Museum of Folk Musical Instruments

In August 2015, the museum’s founder, Anna Sosnovskaya, flew from Heraklion to Moscow and came up with the idea to open a museum.

The fact is that Anna was an amateur musician and had her own interesting collection of musical instruments and a love for them. When she returned to Moscow, she managed to find a space on preferential terms to collect exhibits for an exhibition from her friends – musicians – and in October 2015, she opened a museum. In order to expand the collection, Anna was engaged in a number of “adventures” and eventually bought an African kora musical instrument from the relatives of a Soviet TV presenter and an Afghan rubab from a mysterious celebrity from the Okhotny Ryad district of Moscow.

In May 2016, the museum was in a state of crisis – the landlord had raised the rent.

Anna went to church for a priest’s advice and got it – he told her to look for a space in a library.

After a month of searching, the museum found its new home in Bogolyubov Library, where it still operates. Admission is free and the museum itself is open to everyone.

The museum presents about 250 exhibits of folk musical instruments from different parts of the world. This is a private collection, collected by musicians and enthusiasts.

The museum houses a rich collection of drums from Brazil, India, Uzbekistan, Cuba, Iran, and Portugal. The history of many exhibits is very interesting.