When you read history, you will realize that religion has played a significant role on various occasions, and it was always an influential part of human experience throughout history. The first religion, according to what has been said in the scriptures, such as the Quran, the Bible, and the Torah was the monotheism, which was practiced by Adam, the first human being on earth. Of course, after Adam, the worship of artificial and natural idols, such as the wooden figurines or the worship of the sun and the moon, has become usual amongst men, but monotheism has always been one of the primary factors in the history of mankind.
Religion as a concept was only formed in the 16th century, even though none of the sacred books like the Quran or Bible didn’t have a word or anything similar to a concept for religion. Humankind has a powerful connection with religion; after nationality, religion is the second determinant in the sense of identity. Religion has never been a constant form and has always been influenced by character, time, and the environment. That’s one of the reasons why there are so many religions in the world. Currently, there are over four thousand religions in the world, but Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism have the most followers. However, there is twenty percent of the world population that doesn’t believe in any religion and recognized to be nonreligious.
Although many Russians followed Christianity in the 1st century, it was in the 9th century that Russia had adopted Christianity as its official religion, and from then, Russian tsars, emperors, and empresses had all followed Christianity. As the history continued, Orthodox Church had more influence on the imperial court and gained more power; you can find thousands of Orthodox cathedrals all over Russia, in fact, most of the major places in Russia, such as Kremlin, which was the official headquarter of the imperial court for centuries, has housed several Orthodox churches and cathedrals, such as the Cathedral of Annunciation, Cathedral of Archangel, and the Dormition Cathedral. Even when Peter the Great had moved the capital to St. Petersburg, he ordered to build multiple churches in the newly-found city, the St. Isaac’s Cathedral and the St. Peter and Paul Cathedral are the notable examples of that fact.
However, everything changed when Bolsheviks came into power. After the October Revolution, Bolsheviks, who were extremely anti-religious, forced-closed most of the Orthodox churches, and decreased their power and influence over the people, especially after forming the Soviet Union in 1922. One of the main actions of the Soviet government was demolishing or closing most of the Orthodox churches and cathedrals and turned them into an anti-religious museum. The most notable anti-religious museum during that time was the Museum of History of Religion, which was located in Kazan Cathedral on Nevsky Prospect. The Museum of History of Religion was an anthropological museum that had formed because of the religious repression of the Soviet government. It housed the religious pieces of art and artifacts from other religious sites and churches that forced to close when the Soviet government came to power.
The Museum of the History of Religion was at first had operated as a research group in the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, which unlike most of the Anti-religious museums in the USSR, had the mission to research the religion as a bizarre historical and social phenomenon. While during the second world war the museum was under threat of bombardment, museum staff worked hard to save the museum collection, which at the moment included anthropological artifacts, religious artifacts, religious works of art, and other items mainly from the Peter the Great’s Kunstkamera, the Hermitage, the State Russian Museum, and the Academy’s collection.
The Museum of History of Religion’s name has been changed several times throughout history; the first time was in 1954 when it had decided to change the name of the museum into the State Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR; the main reason for that change was the assignment which had given to the research group about studying atheism and agnosticism at that time; however, in 1961, the Ministry of Culture of USSR took the control of the museum, which eventually changed the name of the museum again in the 1970s to the Academic and Methodological Centre for the History of Religion and Religious Studies of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR. It was only in the 1990s that all those long names had overlooked, and the museum got its original name as The Museum of History of Religion back.
Currently, the Museum of History of Religion locates in a less magnificent building near the St. Isaac’s Cathedral, and it has charted the timeline of all the religions in the world from the beginning of the paganism to the modern religions. Each one of the major religions in the world has its specific section, which tells the visitors about the religion, the people who practice it, and the history of that religion alongside some artifacts and works of art about that religion. The collections in this museum as of today are about 250000 exhibits, which include ritual items, texts, works of art, and multiple items that some of them are extremely valuable or rare. This museum has been entirely restored in recent years and continued to expanse its collection and sections. Besides the permanent exhibitions, there are multiple temporary exhibitions in this museum as well.
If you like to learn about the history of all the religions in the world and the timeline of their existence, we at the Star Travel Company recommend you visit this museum on your travel to Russia because this museum is one of the most completed and advanced museums in the history of religion. We also recommend you visit the Kunstkamera on your trip to St. Petersburg if you’d like to learn about anthropology and ethnography on your tour to Russia. We also recommend you visit our weblog to learn about other Russia attractive places, as well as our tips and pieces of advice on how to travel to Russia, and what are the fun things to do on the Russia tour. You can also find several tips about the best shopping centers in Russia as well as the traditional Russian cuisine and what are the best meals that you should try on your travel to Russia.
