There will be a museum of ore mining in the old-time mine in Tatarstan. The project was initiated by the member of the Russian Geographical Society Alexey Gunko. He told about that at the presentation of his book "The Caves and Dungeons of Tatarstan".
Alexey has been studying caves since 1998. At the same time, the speleologist became interested in the Sarmanov copper mine, and a little later, in 2001, he got the idea to create a museum there. There are a number of reasons why the caver singled out this particular mine. It is the largest mine in the territory of Tatarstan and the most interesting and preserved mine in the Urals. The shafts of the mine are distinguished by arched vaults, whereas in other similar complexes on the territory of modern Tatarstan the section of the mines is square or rectangular. Experts suggest that Sarmanovsk mines were created by captive Swedes who were exiled here during the Russian-Swedish war.
"I have long proposed to make a museum there, but, unfortunately, this is not a quick process. The matter moved from the deadlock only in 2015, and in 2017 funds were allocated to study the mine," says Alexey.
4 million rubles were allocated for researching the mine and creating the concept of the future museum. After that, several expeditions were organized in the Sarmanovsky district. The geologists and speleologists of the universities of Tatarstan, the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan became participants. One of the experts was Pavel Shulgin, a Russian culture expert and economist, a specialist in the field of cultural and natural heritage, economics of culture and tourism, candidate of economic sciences at the Higher School of Economics. Experts studied the safety of being in a cave and possible excursion routes during the expeditions.
Now, funding is needed again for the implementation of the project. It is planned that in the summer of 2019 an inter-departmental meeting will be held to discuss the feasibility of creating a museum-reserve with the participation of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov.
Photo: Alexey Gunko