Berezovsky Mine Museum

The private cultural institution “Russian Gold Museum” was created on the initiative of the famous local historian, philanthropist, public figure Valery Anatolyevich Lobanov on February 16, 2010. The museum aims to study the history of Berezovsky, Sverdlovsk oblast, as a city of the first Russian gold, and biographies of discoverers Yerofey Markov and Lev Brusnitsyn, who discovered ore gold in 1745, and in 1814, found a way of extracting the precious metal from a placer.

The museum tells and shows the history of the Russian gold mining industry, the importance of the Berezovsky gold deposit for the Russian empire, the economy of the USSR, and modern Russia. The museum also has a mineralogical, historical, and emotional-gamified exhibition and provides guided tours designed for a wide range of visitors from elementary school students to seniors, from locals to foreign tourists.

In 2017, the private cultural institution Russian Gold Museum became the winner of the Presidential Grants Competition with its project “Our Memory Is What Makes Us Strong” (recognized as successfully implemented), in 2018 — with the project “Live Lessons in the Museum” (also successfully implemented). In 2019 — the project “Live Lessons in the Museum (Continued)”, and in 2020 — the project “Lessons in the Museum. A Kaleidoscope of Crafts” again received the support of the Presidential Grants Foundation. Also, since 2016, the museum has received local government subsidies for the projects “Museum for All”, “Training of Professional Tour Guides Specialised in the ‘Golden’ Theme”, “Holding a Competition of Works on the Project ‘Our Memory Is What Makes Us Strong'”, “Live Lessons in the Museum”. Together with its partners: the Regional Public Foundation of the Sverdlovsk region “Mir Zolota”, “Aurum” LLC, “Berezovsky Rudnik” LLC, the Department of Education of the Berezovsky Urban District, the Berezovsky Centralized Library Network, and the editorial office of the newspaper “Berezovsky Rabochiy”, the museum is actively engaged in studying and promoting local history, including such activities as:

– organizing and hosting exhibitions dedicated to important historical events (“War in Reflection”), the history of gold mining, and the mining culture of the Urals (“Gold. Anatomy of a Mine”), systemic exhibitions, and exhibitions devoted to remarkable people of the town of Berezovsky (L.I. Brusnitsyn, N.M. Vasenin, N.I. Koksharov, “Our Memory Is What Makes Us Strong” project exhibitions); participation in the organization of the “Au.fest” festivals;

– research (study of archival materials on the topic “Miner’s Battalion”, official lists, decrees on the management of the Berezovsky mines from the moment of foundation to the present day, publications, records, interviewing veterans of war and labor who worked at the city’s gold mining enterprise — Berezovsky Mine (over 10 people with interesting stories), local history studies (history of the Berezovsky gold mining, history of the streets of Berezovsky), archaeological work (study of the burials of Brusnitsyn and Princes Eristov), genealogical work (foundation of the Berezovsky branch of the Ural Historical and Genealogical Society, Genealogy School), museum studies;

– collection management (acquisition, accounting, storage, study of museum’s collection) – concluding donation agreements for exhibits and collections;

– cultural and educational work (development of tour, lecture, workshop programs that aim to promote mining and the museum to target audiences, certification of the tour programs), holding and support of such events as Markovsky Tournament, Miner’s Ogonyok, Klyushnikov Readings, held at the premises of comprehensive schools Gymnasium No.5, Lyceum No.7, School No.33, close cooperation with school museums of Lyceum No.7 and School No.32, engaging prominent experts in fields of archaeology, history, genealogy, local history and culture into the research activities;

– publishing (publication of a catalog of excursion programs for the project “Live Lessons in the Museum” and a book on the history of the old streets of Berezovsky).