16 unique photographs of old Samara at the turn of the 1920s and 30s | Another city

Reader DG Alexander Khodkevich shared with us photographs from the personal archive of his distant relative.

Fortunately, there were not only photographic portraits, but also photographs of the streets and sights of Samara. We have selected the most interesting of them.

First, let’s look at the photograph, which will allow us to understand the date of shooting. The 2nd Regional Congress of Soviets and the 3rd year of the Five-Year Plan took place in 1930.

All the other photographs from our selection today were taken around the same period.

Let’s take a look at our favorite city theater from Kuibyshev Street, or, as it was called in those years, Sovetskaya.

The monument to Chapaev is missing, which means the date of shooting is no later than 1932. In addition, the bell tower of the Iversky Monastery is still intact, and the cross has not even been knocked off the dome! Based on this, we can assume that the photograph was taken in 1928-1929, even before the start of the large-scale anti-religious campaign.

Still the same Chapaev Square, but at a later time – July 12, 1934. On that day, members of the expedition on the ship “Chelyuskin” and the pilots who took part in the rescue of the Chelyuskin people who had suffered disaster in the Arctic ice arrived in Samara.

The first half of the 1930s was the heyday of Soviet constructivism. Finishing work is underway on the facade of the PriVO headquarters (Frunze, 165).

In the photo you can see the tram pillars. This branch, leading first to the city theater, and later becoming a freight line and extended to the wood warehouses under the Fair Descent, existed from 1915 to 1932.

Let’s add several views of Samara from the Volga to our photo walk.

Here is the Zhigulevsky brewery. Please note that Alfred von Vacano’s mansion is literally surrounded by greenery; in the photograph you can only see its turret.

The next photo shows the wooden building of the yacht club, located on the banks of the Volga under the Strukovsky Garden.

The same location, but the view from the current Krasnoarmeysky Descent.

“Fearless Samarian in free fall” – this is how this photo can be titled. The scene is the bank of the Volga near Vilonovsky Descent. In the background you can see the building of the Shakhov steam mill (Vilonovskaya, 2b).

The next photo shows the water station of the DSO “Dynamo”. On the left side of the frame you can see a banner letting us know that a sporting event is taking place here – a world sports competition organized by the Red Sports International. The first one took place in 1932.

Let’s change the landscape to winter. In front of you is the Kuibyshev Square area. Galaktionovskaya Street in the direction from Krasnoarmeyskaya towards Rabochaya.

And here is a photo of the snow-covered Kuibyshev street. The cinema in house No. 84 has not yet been renamed “Hammer” and bears its pre-revolutionary name – “Colosseum”.

So we reached Revolution Square. Here we, of course, will look at the monument to Vladimir Lenin from different angles.

Here is a view of it from Frunze Street. Pay attention to the left side of the frame. The cross has not yet been knocked off the spire of the Ascension Church, and on the courthouse (Kuibysheva, 60) there are two signs at once: a pre-revolutionary one, which calls it District, and a new one, calling it Regional.

From this we can conclude that the photo was taken in 1928-1929, when the Middle Volga region existed, which later became the region.

But in the summer photograph, taken from almost the same angle, the spire of the Ascension Church is not visible at all.

This means that this is already the beginning of the 1930s, when the temple was turned into a club for handicraftsmen named after. Khataevich.

And another photo of the monument to Ilyich. In the background you can see a stand dedicated to the citywide enterprise competition.

We talked about most of the factories mentioned there in our special project “Industrial Heritage”.

Pilots were as popular in the 1930s as astronauts were in the 1960s. In the next photo we see a balance bike disguised as an airplane.

In the background is the former hotel of the merchant Annaev (Kuibysheva, 79).

But the same young Samaran, somewhere on the banks of the Volga, is sitting behind the wheel of an iron horse, which has replaced the peasant’s horse.

The baby’s joy can be understood – the car was unknown at that time. Apparently, this is the first-born of the famous Stalingrad Tractor Plant – an STZ-1 tractor. It began to be produced in 1930.

DG thanks Alexander Khodkevich for the photos provided. Alexander also has a YouTube channel dedicated to the geography of Samara in all its manifestations.

Find other collections of vintage photographs of merchant Samara and cosmic Kuibyshev in our special project “In the Lens”.

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