Naval Museum

[pic]Portrait. Peter I in armour

J. M. Notier type,

1720-th. |The Collection of the Central Naval Museum began with ships'

models collection of Tzar Peter the Great and Model Chamber of Saint

Petersburg Admiralty, which is mentioned for the first time in Peter's

letter of 24 January 1709. The main goal of the Model Chamber creation was

to keep transport ships and warships draughts and models, constructed at

the Admiralty shipyards for the Baltic Fleet. |[pic]Admiralty Dockyard in

St. Petersburg.

Engraver A. Rostovtsev, 1717 | |Historical valuable materials and

shipbuilding information were preserved in the Model Chamber. Its building

was rather small for such a big collection and in 1805 a Maritime Museum

was founded. Some years later engravings and pictures on marine themes in

addition to draughts and ships models appeared in the Museum. But in spite

of this in 1827 the Museum was closed because of the lack of room. And only

in 1867 the Russian government opened the Museum again, yielded to

public opinion and efforts of naval officers. Its collection was enriched

by many valuable objects. Among them were personal things of emperor Peter

I, the founder of Russian Navy, famous admirals and officers; paintings and

engravings, specimens of cold steel and fire-arms. The main collection of

warships and transport ships models was increased too. The restored

Maritime Museum was located in the west wing of the Admiralty building. It

was very popular among visitors. In 1909 it was renamed as Emperor Peter

the Great's Maritime Museum.

The Revolution of 1917 and the Civil war in Russia 1918 - 1920 have

brought essential correctives the Museum's exhibition. The main goal for it

became to demonstrate the leading role of the Communist Party in

restoration and development of the Navy. The collection enriched with

materials concerning the work of seamen-communists, Fleet's Party and

Comsomol organizations. The Museum has received items from the museums,

closed to that time, for example, museums of Guards Naval Depot and Naval

Cadet Corps. The subjects of a naval life, paintings wellknown marine

painters as I. K. Aivazovskiy and A. N. Bogoliuboff, naval uniform, Russian

awards and marks were obtained on auctions and the private persons. But at

the same time, in 1920-30th the large number of subjects of the Romanov

emperor's family, nobiliary surnames were annihilated in the Museum under

the pressure of new circumstances. This loss has become irreplaceable. And

only due to the true devotees of Museum it became possible to preserve the

less, that makes the pride of its collection today.

In 1939-1940 the Museum was renamed as the Central Naval Museum and was

transferred from its historical place - Admiralty - to a building of former

Stock exchange at the spite of the Vasilyevskiy island. This building was

constructed in 1805-1810 under the project of a known architect Jean

Francoise Toma de Tomon. Since that times the Central Naval Museum has

become one of the most favourite and attended museums of the city.

During the World War II a part of the collection was evacuated to

Ulyanovsk city. But a number of the employees had being worked in blocaded

Leningrad, collecting the unique materials concerning the defenders of

Leningrad. Excursion&lecturer work was going on the ships and in units of

Red Banner Baltic Fleet, at the enterprises and in hospitals of the

besieged city The mobile exhibitions worked.

The post-war period is characterized by active museum exhibition

activity. The employees of the Museum repeatedly left with mobile

exhibitions on all Fleets, carrying out large educational&cultural

activity. In the beginning of 50-th the professional Studio of marine

artists was created under the decision of the Navy's Govering body and

initiative of the Museums' employees. It aimed to update the Museum's

collection by a materials illuminating those pages of a history, which have

not found sufficient representation in an exhibition. Today the talented

artists are working in Studio, among them the Deserved artist of Russian

Federation V. A. Pechatin, Z. G. Abashvili, M. A. Kuznetsov, S. V. Pen,

V. P. Yarkin and others. The scientific employees of the Museum work under

the creation of the new museum catalogues. That has allowed to include

earlier unknown documents and materials in scientific use .

The changes in Russia of the end 1980-th - beginning of 90-th have

allowed the Museum to turn to the Museum's reserved collections and to show

to public the subjects, documents and materials revealling pre-

revolutionary history of the Russian Navy. The Museum has developed wide

exhibition activity as in Russia and abroad. Peoples of the cities

Nakhodka, Kaliningrad, Moscow, Archangelsk, Pskov, Yalta, Tyumen, Vyborg,

Severodvinsk have got acquainted with its collections. Museum's assembly

have received a high estimation in Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain,

Holland, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Spain, USA. The scientific and creative

connections with museums of Russia and foreign countries have extended. The

increasing of CNM's popularity and scientific authority has stirred up the

first wave emigrants and their descendants. We were gifted the interesting

materials from France, Holland, Japan, Tunis, USA. Citizens of Russian

Federation do not leave us without attention too. Сollection of the Museum

totals about 700'000 items today.

The Central Naval Museum repeatedly participated in joint exhibitions

with State Hermitage, State Tretyakov Gallery, State Russian Museum, State

museums-reserves «Moscow Kremlin», «Petershoff», «Tsarskoye Selo»,

«Pavlovsk», «Gatchina», State Museum of history of St. Petersburg, State

Museum of Religions history, Museum of anthropology and ethnography

("Cabinet of curiosities"), A. A. Popov Central Museum of communications,

State Memorial Museum of A. V. Suvorov, Central Museum of the Armed Forces

of Russian Federation, Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering

and Intercommunicational corps, Military Medicine Museum and others.

For last years authority of the Museum has considerably grown. It has

become the member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM)

International Association of Military Museums & Military History (IAMAM),

International Congress of Maritime Museums (ICMM), Union of the creative

museum workers of St. Petersburg and region.

Large popularity and authority the CNM is obliged for those museum's

patriots who works in it for many years. The proud of the Museum are:

L. I. Bereznitskaya, A. K. Belik, K. P. Krasnopol'skiy, A. L. Larionov,

V. B. Morozova, L. S. Petrova, L. G. Shuster, I. P. Sukhanov,

T. N. Topornina, A. A Tron'.

Recently the Museum has celebrated its 290th anniversary. Its scientific

employees have the large creative plans. Highly professional collective,

its knowledge and purposefulness is the pledge, that the Museum will keep

traditions of the oldest scientific-educational institution and perfectly

will be the pride of Russian Navy and the treasury of maritime glory of

Russia.

Museum's main building in Saint Petersburg

Photo, 1996

|Kinds from a roof of a building of the Central Naval Museum |

|Photo 2001 |

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Shalimova Jane

9 “G”

The Museum of Tbilisi's History, a treasury of material and spiritual

values of Georgian people was founded in 1910. That time it was named

"Municipal Museum", because it was established by the Municipality.

During 90 years more than 50 thousand items have been collected. This

collection was enabling the Museum to expose the complete hi story of the

town. The life and culture beginning from the IV millennium B.C., since the

first inhabitants were settled here. This enabled the museum to present the

incessant course of urban development through its important stages. Up to

the XIX century Tbilisi was a typical oriental town with its Caravanserais

and bazaars, houses with verandahs and balconies, with narrow lanes. The

contact with Russian and European cultures gave European imprint to the

life fashion of Tbilisi and to its external appearance. In the XIX century

in the old part of the town, in the vicinity of Sioni Cathedral, where

there were remnants of a Caravanserai built by the King Rostom in XVII

century, a new Caravanserai was built. In 1912 the facade of the building

was decorated. After restoration of 1980 this historical building became

the residence for The Museum of Tbilisi's History.

Unique archaeological, ethnographical, documentary material, many

masterpieces of folk and applied arts (carpets, kilims, etc.) are kept

here. The Museum holds the richest photograph-collection which perfectly

shows the views of the town, its life and its inhabitants. The Museum keeps

many paintings, printings and graphical works of Georgian and foreign

artists, depicting Tbilisi and its citizens in their rather colorful

spectra. Alongside with the material depicting the past, The Museum of

Tbilisi's History represents modern art too.

The modern Art department was founded in 1986 and is on the third floor of

the building. The modern Art department of Tbilisi history museum exhibits

the state of modern Georgian Art. Back in the former soviet time rather

bold, nowadays Historical exhibitions were arranged, namely Georgian

Neoexpressionism, Transavangard, Free Figuration, Installation, Video-Art,

Performance and other trends and directions.

ARMENIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM

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The Museum of the Armenian Genocide opened in 1995 in time to commemorate

the eightieth anniversary of the Genocide. The Museum structure is of

unique and original design. (architects: S. Kalashian and L. Mkrtchian).

This two-story building is located at and in the side of a hill so as not

to detract from the imposing presence of the Genocide Monument nearby. The

roof of the building is flat and covered by concrete tiles. It serves as a

scenic view point overlooking the Ararat valley and Mount Ararat.

The first floor of the Museum is below grade and houses administrative,

engineering and technical maintenance offices and spaces, a 170-seat hall

(Komitas Hall), storage rooms for museum and scientific objects, a library

and a reading hall. The Museum exhibit is mounted in the second floor in a

space which is over 1000 square meters. It occupies three indoor halls and

one outdoor hall and its hallway. An eight meters long and three meters

wide basalt stone lies on the floor of the outdoor hall and the hallway.

The outdoor hall symbolizes the eternal memory of the victims of the 1915

Genocide and the unity of the Armenian people spread throughout the world.

It also expresses the struggle between good and evil, light and darkness.

The western wall of the Museum's first exhibit hall has a map engraved in

stone which shows the historical Armenian Plateau and neighboring

countries. It is bounded by the Black Sea in the north, the Caspian Sea in

the east, the Iranian Plateau in the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to

the southwest. The map shows the Armenian settlements on the territory of

Western Armenia and Ottoman Turkey which existed until the massacres of the

Armenians and the massive death marches which began in 1915. The map is

nine meters wide and five meters high.

The Introductory Hall exhibits photographs and ethnographic tables with

information about the Armenian settlements and Armenian population figures

in 1914 in Ottoman Turkey. They also contain information on the number of

Armenian churches and schools which were functioning in the region at that

time. A composite of the tables there and in the third hall provide a

visitor with the following data, including the population figures in 1914

before the Genocide (See the following charts).

|Name of Armenian|Number of |Number of |Number of |1914 |

|Region and |Armenian |Armenian |Armenian |Populatio|

|settlement |settlements |Churches |Schools |n |

|(1914) |(1914) |(1914) |(1914) | |

|Erzerum |425 |482 |322 |215,000 |

|Van |450 |537 |192 |197,000 |

|Diarbekir |249 |158 |122 |124,000 |

|Kharput |279 |307 |204 |204,000 |

|Bitlis |618 |671 |207 |220,000 |

|Sivas |241 |219 |204 |225,000 |

|Trebizond |118 |109 |190 |73,390 |

|Western Anatolia|237 |281 |300 |371,800 |

|Cilicia & |187 |537 |176 |309,000 |

|Northern Syria | | | | |

|European Turkey |58 |67 |79 |194,000 |

|TOTAL |2,925 |3,368 |1,996 |2,133,190|

The second exhibit hall (700 square meters) presents eyewitness reports and

documents about the massacres and atrocities perpetrated against the

Armenians. The exhibit has many large photographs taken during 1915-1917,

archival documents, portraits of prominent Armenians, victims of the

atrocities, friends of the Armenian people, and documentary films.

A special part of the exhibit is reserved for the original documents issued

by international organizations and parliaments of foreign countries

condemning the Genocide.

Numerous different publications about the Armenian genocide written in many

languages are also exhibited.

This hall also shows tables with data on the number of Armenians living in

different countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Australia after

the Genocide. In the same hall a granite pedestal supports crystal vases

which hold earth from historic Armenian regions: Erzerum, Van, Baghesh

(Bitlis), Sebastia (Sivas), Kharpert, and Tigranakert (Diarbekir). It also

holds the skull and bones of a young Armenian killed in the Der Zor desert.

In the same hall, a granite tree with spreading branches symbolizes the

eternity and rebirth of the Armenian people.

TOP

The tables displayed in the third hall show the Armenian population figures

in 1914 and 1922 (See chart below).

|Name of the |Population in |Deported or |Population |

|Region |1914 |Killed |in 1922 |

|Erzerum |215,000 |213,500 |1,500 |

|Van |197,000 |196,000 |500 |

|Diarbekir |124,000 |121,000 |3,000 |

|Kharput |204,000 |169,000 |35,000 |

|Bitlis |220,000 |164,000 |56,000 |

|Sivas |225,000 |208,200 |16,800 |

|Trebizond |73,390 |58,390 |5,000 |

|Western |371,800 |344,800 |27,000 |

|Anatolia | | | |

|Cilicia & |309,000 |239,000 |70,000 |

|Northern Syria | | | |

|European Turkey|194,000 |31,000 |163,000 |

|TOTAL |2,133,190 |1,745,390 |387,800 |

The last hall of the Museum is essentially an outdoor patio, a traditional

feature in old Armenian structures. A semicircular basalt wall is divided

into twelve equal segments. Each of the segments contains a sentence

condemning the Armenian Genocide by prominent foreign politicians,

diplomats, scientists, and writers of that period. The hall looks like a

courtroom where eyewitnesses present their condemning evidence. The last

word belongs to the visitor, who can make a judgement based on the

materials presented.