Russian Ethnographical Museum

Categories / Science. Education/Museums
RUSSIAN ETHNOGRAPHICAL MUSEUM, at 4а Inzhenernaya Street, was established in 1902 as the Ethnographical Department of the Russian Museum. The museum was opened in 1923. It became independent in 1934 as the State Museum of Ethnography. The museum was renamed the State Museum of the Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR in 1948, after acquiring the collection of the shut-down Moscow Museum of the Peoples of the USSR. The museum's present-day name was established in 1992, and its exhibitions are devoted to the cultures of Russia and its neighbouring countries (Ukraine, Byelorussia, Moldavia, the Baltic States, Central Asia, and the Transcaucasus). The collection consists of 500,000 objects, including 150,000 photographic negatives and prints. Among the most interesting documents in the museum's archives are ethnographic materials collected from Russian peasantry by Prince V. N. Tenishev's Ethnographical Bureau at the beginning of the 20th century. Some of the ethnographers who have contributed to the museum's development include D. A. Klemenz, F. K. Volkov, N. M. Mogilyansky, D. A. Zolotarev, S. I. Rudenko, L. P. Potapov and T. A. Kryukova. The building of the Russian Ethnographical Museum was erected in 1900-11 (architect V. F. Svinyin, sculptors M. Y. Kharlamov and A. E. Gromov). The building housing the museum is part of the Mikhailovsky Palace.

References: Государственный музей этнографии народов СССР, Ленинград: Альбом. Л., 1989; Шангина И. И. 90 лет Российскому этнографическому музею в Санкт-Петербурге // Этногр. обозрение. 1993. № 1. С. 80-85.

A. Y. Chistyakov. Gromov A.E.
Kharlamov Matvey Yakovlevich
Klemenz Dmitry Alexandrovich
Kryukova T.A.
Mogilyansky N.M.
Potapov L.P.
Rudenko S.I.
Svinyin Vasily Fedorovich
Tenishev Vyacheslav Nikolaevich
Volkov F.K.
Zolotarev D.M.
Inzhenernaya Street/Saint Petersburg, city, house 4, litera л. А
Государственный музей этнографии народов СССР, Ленинград: Альбом. Л., 1989
Шангина И. И. 90 лет Российскому этнографическому музею в Санкт-Петербурге // Этногр. обозрение, 1993 Russian Ethnographical Museum
Mikhailovsky Palace