After Valery Pavlovich Tchkalov's death during the test of the fighter "E - 180" December 15, 1938, the Soviet of People's Commissars passed the resolution " About perpetuation of the memory of V.P.Tchkalov ".

January 9, 1939 the presidium of the Gor'kovsky Oblispolkom together with the Bureau of the Oblast Committee of C.P.S.U. (B) in elaboration of this resolution made a decision to found V.P.Tckalov memorial museum at his birthplace.

Valery Pavlovich Tchkalov was born On February 2, 1904 in the village of Vassilievo (nowadays the town of Tchkalovsk).

His father, Pavel Grigorievich, worked as a boilermaker in the public workshops of Vassilievo (nowadays shipyard of Tchkalovsk). There, boats of the technical fleet were built and repaired.
The mother, Irene Ivanovna, was a housewife. She died in 1910 when Valery was 6 years old. After Irene Ivanovna's death another woman came into her place - Natalya Georgievna, the second Pavel Grigorievich's wife.

Nowadays a question arises: "what was the purpose of the flights and who was interested in them?"

At the beginning of the 30-ies people's commissar of defense of the young Soviet state K.E. Voroshilov used to say: " he, who is strong in the air, is generally strong nowadays". And this slogan was rather topical and not only in our country, but also all over the world. Flights were the demonstration of force and power of this or that state; in other words, they had, first of all, a political significance.

The town of Tchkalovsk (former Vassilieva Sloboda) is one of the most ancient settlements on the river Volga. Its historic roots date back to early times. It is known that Duke Yury Dolgorucky won the Mikor Kitterh over from the Cheremisses in 1152 and named it Yorodety Radilov and sent his son Basil to reign it. In order to have a reserve in Yorodety for defense from the attacks of the Mordvas, Cheremisses, Volgian Bolgars the duke founded another fortress on the other bunk of the Volga, near his residence. Its first inhalations the duke's warriors, were free not to pay taxes. This gave rise, to the name of Vassilieva Sloboda.
In the XVth c. Vassilieva Sloboda was in the possession of Dmitry Donskoy's cousin - Vladimir Andreevich. Then it came over to Basil Schuysky his wife died in Boshessenky convent in Moscow. She was a nun and she bequeathed the village to convent for Voznessensky prayer for the dead in the Schuysky family.