Museums of Russia: State Historical Museum to receive a new exhibition area

The State Historical Museum in Moscow will have its own "museum quarter". Into the new exposition hall will be transformed a branch of the State Historical Museum - an architectural monument of the 19^th century, which was occupied by the Moscow City Duma before the Revolution, and after it – by Lenin Museum. Now it will houses the Museum of 1812 war. An area of about a thousand square meters will feature unique items from the storerooms and archaeological finds of recent years.

"Creating this pavilion, we must serve the preservation of our monuments, so the pavilion is not adjacent to the city council or to the building of the Mint, - says Alexei Levykin, Director of the State Historical Museum. - The platform is hanging on the metal supports that hold it. "

The talks on the creation of a large pavilion of 1812 war began a hundred years ago. But the plans were ruined first by the World War I, and then by the October Revolution of 1917. The project was approved only in the 21^st century. The erection of the gallery will take about a year. Now a part of the exhibits is held in one of the halls in the main museum building. Six hundred square meters house just a few of the military archives.

Part of the collection of icons of the time, which are rarely exhibited, is in need of restoration. According to a legend, one of the icons had been in the mobile temple under Marshal Kutuzov. And the works by Henry Semiradsky had stayed almost a hundred years in the museum's archives.

“It is believed that frescos were handed over to the Historical Museum due to their poor condition back before the revolution - says Lyudmila Tarasenko, head of the department of ancient Russian painting of the State Historical Museum. - Right now the frescoes are being restored, and we hope that by the end of the year the work will be completed and the next year this huge canvas will be a part of 1812 exposition".

Upon completion of the construction, the exhibits will be transferred from the main building of the Historical Museum to its branch. The area of the future exposition in the gallery will increase three-fold. There will be more exhibits too, about two thousand. According to the museum’s authorities, it would be the "exhibition of the entire era," which will open in 2012, two hundred years after the events of that time.