Nizhny Novgorod deputies proposed digitizing all city monuments.

      October 14, 2025 10:58 Culture and leisure

      Deputies of the Nizhny Novgorod Duma have proposed digitizing all city monuments and memorials. The initiative was presented to the economic commission on October 13 by Communist Nikolai Sataev.

      The proposal was prompted by a report from the director of the tourism department, Alexander Simagin, on the current state of the industry. According to him, tourist traffic to Nizhny Novgorod is expected to grow by 10% in 2025. He also said that the tourism department is actively developing digital services. The city has a VR guide available to both tourists and schools.

      According to Simagin, digital technologies allow for a flexible response to visitors’ requests. Using big data from mobile operators, the authorities track popular routes and tourists’ interests. In addition, VR content about Nizhny Novgorod is already being used in schools in Bukhara and Sukhumi and will appear in schools in Minsk in the future.

      However, as Deputy Sataev emphasized, virtual programs lack information on a number of monuments, especially new ones. He recalled that a bust of Omari Sharadze had been installed earlier, but there is no digital information about it. He also expressed bewilderment about the absence of an official unveiling of the bust of People’s Artist Pavel Gusev, on which 2 million rubles were spent.

      Commission chairman Sergey Plyaskin supported the initiative, stressing the importance of creating a virtual route of memorial sites associated with outstanding Nizhny Novgorod residents. Deputy Evgeny Kostin proposed enshrining mandatory digital registration of monuments in legislation so that new sites would automatically appear on digital maps.

      Following the meeting, the commission decided to prepare an initiative on the mandatory digitization of monuments, and the tourism department will work out the technical and organizational aspects. Deputies will return to the topic at an off-site meeting.

      Earlier it was reported that the monument to Georgy Grechko was returned to the Nizhny Novgorod Planetarium.

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