In 1918 when a question arose about how best to provide the lighting for a play being put on by local people, the bold idea to use dynamos was suggested. Having used the dynamo to successfully power four lamps for the play, the locals decided to construct a hydro-electric dam to power the whole village and a cooperative was set up for this purpose. In 1920 Lenin and his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, visited the cooperative.  Lenin and was so impressed with the progress in building the dam that he promised to send the equipment they required. By the 1920s the dam was completed and became Russia's first rural hydroelectric dam and created enough power for 22 villages. It remained in use until 1941 when it was blown up by the Nazis. The dam was restored in the 1980s but is no longer used to generate electricity.