City Branch of the Borodino Field State Military-Historical Museum-Reserve

About museum

In the center of the town of Mozhaysk there is a branch of the State Borodino Field Military-Historical Museum-Reserve.

In 1905 a museum of visual aids was established under the local Zemstvo to assist schoolchildren. With the involvement of Countess P. S. Uvarova it gradually developed into a historical and local history museum. The museum acquired exhibits transferred from the rich collection of the Uvarov counts, which had been kept at the Porechye estate in Mozhaysk Uyezd.

After the February Revolution of 1917 the museum was left without supervision. Its exhibits were distributed among Mozhaysk schools and some became part of a museum organized by the local cooperative. That museum existed until a fire in 1920, when almost all its exhibits were destroyed. In the 1920s, thanks to the efforts of local historians N. I. Vlasyev, head of the historical‑archaeological section of the Mozhaysk Society of Local Historians, and V. I. Gorokhov, the local chronicler, the museum was revived.

Before the start of hostilities in 1941 the museum's collections were evacuated to the Regional Local History Museum in Istra, from where, for various reasons, they did not return after the war. In 1964, on the initiative of Mozhaysk teachers A. A. and B. L. Vasnetsov, a museum was organized at School No. 1, which became the basis for reviving the city local history museum. The Mozhaysk Historical and Local History Museum was reopened in 1981 for the town's 750th anniversary. Since 1986 the museum has been a branch of the State Borodino Field Military-Historical Museum-Reserve.
In 1985 the House‑Museum of the USSR People's Artist S. V. Gerasimov was opened in Mozhaysk; since 1990 it has been a branch of the Borodino Military-Historical Museum-Reserve within the Mozhaysk Historical and Local History Museum.

The holdings of the Mozhaysk Historical and Local History Museum include collections of historical household items, archaeological finds, documents and photographs, and a collection of paintings and graphics by Mozhaysk artists, S. V. Gerasimov and his pupils.

At present the building houses an exhibition hall where visitors can view historical household items of the 18th–20th centuries from the museum's collection.

Getting there — from the Mozhaysk bus station by bus
to the 'House of Culture' or 'Komsomol Square' stop.