It was April and still cold outside and raining. My friends Judith, Yve and I decided to visit the State Historical Museum, as we needed an activity away from the cold. On the way to the museum my umbrella broke in the strong wind. It was probably inevitable as my umbrella was a couple of years old. I stopped at one of the little Russian souvenir stalls on the way to the museum to purchase a new one. In the end I walked away with a bright pink Moscow tourist umbrella to keep me dry. Nobody can miss me and it shouts tourist!!
Just the short walk from the metro to the museum had us shivering. The wind was blowing and the last of the snow hadn’t even melted yet so it was freezing.
This imposing building stood to our right as we entered the Red Square through the Resurrection Gate. The building is a mass of jagged towers and cornices; it is a typical example of Russian Revivalism, the Eastern equivalent of the Neo-Gothic movement.
We spent a couple of hours walking around in there.
The museum was opened in 1894, to mark the coronation of Aleksander III, and was the result of a 20-year-long project to consolidate various archaeological and anthropological collections into a single museum that told the story of the history of Russia. Each hall of the museum is designed to correspond to the era from which the exhibits are taken.
They do advertise that it is in English as well but there isn’t a lot of information in English. Unfortunately, the exhibits are not labeled with any English descriptions so most of the time we didn’t actually know what we were looking at. There are English-language guide books and videos available in the lobby but we thought that we would get along fine without it. This turned out to be a bit more challenging than we thought. Maybe in the future I should carry a Russian/English dictionary with me.
Before you enter a hall there is a short information sheet in English that explains what the hall holds. Unfortunately this explanation only gives an outline and is translated directly from the Russian so not always understandable. Actually the direct translations turned out to be quite comical at times.
The museum was interesting but I wouldn’t recommend it if you only have a short time available in Moscow, there are so many other more interesting things to choose from. Think the best part of the day was going for sushi and red wine after our visit to the museum.
