Research of architectural projects of the building of the Russian Military Historical Museum on the materials of the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineer Troops and Signal Corps

Abstract

Nowadays, there is an active reconstruction of the old and the creation of new militaryhistorical museums. In the process of this work, the curators set the task of reflecting its purpose through its appearance. It becomes possible understanding by studying the architecture of the museum through the centuries. The paper discusses the architectural projects of the Russian Military Historical Museum which were stored in the archive of the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineer troops and Signal Corps. The reader is informed that it was one of the stages of the work of the Committee on its Structure, created by Emperor Nicholas II’s order. The main ideas about museum buildings in the Russian Empire at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries were mentioned in the article. The main requirement was the correspondence of external and internal content. It was possible to identify common features: as a rule, these were two-storey stone buildings in the neo-Russian style, where, in addition to the exhibition halls, an arsenal, a lobby and a number of additional rooms were provided. The architects, whose projects were highly appreciated, took the palace buildings of the pre-Petrine period as a basis. As a result, the winner of the competition was Vladimir Pokrovsky’s the project which, unfortunately, was not implemented. However, the plot considered in the article is an example of an integrated approach to the organization of the museum, which was not developed in the USSR. The idea of building a Single Military Historical museum at that time did not lose its relevance. However, as a rule, it was assumed that the existing building would be adapted. Consequently, the competition of architectural projects of the Russian Military Historical Museum is one of the few examples in the history of museum construction in Russia when comprehensive work was carried out on the organization of internal and external space.