slope from the village of
Bor. 1886 During the
Russian Empire and until the mid-1940s of the 20th century, the site of the Chkalov Stairs was called the
Volga slope. It was one of the most popular places among Nizhny Novgorod residents and visitors. At the top was a semicircular ledge from which a view of the floodplain of
Bor. Now there is a monument to
Valery Chkalov. The monument was erected in 1940. The first ideas for the construction of the stairs on the Volga slope was put forward by Alexander Shulpin, the chairman of the Gorky City Executive Committee, in 1939. The stairs were to connect the center of the city with the Volga, and outdo the
Potemkin Stairs in
Odessa. But the realisation of the project was prevented by
World War II (
Eastern Front). The realisation of the plans was delayed until 1943. That year,
Gorky began actively rebuilding the destroyed buildings and industrial enterprises after the
German bombing. Then Shulpin began to promote his idea again. In the same year he went on a business trip to
Moscow and presented the project to the Leningrad architects Alexander Yakovlev, Lev Rudnev and Vladimir Munts. When the agreement was received, the Moscow government allocated money for the construction of this grandiose staircase in honor of the victory of the
Battle of Stalingrad. The staircase itself was to be called the
Stalingrad Stairs. Construction was started the same year, carried out by
German prisoners. The staircase was inaugurated in 1949. The chairman of the city executive committee spent about 7 million rubles on its construction, and was arrested for embezzling public funds in the
Leningrad affair. He was rehabilitated after
Stalin's death. == Present day ==