Kurgan is a large industrial city located in the Urals. The Russian settlement in its place existed from the middle of the 16th century. Over the past centuries, many remarkable events have occurred in Kurgan. In addition, the nature of these places is of great interest. Learn more about the city, region and their inhabitants will help the Museum of Local Lore.
Kurgan: quick reference
The city is located on the banks of the Tobol River, and there, on an area of 393 square meters. km, 325,000 people live. At the end of the 19th century, the famous Trans-Siberian Railway passed through Kurgan, connecting European regions of the Russian Empire with Asian ones. This circumstance extremely beneficially affected the development of the mound. Today the city is one of the most important cultural, economic and political centers of the Urals.
Museum of Local Lore Kurgan: History
The founding date of this cultural institution is November 10, 1951. As was customary during the years of the USSR, the former church of St. Alexander Nevsky.
I must say that long before this event, in 1904, at the local department of the Moscow Agricultural Society, an agricultural museum dedicated to tillage, which was the first in Kurgan, began to operate. Later, in 1920, it was transformed. So the museum of the local region appeared. At the party’s call, peasants from nearby villages began to bring to the museum the old household items and even the bones of ancient animals and artifacts found during agricultural work that were preserved in their houses.
In 1951, the city authorities decided to organize the Kurgan Regional Museum of Local Lore (KOKM).
General information
The Museum of Local Lore of Kurgan originally had 3 departments devoted to the nature and history of the city and its environs, as well as to the achievements of Soviet society. Since 1957, a planetarium has been working there, where children and adults can study the starry sky.
Since the 1960s, when young scientists were included in the museum staff, active work began on the formation of the first museum collections. As a result, in the Soviet period, its funds were replenished with exhibits dedicated to the first Ural communes, collectivization, relics and documents relating to participants in the civil war and WWII.
Museum today
At the moment, KOKM is actively engaged in scientific and educational activities. In 1991, the Museum of Local Lore was transferred to a building that used to be known as the House of Political Education, and the Church of St. Alexander Nevsky was returned to believers. The museum has permanent exhibits of departments of nature and history.
Museum of Local Lore (Kurgan): exhibitions
Almost 200,000 people visit KOCM and its branches annually. At the moment, the museum has 9 exhibitions. Among them:
- “Zauralskaya Kunstkamera”, visitors of which will see what kind of congenital malformations of the fetus can lead to bad habits of his parents or genetic mutations.
- “The World through the Eyes of Kurgan” is an exhibition of the most interesting photographs of the city's residents.
- Gulliver’s Travel History, dedicated to the local puppet theater, named after the hero of the famous work of Jonathan Swift.
- “Founder of Russian Palestine” - an exhibition that allows you to get acquainted with the life of the Russian community in the Holy Land, as well as see the relics brought by pilgrims from Jerusalem and Christian monasteries located in Israel.
- “Ashes of the Civil War”, visiting which you can get acquainted with 139 exhibits telling about the events that took place in Kurgan and its environs from 1914 to 1920, as well as see the military uniform of those years, recreated from historical photographs.
- “Expert in the Russian word” - an exhibition dedicated to the 115th anniversary of the birth of writer and literary critic A.K. Yugova.
- "The weapon of death", which tells about the consequences of drug use, alcohol and the dangers of smoking.
In addition, the Museum of Local Lore of the Kurgan offers to get acquainted with the exhibition dedicated to the founder of Kurgan engineering S.A. Balakshin. Sergey Alexandrovich was a well-known industrialist and designer of hydraulic turbines. Thanks to his engineering work, he became known not only in his homeland, but also in Russia. Personal items, documents and photographs of S. A. Balakshin are presented at the exhibition at the KOKM.
Virtual and other projects
The Museum of Local History of Kurgan strives to keep pace with the times. In particular, a patriotic project dedicated to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War was recently launched there, which allows creating a virtual memory book.
In addition, KOKM regularly participates in the famous “Museum Night” campaign, and on weekends, preschool children can be taken by inviting them to get acquainted with the habits of a little chipmunk.
Selfie exhibitions are also very popular. During such events, everyone will be able to take pictures with a unique exhibit participating in the action. For example, in April, a fairly large meteorite was exhibited at the museum, which landed near the village of Chashi in the Kurgan Region in 1963. Everyone was given the opportunity to hold the “space alien” in their hands and take a selfie with him, which you can immediately boast on social networks.
Where is
The first thing that people wishing to visit the Museum of Local Lore (Kurgan) want to know is the address of this cultural institution. He is known to any resident of the city. KOKM is located on Pushkin Street and occupies building number 137. You can get to the museum by public transport: to the Cinema Russia stop (buses and minibuses N 30, 49, 301, 312, 322, 336, 343, 349, 392 and etc.) or to the stop "Children's Clinic" - by trolleybus N 6.
Ticket price
Preschoolers, orphans or people with disabilities can visit the museum for free. For adults, the cost of the ticket is 50 rubles, for pensioners - 25, for students - 20, and for students of colleges and lyceums, as well as schoolchildren - 15 rubles. At the same time, citizens of other states will have to pay 100 rubles.
Dinosaur walk
COCM employees attach great importance to working with children. And since November 2016, the first thing that those who come to the Museum of Local Lore (Kurgan) see the dinosaurs. And to be more precise, there is an exhibition in the lobby where you can see images of these ancient reptiles. It presents 39 gouache drawings, authored by students of Children's Art School No. 1. At the opening of the exhibition, Kurgan schoolchildren learned a lot about some types of dinosaurs, and young artists received gift sets of Fatherland's land postcards.
Where else should tourists go
The sights of the Kurgan are quite diverse, so you should not limit yourself to visiting the local local history museum alone. The objects from the must see category also include:
- a monument to the hero of the famous film “The White Sun of the Desert”, the uncompromising customs officer Pavel Vereshchagin, which is installed at 132 Burov-Petrova Street;
- Kurgan Aviation Museum (41 Gagarina St.), which is the only one in Siberia and the Urals;
- The Decembrists Museum (Klimova St., 80), housed in a historic house, where one of the participants in the uprising, Colonel M.M., lived in 1832. Naryshkin;
- ancient fire tower (Kuibysheva St., 62) of the original architecture, which appeared in the city in 1891.
Now you know information about the famous sights of the Kurgan - Museum of Local Lore. Once in this city, be sure to visit it to find out a lot of interesting things about its inhabitants, the surrounding nature and the events that have taken place there for 300 years.