Staraya Russa Local History Museum

About museum

The Staraya Russa branch of the Novgorod State United Museum-Reserve is structurally composed of three museums: the Staraya Russa Local History Museum, the Art Gallery, and the Museum of the Northwestern Front.
\r\n The first museum in the town of Staraya Russa was opened by the museum affairs sub-department of the UONO on September 19, 1920, at the initiative of the artist and musician V. S. Svarog, the local historian and public figure M. I. Polyansky, and the teacher M. V. Vasilieva, who became the museum's first director.
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\r\n In 1936 the local history museum and the art gallery were moved to the Resurrection Cathedral. During the war the museum was destroyed by the German occupiers. In the postwar years the primary task was the restoration of the national economy, and only 20 years after the liberation of Staraya Russa, by decision of the Staraya Russa City Council of People's Deputies on February 18, 1964, the local history museum reopened its doors. It was housed in the building of the former St. Nicholas Church. The museum operated on a voluntary (public) basis.
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\r\n In 1966 the local history museum became part of the Novgorod Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve. In 1974 the museum moved into the premises of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky (Transfiguration) Monastery. Exhibitions telling the medieval history of the town were placed in the monastery's churches. In the hall "Finds of Archaeologists in Staraya Russa" numerous exhibits demonstrate that as early as the 11th century Russa was a developed town with wooden pavements and dense urban development. The basis of the town's economic development and the reason for its emergence was salt production. In the museum showcases, alongside ancient tools and craftsmen's products, are birch-bark manuscripts, writing instruments for birch bark, and items with letter marks of their owners. These finds suggest that literacy was a widespread phenomenon here.
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\r\n The Art Gallery is located in the former Church of the Meeting (Sretenie). It displays works by artists born in Staraya Russa or its surroundings. The core of the exhibition is the works of the Russian artist Vasily Semyonovich Svarog. Also presented are works by his pupils, as well as contemporary artists: V. A. Fedorov, N. M. Lokotkov, and works by the sculptor N. V. Tomsky.
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\r\n On February 18, 2003, the Museum of the Northwestern Front opened in Staraya Russa. The exhibition allows visitors to trace the course of military operations from the first day of the war to victory, to show Staraya Russa's particular role in the fierce fighting in the northwest, and the unjustified losses. The materials presented on all types and branches of troops deployed to the Northwestern Front, on the partisan movement and the underground, and on the life of the local population in the front-line zone reliably reveal the history of Staraya Russa during this tragic period