Russian Museum, State

Categories / Science. Education/Museums
RUSSIAN MUSEUM, State was founded on 13 April 1895 by the decree of Emperor Nicholas II as the Russian Museum of Emperor Alexander III with the purpose of gathering the collections of Russian art. It was housed in the Mikhailovsky Palace (2/4 Inzhenernaya Street; 1819-25; architect K. I. Rossi). The East wing was added in 1902 (4 Inzhenernaya Street, architect V. F. Svinyin). The West wing was erected in 1914-17 at 2 Ekaterininsky Canal by architect L. N. Benois. Exhibits included the canvases by Russian masters from the collections of Grand Prince Mikhail Pavlovich, the Hermitage, the Academy of Arts, and the imperial residences in Gatchina and Tsarskoe Selo. The museum was opened to visitors on 17 March 1898. The exposition occupies 37 halls. Three departments were formed in the Russian Museum by 1912: Alexander III Memorial Apartment, Ethnographic Department, Industrial Arts Department (later it was transferred to the Svinyin wing) and the Arts Department. The Department of History of Everyday Life was established in 1913. Soon it was transferred to the Hermitage. The Russian Museum was proclaimed to be state property in 1918. The Council of the Museum was established at the beginning of the 1920s. D. I. Mitrokhin, A. N. Benois, S. P. Yaremich and others became its members. Works of contemporary art were represented at the exposition in 1922. The Department of Soviet Art was established in 1932 and housed in the Benois Wing. There were 10 research departments in the Russian Museum in 1935. The collections of the Russian Museum were evacuated to the town of Molotov (present-day Perm) in 1941-45. The building of the Russian Museum was seriously damaged by artillery shelling. It was reconstructed in 1946. Exhibitions of contemporary art have been held in the Benois Wing since 1949. The first Lecture Hall of the Russian Museum was opened here in 1960. The Expert Procurement Commission was established in 1954. Works by contemporary artists were delivered to the Russian Museum through the Ministry of Culture of the USSR and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and through the Union of Artists. Many presents were given to the museum. Unique things were purchased at the international market of antiques. As of 2003, the collections of the Russian Museum numbered some 384,700 works of art of the 10th-20th centuries (painting, sculpture, applied arts and crafts, etc.). Stroganov Palace was given to the Russian Museum in 1988. The Marble Palace was transferred into the ownership of the museum in 1992. Mikhailovsky Castle was transferred to the Russian Museum in 1994. Departments of Contemporary Art Trends, Social and Psychological Research, Information Technology, Laboratory of Technical and Technological Research, and others were included in the structure of the Russian Museum by 2003. New computer equipment is currently being installed. The process of cataloguing the museum collection is nearing completion. The Centre of Museum Education and Children's Creative Work has been set up at the Russian Museum. The museum has its own Palace Editions Publishing House. The museum holds lectures, exhibitions of domestic and foreign artists, and concerts of classical music. V. A. Gusev became a director of the Russian Museum in 1980.

References: Государственный Русский музей: Путеводитель. СПб., 1997; 100 лет Русского музея в фотографиях, 1898-1998. СПб., 1998.

Y. N. Kruzhnov. Alexander III, Emperor
Benois Alexander Nikolaevich
Benois Leonty Nikolaevich
Gusev Vladimir Alexandrovich
Mikhail Pavlovich, Grand Prince
Mitrokhin Dmitry Isidorovich
Nicholas II, Emperor
Rossi Carl Ivanovich (Carlo Giovanni)
Svinyin Vasily Fedorovich
Yaremich Stepan Petrovich
Griboedova Canal Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 2
Inzhenernaya Street/Saint Petersburg, city, house 4
Inzhenernaya Street/Saint Petersburg, city, house 2/4
Государственный Русский музей: Путеводитель. СПб., 1997
100 лет Русского музея в фотографиях, 1898-1998. СПб., 1998 Mikhailovsky Palace
Hermitage
Artists, Union of
Mikhailovsky Castle
Marble Palace
1898
1927
1937