|
The State Museum of the Political History of Russia is
a successor of the State Museum of Revolution which was created on October 9,
1919, after the decree of Petrograd Soviet of Workers and the Red Army
Deputies. Among the initiators of the Museum foundation there were prominent
figures of the Bolshevik Party and narodnik movement (populism), and
representatives of intelligentsia, one of them being Maxim Gorky. The official
ceremony of opening took place on January 11, 1920, in the halls of the ground
and first floors of the Winter palace.
The State Museum of Revolution was the first museum in
the country which was engaged in historical and revolutionary problems. By the
mid-1920s it had a unique collection of revolutionary banners, an extremely
valuable gathering of leaflets of different political parties, posters, and
objects of that time. During the first 10 years the main
goal was to form the collections that would demonstrate the history of class
struggle in Russia and in West (from Pugatchev's rising to the beginning of the
creation of socialism, from the Great French Revolution to the creation of the
COmmunist International).
The Winter palace was home for the State Museum of
Revolution for 25 years. In 1955 the Museum got two buildings: Kshesinskaya and
Brandt’s mansions.
Kshesinskaya’s mansion was built in 1904-1906 after
the design of a famous architect A. von Gogen for Prima-ballerina of the
Mariinsky Theatre Mathilda Kshesinskaya . This building is attractive due to
its asymmetrical composition, strict elegancy, graphical definition, diversity
of shapes, and a variety of decorative materials. It can be even called a model
of Art Nouveau style.
The building was a witness of many
important historical events. In March-July 1917 the Central and Petersburg
Committees of the Russian Social Democratic Workers’ Party and the Bosheviks’
Military Organization were situated here. The balcony of the building served as
a tribune for Lenin's speech. In the present time it's re-created Lenin's study
in the room of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the RSDRP.
The mansion belonging to a timber merchant Vasily
Emanuilovich Brandt was constructed in 1909-1910 after the design of Roman
Fyodorovich Meltser, an outstanding Petersburg artist and architect of the late
19th-early 20th centuries. It represents a sort of interaction between
different architectural styles of the beginning of the 20th century –
Neoclassicism, Art Nouveau, and Symbolism (this style is represented by relief
images which decorate the building).
The owners of the two mansions had to flea not only
from their apartments, but also from the country.
In 1955-1957 these two buildings were joined
(architect N. Nadezhin), and now they make up a complex where the State Museum
of Revolution had been situated till November 5, 1957, when the Museum was
transformed into the State Museum of the Great October Socialist Revolution.
Presently the State Museum of Political History of
Russia is one of few museums which carry out documentation and expositional
demonstration of processes taking place in political, economic, and social life
of Russian society in the 19th-21st centuries.
Inclusions: -
- Entrance fees
- Hotel pick up and drop off
- Assistance of an English-speaking local guide
(The commentary in German and French is also available if specified while
booking. Italian & Spanish commentary available for extra charge 20
euro per person, if specified while booking and is paid upon arrival
directly to the guide.)
- Transportation by air conditioned comfortable
vehicle.
Exclusions:
|
