Tsarist Russia joined Europe’s museum craze a little late, developing only a few large museums by the time of the Revolution. The USSR later enthusiastically developed museums as educational and propaganda tools. Today, the cities of Eurasia contain surprising numbers of these institutions, both private and publicly funded, and on nearly every subject imaginable. Many of these museums have survived wars, revolutions, and economic and political collapse, often by innovating ways of preserving, funding, and maintaining their collections. For anyone studying history, museum science, literature, art, or nearly any other subject, these places make for fascinating travel and study abroad destinations.
Just over a hundred years ago the October Revolution began in Saint Petersburg, Russia, then known as Petrograd and at the time the nation’s capital, an event that would influence the world for much of the 20th century. This revolution that would eventually lead to the establishment of the Soviet Union began with a shot […]