History of Russia: Russia’s first Center on History of Civil War opened in Omsk

On January 13th 2012 Omsk opened Russia’s first Center on History of Russian Civil War. It is located in an old mansion of merchant Batyushkin on the bank of the Irtysh River, which was the residence of Admiral Alexander Kolchak from December 1918 to November 1919. Inauguration of the Center on History of Russian Civil War is the first major project undertaken by Omsk Region within the Year of Russian History declared by the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev.

The Center on History of Russian Civil War offers several expositions. In the Main Hall visitors can learn about the history of merchant Batyushkin’s mansion. The hall for patrons is equipped with electronic terminals and computers. Users may discover the databases of the Historical Archive of Omsk Region – one of Russia’s richest repositories of documents, photographs, books, newspapers, magazines and other artifacts of that time, visit “White Omsk” and “Siberian Cossack Army” websites. One of the halls called “Civil War, White Omsk” throws light on events of the February Revolution and arrival of the Soviet power in Omsk, materials on activities of Kolchak government, Siberian Cossacks, Czechoslovak Legions and allied armies in Omsk, government’s leaving for Irkutsk, admiral Kolchak and Political center, results of the Russian Civil War. Another hall of the center is devoted to “polar” and “marine” periods of Alexander Kolchak’s life.

The central hall of the exposition is the Memorial Office of Russia’s Supreme Ruler. It revives the furniture of the time when Batyushkin’s mansion was the residence of Kolchak. Center’s state-of-the-art conference hall enables to run different conferences and seminars. Center’s specialists have developed series of lectures and lessons for schoolchildren covering different themes.

The Center on History of Russian Civil War will bring together historians, regional historians, archivists to conduct more systematic, deep and unbiased studies and cover those events. The center will make it possible to discover, popularize previously inaccessible documents which are kept in federal and regional archives and museums of the Russian Federation. Copies of many of them are now on show in exhibition halls.