The best museums Russia

The Tretyakov Gallery is the Russian art museum with the richest collection of its works. Under the direction of Zelfira Tregulova in office since 2015, it shapes the artistic and museographic life of the country. A must-see for any visit to Moscow!

Its historic building houses art from the 11th to the early 20th century. The façade is reminiscent of a fairy tale and was built between 1902 and 1904. The entrance to the museum is dominated by a statue of its founder, Pavel Tretyakov, a wealthy patron who assembled a private collection with the aim of opening it to the public (this was done in 1873, before giving it to the City in 1892). Among the best-known works in the museum are Alexander Ivanov'sApparition of Christ to the People (in room 10), Constantin Favitsky's Princess Tarakanova (room 16), Valentin Serov's Young Peach Girl (room 41), Ilia Repin's Ivan Terrible Kills his Son (room 30) and Mikhail Vrubel's Demons (room 33). In addition, the museum has a rich collection of Orthodox icons, including the Trinity by Andrei Rublev.

Visit. The rooms of the museum are numbered in chronological order. To better orient yourself in the gallery, use the audio guide in foreign languages (500 RUB) or a guide in French which can be booked in advance for a price starting at 8 000 RUB. If you keep your tickets, you can move freely between the exhibition halls, the cafeteria and the toilets. The combined ticket with the New Tretyakov Gallery costs 700 RUB.

A little higher than the Museum of Art and History, in the Dona Tower. It is undoubtedly the number one attraction in Kaliningrad! Created in 1979, it exhibits more than 6,000 pieces: jewellery, decorative objects and copies of parts of the mythical "Amber Room" in the palace of Catherine the Great in St. Petersburg, the "8th wonder of the world", the original of which has been missing since the end of the Second World War. A rare opportunity to imagine, in life size, what it was like!

Modern Russia takes great national pride in its space program initiated under the USSR by Sergei Korolev in 1956. It is rather justified, considering that the country is still the second space power in the world and that the Russians boast of having placed in orbit the first artificial satellite (Sputnik 1 in 1957), the first man in orbit (Yuri Gagarin in 1961), of having taken the first picture of the dark side of the Moon, and even of having organized the first extra-vehicular spacewalk (Alexei Leonov in 1965)

That's why the Astronautical Museum is located at the foot of the magnificent Monument of the Conquerors of Space erected in 1964 in honor of the Russian pioneers with its stylized trail of fire and gas and its rocket which culminates at 110 m. The museum itself, built in 1981 and renovated in 2009, has 8 exhibition halls with a huge collection of period pieces, moving testimonies of the first steps in the conquest of space, etc. There are exceptional artifacts such as Gagarin's personal belongings and items ranging from the priceless to the unclassifiable: the world's very first satellite, Belka and Strelka, the famous dog-cosmonauts (now stuffed), etc. While passing through the gift store, don't forget to buy space food in tubes or take a jump in the space flight simulation capsule. For us, this is an indispensable visit that links Russian heritage with that of humanity, and we always come out of it a little moved.

This bunker, now a museum of the Cold War, was a high place of the Soviet armed forces. Moscow has a few of them, but this one is the largest and most touristic. You will see the facilities and you can simulate the launch of a nuclear missile. All in all, you are guaranteed a fascinating visit if you are interested in the Cold War. Don't miss the restaurant on site, which is open 24 hours a day.

History. It took almost 4 years to build the 7,000 m² site 60 m underground on the express order of Stalin. It was put into service from 1956 until 1985 to coordinate the military defence of the country against a nuclear attack, with a stock of food and drink allowing more than 2,500 officers to spend 3 months there without having to leave. The building that overlooked this top-secret location never hinted at the activities that were taking place a few dozen metres underground. Numerous tunnels made it possible to reach the subway tunnels at nightfall and to use the rails to transport material. Today, only the green portal surmounted by a red star will show you the entrance to this museum like no other.

For tours. For foreigners, it is mandatory to book your tour in advance and a guide will be provided. The museum also offers an individual guided tour for the price starting at RUB 35,000 and a military role-playing game for RUB 64,000.

The Arctic Circle is not far away, and this Arctic and Antarctic Museum, unique in the world and with its old-fashioned charm, will convince you of this by sharing with you the fascination of the ice pioneers who set out to conquer the ice pack from St Petersburg. Founded in 1930, its collections follow in the footsteps of simple walrus fishermen venturing into the icy horizons, then in the wake of the first polar ships, hardly more sophisticated, on which the scientists attracted by the North Pole embarked. You will see Amundsen's Gjoa or Nansen's Fram, or the Russian ships of Lomonossov or Rossanov. To reach the poles, man will have tried everything. This museum proves it to us with, for example, this curious device made of wood, metal and canvas suspended above the entrance, aboard which Paninin had the audacity to embark on the adventure. Finally, the visitor will learn that the North Pole is not only a land of adventure but an immense region inhabited by peoples with cultures rich in tradition; from the Nenets to the Yakuts, from the Tungus to the Chukchi, you will become familiar with the little-known art of the people of the Great Siberian North and their animal and plant environment. Not the most modern museum in the city, but its somewhat outdated setting gives it a touch of poetry. Don't miss the highlight of the show: every half hour, when the public is large enough, the museum employee in charge of looking after the collections gets up and turns off the lights. After a second of darkness, lights appear in a niche dedicated to this purpose: the Northern Lights. There is little information translated into English, so you have to go there with your eyes and mind wide open for non-Russian speakers, but it's a good opportunity to take the hand of your children or partner and go back to childhood.

Another interesting fact concerns the location of the museum, in the former Church of St. Nicholas, which was rebuilt in 1934-1936 and later turned into a museum. Even today, its curved ceilings and granite columns evoke mixed feelings. It must be said that the Russian Orthodox Church has not lost hope of recovering the building (as happened with St Isaac's Cathedral); the last request for restitution of the building and eviction from the museum was rejected in 2016. The battle is therefore won for the time being, but for how long?

The museum, absolutely striking, retraces the episodes of the Soviet victory over the German army in 1945. Built 7 m deep, 42 m long and 15 m wide, the bunker in which it is located was the German headquarters between March and April 1945. On April 9, 1945, the surrender of the German army was signed here.

Opposite it stands the statue of Immanuel Kant, next to a bookshop dedicated to his works.

The main museum in Stalingrad is naturally dedicated to the battle of the same name. It's modern and very, very well designed. You will see objects, photos and models, and maps explaining the capture and liberation of the city. Don't miss, on the first floor, the giant painting representing a panorama of the city at the time of the fights. Right next to the museum you can see the old grain mill, in a state of ruin, which has been preserved as a testimony to the battle.

Created before the end of World War II, this unique museum opens just three months after the end of the blockade of Leningrad. It was closed in 1949 by the Stalinist authorities who wanted to hide the consequences of the terrible blockade. The museum's staff were imprisoned, the director was executed, and many objects were destroyed. The museum reopened in 1989. It is an important testimony to the almost 900-day siege during which the Wehrmacht (with the help of the Finnish army and Spanish volunteers) starved and pounded the city night and day in order to bring it down, in vain. A siege that claimed more than 1,000,000 victims and remains unknown in Western Europe. The museum includes a large exhibition hall, with an area devoted to wartime posters. There is also an exhibition on artistic life during the blockade. Despite the terrible lack of resources, especially during the winter of 1941-1942, many concert halls and theatres continued to function. The focus of the exhibition is a reproduction of an apartment from the time of the Leningrad blockade, with caulked windows, smoke-blackened walls, and furniture reduced to the bare minimum as most of the furniture was burned for heating. After the restoration in 2018, the museum inaugurated a new space dedicated to the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. In the course of the work, old ceramics from the Crafts Museum, located there before the Revolution, were found.

This small pink house that exudes romanticism was the home of the great novelist, playwright and doctor Anton Chekhov (1860-1904). At the time, he only published short stories. It was here that he wrote his novel The Steppe. The consulting room and his bedroom are on display: autograph manuscripts, books, portraits and personal objects. The museum is part of the chain of 7 state literary museums and they share the same price and the same opening hours! It is possible to ask for a guided tour in French.

This commemorative site extends into a large park near the city centre on a huge esplanade. We come here to a family and this is an opportunity to put in front of a collection of Red Army tanks, vehicles and planes. The soldiers are of course glorified and the monument to the dead is still flowery. At the same time as a renewal of religion is observed, Russians remain very respectful of the sacrifice of the generations of World war II, the so-called patriotic war.

As the space within the historic walls of the Tretyakov Gallery was insufficient, a new gallery bearing the patron's name was opened in the huge Soviet building of the Central House of Artists. The gallery chose to exhibit its most contemporary works among other exhibitors. All the major trends of the 20th and 21st centuries are represented: the avant-garde (neoprivitivism, fauvism, cubism, futurism, etc.), socialist realism and sots-art, the underground, photorealism and conceptualism. You will find world-famous artists such as Vasily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall and Kasimir Malevich, as well as more alternative artists such as Alexander Deineka, Alexander Kosolapov, Dmitri Vrubel, or Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid. The museum's surface is so huge that in the middle of the exhibition there is an art library where you can sit and meditate, as well as read more about the artistic trends represented in the gallery. In the middle of the permanent exhibition there are often temporary exhibitions, invariably dedicated to famous unknowns of Russian painting.

Visit. To better orient yourself in the gallery, use the audio guide in foreign languages (500 RUB) or a guide in French, which can be booked in advance for the price of 8,000 RUB. The combined ticket with the historical building Tretyakov Gallery costs 700 RUB.

This museum brings together one of the largest private collections of the Soviet automobile industry, as well as international brands. It has an ever-expanding collection (today more than 260 pieces): cars, motorcycles, bicycles, tractors, as well as retro accessories. The richness of the collection ranks the place among the best in the world, despite some renovations considered risky. It is therefore a real paradise for children or enthusiasts!

The largest railway museum in Europe and one of the largest museums in the city. A collection of steam, electric locomotives and other rare and legendary railway objects are displayed on 55,000 sqm (more than 5 football stadiums). Opened in 2017, it is one of the latest big additions to the Petersburg cultural landscape. Among its 118 exhibits, many are equipped with multimedia installations that will entertain young and old. Audioguide in English.

Welcome to a paradise for big kids, geeks, gamers andhipsters, but also for those who are passionate about cultural history. This playful museum is an Ali Baba's cave, dedicated to Soviet arcade games created between 1974 and 1991 and for many emulating games created at the time in Japan and the United States. For the founders Alexander and Maxim, it all began with the acquisition for their pleasure of the arcade game Morskoy boy (it can be played for free on the Museum's website). What started out as a hobby became a quest throughout the post-Soviet space: the two friends searched through classified ads, flea markets, garage sales, searching and acquiring vintage relics of these hobbies all over the country. After exhibiting them in their garage and then in a large warehouse in the city, their success led them to move to the centre of the capital in June 2015 and set up a branch in Saint Petersburg. Today in Moscow, some 50 different games and 70 pieces are collected and made available to visitors-players, the idea being that the visitor is transformed into a player and moves from one machine to another as if in a large game room. The idea is that the visitor is transformed into a player and moves from one machine to another as if in a large game room. To recover from his emotions, one can quench one's thirst at the old dispensers of sparkling water, kvas and lemonade. There are also some great posters in the bar-shop that your friends will be jealous of, delicious homemade milkshakes and lollipops in the shape of Star Wars characters.