Petrozavodsk Military Glory Center

The Petrozavodsk Military Glory Center is a joint project of the Osnova Charity Fund, its founder Sergey Pirozhnikov and the Administration of the Petrozavodsk City District. The project was carried out with the support of the Karelia Regional Community Trust “Estafeta Pokoleniy” and the collector Valery Lazarev. The Petrozavodsk Military Glory Center is an innovative platform for patriotic education, featuring artifacts of the military history of the city, records and documents. It is a living community of people who want to study the history of their homeland, hometown and family.

The glorious military history of Petrozavodsk began in 1703 with the Petrovskaya Sloboda and the foundation of the armament factory for the Northern War. The first cannon was cast as early as 1704. Peter’s factories manufactured cannons and cannonballs, anchors and other cast-iron military equipment. Relaunched at the end of the 18th century in the new provincial centre – Petrozavodsk under the new name of Alexandrovsky, in 1786, the factory set up the production of cannons labeled OLONETS, using which Russia won ten wars. Later, the Alexandrovsky plant became an artillery shell plant and continued to contribute to the military power of Russia for another century.

No wonder Petrozavodsk became the only city in Russia named after a military plant.

The military history of Petrozavodsk is also linked to the military glory of the Olonets regiments and the Olonets militia troops in the Patriotic War of 1812, the Crimean War, the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-78 and the First World War. The events of the 20th century have a special place in the history of the city and the main exhibition of the Petrozavodsk Military Glory Center is dedicated to them.