Exhibitions of the State Museum of the History of Religion

About exhibition

The State Museum of the History of Religion is the only museum of its kind in Russia and one of the few museums in the world whose exhibitions present the history of the origin and development of religion. The museum's collection comprises about 200,000 items, the oldest of which date back to the 6th millennium BC. These are monuments of history and culture from different countries, eras and peoples: from the archaic period, Ancient Egypt and Israel to the early European Middle Ages; from Ancient Greece and Rome to modern times; Buddhism and Islam. The following sections of the permanent exhibition are currently open: Archaic and Traditional Beliefs; Religion of the Ancient World: Polytheism; Religions of the Ancient World: Judaism; Early Christianity; History of Russian Orthodoxy; Catholicism: Doctrine and Cult; Protestantism; Islam; Religions of the East: Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, Shintoism. The museum's exhibition occupies the second floor of the historic building designed by architect A. Kavos in the 1860s and contains about 2,500 exhibits representing the museum's entire collections. The largest sections are those devoted to the traditional religions of the peoples inhabiting the Russian Federation: Christianity (especially Orthodoxy), Islam and Buddhism. Russian Orthodoxy is represented in the exhibition with maximum completeness — from the baptism of Rus by St. Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles, to the tragic pages of the history of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th century and the church revival at the beginning of the 19th century.