Vyacheslav Viktorovich Khurtin (born August 4, 1966) is a Nizhny Novgorod entrepreneur, collector of technical and historical rarities, and founder and director of the Technical Museum in Nizhny Novgorod. He is the General Director of OOO Hydrotermal. In 2022, he was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of the city of Nizhny Novgorod.[3]

Biography and the Beginning of Collecting

Khurtin was born and raised in Kineshma. His father instilled in him an interest in technology: from the age of nine, the boy received the magazines Modelist-Konstruktor and Yuny Tekhnik, and built hang gliders, snowmobiles, scuba gear, and a small car, the "Tsika," on his own. At 18, Khurtin came to Nizhny Novgorod to enroll at the Institute of Water Transport Engineers and stayed in the city.[1]

About 25 years ago, at a flea market, he happened to buy an old vernier caliper made in the 1920s at the Voskov Plant in Leningrad. He bought it out of curiosity about the tool's unusual shape, but it was this purchase that started the collection. Within six months his garage already held about 60 antique tools, devices, and mechanisms; the collection later grew to a thousand items.[2]

The Technical Museum

The first public exhibition of the collection took place in 2008 at the Center for Metrology and Standardization. A professional audience received it with genuine interest, and Khurtin decided to develop the idea. The next exhibition, at the Nizhny Novgorod State Exhibition Complex (NGVK), ran for a month and drew hundreds of positive reviews. Later exhibitions were held in Gorodets and Moscow.[2]

On April 30, 2014, Khurtin opened the Technical Museum on Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street on his own — without a team of like-minded people, and with his own funds: for six months he renovated the rented premises in the evenings after his main job.[2] By 2021 the collection numbered more than 3,000 unique exhibits, all restored to working order and most of them available for visitors to handle.[2] According to information from the time of the interview with Nizhegorodskaya Pravda, the museum led the city's tourist rankings.[1] The institution later became a branch of the Nizhny Novgorod State Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve, and Khurtin took the post of head of this branch.[3]

The principles for selecting exhibits are uniqueness and working condition: duplicates are not accepted into the collection, and every item must differ from the rest. Among the particularly notable exhibits is a wooden bicycle made by Nizhny Novgorod carriage makers in the early 20th century: oak rims, oak spokes, and a store-bought metal chain and pneumatic tires. According to Khurtin, there are practically no analogues of this bicycle in Russia.[1]

Business Activities

Alongside his museum work, Khurtin heads Gidrotermal LLC, a Nizhny Novgorod company that manufactures industrial refrigeration and ventilation equipment (registered on August 21, 2002; address: Rowing Canal Embankment, 6). He has been general director since September 5, 2011, and is one of the founders, along with O. V. Pyzhov and S. N. Valiulin.[4] In addition, Khurtin has been registered as a sole proprietor since May 13, 2004.[5]

Awards and Recognition

The Technical Museum, in the person of Khurtin, has been awarded the "Ivan Kulibin" medal for services in artistic design and invention. He himself has been awarded the Third Class medal "Benefactor of the Nizhny Novgorod Land," the jubilee medal "In Memory of the 800th Anniversary of Nizhny Novgorod," and the commemorative badge "800 Years of the City of Nizhny Novgorod." He was a laureate of the Sobaka.ru magazine award, in its list "TOP 50. The Most Famous People of Nizhny Novgorod." By decision of the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma of June 22, 2022, No. 147, Khurtin was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of the City of Nizhny Novgorod.[3]

Sources

  1. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — "My Nizhny": Director of the Technical Museum Vyacheslav Khurtin (archive)
  2. V gorode N — "It All Began with a Vernier Caliper," Says Vyacheslav Khurtin, Director of the Nizhny Novgorod Technical Museum (archive)
  3. gordumannov.ru — Khurtin Vyacheslav Viktorovich — Nizhny Novgorod City Duma
  4. checko.ru — LLC "GIDROTERMAL" — Nizhny Novgorod — INN 5260108823 — General Director V. V. Khurtin
  5. star-pro.ru — Sole Proprietor Khurtin Vyacheslav Viktorovich: INN 526206450434, OGRNIP 304526213400057 — verify the counterparty in the STAR system
  6. gidrotermal.ru — Details (archive)