Museum of Communications of the Irkutsk Branch of OJSC Rostelecom

About museum

The Museum of the History of Communications Development in the Irkutsk Region was opened on November 4, 1977, at the Regional Communications Administration.

It was founded by the head of the Regional Communications Administration, Nikolai Fyodorovich Shapovalov.

Since 1991 the museum has been located in a historical and cultural monument dating from the beginning of the 19th century — the house of the merchant, patron, bibliophile, collector, hereditary honorary citizen and mayor of Irkutsk, Vasily Nikolaevich Basnin (1799–1876).

The museum's collection comprises more than 18,000 items, and the library contains over 2,000 books and periodicals. The museum has eight exhibition halls devoted to the topics: 'Siberian Post', 'Telegraph and Telephone Communication', 'Radio Communication and Broadcasting in the Irkutsk Region', 'History of Television', 'Modern Means of Communication'. Exhibitions on display include: 'History of the Regional Communications Administration' and 'Irkutsk communications personnel during the period of political repressions and the years of the Great Patriotic War'. There is a parlor with an exhibition dedicated to the former owner of the Basnin estate.