The Chuvash Autonomous Region was formed in 1920. Five years later, she became a republic. The formation of the National Museum in Cheboksary is associated with these events. The rise of the people's self-awareness has generated interest in their past, culture, and literature. The first exhibition of the museum was opened in 1921 at the initiative of the Chuvash intelligentsia. Headed a group of like-minded people N.P. Neverov, a graduate of the Faculty of History and Philology. He was appointed the first director of the museum.
A bit of history
The development path of the museum throughout its work was not easy. The interest in preserving national values on the scale of functionaries first arose and rose, then subsided and disappeared altogether. At the same time, not only the attitude to museum business was changing. Attitudes toward the people and the values held by them have changed.
Over the years of its existence, the Chuvash National Museum has remained without premises (they were selected for the more significant needs of the city), without leadership (it was arrested and kept in the cellars of the former museum building), without funds. Unfortunately, many values were destroyed in the struggle for the purity of the genera of writers and poets. Their work was removed from the funds.
In museum work only loyal people work for him. So it was in Cheboksary.
Museum today
In the early 90s of the last century, the building was finally returned to the institution, from which it began its activities. This is the former merchant mansion of P.E. Efremov, built in 1884. Two years after this event, by the Decree of the Council of Ministers, the institution became known as the Chuvash National Museum. In Cheboksary, colossal work was carried out to develop new areas of 800 m², on which new expositions were created.
Today 182 thousand valuable objects of archeology, history and culture of the Chuvash people are stored in the museum funds. Within the city, it has three branches. These are the Museum of V.I. Chapaev, the Literary Museum of K.V. Ivanov and the Museum of Mikhail Sespel. Another branch works in the homeland of the Chuvash poet - in the Kanash region.
After the reconstruction of the building at the beginning of the 21st century, exposition areas expanded. Two conference rooms equipped with modern technology appeared in the museum. A large room - for work of 80 people, and a small - for 20 seats.
The museum employs high-level specialists, experts in the history of the development of their region. Some of them are marked with the titles of honored figures. There are young people starting their journey. The interest in the life of the peoples of Chuvashia is great, and more than 150 thousand visitors annually pass through the halls.
Since 2007, the National Museum in Cheboksary has been operating four permanent exhibitions, many temporary, classic and virtual exhibitions. Interest clubs are open:
- Lovers of historical reconstruction - "Russian huntsman."
- Guides and local historians - "Cheboksary."
- Club of poetry lovers.
Exposition "The ancient inhabitants of the Chuvash region"
From this hall begins the inspection of the museum. Finds of archeology and paleontology given 110 m². Since the settlement of these lands took place in the Paleolithic era, the section contains bones and tusks of animals that inhabited the territory. There are simply laid out exhibits with an interesting description. The Chuvash National Museum went further - he designed the possible home of a Stone Age man. You can trace its development path by changing tools and hunting.
The spread of agriculture and cattle breeding among the Chuvash people was in the early Iron Age. A lot of things then changed around a person, as the museum experts tell in a demonstration of the interior of the dwelling of that period.
For fans to touch everything organized attraction "Feel yourself an archaeologist." In a large sandbox with the help of a spatula and a brush, you can dig out some kind of “artifact”.
Exposition "The history of the Chuvash people from the IX to the beginning of the XX centuries."
The history of the Chuvash people begins with the resettlement of their ancestors, Bulgarians, in the Middle Volga region. The new lands of Great Bulgaria were quickly mastered by highly developed people. It was they who brought to these lands difficult tools, various crafts and skills. In the XIII century, the people were ruined, and its lands became part of the Golden Horde.
The accession of Chuvashia (the Mountain Side) to the Russian state was a boon to both sides. The Republic acquired a reliable defender, and Russia for the first time became a multinational country.
This collection demonstrates many national exhibits: clothes of girls, women and men of different classes, amazing and very heavy hats with monists, objects that accompany different rites and traditions of the people.
The National Museum in Cheboksary talks a lot about the people the republic is proud of. The cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolaev and his flight into space is devoted to a large section with a demonstration of his light spacesuit, tubes of food, photo documents.