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After seeing the Imperial War Museum thread in this forum, I have decided to upload my pics from the Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineers and Signal Corps, back when I visited St. Petersburg in 2007.

Please excuse the quality of some of the pictures.

If you want to see full-sized images, click here

Various artillery and engineering machinery from the courtyard:

















Missiles!






Early artillery, piled near the wall:



















Next up, pics from inside the museum!

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

what is the name of that thing?, the barrel looks almost cartoonish

The exhibits inside are arranged chronologically, from the earliest days of gunpowder up until the modern day.

Armor:





Taking a medieval Russian fortress:



And, endless galleries of glorious, glorious artillery:









Those things were DEADLY in Cossacks: European Wars. Much less effective in reality, alas. But, still very, very cool:



I used to know the story behind these rectangular-shaped guns, but I forgot since I took the pic






Napoleonic War uniforms:









Siege gun:


Side view:




Whatever happens, we have got, the Maxim gun, and they have not!


On the Sokolov mount:
















Next up, the HUGE Great Patriotic War section.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

The Great Patriotic War section comprises most of the exhibit, and something like two floors. Some highlights:

The Fascists invade!



Caption: The Fascist Plague


The exhibit begins:


Small arms of the Motherland:




And the Nazis:


Katyushas!




Artillery calculator:








AA gun:












T-34's 76-mm main gun:












The Last Stand of two Soviet Heroines:


On August 25th, 1942, at the approaches to Stalingrad, the crew of this 45mm anti-tank gun has destroyed 12 Nazi tanks. Almost all of the crew had died in the battle. The last tank was hit by the gravely wounded commander of the unit, Alikantsev. He was subsequently sent to an army hospital and eventually re-joined the ranks of the Red Army.
22 years later, in May of 1964, starshina Alikantsev was re-united with his weapon in this museum.

The crew:










Another 76-mm T-34 gun:
























Dugout observation and fire control post:






Hit by an enemy tank round near Kirovograd on 12. 27. 1943:










Shells of the Motherland:


Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

More stuff!

An observation post in Stalingrad:




Radios of the Motherland:


Communications tent:


RAT: The most advanced and powerful field radio station of the RKKA. Used in the strategic depatments of the STAVKA VGK to direct Fronts and Shock Armies:




There is an entire room dedicated solely to Kalashnikov and his guns. Here is a sample:


Back to big guns:




PVO:





















This artillery piece is a Hero of the Soviet Union!


This gun has fired the first shot on Berlin on 18:10, April 21, 1945.
Scorecard:
This gun has traveled 6204 km.
It has fired 3969 shots at the enemy.­
Destroyed:

Tanks­: 33
Self- propelled Artillery: 21
Automobiles: 74
Airplanes on airfield: 5
Guns: 14
Mortars: 17
Machine Guns: 77
Giterites: 752


It's less heroic brethren:




Japanese trophies from August Storm:


Another radio:


Next up, vehicles and missiles!

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

spaceviking wrote:http://lh5.ggpht.com/_aoR5LLowz30/RoMrF ... C02397.JPG
what is the name of that thing?, the barrel looks almost cartoonish

That's the 2S7 203mm self-propelled gun. The US had similar looking weapons: the M107 175mm self-propelled gun and the M110 203mm self-propelled howitzer

EDIT: See Stas' correction below.

Phongn is wrong. That is the 420-mm 2B1 Oka nuclear mortar, a one-of-a-kind weapon and one of the largest postwar propelled artillery pieces. It was mentioned around the forum a few times.

And fgalkin you totally rock for putting these photos out. My own photos from Kronwerk are sadly all non-digital and I don't even have a scanner to scan them.

Stas Bush wrote:Phongn is wrong. That is the 420-mm 2B1 Oka nuclear mortar, a one-of-a-kind weapon and one of the largest postwar propelled artillery pieces. It was mentioned around the forum a few times.

I stand corrected! I knew something didn't quite feel right about it being a 2S7 but couldn't put a finger on it - should've been more careful

Vehicles and missiles!

An Austin-Putivov armored car. On April 5, 1917, Lenin gave one of his most famous speeches while standing on this armored car:




Vehicles section, with a twist:
















Very crappy pic of yours truly:









Missiles!




Tactical Rocket complex 2k4 Filin, with 3Р-2 ballistic rocket, 1957. Russia's first self-propelled, nuclear missile complex:












The R2 missile:








Various rocket engines:












Motherland's computer!


Wreckage of Power's U2 plane:


That's all, folks!

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Stas Bush wrote:Phongn is wrong. That is the 420-mm 2B1 Oka nuclear mortar, a one-of-a-kind weapon and one of the largest postwar propelled artillery pieces. It was mentioned around the forum a few times.

And fgalkin you totally rock for putting these photos out. My own photos from Kronwerk are sadly all non-digital and I don't even have a scanner to scan them.

Yeah, that museum looks like an awesome place to visit. As for your photos, you can always take them to a local photo developer and have him convert them to digital. Almost all photo developers offer this service nowadays, although I can't speak to cost. I always did my own scanning, because when I first started converting film to digital the rates for commercial scanning were so exorbitant that it was actually much cheaper to simply buy a brand-new scanner at full retail price.

Mike, as an interesting tidbit- the museum was founded by Peter the Great in 1703. This museum is older than your country!

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Is there anyway you can find out about those square barreled artillery pieces? I can't find any info and it's driving me crazy.

The Spartan wrote:Is there anyway you can find out about those square barreled artillery pieces? I can't find any info and it's driving me crazy.

Today is your lucky day

In the second half of the 18th century the history of Russian artillery is characterized with working out many experimental patterns for artillery guns that were offered for adoption in the army. Russian scientists-­artillerists tried to solve problems of increasing the firing rate and fire power of guns. An interesting sample of such systems is the 3‑pounder experimental cast­-iron cannon with a rectangular barrel bore cast in Olonets in 1722. It was intended for firing three 3‑pound balls, which were wrapped round with linen and placed in one row on a wooden tray.

http://artillery-museum.ru/en/schema-1.html

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Neat! Sort of like an unusual take on a canister round.

Thanks!

How does this museum compare against Kubinka?

Darth Wong wrote:As for your photos, you can always take them to a local photo developer and have him convert them to digital. Almost all photo developers offer this service nowadays, although I can't speak to cost. I always did my own scanning, because when I first started converting film to digital the rates for commercial scanning were so exorbitant that it was actually much cheaper to simply buy a brand-new scanner at full retail price.

Scanning as a separate service is still usually pretty expensive. Scanning with film development is cheaper, since all the modern minilabs are digital anyways (i.e. they scan the film and print from the digital file). If you have more than a couple of rolls of film or anything bigger than 35 mm film, it is usually cheaper to buy a scanner. An Epson V500 is sufficient for web viewing and prints up to 20 x 30 cm; it can do about 2,400 spi true optical resolution (nominally 6,400 spi, but it's a flatbed, so the real resolution is much lower), that is a 3400 x 2267 pixel image.

But be warned: scanning film with flatbeds takes some practice and learning. You can't just do it and expect excellent results at the first try, so if you don't have time for that it's better to use a scanning service or buy a dedicated film scanner: the Plustek OpticFilm 7x00 series scanners produce acceptable results for web use and are relatively inexpensive.

Yes, this would probably belong to AMP.

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:How does this museum compare against Kubinka?

Kubinka is the largest (or to be fair, most encompassing) tank museum. This is the largest artillery museum.

Stas Bush wrote:

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:How does this museum compare against Kubinka?

Kubinka is the largest (or to be fair, most encompassing) tank museum. This is the largest artillery museum.

Ah. Are they both open to the foreign public?

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:Are they both open to the foreign public?

Kronwerk is open to the public, IIRC. Kubinka is part of an active military trial grounds hence the restricted access. Foreigners need to apply for permits from the MOD.

Rectangular-bore, anti-personell hailshot weapons were nothing new by the 18th century; several were excavated from the wreck of the Mary Rose which sank in 1545...those were considerably smaller, however.

Stas Bush wrote:

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote:Are they both open to the foreign public?

Kronwerk is open to the public, IIRC. Kubinka is part of an active military trial grounds hence the restricted access. Foreigners need to apply for permits from the MOD.

What are the usual odds for success? I might want to go visit there some day.

What is the story behind the last stand?

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote: What are the usual odds for success? I might want to go visit there some day.

I know that some of the more prominent members of the TankNet Forum (http://www.tank-net.org/) have visited there, but I suppose it helps if you can show appropriate article and book references when you apply for the permit... After all, if you publish your writings openly, you are probably not a spy.

Stas, a nitpick. Kronverk is the name of the whole complex- the museum, the park, the canal, etc. I've only heard the museum referred to as the "Artillery Museum" in my time in Piter.

What is the story behind the last stand?

Don't remember, and the pic is too blurry to read anything from the description, not even the names. Sorry.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

fgalkin:

In the photo of the early bronze guns next to the wall, is there any way to get more information on the sixth one in line?

The one with rings mounted on top of it's barrel next to the large piece mounted on the carriage?

Origin, bore, barrel length?