Central Air Force Museum, Monino, Moscow Oblast, Russia

Central Air Force Museum, Monino, Moscow Oblast, Russia 

After the October Revolution, the Petrograd and Moscow military sections were set up to manage military museums in the People’s Commissariat for Education. Employees of old army museums tried to raise the issue of creating a unified military museum, proving that “the late army deserved a decent mausoleum.” The case, however, rested on the extremely miserable financial situation of the People’s Commissariat of Education, and attempts to attract a more affluent military department were unsuccessful.

The leaders of the Red Army believed that the fighter was unnecessary, and moreover, the museums in which the feats of the heroes of the “imperialist, predatory war, the defenders of the old regime, and the kings, princes, nobles and other bourgeois who were swept away by the revolution to the dustbin of history were glorified.”

Exhibition “Life of the Red Army and Navy.” 1920
Before the creation of the museum, the hands of the military department came after the defeat of AI Denikin’s troops at the end of 1919, when he passed the most acute crisis in the civil war. The idea of creating the museum arose in November 1919, and its opening was supposed to coincide with the second anniversary of the Red Army.

December 23, 1919 Deputy Chairman of the RVSR and the People’s Commissariat of Education EM Sklyansky signed an order to establish a permanent exhibition museum “Life of the Red Army and Navy.” A well-known expert in the field of military and museum affairs, M.K. Sokolovsky, was appointed director. In April 1920, the Moscow City Council’s dwelling passed to the museum the first floors of the building of the Upper Trading Rows (now GUM) occupied by the People’s Commissariat of Food.

But the PUR did not show perseverance, and the brightest line that emerges on Red Square remained for Tsurupa’s department, and the museum received the first floors of the 2nd and 3rd lines and the line of the railing series.

Epic Russia Culture & Adventure Route © Monika Newbound