Museum of Political History
The State Museum of the Political History of Russia is the successor to the Revolution Museum. It is housed in two historic buildings of the modern era: the mansions of the ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya, and baron Brandt. The exposition ‘Man and Power in Russia in the XIX-XXI Centuries’ is devoted to the relationship between man and the state at the crucial moments in the history of the country. The period of the revolution is presented in the exposition ‘The Revolution in Russia. 1917-1922’. The exposition ‘The Soviet Epoch: Between Utopia and Reality’ reveals images of that time – Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev – presented in documents, things, and reconstructed interiors. The museum of national significance, which has already celebrated its centenary, keeps a number of evidences of Russia’s political life from the late 18th till the early 21st century. The Museum collection counts over 460,000 items. They reflect the history of the state system reforming, fates of the most prominent historical figures, processes of development of revolutionary, democratic, social and political movements and parties. Among the most remarkable exhibits there are documents concerning the legislative activities of Catherine the Great and S. Vitte’s and P. Stolypin’s reforming activities, items referring to the epoch of the Great Reforms carried out by Alexander II and objects telling about three Russian revolutions. A big volume of unique materials reveals the activities of supreme state organs of the Russian Empire, the USSR, and the Russian Federation. Documents also remind us of central state, legislative and executive branches of power: the State Dumas of all 7 convocations, State and Supreme Councils and Soviets, local governments. In the Museum collection there are political parties’ materials representing practically the whole range of political forces in modern Russia at both federal and regional levels. In the last few years this unique collection has been enlarged with materials reflecting the activities of state, political and public leaders, members of both Chambers of the Russian Parliament, the Legislative Assembly of Saint-Petersburg and Leningrad and some other regions. |
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