According to information obtained by “E Vesti” from the Russian Ministry of culture, in the first half of 2016, the most visited museums of Russia are the Museums of Saint-Petersburg: Peterhof, the Hermitage and Tsarskoye Selo.
The state Museum “Peterhof” is topping the list of Russian museums. In our opinion, it is not surprising, because everyone who has ever been in a stunning Palace complex – the Imperial symbol of Russia’s greatness, with its unique Park ensemble with fountains, will want to return there at the first opportunity.
The Museum complex of Peterhof (translation is “house of Peter”) is a former summer Grand residence of the Russian tsars, built in 1714-1723 in honor of getting access to the Baltic sea obtained from the results of the Northern war with Sweden.
According to the Head of Department on public relations “Peterhof” Valeria Karpovich, the fountains of the Lower Park” attract key interest of tourists among the 32 museums of the complex. Museum’s success among visitors it connects “with a broad international PR, unique fountain system of Peterhof, with the ongoing work with the media and the organization of online broadcasting of the fountain “Samson”. V. Karpovich drew attention to the increase in the share of foreign tourists among the visitors: “If we talk about the statistics of visits, the share of foreign tourists this year was 32% (compared to 26% last year)”. At the same time, the number of students this year was 18%.
The second largest Museum is the Hermitage, the keeper of one of the richest collections in the world (according to the Museum, it contains “about three million works of art and monuments of world culture”).
The date of Foundation of the Hermitage (FR. the “hermit’s shack”) is considered to be 1764, this is the date of acquisition by Catherine II the collection of the German merchant J. E. Gotzkowsky. A proper Museum is became at the initiative of Nicholas I in 1852.
The third most visited Museum is the state Museum “Tsarskoye Selo”. In addition to the magnificent palaces and parks, monuments of Baroque and classicism, the museum is dear to each of us because there was the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, where studied A. S. Pushkin.
Tsarskoye Selo was the main summer residence of the emperors formed since 1710-1720 till the early twentieth century.
In fourth place we see the Museum-reserve “Battle of Stalingrad”, a complex of four museums located in Volgograd. According to the head of the press service of the Museum Tatyana Prikazchikova, the high Museum attendance is the natural result of the interest in historical memory and Patriotic policy of the state: “Our properties are visited by hundreds of thousands of people. Of course, the main purpose of tourists is to join the history of one of the greatest battles in the history of wars”. “Our tourists are people from all countries of the world, of almost all ages – as they say, from small to large, all social groups and professions. This is largely due to the policy of our state aimed at the revival and improvement of military-Patriotic education of citizens (especially those of youth). As you probably know, the policy is helped by the revived Russian military-historical society, with whom we work closely,” she says.
Museum-reserve “Stalingrad battle” was opened in 1937 as “the Museum of defense of Tsaritsyn-Stalingrad after comrade Stalin”. The Museum is dedicated to the battle of Stalingrad in which the Soviet Union has achieved a fundamental change in the great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, and to the glory of Russian weapons in General, because it has exhibitions in honor of the outstanding Soviet commanders (Zhukov, V. I. Chuikov, etc.).
TOP10 most visited museums of Russia in the first half of 2016 is following.
| # | Name of the museum | City | Number of visits, thousand people | Growth/ fall, (y-o-y) | |
| H1 2016 | H1 2015 | ||||
| 1 | Peterhof | St.-Petersburg | 2’100.9 | 2’166.8 | -3.0% |
| 2 | The State Hermitage | St.-Petersburg | 1’794.2 | 1’641.1 | 9.3% |
| 3 | Tsarskoe Selo | St.-Petersburg | 1’422.0 | 1’407.5 | 1.0% |
| 4 | Museum of the Stalingrad battle | Volgograd | 1’152.9 | 1’151.5 | 0.1% |
| 5 | Museums of Kremlin | Moscow | 972.4 | 926.7 | 4.9% |
| 6 | The State Tretyakov Gallery | Moscow | 969.7 | 703.6 | 37.8% |
| 7 | Vladimir-Suzdal Museum | Vladimir | 839.1 | 834.1 | 0.6% |
| 8 | Russian museum | St.-Petersburg | 791.2 | 750.1 | 5.5% |
| 9 | The State Museum of History | Moscow | 536.0 | 517.1 | 3.7% |
| 10 | Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts | Moscow | 486.1 | 457.9 | 6.2% |
The composition of the top 10 most visited museums in Russia remained the same as in the first half of 2015. During this period, the attendance of dozens of leaders increased by 508.1 thousand (+4.8%). More than half of this growth was in the State Tretyakov Gallery, which has increased attendance by 266.1 thousand people (+37.8%).
