The collection of the main museum of the USSR is published for the first time in a virtual format.
In April 2020, the State Historical Museum planned to open a large-scale exhibition "Lenin" dedicated to the 150th anniversary of one of the most outstanding political figures of the twentieth century. The pandemic interfered with the museum’s plans and it was decided to present the collected material in the format of an Internet project.
Since 1993, the State Historical Museum keeps the holdings of the former V. I. Lenin Museum; it created an Internet resource presenting the collection of the main museum of the USSR and its priceless pieces of Leninist art, photographs, posters, documents, and memorial items.
Despite the fact that most of the project is dedicated to Lenin, the online format enabled publication of other collections related to the names of the Soviet leaders, including gifts from foreign delegations, private individuals and labor collectives that were previously held in special repositories.
There are currently about 700 items published on the site and the online collection is regularly updated with new material. More than 100,000 monuments — unique evidence of that era — have long been inaccessible to the public, only a small fraction of them was occasionally exhibited. It has become a widespread belief that the Lenin Museum’s collection has been lost, dispersed into private collections, and iconic works have been sold at auctions and left the country.
In creating this resource, we wanted, first of all, to officially publish valuable historical materials and works of Soviet artists, which after the closing of V. I. Lenin Museum have been kept in repositories without the possibility of exhibiting to a wide audience. The resource created by the Historical Museum will allow everyone to become familiar with this collection.
