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Pavel KuzmichevThe museum of Alexander Rastorguev is one of the most unusual places in Irkutsk. It is located near the city's landfill and all the exhibits are made from junkyard items. So, we decided to take a closer look at these wonders made out of scrap metal.
At the entrance, we see a gate in the shape of an ancient Siberian fort. In front of it are two ships with armed knights in armor. A truck passes by, loaded to the top with scrap junk. It turns to the solid waste landfill, while we turn to the museum.
The first thought is, it’s a huge park! Visitors are greeted by fantastic vehicles on tracks, similar to the characters in the ‘Transformers’ franchise. The main robot, about seven meters tall, is made on the basis of a crawler bulldozer.
There’s also a squad of ‘Terminators’. The skulls are 3D printed, while everything else is welded by hand. You’d definitely hand over your clothes, sunglasses and motorcycle to them if told to!
We go a little further and find ourselves on the battlefield of alien monsters. ‘Aliens’ are fighting to the death against ‘Predators’ and you seem to find yourself an involuntary observer of their struggle.
They ambush each other, shoot from space weapons, surround each other and fight one-on-one.
A special sound effect is even created that makes you shiver. Scary! But it is very interesting to look at them.
The ‘In a Landfill’ Museum appeared in Irkutsk in 2015 thanks to enthusiast Alexander Rastorguev.
Alexander Rastorguev.
Pavel Kuzmichev“In 2005, I came to work at a landfill, a solid waste site. I was an ordinary foreman, then became a manager,” says Alexander. “There was a lot of material in the landfill and I didn’t want to destroy it, but to make something [with it].”
He rented land next to the landfill and decided to open a museum of the history of times there. Alexander headed the solid waste landfill for 16 years, but now, he is only engaged in the development of the museum.
It all started with a hangar, which Alexander calls the ‘Hall of History’. Inside it are hundreds of different items from landfills. So, what did the residents of Irkutsk throw away? Soviet vacuum cleaners, old-style rotary telephones, battered balalaikas and accordions, peasant spinning wheels of their great-grandmothers, cast-iron pots for Russian stoves, portable tape recorders, radio stations, bicycles, mannequins for boxers. And, of course, old teapots, toys and photo albums.
Surely, many of us have thrown away something like this and didn’t even think that these things could be donated to a museum.
And then, the figures that Alexander welded from scrap metal began to appear there.
The first were the knights who stand at the fence. Alexander calls them “small”, but, in fact, they are human-sized. Over time, he made so many knights that there was enough for an entire army. A cavalry of knights against cavalry of ‘orcs’!
“And I just personally like movies about predators, aliens and transformers, I see my own special meaning there,” he explains.
Everything we see is made from discarded materials. Alexander buys recycled metal from another landfill. “First, I decide what to make of it, then I go to the landfill and take what I need.”
Alexander also has assistants; they handle lighting, electrical work and other technical tasks and bake delicious pancakes in the complex’s cafe.
You can see not only fantastic battles in the park. On the central field, Alexander has made reconstructions of the battles of the Great Patriotic War. There are real tanks, planes and artillery.
“Military equipment was collected from all over the country, from Kaliningrad to the Far East,” says Alexander. “Everything was sold as scrap metal. Of course, everything arrives in a broken state and we reassemble it on the spot.” And they assemble it so well that they periodically take visitors for a spin around the field using this equipment.
Film industry workers have known about the museum for a long time. Several movies were filmed on this field (the most famous is ‘321st Siberian’ [2018] about the Battle of Stalingrad), many things are taken for filming as props and the actors themselves simply come for inspiration.
“And now we are making an indoor panorama-diorama of the Battle of Prokhorovka in 1943 with full detail, conveying the horror of this battle. With sound, with shaking of the earth. Let's try to convey it." The Battle of Prokhorovka Station (part of the Battle of Kursk) was the largest tank battle of World War II.
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