RUS

SCF Museum

Preserving the historical heritage of the Russian shipping industry is a top priority for Sovcomflot. It is important to pass on our knowledge to future navigators about how our status as a great maritime power was earned, the role of the merchant fleet in strengthening the sovereignty of the State, and the efforts made during the development of the Arctic.

The Sovcomflot Museum is a project that has yet to fully take shape; however it has already taken the first steps. Valuable exhibits from the collections of leading Russian museums grace the company’s headquarters on Moyka Embankment in St. Petersburg. In future the company plans to create its own collection of historical objects and documents related to the development of the Russian maritime industry.

The very first exhibition at the Museum coincided with the opening of the company’s new St. Petersburg office in December 2012. Unique exhibits, which included a model 20-gun brig "Olympus" from 1817 and a model 14-gun brig "Phoenix" from 1705, were provided by the Central Naval Museum - one of the oldest museums in Russia.

A couple of months later the Central Naval Museum provided exhibits for the exhibition "The ice-breaking fleet", specially prepared for the World Economic Forum and events dedicated to the 25th anniversary of SCF Group.

An exposition was organised again in September 2013. The Arctic and Antarctic Museum provided exhibits for "The development of the Northern Sea Route". Among them was the flag of the nuclear-powered ice-breaker the Arctica, with the signature of the Minister of the USSR Navy Timofey Guzhenko. It was Mr Guzhenko who organised the world's first expedition by a surface vessel to the North Pole. The expedition was a triumphant one: on 17 August 1977 a Soviet naval party reached the North Pole on the Arctica.

Also, thanks to the underwater archaeological expedition company "Baltic Memory", which organised a loan from the state museum Vyborg Castle, SCF Group hosted a temporary exhibition of two three-foot iron cannons from the Swedish royal yacht Aurora, which was sunk in the Battle of Vyborg Bay on 22 June 1790 by the Russian Navy. The guns were retrieved from a depth of 25 metres in 2006.