Any adult dreams of returning to his own childhood at least for a couple of minutes. We all with trepidation and nostalgia flip through the pages of old photo albums and experience special joy when we accidentally find our children's toy in the attic. A museum of a happy childhood invites its guests to set off on a unique journey. Kazan is a city in which just recently two exhibitions were opened immediately dedicated to our socialist past. One of them is entirely devoted to childhood and youth in the USSR.
"Time Machine" in the heart of Kazan
The Museum of Happy Childhood in Kazan was opened in 2005. Its creator and permanent director Rustam Valiakhmetov owns a nearby museum of socialist life. Expositions consist of original everyday objects, furniture and appliances released in the USSR. The Museum of Childhood occupies two floors. The atmosphere of the average Soviet school was recreated on the first tier. Here you can sit at your desk, open the primer and even try on a red pioneer tie. On the second floor, guests will find a unique exhibition that clearly illustrates the life of a Soviet person from birth to the army. The entire museum is interactive: most of the exhibits are allowed to touch and photograph.
Museum of happy childhood: the most striking exhibits of the collection
Even if you came to Kazan for a short while, the
Museum of a Happy Childhood should definitely be visited. It contains all the things that every Soviet child had. There are also items on display that most of us only dreamed of owning. The museum’s collection is steadily replenishing, today it already contains personal items of many famous people.
The first thing visitors pay attention to is a working turntable with real vinyl records. At the entrance to the exhibition space, guests are greeted by a rare heater "Crimea", about which you can warm your hands.
In the "school" exhibition you can sit at a real desk with a hinged lid and a place for an inkwell. The real pride of the collection is the certificates of 1944 and the wall newspaper of 1951. The Museum of Happy Childhood in Kazan will delight its guests with a variety of children's toys, items of clothing and shoes.
You can see the apparatus for viewing filmstrips, old tape recorders and objects of army life. Adults come to this unique museum every day to remember a bygone era, bring their children to clearly tell what their childhood looked like without tablets and computers.
Museum of Happy Childhood (Kazan): address and opening hours
The exposition dedicated to childhood in the USSR is located in the very center of Kazan. The exact address of the museum is Universitetskaya Street, 9. The museum occupies two floors in an old mansion that once belonged to a merchant family. You can get here on foot from the Kazan-1 station: follow Burkhan Shahidi Street, then turn onto Chernyshevsky Street (turn left), turn right onto Bauman Street and go to the intersection with Universitetskaya Street. The nearest public transport stop is called Metro Sq. Tukaya ”, you can get to it by city buses No. 10, 30 and 63. The nearest metro station is“ Tukaya Square ”. Finding the right building will not be difficult at all, even if this is your first visit to Kazan. In the Museum of happy childhood, the operating mode is quite convenient. You can visit it daily from 10.00 to 20.00. The collection is constantly updated, in the near future it is planned to open a new permanent exhibition dedicated to the life and work of V. Vysotsky.
Useful information for visitors
All exhibits in the museum of Soviet childhood can be touched. Moreover, guests are allowed to try on the presented clothes, sit on furniture and vehicles. Some of the items in the collection can even be bought. How much does it cost to visit the museum of a happy childhood in Kazan? The ticket price for an adult guest is 250 rubles. Children over 7 years old, students and pensioners pay 150 rubles. The cost of a ticket for preschoolers (3-7 years) is 100 rubles. The youngest guests, whose age is less than 3 years, can visit the exposition for free. Museum of happy childhood is always happy to replenish the collection. Often, interesting exhibits are presented to organizations by ordinary visitors. If you have any interesting thing from your own childhood - do not rush to throw it away, perhaps it will become the new pearl of this amazing collection.