The World of Talking Machines Musical Museum

The World of Talking Machines private musical collection was founded by Andrei and Evgenia Veretennikovs in Khabarovsk and covers “talking” machines and audio media released from the 1880s to the 1990s. In 2013, the collection began of old players, records, gramophones, and radios that were being repaired and put into operation.

It was these exhibits that became the basis of the World of Talking Machines Museum.

Our museum is the Far Eastern everyday life story. We are not interested in how people spoke at party meetings or performed labor feats. We are interested in how they lived “at home.” To imagine a Far Eastern family without the traditions of family listening, and without a set of favorite songs, is impossible even today. That’s not even talking about the pre-Internet era. Our recording technical features are combined with the study of the humanitarian side of the world and the understanding of ourselves, our culture, and our life.

The Russian Far East is a unique region. The vast majority of the population here are immigrants. Some came with a ticket from the Komsomol, some in a train car of criminals, and others came here from all the lands of the boundless USSR. In the Russian Empire, the main backbone was composed of immigrants. Here they found themselves divorced from the familiar world and the familiar culture. Every generation of the Far East cherished the dream to create something anew, and to build its own world on new lands. Music was (and remains) the most important element of this world. Music has become the language that people speak with their native land. In the museum, we tell about this music, and about how it was stored and reproduced. The “talking” machines history becomes the Far East daily history.

The museum exposition is located in three thematic halls: Vintage, USSR, and Disco. There is a local history corner in the museum. It is here that you will have a unique opportunity to hear the real folklore works of the indigenous peoples of the Amur region, and to get acquainted with their unique culture. But not only that…

Only in our museum will you find a story about the life and work of iconic characters in the musical culture of the Khabarovsk Territory: in particular, about Grandfather Matvey (Matvey Pavlovich Zhuravlev), author and performer of the most popular songs about Khabarovsk, and the initiator of the pop department opening at the Khabarovsk College of Art.

Our museum will tell you about the development of sound recording in the Far East from the first “miracle machines”, with their plates and “rollers”, to CDs. You will learn a lot of life stories (one of the museum exhibits is at the center of these), learn what the Far East residents liked to listen to at different times, as well as how they listened. You can also hear the voices of Leo Tolstoy, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and Sergey Yesenin. After all, poetry is also an important part of this culture. For us, and for all our guests, “talking machines” is a path that allows us to better understand the soul and history of our land, and to understand ourselves.

Do you want to know and understand the Far East? Come visit us!