Krasnoyarsk Regional Museum of Local Lore, Krasnoyarsk, Krasnoyarskiy kray, Russia

Krasnoyarsk Regional Museum of Local Lore, Krasnoyarsk, Krasnoyarskiy kray, Russia 

The grand opening of the Krasnoyarsk city public museum took place on February 12, 1889.

By this time, a number of Siberian cities already had museums. The oldest in Siberia, the Irkutsk Museum was established in 1782, Barnaul in 1823, and Tobolsk in 1870. The Imperial Russian Geographical Society and its West Siberian and East Siberian divisions played an important role in the organization and support of museums. The first museum in the Yenisei province was founded in Minusinsk NM. Martyanov in 1877, and already in 1883, A.I. Kytmanov founded a museum in Yeniseysk. Finally, February 7, 1889, the Krasnoyarsk City Duma decided to open a museum and a public library.

The museum was founded on the initiative of the spouses Innokenty Alekseyevich and Julia Petrovna Matveyev, they also became the first donors of the museum. In particular, from Yulia Petrovna, the daughter of the gold miner and philanthropist P.I. Kuznetsov received a picture of VI. Surikova “The Merciful Samaritan”, which the author gave PI. To Kuznetsov. The first director (conservative) of the museum was Pavel Stepanovich Proskuryakov.

The museum was located in the house of famous public figures Krutovsky (now Karatanova, 11). Subsequently, he moved to the Svetlakovs’ house on the Shore Street (now Dubrovinsky, 72), and then for more than twenty years he was located in the Gostiny Dvor building (now 6 Karl Marx Street).

In the first years the museum was actively replenished with gifts. In 1903 – 1920 years. the museum was run by the Krasnoyarsk sub-department of the East Siberian Department of the IRGO, which positively affected the replenishment of its collections.

Two decades since 1905 the museum was headed by the famous ornithologist Arkady Yakovlevich Tugarinov, during the period of his leadership all the burdens of the First World War, revolution, civil war and post-war ruin fell out. However, at this time there was a great replenishment of the natural and ethnographic collections of the museum due to numerous expeditions.

In 1916, the exhibition “Old Krasnoyarsk” was organized, where objects of the life of Krasnoyarsk residents were exposed before the Trans-Siberian Railway. Many of the exhibits subsequently entered the museum collection, setting the stage for collections of household items.

Epic Russia Culture & Adventure Route © Monika Newbound