Volgodonsk Ecological and Historical Museum

The Volgodonsk eco-historical museum (from 1969 to 2003 - Volgodonsk local history museum) is a museum in Volgodonsk, the largest museum in the eastern region of the Rostov region.

History of the museum

The museum was established as a city folk museum of local history in February 1969 - Decision No. 64 of 26.02.1969 of the Executive Committee of the Volgodonsk City Council of Working People's Deputies. In January 1977, it was transformed into a branch of the Rostov Regional Museum of Local History. On October 23, 1993 the museum was given an independent status - Decree No. 422 of October 23, 1993, the Heads of the Administration of the Rostov Region "On the transformation of branches of the state museums of the region into independent museums". On July 30, 2003, it was renamed the State Regional Cultural Institution "Volgodonsk Ecological and Historical Museum" - Resolution No. 370 of 30.07. 2003 Administration of the Rostov Region State Cultural Institution.

Currently, the museum has three divisions: 2 rooms with 12 exposition halls in the center of Volgodonsk city and a separate ethnographic complex "Cossack Kuren of the 19th Century" with a house in which the Museum of the History of Don Folk Culture, Crafts and Everyday Life was opened on September 19, 2003.^[1]

In the structure of the museum there are 6 departments: scientific and stock, scientific-ethnographic, scientific-exposition, scientific-educational, technical, economic. Also, the museum has its own scientific library and a scientific and restoration workshop. For the years of the museum's existence a significant stock collection has been formed - more than 100 thousand items. All of them are united in thematic collections: Russian and Don icon painting, items of cult metal plastics of the 15th - early 20th centuries, art and household metal, ceramics and glass of the 17th - early 20th centuries, paintings and graphics of Soviet, Russian and foreign masters, including People's Artists of the USSR NN Zhukov and IA Yazev; materials on the Civil and Great Patriotic War and others.^[2]

Thematic excursions are held by the museum:^[3]

"Steps of creation" - on the history of the creation of the Volga-Don shipping canal and Tsimlyansk hydroelectric complex, thanks to which the city of Volgodonsk emerged. The exposition includes photographs, documents, personal belongings of participants of this grandiose construction;

"From the depth of centuries" - artifacts from the period of the Stone, Bronze, Iron Ages, as well as the Middle Ages, in particular, objects related to the Saltovo-Mayak culture of the heyday of the Khazar Khaganate;

"The tragedy of the Don Cossacks during the Civil War of 1917-1920";

"Orthodox icon on the Don";

"The Eastern Region of the Rostov Region in the Years of the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945"

At the exhibition "Temples of the Don" there are models of the church in the name of the Nativity of Christ (Nizhne-Kundryuchenskaya stanitsa, the building of 1902), the Holy Trinity Church (the Great Martynovka building, building of 1896) and the Ascension Church (Susat village of Semikarakorsky district, building of 1914). The exposition presents ecclesiastical books, among which there are old-believing hymn-book manuscripts of "Irmosa" for the authorship of John Damascene (Russia, the end of the 18th - early 19th centuries).^[3]

Every year the museum receives over 125 thousand visitors. Along with the traditional forms of scientific and educational activities (tours, lectures, thematic museum lessons and evenings), there are theatrical performances of the historical, ethnographic and ecological themes.

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