The only State museum of Russia's political history is located in St. Petersburg. This interesting museum gives you a unique chance to see the wonderful world of history and to visit the rooms of the old mansion previously belonging to Matilda Kshesinskaya, the star of the Russian ballet and the favorite of the last Russian Emperor.

The oldest Russian historical and political museum was founded in 1919 by order of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Red Army Deputies. For more than a quarter of a century, this museum was on the second floor of the Winter Palace. In 1955, the museum was given two excellent buildings located in Petrogradskaya Side – the mansion of the famous ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater Matilda Kshesinskaya (1906, designed by Alexander von Hogen) and the mansion of the millionaire and timber industrialist Baron Brant (1909, designed by Fyodor Melzer). In 1991, the museum obtained Federal status and was given its present name.

The mansion of Matilda Kshesinskaya , a real gem of "Northern Art Nouveau" style, witnessed many major historical events. In the spring and summer of 1917, it housed the Central and Petrograd Committees of the Bolshevik Party, the military organization of Bolsheviks and the soldiers' club Pravda. Almost every day, Vladimir Lenin, Grigory Zinovyev, Lev Kamenev, Yakov Sverdlov and other Bolshevik leaders were in this mansion, and they often delivered their speeches from its balcony.

The collections of the museum include more than 500 thousand exhibits. The basis of the original collections of the State Museum of the Revolution (this was how the museum was called during the first years of the Soviet power) were personal belongings and documents of major Russian public figures and revolutionaries. The museum possesses thousands of authentic documents, from Napoleon's order with his own signature to the correspondence of Mikhail Gorbachev. The dramatic epoch of wars and revolutions is shown by the collection of the unique banners of 1917 and the Civil War, hundreds of rare leaflets, documentary photographs. The museum possesses one of Russia's most complete collections of exhibits dealing with Russian history. At present, the exhibits of the museum show the major problems of the political history of Russia of the 19 th century – the beginning of the 20 th century. These include a number of permanent exhibitions, memorial and historical interiors.

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