Tsarist Russia joined Europe’s museum craze a little late, developing a few large museums by the time of the Revolution. The USSR later enthusiastically developed museums as educational and propaganda tools – even pioneering new types of museums. Today, the cities within the former Eastern Bloc contain surprising numbers of these institutions, both private and publically 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 museum science, Russia and other former soviet bloc countries make for fascinating study abroad destinations.
St Petersburg is the center of Russia’s rich museum tradition. Museums here are as pletiful as they are diverse. Art, history, literature, music, and science – all things that Russia is known for – can be found in St. Petersburg’s museums – and often with several subjects presented at once. The famously ecclectic Kuntskamera, for […]
