Salon car I.V. Stalin in Gori (21 photos)

The carriage is part of the museum exhibition and was used by the Supreme Commander during war and post-war times, starting in 1941. In particular, it was on it that Stalin made trips to the Crimean Conference (February 1945) and to the Tehran Conference - to Baku by letter train, then by plane (autumn 1943).

That is, the carriage is directly connected with the most important events in the history of the USSR and the Second World War in general. It was transferred to the Gori Stalin Museum of the North Caucasus Railway. relatively recently - only in 1985, already before Perestroika.

Below are some pictures of the carriage interiors.

6-axle extended saloon car of the "Polonceau" type for the Vladikavkaz railway. These were built in 1910-1916.

Entrance area of the carriage. Pay attention to the artistic casting near the handrails.

The essence of the design of the Vladikavkaz type car was that the load-bearing function was performed by the body itself, or rather its half-walls from the floor to the level of the windows, made of thick steel sheets. They were framed by long rows of rivets, which were then used to connect all metal structures. In addition to creating rigidity, these half-walls also performed a protective function during bullet fire - passengers only had to lie down on the floor. Therefore, such cars were often called armored or armored. To reduce the load on the wheels, they were often made with six axles, but the shortened cars had four axles. The most rational option was to attach the saloon car at the rear of the train. Most of the Vladikavkaz type saloon cars were built in the 1910s.

Scheme

However, the "Stalinist" carriage was rebuilt and rebuilt in 1940-1941. on the old “Vladikavkaz” metal base, this was done by the Leningrad plant named after. Egorova. This is evidenced by the ratio of wide (W) and narrow (U) windows in this example. It is unique in its window pattern: U-SH-U-SH-U-SH-U-SH-U-SH-SH-SH-U, 13 in total. Usually the wide (W) window was only in the salon, and that’s all.

That's about it.

By the way, the internal layout of Stalin's Polonso has remained the same as in the presented plan. For example, an authentic, unrebuilt “Polonso” from 1915, in the KDVO museum in Khabarovsk (the saloon car of OKDVA commander Blucher), with narrow windows.

Now pictures of the saloon car in Gori.

Stalin's "general" type coupe (2 in the diagram). On the right is the marching regiment of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

Toilet-washbasin-shower adjacent to the main compartment (3 in the diagram)

Meeting room (1 in the diagram)

Security chief's compartment (5 in the diagram)

View into the through corridor of the car from the salon.

Details.

Plafonds.

Clock in the salon.

Door furniture.

Equipment in the kitchen (8 in the diagram).

Right there. In the mirror you can see a titanium boiler on the base of a samovar.

"Electric coupe" of the conductor (7 in the diagram)

It is difficult to judge the authenticity of the items presented, but I would venture to suggest that the main structural elements are quite authentic (finishing, compartment designs, lighting fixtures, clocks, etc.). As for smaller items (chairs, plumbing fixtures, etc.), they, most likely, were simply selected from similar items of that era. In any case, I have never seen any old photographs of Stalin’s saloon car; I have nothing to compare it with.

The pictures were taken in the spring of 2014, i.e. after Saakashvili fled from Georgia (October 2013) and the end of the persecution of the museum. As we can see, the carriage remained safe and sound; Saakashvili’s supporters did not even have time to actually get to the Stalin Museum, although they toppled the monument.