Museum of Magnetic Compasses

I started collecting compasses for my future museum back in 1989. My father, a hereditary surveyor, gave me a “box with an arrow”.

Neither he nor I knew the exact origin of the item. Over the years, it turned out that this item is related to the “Pomors”. The “Pomors” are a people who live in northern Russia. They were engaged in fishing in the northern seas and the “Matka” compass was a huge necessity! There are no permanent landmarks in the sea, and the “Pomors” had to sail in the right direction to safely return home. Gradually, the collection began to be replenished with other compasses. Around 2000, with the emergence of the Internet, the collection began to expand very quickly with the addition of other compasses from around the world.

Currently, the museum collection contains about 820 compasses from different countries and eras! Naturally, the exhibition will not be able to accommodate everything that I want to show. So, I focused on the topic of Russian compasses and compasses of the USSR period. The presented magnetic compasses capture the time interval from the 18th century to 1945. The “Museum of Magnetic Compasses” will be very grateful for any materials provided on this topic, and is ready to cooperate with other private and public museums, as well as with the collectors.