The State Russian Museum

Another temple of fine arts of St. Petersburg is known internationally, since it is as significant as the Hermitage both due to its importance and size. The Russian Museum is the largest and most comprehensive national collection of fine arts. The Russian Museum's collection contains about 400, 000 artifacts of representing historical periods and stages of development of Russian art from the 10th to the 20th century.

The museum was established in 1895 by order of Nicholas II for the purpose of collection of the best examples of Russian art. On March 7, 1898 the first State Russian Museum of National Art opened its doors to its first visitors. Originally the museum was given the luxurious building of St. Michael Palace. Today the museum occupies four palaces - Stroganov, Marble, St. Michael and Engineering Castle. St. Michael Palace remains the main museum building, which keeps the main exhibitions and collections. It belongs to the complex of beautiful structures of The Arts Square. The State Russian Museum is a real treasure house of national art. Paintings, drawings, sculptures, an extensive collection of prints, works of applied and folk art - all of them are on display in the museum halls. The pride of the museum is a rich collection of Russian art. The styles of middle and second half of the 19th century are represented in the paintings by Venetsianov and Fedotov, Savrasov and Levitan, Surikov, Perov, Repin and many others.

In the late 19th early 20th century Russian art was enriched by the works of Isaac Levitan, Valentin Serov, Mikhail Vrubel, Konstantin Korovin, Mikhail Nesterov. The Russian Museum boasts excellent works of the representatives of Russian avant-garde - Vasily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Marc Chagall, Paul Filonov. Soviet Art is represented by Arkady Rylov, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Nicholas Krymov, Vera Mukhina, Sergey Konenkova, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Sergei Gerasimov, Alexander Deineka, Arcady Plastov and many others.

In addition to paintings and drawings the State Russian Museum owns a unique collection of decorative and folk art, original collections of prints and sculptures, rare collection of coins. Across from the Russian Museum on the Arts Square there is one of the best monuments to Alexander Pushkin.