There are many places that you can visit on your tour to Russia, especially if you visit St. Petersburg, which has hundreds of places that tourists can visit during their Russia tour. While there are places like gardens, cultural centers, palaces, modern shopping centers, and other sorts of beautiful places in St. Petersburg, the main attraction of the city is its museums. There are all sorts of museums in the St. Petersburg tour, including art and cultural museums, biographic museums, history museums, theatre and music museums, scientific museums, etc. One of the small scientific museums in St. Petersburg, which many believe that it’s a hidden gem among the city, is the Russian State Museum of Arctic and Antarctic. This museum explains the activities of Russia on both north and south poles, which can be attractive to both children and adults.
Though the Arctic and Antarctic Museum was opened its door to the public in 1937, the idea of establishing such a museum was proposed several times in the 1920s. While the exploration of the arctic was highly active during the 1920s, various prominent scientists and polar explorers have suggested the establishment of a permanent polar museum to the Soviet government. The proposal was postponed several times until, in 1930, the USSR’s Central Executive Committee had finally approved the plans to create the All-Union Arctic Institute (which shortened to WAI), which also had a museum within it. Even after the establishment of the All-Union Arctic Institute, the museum exhibits were held in the basement of the IAI and only put up for display during temporary exhibitions. However, since during the anti-religious agenda of the Soviet government, most of the churches and cathedrals had turned to museums, the St. Nicholas single-faith church near the Nevsky Prospect was given to the All-Union Arctic Institute so they could establish their museum in there. The church was one of the significant designs of Avraam Melnikov in the 1820s in St. Petersburg.
While the Russian architect Sivkov was reconstructing the old church into a museum between 1934 to 1936, scientists, polar explorers, and employees of the Arctic Institution were gathering exhibits, collections, and scientific concepts for the museum. Since the museums meant a lot to the science society of that time, many prominent Russian scientists of that time were involved in the project, including Otto Yulyevich Shmidt, the first head of the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route and hero of the USSR. Rudolf Samoylovich, Shokalskiy, Yakov Yakovlevich Gakkel, Alexander Fedorovich Laktionov, and many others were also involved in the project.
The Arctic and Antarctic Museum was very active from the beginning; in 1938, they put up their first exposition on the work of the first drifting station in north pole, which was the exhibition of the living tent of the group, their private belongings, equipment, and instruments. This exposition received an overwhelming welcome from the public, which encouraged the museum to be more active in Russia and on the international level. The museum didn’t only gain reputation in Russia; in fact, it received the international recognition real quick. On their first international exhibition in France, the exhibits of the museum received an Honorary Diploma, which boosted their reputation in the world.
Currently, the Russian State Museum of Arctic and Antarctic is the largest in the world in their field. This museum has almost 100 thousand exhibits all dedicated to the Arctic and Antarctic themes. Most of the museum’s exhibits are from Russia exploration in the north pole, including archaeological collection that the Russian Academy of Sciences had found in its explorations. Tourists who have plans to visit this museum on their tour to Russia will see a fantastic collection of items and exhibits, such as equipment and instruments, printed sources, cartographic, written journals, and photos all from Russian exploration in the north pole. The Arctic and Antarctic Museum also has a fantastic collection of photos that displays many significant and majestic events in the Arctic, including the first time of Icebreaker Ermak in the Arctic, models and design plans of first icebreakers in the world, including the first nuclear Icebreaker Arctic and first atomic Icebreaker Lenin. There’s also a section about the Icebreaker Krasin’s journey to rescue the Italian exploration team in the north pole, which is pretty amazing. However, we at the Star Travel Group recommend our tourists who are interested in that matter a visit to the Icebreaker Krassin Museum, which has more accurate documents, the fully functional equipment used in the mission, and explain the history of the icebreaker better. You can visit this museum on your tour to Russia alongside the Ship Museum Cruiser Aurora, which is also one of the major attractions of St. Petersburg on tour to Russia.
The museum also has an attractive section of art with arctic theme and artists from the institute, including paintings, sculptures, and other forms of art, which we at the Star Travel Group recommend our tourists a visit on their tour to Russia. The works of Aleksandr Borisov, Nikolai Pinegin, Mikhail Kaneev, Nikolai Martynov, and Kostyrsky are part of this fantastic collection inside the Russian State Museum of Arctic and Antarctic. One of the first things that you’ll notice if you visit this museum on your tour to Russia is the Arktika model, which is a portion of the globe with a hypsometric projection map of the northern region at a scale of 1: 1,500,000.
One of the interesting facts about this museum is its lack of technology and modern digital content, which at first, it might seem to be a disadvantage. Still, when you visit this museum on your tour to Russia, you’ll realize that it’s one of the exciting things about this museum. While many tourists would pass this museum on their tour to Russia without realizing its presence (since it locates inside a church) tourists who have visited this small museum all acknowledge that the museum has surprised them as one of the hidden gems of St. Petersburg museums on the Russia tour.
We at the Star Travel Company suggest tourists who have plans to visit Russia visiting our weblog if they want to learn about other major or less-known attractions of Russia, including museums, best places to visit, gardens and parks, top shopping centers and galleries in top tourist destinations in Russia. You can also learn about our Russia tour, including our plans for the tour to St. Petersburg and how we would recommend people to visit Moscow on their travel to Russia.
