Museum of the Northwest Front

The Museum of the North-Western Front is located in the city of Staraya Russa ( Novgorod Region ) on Alexandrovskaya Street. It is the first museum of its kind in Russia , which tells about the history and actions of the whole front during the Great Patriotic War .

Museum of the Northwest Front
Museum exhibit T-26 tank
Established	1975
Location
Address	Staraya Russa , Novgorod region

An exposition dedicated to military events on Old Russian land has existed in the city since 1975 . Since 1984, the museum was located in the Resurrection Cathedral , which in 1992 was returned to believers. On February 18, 2003 , on the fifty-ninth anniversary of the liberation of Staraya Russa ^[1] , the Museum of the North-Western Front, combining already collected material and a significant number of new exhibits, was inaugurated again.

A feature of this museum collection is the presentation of a military theme from a general humanist position. In addition, the materials presented show war on both lines of the trenches.

The main topics of the exposition:

• The environment of the Demian group of German troops - " Demyansk Cauldron "
• Local battles and battles in the area of ​​the Ramushevsky corridor
• Rear - front
• An occupation
• Exemption

More than one and a half thousand exhibits are on display, 840 of them are originals. The basis is made up of weapons of various kinds, maps, schemes, documents, extracts from archives, awards, photographs, personal belongings belonging to both the Red Army soldiers and German soldiers and the Spaniards and Finns who fought in the Wehrmacht .

A unique exhibit is a bell, which was cast by the famous master Benning in Lübeck (Germany) in 1672 . In December 1942, the bell was taken out of Staraya Russa and returned back only in 2001.

The exhibits for the museum came both from local sources and from Wehrmacht veterans. The documents presented also testify to the work of the Soviet tribunals and detachments , about the mistakes of the command of the Red Army , about traitors and special cases from the life of soldiers. In addition, the history of partisan territory and the old Russian underground is widely covered.

Near the museum building there is an observation deck, which shows the light tank T-26 , found in the Lovat river near the village of Korovitchino , and two artillery pieces .

The museum is part of the Novgorod State United Museum-Reserve (NGOMZ).