Museum on April 9 at 2 p.m.

Yevgenia Valentinovna Glushko said that she had no idea of getting rid of the property of Korolev — not least because the furniture was provided by the state. “We have been carrying it with us all our lives, just in case. And for memory," she says.