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The Naval Barracks building is a part of a grand project implemented in 1820-25. A stone building of considerable dimension in classic style was aimed to hold up to 3500 people – enlisted men from the Solombalsky Dockyard and crews of ships under construction. The size of the building still amazes. Experts claim that this is one of the biggest buildings of pre-revolutionary construction in the Russian province.
The first residents of barracks were Baltic sailors, crew members of the ship “Azov” built at the Solombalskaya dockyard. In autumn of 1825 they arrived from Saint-Petersburg headed by Captain M.P. Lazarev and Ensign P.S. Nahimov –future famous admirals.
The Naval barracks was a place to train for Arctic expeditions. Here M.F. Reineke prepared for the Kolskaya and then for the Belomorskaya expeditions (1826-27). The famous naval and land surveyor A.I. Vilkitsky worked here. Many polar explorers have been here: Y.M. Shokalsky – the founder of Soviet oceanography, N.N. Matusevich who directed hydrographic works in the White sea, N.N. Zubov – oceanologist, and leader of many Arctic expeditions, etc.
During the World War II the Naval Barracks trained specialists for Northern Fleet ships, as well as for the Baltic and Black Sea Fleets. In 1920 sailor of the Northern Dvina fleet N.G. Kuznetsov was trained, and he later became the Admiral of Soviet fleet and the People's Commissariat of the Navy. Here in the 1920-s, F.S. Oktabrsky (Ivanov), a young politician, started his military service and later became the Admiral and the Captain of the Black Sea fleet.
The walls of naval barracks became home to the writer Evgeny Kokovin, the author of the book “Childhood in Solombala”. His father was a sailor that is why his family lived in the barracks. The Naval Barracks were also a place where the biography of yet one more young writer began, namely Valentine Pikul, a pupil of the Solovetskaya School for Sea Cadets which was formed here in 1942. Among the sea cadets was also the future singer Boris Shtokolov. Today the building has been transferred to the FPS system.
Address: Nikolsky pr., 27