10 biggest ethnographic museums in Russia

Visiting ethnographic museums is the best way to get to know the peculiarities of different peoples inhabiting our country. Since Russia is a multinational country (more than 160 nationalities), it is important to keep the memory of those principles that each community values.

In ethnographic museums, thematic household items, household utensils, and clothing are collected. Visitors are shown the features of the arrangement of furniture in the house.

In this article, we will look at the largest museums in Russia: a rating of major ethnographic centers where important attributes of Russian culture are located. Places that must be visited and are of great importance for the whole world.

10 Kostroma Sloboda, Kostroma

The open-air museum is one of the oldest in Russia. On the large territory of the museum-reserve there are 3 churches, as well as about 30 wooden architectural monuments.

The main buildings are located along the Igumenka River and are houses and outbuildings of peasants: baths, hangars and mills. Inside some buildings there are expositions showing the life of the people.

On the territory of the museum-reserveKostroma Sloboda» Filming of historical films is constantly taking place. Mass festivities are often held with a traditional color, folklore festivals, and actions in support of folk art crafts.

9. Sheltozero Veps Ethnographic Museum, Republic of Karelia

Sheltozero Veps Ethnographic Museum is the only one in Russia that tells about the history and culture of the Veps (Finno-Ugric people). The museum is located in a house built in the 19th century by the famous merchant Melkin, which is a vivid example of Veps traditions.

This building is considered an architectural monument of wooden architecture of the Republic of Karelia and rightfully has the title of one of the most beautiful and largest in the Veps region. The most significant expositions are located in the Vepsian hut and the household yard.

In the museum you can see about 2 thousand items of memorabilia: pottery, birch bark and straw products, the skills of blacksmiths, artisans, weavers, written documentation, and the like. However, the museum stores about 6 thousand exhibits.

8. Ethnographic Park of the History of the Chusovaya River, Chusovaya

At the foot of Arina Mountain stands open-air ethnographic park. The main idea of ​​this architectural monument is to show visitors what the life of peasants was like in 19-20 centuries in Russia.

Here is the hut itself, where the peasants lived, a smithy, a fire department, a trading shop and a couple of chapels. Most importantly, visitors are allowed to touch all the exhibits with their hands.

The main attraction of the park is the Yermak Museum, located in the chapel of the 19th century. There is a series of paintings by Pavel Shardakov telling about Yermak’s campaign from the Nizhne-Chusovskie towns to Siberia.

In addition to historical buildings, there are several modern buildings. For example, the St. Nicholas Chapel, dedicated to the inhabitants of Chusovoy who fought and died in the war with Chechnya in the 90s of the 20th century. At the entrance, visitors cannot pass by the monument to Alexander Grin.

7. Ethnographic Museum of the Peoples of Transbaikalia, Ulan-Ude

Museum of the Peoples of Transbaikalia open-air opened in 1973, and is considered one of the largest in Russia. On a large area of ​​37 hectares there are 40 buildings and about 11 thousand exhibits.

The entire territory of the open museum is divided into 7 complexes: archaeological, Evenki, Buryat, Cis-Baikal, Trans-Baikal, old-timers, Old Believers, urban. In each of them, the visitor will find estates and buildings, along with all the utensils, typical for these settlements in the 19th-20th centuries.

It does not do without a living corner. It will be interesting not only for children, but also for adults to look at typical representatives of the region: deer, roe deer, bears, camels and others.

6. Vitoslavlitsy, Veliky Novgorod

This museum of folk wooden architecture is located on the shore of Lake Myachino. The first exhibit was brought from the village of Kuritsko in 1964 – the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin, dated 1595. And in the 12th century, the Panteleimon Monastery was founded on this territory.

The territory of the museum is divided into four ethnographic zones, allowing the visitor to immerse himself in the traditional life of the peasants. The main attraction of the exhibition are three temples located close to each other, recreating the center of the rural district.

In the territory Vitoslavlitsy folk festivals, various festivals, traditional wedding ceremonies, folk games and the like are periodically held.

5. Manor Vasilevo, Tver region

The open-air museum was created in the Torzhok district on the territory of the former estate of the Lvovs, who lived here in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. From different parts of the region Manor Vasilevo monuments of wooden architecture were transported. For example, the Church of the Transfiguration, dated 1732, was previously located in the churchyard Spas (Kalinin district).

The museum consists of 2 parts. The first one is the remains of the estate of landowners, parks with ponds and a huge boulder bridge, which is one of the most interesting exhibits of this exhibition.

Lvov N.A. himself acted as an architect, and this structure was built without cement and other binders – all stones are held together by gravity. The second – monuments of wooden architecture: residential buildings, outbuildings, barns, chapels and the like.

4. Architectural and Ethnographic Museum, Vologda Region

The museum is located in the Maysky village. On the territory you can see 19 buildings: 10 residential houses, 6 barns, a bathhouse, a glacier and a chapel. The date of foundation of all buildings varies between the 19th and 20th centuries. Some were taken from the neighboring districts of the Vologda Oblast.

The oldest building was removed from the Tarnogsky district and dated back to the 70s of the 19th century – the house of the Kochkins. In expositions architectural and ethnographic museum the visitor will see the richly decorated house of the Bolotovs, located in the center of the village, and the exposition of the hunter Slobodin, as well as examples of the main peasant activities.

3. Old Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan

Museum Reserve, located in the Vysokogorsky district of the republic, is an installation of the residence of the Tatar people from primitive communal times. The complex is designed to show the life of the Tatar village of Aisha as an example of an ordinary settlement in the Order – the center of the formation of the culture of Kazan Tatars.

On the territory, the visitor can meet the ancient fortress Kamaevskoe gorodishche, where unique defensive structures of the defense of medieval Tatars have been preserved, as well as rich flora and fauna, striking in their scale and beauty.

2. Российский этнографический музей, Санкт-Petrburg

Russian Ethnographic Museum – one of the largest museums of this subject in all of Europe. It includes expositions of the cultures of 157 peoples who once inhabited the territory of the former Russian Empire (of the large ones – the peoples of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan).

Most of the exhibits are dated from the 19th-20th century. Here are collected objects not only of large nations, but also of those whose number does not exceed a couple of hundred people.

The exhibits show visitors the basic habits of peoples, their traditional rites and religious ideas, the experience of raising children, and the like. The “Children’s Ethnographic Center” operates on the territory.

1. Kunstkamera, St. Petersburg

This museum is one of the oldest and largest ethnographic museums in the world. The beginning of exhibitions was laid by Peter the Great, when he acquired part of the collection on a trip to Europe.

The exhibits are divided into 2 parts: human deformity and animal pathology. A collection of medical instruments that Peter the Great used when performing simple operations on his own has been preserved.

great value Kunstkamery represent things from the Indian and Japanese halls. They show traditional clothes, household items and the foundations of the culture of these two peoples. In the Japanese hall, you can find samurai clothing, which is of great value.

It is impossible not to mention the large collection of telescopes of the 18th century, where the main one is a huge globe, which was set in motion with the help of water.