State Historical Museum

The State Historical Museum is the largest historical museum in Russia. The museum contains about 5 million museum objects and 14 million pages of documentary materials. Presented in the museum items reflect the history of Russia from ancient times to present days. The Historical Museum building is located in the center of Moscow,, on Red Square. Museum also uses some located nearby buildings. The museum will be of interesting to all those interested in the history of Russia.

The museum was founded by the decree of Emperor Alexander II February 21, 1872. A plot of land was allocated on the north side of Red Square for construction of the museum in 1874. The construction of the museum building continued in 1875 -1881 years. The museum has been opened to the public in June 1883. The full name of the museum was the "Imperial Russian Historical Museum named after Emperor's Alexander III" until November 1917. The museum was renamed the "Russian State Historical Museum» after the revolution of 1917. From February 1921 to nowadays, the museum name is "The State Historical Museum".

Historical museum Building is a historical and architectural monument. It is one of the most prominent buildings in Red Square in Moscow.

Collections exhibits are on display on two floors, in the halls with a total area about 4 thousand square meters. Only a small part of stored in the museum objects is on display for public now. The museum exhibits are giving an idea of primitive society, the origin and history of ancient Russia; about merge the Russian principalities, about development of Siberia, the history of Russian tsars.

The historical museum has some branches in Moscow:

• St. Basil's Cathedral. It is located on Red Square. The nearest metro stations are “Okhotny Ryad”, “Ploschad Revolutsii”, “Teatralnaya”, “Kitay-gorod”.
• Museum of “Patriotic War of 1812” (French Invasion in Russia). Address: Moscow, “Revolution Square”, 2 /3. The nearest metro stations are “Okhotny Ryad”, “Ploscad Revolutsy” (Revolution Square), “Teatralnaya”.
• House of Romanov boyars. Address: Moscow, Varvarka street, 10. The nearest metro station is “Kitay-Gorod”.
• Historical Museum address: Moscow, Red Square, 1.

Official site: www.shm.ru