The best museums Russia

Set up in 1709, by special decree of Peter the Great, under the high golden spire of the Admiralty (which cannot be visited), the Musée de la Marine has since moved into the neoclassical building of the former Stock Exchange, dating from the early 19th century, as have the famous rostral columns erected in front of the building. Already more than 300 years old, it is nevertheless the world's first museum complex devoted to the navy, and one of the largest on the planet. This is yet another example of the Tsar's deep curiosity about the maritime issue and the extremely proactive policy pursued by Peter the Great to ensure that Russia catches up with the rest of the world in this area. The museum has a rich collection of some 2,000 model ships (including the famous grandfather of the Russian Navy, the small ship built by Peter the Great), as well as 5,000 marine paintings, 7,000 pieces of armament and more than 3,000 flags and standards, all related to the maritime history of St. Petersburg and Russia. After the first grasp of the technical prowess of building the models, one will get tired of the endless parade of portraits of admirals, all engrossed in their costumes... The explanations, untranslated, will only suit Russian speakers and especially connoisseurs of naval history. Not to be missed, however: the majestic (and truly impressive) bows adorning the wide staircase leading to the upper floor.

This aperitif-friendly museum, located in a historic building close to the Saint-Isaac cathedral, offers to educate you about invention, manufacturing secrets, history, traditional consumption patterns and the great producers of the national beverage. Imperial tasting services and bottles from the 19th century to the present day are on display. Guided tours are organized in English but you can opt for the audioguide in French.

The crates close one hour beforehand. Closed every last Monday of the month, January ¹, 2 and 7 and May 9.

The revolution did not wait two years to set up a museum. As early as 1919, the Museum of the Revolution set up its quarters in the Winter Palace, symbolizing the victory over the imperial regime. It was only with the de-Stalinisation in 1957 that it moved to a more anonymous but nevertheless aristocratic residence, the private mansion of the great ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska (1872-1971), built in 1904-1906 by the architect Alexandre Hohen and known as the "ballet star's castle". A place to see for people nostalgic for the red flags and the International sung in all languages. Otherwise the interest is still very limited. Since the fall of the Soviet regime, however, the museum has broadened the horizons of political culture and debate. It is a beautiful, modern and interactive museum with many, sometimes unexpected pieces, such as the famous cap of a great director Andrei Tarkovsky or the shirt of Andrei Sakharov, a famous nuclear physicist and one of the creators of the first Soviet hydrogen bomb.

Kshessinska Mansion: part of the museum is dedicated to the former owner of the building, the famous dancer who had to go into exile in 1920 in Paris and spent the rest of her life there until her death. She is buried in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois.

The visit to the apartments of the great prince Constantin Constantinovich (the poet K. R.) is subject to a charge and can only be done in a group. Situated in a street parallel to the Palace Quay, a majestic backyard lined with Baroque palaces where the Petersburg aristocracy resided, the Marble Palace was built for Count Orlov from 1768 to 1785 by the architect A. Rinaldi, on a commission from the very generous Catherine II. It bears his name well, if it is declined in the plural, since its facade is covered with 30 kinds of marble. The Soviet regime will make a marble sarcophagus for Lenin, whose palace will house the local museum from 1937. In 1991, the building will also be assigned to the Russian Museum and, on the occasion of the exhibition devoted to official Russian portraits, will return to its past of luxury and pomp. A sculptural foretaste is given with the monument to Alexander III, by P. Troubetskoy, which stands in the square adjoining the palace. The emperor's disproportionate size compared to that of his horse made the sculptor himself (who had only conformed to the tsar's expectations) laugh. In 1937, the Soviets took the statue down into the basement of the palace, and it did not come out again until 1994. Architecturally, the palace is a mixture of the Baroque style favoured by Catherine II and the neoclassicism that Alexander I loved

Built in the mid-18th century, the Sheremetiev Palace stretches its baroque façade along the Fontanka canal. The museum will delight music lovers of all stripes. It is indeed dedicated to musical instruments (some 3,000 pieces on display!) and retraces the musical culture of Saint Petersburg from the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century. Concerts are regularly given in the restored rooms.

On the ground floor, a large part of the instruments are on display. Dating back several centuries, they are often strange and amusing, to say the least. Glass harmonica, pocket violins, lyre-shaped guitars... you sometimes observe some of them for a long time before understanding how they work. You will notice the set of 18th century horns, each of which produces only one sound, audible at more than 7 km !

Upstairs, you will pass through a string of beautifully restored rooms decorated with musical instruments. At the end of the row are a few pianos, "working tools" and personal effects that belonged to great composers such as Shostakovich, Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov and Rubinstein. Some rooms display the magnificent stage costumes, which belonged to the legendary Fedor Shalyapin, the most famous Russian opera singer, and photos of famous Russian female singers. There are also works on the theme of music and the performing arts by great names in the pictorial arts such as Casimir Malevich and Ilia Repin.

Anna Akhmatova lived in this outbuilding of the Sheremetyev Palace between 1924 and 1952. It was a princely setting that she would not abandon until the Second World War. This beautiful apartment became a communal one during the Soviet era, and Akhmatova was relegated to a small room. Hunted by microphones, watched over by guards posted every morning under her windows, she nevertheless continues to write. When she receives her friends, she gives them her poems while conducting a most harmless conversation. As soon as they have learned them by heart, she burns her verses in an ashtray that you can still see, so that there is no trace of them. She lived in this apartment with two of her three husbands, the poet Shileiko and the painter Pounin.

In 1989, this museum-apartment opened, and today you can visit the poetess' bedroom and study, which have been completely reconstructed. Numerous objects from her daily life, family albums, portraits are on display, as well as a collection of rare books gathered by the bibliophile M. Lesman, and the poet Brodski's library. One room contains photographs of Russian intellectuals who were victims of the Stalinist period. Exile or death often form their tragic destiny.

Don't miss the documentary on the ground floor. Even if you don't understand Russian, you will remember the very inspired reading of her poems and the moving images of her funeral, attended by thousands of people.

The "Junost" Sports Center is a museum located in Saint Petersburg.

It was in the greenery of the small island of Yelagin, then isolated in the far north of St. Petersburg, that the imperial family liked to retreat, in this neoclassical-style palace whose construction was entrusted to Carlo Rossi, one of the great architects of St. Petersburg, in the first third of the 19th century. Both near and far from the centre of the new capital, Yelagin Island was the ideal location for imperial receptions. They were held in the luxurious halls on the ground floor where you can admire today furniture and works of art dating from the first half of the 19th century. The museum's collections are also rich in porcelain, glassware, furniture, fabrics, goldsmith's and woodwork from the late 18th to early 20th centuries. Unfortunately today the aсcès in the Palace is impossible due to renovation work, but the whole park, which is listed as a UNESCO cultural heritage site, is still worth a detour. The Glass Museum (more than 700 glass and crystal works of art) as well as temporary exhibitions in the former stable hall do welcome visitors. As for the park itself, it is impeccably maintained. It is adorned with sublime golden colours in autumn. On sunny days, it is a spot that lends itself particularly well to small family or couple picnics, as well as walks with a taste for time travel.

In 1971, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth, this museum dedicated to the great Russian writer was opened in the last of the many apartments where he lived in St. Petersburg. From 1878 until his death in 1881, Fedor Dostoyevsky lived at No. 5 of this alleyway, not far from the beautiful Church of the Icon of Vladimir, in the heart of a district where he set the scene for many of his novels. It was here that he wrote his Diary of a Writer and finished The Brothers Karamazov, amidst the few personal objects, books, manuscripts, trinkets collected in part by his descendants, which made it possible to reconstruct the modest and austere environment of the brilliant writer. The museum exhibits the writer's complete works, published during his lifetime, as well as books and photos bearing his dedications. It organizes international symposia and seminars dedicated to Dostoyevsky's work.

Yet it is not in this apartment that you will be able to find the most revealing clues to Dostoyevsky's personality; the author could not allow himself to be locked up in a museum, just as he could not allow himself to be locked up in the walls of an apartment during his lifetime. It is true that it is at this address that he ended his days, but isn't the only Dostoyevskian place, his real museum, rather the city of Saint Petersburg itself, whose hidden side he has worked hard to explore, far from the carelessness and splendour of the palaces?

Welcome to the paradise of grown-ups, geeks and nostalgic for the USSR! This playful museum is an Ali Baba's cave dedicated to Soviet arcade games created between 1974 and 1991. Some 50 different games are gathered together and made available to the visitors-players. The idea is that the visitor becomes a gamer and can therefore switch from one machine to another as in a large games room. Love at first sight guaranteed!

The Shchusev Museum of Architecture is the largest museum of architecture and urban planning in Russia. It would need more space than what is proposed, given the long history of leaders in the country's urban planning vision: from Catherine II to Peter I and the great Soviet plans. Inside, we will be able to see many scale models, well contextualized and sometimes quite surprising (including some rather crazy projects for a total overhaul of the Kremlin).

Russia's first museum of architectural ceramics opened in October 2018 inside the famous Peter and Paul Fortress. It contains some 300 objects used for construction and interior decoration, from the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century. There will be beautiful fragments of facades of St. Petersburg buildings, rare Dutch tiles, old chimneys and other pieces of the city's history and architectural heritage.

The Water Museum is located on the territory of a former wastewater treatment plant built in 1898. Moving from one room to another, you can trace the history of the first sewers of the Kremlin, learn about the formation periods of the centralized water supply and sewage systems in Moscow - from the Rostokinsky aqueduct to modern facilities - membrane plants for filtering water from the Soviet system. In short, a plunge into this essential and often forgotten aspect of urban history.

43 meters underground, connected to the Moscow Metro, is this recently declassified bunker. It was part of a complex built just before the Cuban missile crisis and remained in operation from the Stalinist era until the end of the USSR and the first 15 post-Soviet years of the Russian Federation when agents of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs classified secret information there until 2005. The visit, which has been open to the public since 2018, allows visitors to see the facilities and to be imbued with the spirit of the Cold War.

The Theatrical Museum was founded in 1894 by Alexei Bakhrushin (1865-1929), a famous industrialist and patron of Moscow. The collection includes more than 1.5 million items: sketches of costumes and sets, photographs and portraits, stage costumes, programmes and posters of shows, rare editions on theatrical art, art objects, etc.

The museum also organizes recitals and evenings of well-known artists. You will find stage drawings by Bakst and Vasnetsov, among others.