Permanently moored at the foot of the Chkalov Stairs is the Hero Boat (the official documents refer to it as a motorcraft but a tugboat would be more accurate).

This river fleet veteran, originally called Finn, sailed the Volga for 90 years. This boat did not have it easy: it saw action as part of the Volga warship flotilla during the Russian Civil War, and later during the Great Patriotic War (World War II) in the battle for Stalingrad, so the new name of the tugboat — Hero — is well deserved. In 1967, it started sailing up and down the Volga every shipping season, serving as a museum of naval military fame. In 1985, to commemorate the 40 years since the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, the ship was moored as a monument to all Volga river transport workers. It was put at the foot of the Chkalov Stairs, which thus became a road 'from hero to hero', that is from the monument to Valery Chkalov, Hero of the Soviet Union, to the Hero boat.