The Chkalov Staircase — the longest set of steps located on the Volga River riverbanks. The staircase, whose outline resembles a figure-eight or the infinity symbol, leads from the Kremlin down to the Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment. At the observation platform at the top of the structure stands a monument to the famous Soviet aviator Valery Chkalov. The staircase has 560 steps.
History
The idea of building the staircase first came to Aleksandr Shulpin, Deputy Chairman of the City Executive Committee, as early as 1939.
The concept was strikingly impressive: the city center would be connected to the river, and the difference in elevation was nearly three times greater than that of the famous Potemkin Stairs in Odessa.
The war prevented the plan from being realized. But Shulpin did not forget the idea, and on one of his business trips to Moscow in 1943, he brought a project by Leningrad architects Yakovlev, Rudnev, and Mints — a staircase along the Volga escarpment — for approval. By means unknown, Shulpin managed to accomplish what seemed nearly impossible: he secured approval for funding, and that same year, in 1943, construction of the staircase was laid down in honor of the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad.
City of Gorky, as a city that had suffered heavily from bombing and housed a major military-industrial complex, was receiving considerable funding and labor at the time, nominally earmarked for reconstruction work. On Shulpin's orders, even German prisoners of war were put to work on the construction.
In 1949, construction was completed, and the staircase — descending in two great loops — connected the upper part of the city with the embankment. However, it turned out that the Chkalov Staircase was one of the most expensive projects in the USSR — 7 million 760 thousand rubles. Aleksandr Shulpin was accused of squandering public funds, removed from his post as Mayor, expelled from the Party, and arrested under the politically notorious Leningrad Affair, which reverberated throughout the country. Shulpin was released and rehabilitated only after the death of Stalin.