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THE RUSSIAN MUSEUM
The Russian Museum is one of the biggest museums in the world. It is a museum with branched infrastructure. The Russian Museum is a huge museum complex.
Beginning its way in the famous Mikhailovsky Palace which was given specially for the museum’s collections by Nikolay the Second, the Russian Museum enlarged and developed. The quantity of the unique buildings and architectural constructions also grew in number. Gradually, they became a part of the vast complex of the Russian Museum. Now the museum places its expositions in the Mikhailovsky Castle, the Marble Palace, the Stroganovsky Palace, the Summer and Mikhailovsky Gardens, the Sumer Palace.
The Mikhailovsky Palace has remained the main building of the museum. The palace was constructed in 1825 on the project by the famous architect Karl Rossi. The building of the palace presents a vivid example of high classicism. The Mikhailovsky Palace was built for Mikhail - son of Paul the First, but in 1885 it was bought by the State treasury and given to the institution of the Russian Museum. From that very moment and up to the inauguration of the museum in 1898 the building was reconstructed and restored. Generally, the reconstruction touched the inner rooms. The works were directed by architect Svinjin. In 1919 an exhibition pavilion was built near the building of the Mikhailovsky Palace.
It was named Korpus Benua (the Benoit’s Building) in honour of the architect who projected it. The building was constructed in connection with the fact that the enlarging collection of the Russian Museum could not find room only in the building of the palace.
For the present, the Mikhailovsky Palace contains the most precious part of the Russian museum’s collection. There are works of Levitsky, Borovitsky, Bryullov, Kustodiev, Malevich, Kandinsky, Shagal, Petrov-Vodkin, Shishkin, Aivazovsky, Repin, Vrubel, Kuindzhi, and even Rublev and Dionisiy. And it is far from the whole list of outstanding artists whose paintings can be seen in the halls of the Mikhailovsky Palace.
There are peculiar and interesting expositions in another building of the complex - in the Stroganovsky Palace. There are unique collections of the Stroganov family in the recently restored interiors of the palace. There is a collection of unique minerals in the Mineralogical study, and family relics of the Stroganovs in the state-rooms. The building of the Stroganovsky Palace is a marvelous example of baroque architecture. Its facades and inner decors were created by many well-known masters of different times, for instance, Rastrelli and Rossi.
The Marble Palace is one more pearl among the buildings of the Russian Museum. It is original as for both the expositions, and its architecture. The architecture owes to Rinaldi who worked on Catherine the Second’s demand. The tsarina planned to present this palace to her favourite Grigory Orlov. The architect used much marble in decoration of the palace, and it was not characteristic of Russian architecture of that time. And due to the abundance of marble, the palace got this name. Orlov did not live in palace because he died before the completion of the construction, and the palace became a residence of Grand dukes. One of the expositions of the first floor is dedicated to the palace’s last proprietor - Grand duke Konstantin Romanovich. There are rather unique exhibitions in the Marble Palace: "The collection of Petersburg collectors the brothers Rzhevsky" and "The Ludwig Museum in the Russian Museum".
The Mikhailovsky Castle aligned the branches of the Russian Museum not so long ago. The castle has a very rich history. Mainly, it is famous for the fact that Catherine the Second’s son - Russian Emperor Paul the First - was killed in it. He erected the castle for himself with the purpose of defense, but every bullet has its billet.
The Mikhalovsky Castle is the only palace in Russia built in the early romanticism style. After Paul’s assassination the castle became the ownership of the Nikolayevsky Engineering College, and it gave it the second name - the Engineer’s Castle. The building was handed down to the Russian Museum in 1991, and from that time there have been restoration works there. There are the following constant expositions in the Mihkailovsky Castle: "The Renaissance epoch in the art of Russian paintings", "The history of the castle and its inhabitants", "Antique plots in Russian art".
The Summer Garden and the Summer Palace of Peter the First is one more part of the whole complex under the name of the Russian Museum. The Summer Garden is unique not only due to the collection of sculpture, and not only due to its splendid fence, but also due to the fact that it is maybe the only place which remained intact up to these days. The Summer Garden, as well as the summer residence, was built under the direction of Peter the Great. Peter who traveled a lot over Europe wanted the garden around his summer residence to be not worse than European examples of park culture. That is why Peter collected unique decorations for the garden, including marble statues and busts. The Summer Palace of Peter the Great is one of the first architectural constructions of St. Petersburg. It has preserved almost original appearance. The fence of the Summer Garden situated along the Neva is not only one of the symbols of St. Petersburg, but also a world-famous masterpiece. Together with the summer residence, Domik Petra (the Peter’s House) located on another bank of the Neva, right in front of the Summer Garden, is also a part of the complex of the Russian Museum.
The Russian Museum is unique due to the fact that it is the first museum of Russian fine arts, due to its collection and buildings. The Russian Museum is the pride of Russian culture.
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