How the floating museum went from a half-sunken vessel to an interactive engine room — and what lies ahead.
The icebreaker Angara was built at the Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co shipyard, where the Krasin was also launched. In the mid-1980s the ship was partly sunk near the Irkutsk Reservoir, and on 31 March 1991, after two years of preliminary restoration, a museum opened on board. Since 2014 the icebreaker has belonged to the Irkutsk Regional Museum of Local History.
Stages of restoration
From 2021 the decks, sides and some of the rooms were repaired, and from 2023 the museum’s main rooms, while the ship received lighting; 22 million roubles from the regional budget went on this. Because the icebreaker is afloat, all work is agreed with the Russian classification society.
The engine room
In summer 2025, under the project “Icebreaker Angara: A New Navigation”, supported by the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives, the engine room acquired a working model of the steam engine, crew mannequins and a “ship’s rolling” module.
What next
In 2026–2027 two rooms in the stern will be restored with grant funds.
Sources (in Russian): IrkutskMedia, 13 May 2026; Oblastnaya Gazeta, 21 July 2025.
