Orsk Museum of Local Lore

The first attempt to create a museum was made in 1934-1935 under the leadership of G. S. Kobelev. A collection of local minerals was collected, which they could not exhibit, because the museum did not have its own premises.

The second attempt to create a museum was made in 1937 by the famous geologist Joseph Leontievich Rudnitsky , who then worked in the geological department under the control of the Commissioner of the People ’s Commissariat of Industry (Orsk). The rationale for the creation of the museum was the holding of the 17th International Geological Congress in Moscow, which was scheduled for the summer of 1937 , and after the congress, its participants were to visit the Urals as part of the excursion, the end point of the excursion was Orsk and its environs. On February 13, 1937, I. L. Rudnitsky made a proposal at a meeting of the Orsk City Council on the creation of a geological museum in Orsk. The proposal was approved, and the head of the museum, Ivan Petrovich Tumashev, was appointed. The museum was not opened due to the lack of allocated premises.

In September 1938, the museum was temporarily placed in one of the rooms of school No. 16, then located on the territory of the present Old Town.

Later, the museum premises were allocated in Forshtadt, in a house on the corner of Uritsky and Ulyanov streets (No. 40/20). It was a one-story building, built at the beginning of the 20th century as a residential building.

The museum opened on June 18, 1939 . In his collection then there were about 2800 museum objects: samples of ore and nonmetallic minerals, precious and decorative stones, etc.

During the Great Patriotic War, the museum was temporarily closed and its exhibits were stored in boxes in the basement of one of the schools. In 1947, the museum resumes its work on collecting exhibits, and in 1950 received the first visitors at the premises of the former cinema on K. Marx Street.

Moving to a modern building (Lenin Avenue, 46) took place in 1958 .

The museum opened on March 18, 2011 after reconstruction. Replaced equipment, redesigned exposure.

Thematic exhibitions are held dedicated to various dates, both national and local in scale (anniversary events dedicated to victory in the Second World War, an exhibition of samovars, etc.).

The City Exhibition Center - a branch of the museum hosts exhibitions of paintings.

Museum employees conduct scientific work both on the history of the city, processing archival sources, and working on summer archaeological expeditions, exploring the mounds of the East Orenburg region.

In 2014, the museum celebrated its 75th anniversary ^[1] .

The museum was awarded diplomas of regional competitions.

The complete collection of exhibits totals more than 75000 units of storage.

There are permanent exhibits on the geological history of the region, on the history of the development of this territory by man, on Orsk during the time of tsarist Russia, and on the history of Orsk after the revolution (industrialization, war, development of virgin lands).

The branch of the museum “ T.G. Shevchenko in the Orsk Fortress ”- about Shevchenko’s exile to Orsk.

• Local History Bulletin. Orsk: 2004
• Chronograph of the city. Orsk: 2005
• Emperor of white cups. Russian samovars in the collection of the Orsk Museum of History and Local Lore, Orsk: 2009
• Cherkas T.G. Orsk: from the fortress to the city: monograph. - Orsk: Publishing house OGTI, 2010. - 263 p.

• orskmuseum.ru - official site of the museum
• The official page of the museum on the social network Facebook
• The official page of the museum on the VKontakte social network