History of Russia: The Kulikovo Field enters the European Battlefield Museums network

The oldest battlefield of the Russian military glory – the Kulikovo Field in Tula oblast – has been included into the European Battlefield Museums Network, which has brought together eight similar museums of Europe.

The cooperation agreement was signed in October in Olsztyn, Poland.

Apart from the newly-included member, the European network of museums unites the Tumulus of Peace (the Czech Republic), the Kaliningrad Regional Museum of History and Art (Kaliningrad), the Museum of Artillery (St. Petersburg), the Battle of Grunwald Museum (Poland), the Museum of Warmia and Mazury (Poland), the Museum and Park Kalkriese (Germany) and the Polish Army Museum (Poland).

The State Museum of Military History and Nature Reserve “Kulikovo Field” was founded in October 1996 on the site of the battle which was fought between the Russian Army and the Golden Horde on September 8 1380 and marked the beginning of liberation of Russia from the Golden Horde.

The Kulikovo Field is one of three battlefields of Russia. On the site of the battle historians have discovered more than 380 archaeological monuments dating back to different epochs.

Here is located one of the first military monuments on the battlefields of Russia – the obelisk to Dmitry Donskoy erected to the design of the architect A.P. Bryullov in 1848-1850. The Church of Our Lady’s Nativity by the architect A.G. Bocharnikov (1865-1894) was built on the legendary burial place of Russian soldiers, who had fallen in the Battle of Kulikovo. What is more, the museum complex includes the Sergius of Radonezh Church erected to the design of the architect A.V. Shchusev (1913-1917).

The “Kulikovo Field” Museum-Reserve includes a complex of branches on the territory of Tula oblast: the Museum and Exhibition Center “Antiquities of Tula”, the Museum of History of Russian Merchants in Yepifan village, the Museum-Memorial Complex of Monastyrshchina village on the Red Hill of the Kulikovo field.

Every year in September military and historical clubs from all over Russia come to the Kulikovo field to participate in the historical festival. During several days they re-enact different stages of the battle.

In 2009 under the decree of the President of Russia the Museum-Reserve “Kulikovo field” was included into the National register of important properties, which form the part of cultural heritage of Russian peoples.