Exhibition 'There Is a Fortress in the City, and an Ostrog in the Fortress'

About exhibition

The period of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky's stay in the Omsk penal ostrog lasted from 1850 to 1854. It influenced the writer's worldview and determined his subsequent creative path. The renewed exhibition includes authentic items from the demolished Resurrection (Voskresensky) military cathedral — architectural details, bricks, metal objects, glass and clay items, and objects related to the building's domestic life. A special place in the exhibition is occupied by books miraculously preserved in Omsk from the cathedral's spiritual library. The display cases also present finds made during archaeological excavations carried out as part of the museum-exhibition project 'There Is a Fortress in the City, and an Ostrog in the Fortress.' As a result of archaeological research in 2021–2023, fragments of pottery, stamped bricks, wrought nails, fragments of porcelain items, glass, coins from the periods of Paul I and Elizabeth Petrovna were found, as well as a hoard of Siberian coins in a post hole in the ostrog's fence: seven copper ten-kopeck coins from the reign of Catherine II dated 1767–1781.