Igor Kurdin said the museum is housed in an S-189, the last of 215 submarines of the series built in the 1950-60s. It sank near Kronshtadt in the mid-1990s and was lifted in the fall of 2005. A submarine officer-turned businessman sponsored operations to transform the vessel into a museum.
Although an opening ceremony will be held Friday, members of the public will not immediately be admitted, Kurdin said. "The submarine will be able to receive its first visitors in six months at the earliest, as it will be necessary to modernize the interior," he said.
The museum has a crew of submarine veterans, who will maintain the vessel and show visitors around.
The S-189 submarine was built at Baltiysky Zavod, one of Russia's leading shipbuilding companies, in 1955, and served the Baltic fleet for 35 years.
