Russian museums: 20th anniversary of renaming the State Museum of the Great October Revolution in the State Museum of Russian Political History

August 14, 2011 marks the 20th anniversary of renaming of the State Museum of the Great October Socialist Revolution into the State Museum of Russian Political History (GMPIR).

The State Museum of Political History of Russia is the successor to the State Museum of the Revolution (GMR), established October 9, 1919 by order of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. The inauguration of the museum took place January 11, 1920 in the halls of the first and second floors of the Winter Palace.

The State Museum of the Revolution became the first historical and revolutionary museum in the country. Already by the mid-20s it has a unique collection of revolutionary banners, the most valuable collection of leaflets of various political parties, posters, relics of the time.

For twenty-five years the location of the State Museum of Revolution had been the Winter Palace. In 1955 the museum is granted two new buildings: mansions of Kshesinskaia and Brant. In 1955-1957 these buildings were combined into one complex, which houses the GMR, transformed into the Museum of the Great October Socialist Revolution.

In the late 1970s, the research group and the administration of the museum began to create a fundamentally new concept of the museum. During 1989-1992 the group had implemented a phased re-exposition in all halls of the museum. Not only the museum had not closed for visitors for a single day but also had provided the exhibition of items featuring topics of Russian history covered never before. In accordance with the new concept, August 14, 1991 the USSR Ministry of Culture resolved to transform the status of the museum and rename it to the State Museum of Russian Political History. Since 1992, the museum has been under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.

The State Museum of Political History of Russia - one of the few museums that carry out the documentation and an exhibition showing the processes of political, economic and social life in Russia in 19th - 21st centuries.