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STATE HISTORY MUSEUM
1874
This stands at the north end of Red Square opposite the Intercession Cathedral. The museum building was erected from a design by the architect and painter Vladimir Sherwood and played an important role in the development of Moscow architecture at the turn of the century. The erection of the History Museum marked the beginning of the reconstruction of the city centre. The architect sought to give the entrance to the city's main square a new scale, characteristic of the late nineteenth century and supported shortly afterwards by the building of the City Duma (now the Central Lenin Museum). The History Museum was intended by Sherwood to be a monument of the age, to have a profound ideological content and embody the image of Russia, as it were.
State History Museum (in the background)
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The architectural treatment of the facade was based on the national idea, embodied in the tent roofs, kokoshniks, niches, landings and other elements and details of the Russian ornamental style. The museum's architecture and decor were intended to serve an edifying purpose, to convey certain information to the spectator. This explains why one finds here exact copies of sections from many famous Old Russian monuments. Sherwood did his utmost to ensure that the massive building blended with the ensemble of the whole square. He succeeded thanks to the well-planned division of the mass and the introduction of numerous vertical lines which echoed the Kremlin towers and the domes of the Intercession Cathedral.
Central Lenin Museum
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It would be hard to find a more suitable place for a museum whose charter reads: "To collect and preserve popular monuments of antiquity and the past, which together would provide a visual and, if possible, complete picture in all details of the former life both of the Russian people, and of all peoples who have lived at any time within the bounds of the Russian Empire." The history of the museum, which opened in 1883, is closely linked with that of Moscow and the state as a whole. The largest repository in the country of items illustrating the history and culture of the peoples of the Soviet Union, it contains more than 4,500,000 exhibits. The museum possesses: extremely rich archaeological collections, a large numismatic section, some splendid collections of Oriental and West-European arms, Russian and imported fabrics and dress, and items of metal, wood, glass, ceramics and ivory, a world-famous collection of manuscripts and old books and many exhibits relating to the fine arts. The collections of early Russian painting and graphic art are extremely valuable.
The pride of the museum is the Borodinsky (Bessarabian) trove (2,000 B.C.), the Taman sarcophagus (third century B. C.), a unique monument of antique art on the territory of the Soviet Union, gold objects from Kopyony Chaaatas burial mount (12th-13th centuries), the Svyatoslav Miscellany (1073), a very early Russian manuscript, the Mstislav Gospel decorated with coloured illuminations, insets and capitals, the famous birch-bark documents found during excavations in old Novgorod, Greek manuscripts, chronicles and various precious objects connected with historical figures and important events. The latter include numerous items relating to the Patriotic War of 1812, the defence of Sevastopol in 1854-5 and objects belonging to the military leader Mikhail Kutuzov, the writer Ivan Turgenev and many other famous Russians.
Of great artistic and historical value is the collection of gold and silver jewellery fashioned in various techniques, such as metal-carving, chasing, niello, filigree and cloisonne enamel. The collections of Old Russian embroidery and Russian furniture from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries are unique.
In spite of the fact that the History Museum is at present closed to the public because of major repairs, its research and popularizing work is continuing.
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