History of Russia: The exhibition dedicated to the life of S. M. Kirov in Saint-Petersburg

The exhibition “Great citizen: alone at home” is opened on November 24, 2015 in the S. M. Kirov Museum (the State Museum of the History of Saint-Petersburg).

The exhibition tells of the everyday life of the leader of Leningrad communists of 1930s, the first secretary of the Leningrad regional committee and city committee VKP (b) – Sergei Mironovich Kirov.

In Soviet times it was not allowed talking of life and home environment of Soviet leaders. These rules were also applied to memorial museums: for example, the bedroom at the S. M. Kirov Museum and the utility room of the memorial apartment were recreated and opened for visitors only in the mid 2000s. Nevertheless, the collections of the museum had a lot of things and documents telling of private life of the leader of Leningrad communists. Most of them have never been exhibited before.

Here you can see items, which S. M. Kirov used: various office supplies (pens, pencils, notebooks, calendars), clocks and measuring instruments, smoking accessories and personal care products, sunglasses and books on hunting and others.

The exposition features the transcript of conversations by specialists of the S. M. Kirov Museum in the second half of 1930s with people, who knew Sergei Mironovich very well:  sisters of his wife, drivers, hunters, specialists of the Special Sector of the Leningrad VKP (b).