On the central street of Kazan, near the Kremlin, is the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan. The building is a historic building. Until 1895, it housed the Gostiny Dvor. In addition to the main building, the museum has 13 more branches where the historical and cultural heritage of Tatarstan is stored.
Museum directions
The National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan is a research center. It includes activities related to scientific and methodological developments, work with funds, cultural, educational and publishing activities. Conducted research is carried out in the field of history, literature, science, ethnography. Through its work, the museum makes a great contribution to the history of the culture of the Republic.
The museum conducts ethnographic, archaeological, historical and everyday expeditions. This is one of the priority areas of its activities. The knowledge gained during the excavation becomes the key to understanding ethnic, cultural and historical facts. Since the beginning of the 20th century, ethnographic studies have been carried out in different regions of the Republic. One of the most valuable and largest of them is the study of the ancient Bulgar - the capital of the Volga Bulgaria.
Today, the field of scientific design of museums, expositions and collections is being studied. The priority is the direction of stock collections dedicated to the famous dates of history.
An important area is publishing. The National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan annually publishes scientific works and catalogs. Posters and booklets are printed before opening exhibits or exhibitions.
Collections
The museum today stores about 910 thousand items. Its archaeological foundation is one of the largest. It includes ancient and medieval collections. He also keeps a unique Bulgarian collection, which consists of a variety of jewelry belonging to different historical eras. The pearl of the fund are the cultural monuments of the Volga and Prikamye - these are complexes of tombstones, ancient settlements dating to different eras.
The museum houses antique, Egyptian collections, items from India, China, Japan, the Far East and many others.
Ethnographic collection protects the cultural heritage of the peoples of the Volga-Kama region. It includes household items, samples of national costumes, kalfaki, skullcaps, namazliki, jewelry, shoes, musical instruments.
The numismatic collection consists of more than one hundred thousand items. It includes coins, banknotes, tokens, badges, medals, awards of different states and different eras. The collection contains the Golden Horde, Eastern, Western European, Russian coins, as well as coins from the time of Alexander the Great and Byzantium.
The collection of the written fund includes about 130 thousand items. It includes scrolls and letters of the XVI-XVII centuries. The collection stores about 300 personal collections. It includes scientific works, works of cultural figures, archives of professors, politicians, as well as a collection of old printed books and manuscripts in Persian, Arabic, Tatar languages.
The memorial collection includes works created in the XIX-XX centuries by figures of Russian and Tatar culture.
Expositions
The profile of the museum is local history. It contains information about different cultural and historical eras. The National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan presents expositions in terms of combining nature, culture and history of various peoples.
The exhibitions are focused on topics related to the ancient and medieval history of Tatarstan, monetary circulation, trade, and the Kazan province.
The exposition “The Ancient History of Tatarstan” presents artifacts dating from the Stone Age to the end of the first millennium AD. It is built in such a way that shows the vital activity and life of the peoples living in the territory of the region in ancient times. The exposition consists of several sections. One of them is called "Man and the environment." It shows how man interacted with nature during evolution. The next section is called The World of Things. He demonstrates the development and technological methods of processing bones, stone, bronze, iron. The third section is called "Home and the outside world." It shows the reconstructed dwelling of the era of the beginning of the Iron Age.
The exposition “The Medieval History of Tatarstan” presents artifacts related to the Volga-Kama Bulgaria, the state of the X-XIII centuries. Its basis is archaeological finds from the territories of settlements. These include tools, jewelry, pottery, fragments of the design of buildings and streets.
The exhibition “Commodity-money relations and trade routes in the X-XV centuries” shows coins, objects of trade and cartographic materials. They are evidence that in the Middle Ages the region had a variety of trade ties.
The exhibition "Kazan province in the XVIII century" demonstrates the most important milestones in the history of the region. It presents objects relating to the periods of the reign of Peter I and Catherine II.
The exposition “Tatar Golden Pantry” demonstrates Tatar jewelry of the 17th-19th centuries. She is unique.
Tours
The museum provides several excursion destinations. A sightseeing tour takes place within the walls of the main building. She introduces the exhibits, tells about their history. Visitors are presented 8 topics of excursions.
Museum routes, in addition to the expositions of the main building, offer to get acquainted with collections located in different parts of the city. It offers visitors such programs as “Legends of Kazan”, “How time rolls in Kazan golden”, “Pages of the musical history of Kazan”, “And the world saved is remembered …”. The duration of each route is an average of 2.5 hours.
The museum offers walking, bus and country excursions. There is also the opportunity to attend workshops with a variety of topics.
When buying an entrance ticket to the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan, the price depends on the preferences of the visitor and the type of services provided. The cost of visiting excursions and museum routes is different. It is directly related to the richness of the program and the number of participants. An entrance ticket without excursion services will cost students 50, retirees 70, adults 120 rubles, students free.
Services
The National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan offers to listen to lectures that tell about the history of the city of Kazan, famous people, legends, the history of the museum building and much more. In addition, there are lecture shows during which museum items are displayed. Their duration is 45 minutes.
The museum has a library, which today stores about 19 thousand copies. All visitors to the museum can use it by appointment.
The museum fund also offers its services. When visiting it, you can use manuscripts, old printed books and objects. Photographing of museum objects is possible.
The museum has a restoration workshop. Specialists-restorers in wood, paper, metal, fabric work in it. Objects are being restored for the central museum, its branches and for other exhibits.
