Within 12 days, the team visited 19 unique private museums in nine Russian regions.
The first spot in route map was the city of Vladimir. In this city, the team of the Association was greeted by four museums at once: Eureka Museum of Science and Technology; Lights of Vladimir Museum, which has preserved the history of the use of street lights in the ancient city on the Klyazma River, from kerosene stoves to modern LED lamps; Museum & Forge of the Borodins, where the old blacksmithing art and the history of blacksmithing are presented in its entirety; Museum of Dolls and Teddy Bears with unique handmade toys.
In Ivanovo, at the Museum of the Soviet Car Industry, the Association’s employees visited an exhibition of cars, where we saw cars from the executive class to cheaper ones affordable to ordinary Soviet families. In Ivanovo Region, at the Museum of Decorative Glass and Painting in Plyos, we met the original artist Alexander Ivanovich Timofeev.
In Kostroma, at the Museum “House of Mayor Botnikov”, we plunged into the bureaucratic life of the XIX century. The Museum of Jewelry Arts made us believe that Kostroma has every right to the title of the Russian jewelry capital. In the Museum of Cheese, they tried and learned the real taste of Kostroma cheese. In the Snow Maiden’s Fashion House Museum, we made a unique journey through the elegant rooms and saw the images of the fairy-tale character, and after visiting the Snow Maiden’s Terem Museum, we found ourselves in a fairy tale in which familiar heroes from childhood came to life.
In Nizhny Novgorod, the Association was hosted by the Quarks Museum of Entertaining Sciences. This is a museum where the value of exhibits lies in the ability to understand their purpose and the role they played in the history of the development of engineering.
In Kazan we were impressed by the “golden section” – the Museum of the Kazan Icon, located next to the Kazan Mother of God Monastery, in a historical place where the miraculous image of the Kazan Icon, one of the most revered by the Russian Orthodox Church, appeared. We also visited the City Panorama Museum – an interactive museum of the Tatar capital’s history. This is a museum of a new format, which shows the old Kazan of the 16th and 18th centuries and modern Kazan of the 21st century. In addition, we visited the Chak-Chak Museum, which covers the history of Tatar urban merchants’ life of 19th-20th centuries.
In Ulyanovsk we were invited to a balalaika factory, which is the only place in Russia that has revived the traditions of Russian folk instrument production, as well as to the opening of the Balalaika Museum.
At the Motor World Museum of Vyacheslav Sheyanov in Samara we were brought back to the 1920s – 1940s, where the history of the world motorcycle industry and the entire world history of the 19th – 20th centuries are presented through motorcycle brands.
In Penza, we visited the Reactor Museum of Entertaining Sciences, and in Ryazan, we made a visit to the Museum of Christmas Tree Decorations. Read the news about these museums on our website and in social networks shortly.
During the expedition, eight news articles have been written, five more are being prepared for publication in the next issue of the magazine, and scripts and videos are being prepared for release.
In 12 days, the team of the Association traveled 3100 km, met a huge number of interesting people, opened new horizons for cooperation and shared the fruits of their activities. As a result, two new museums were admitted to the Association, which are the Borodin Museum & Forge in Vladimir and the Museum of Christmas Tree Decorations in Ryazan.
On the final day of the expedition, the team of the Association visited the Baths Museum, which has its own cultural intangible heritage – steam, and tangible cultural values of particular importance – birch and oak sauna whisks.
The expedition was headed by Alexey Shaburov.
In the near future, the Association is preparing a new expedition. For more details, go to our website and social networks (VKontakte, Facebook, Instagram).