Kaluga Regional Museum of Local Lore

One of the oldest local history museums in Russia. It was founded on April 20 ( May 2 ), 1897 in the city of Kaluga. The first exposition of the Provincial History Museum consisted of several windows with archaeological finds, old coins and household items.

The museum was open to visitors two days a week. Over the year, about 500 people visited the museum. The first exposition was located in the building of the architectural monument of the 17th century - the chambers of the merchants Korobov.

Famous Russian scientists, archaeologists and local historians stood at the origins of the creation of museum funds. Over the years, the museum was run by: I. D. Chetyrkin, A. I. Martynovich-Lashevsky, P. A. Treiter, V. I. Assonov. Museum workers acquired and preserved the letters of A. S. Pushkin , later transferred to the Moscow Museum of the poet.

Since 1900, the feather of N.V. Gogol has been kept in the museum. By 1905, there were already more than 1000 items in the collections, and in 1915, the famous Kaluga publicist and local historian D.I. Malinin , who served as the head of the library, compiled an inventory of 1200 items.

After the revolutions of 1917, in 1918 the museum passed into the jurisdiction of the voluntary "Kaluga Society of Antiquities and the Protection of Artworks", and a little later, subordinated to the Provincial Department of Education and is referred to as the "Provincial History Museum". Then the museum receives a deed of protection.

Since 1922, the main exhibition has been located in the former city estate of the merchant of the first guild and the Kaluga burgomaster Ivan Maximovich Zolotarev. At the beginning of the 20th century, the famous notary office of Alexander Kologrivov was located here in Kaluga. The estate was nationalized in 1919 and, after repeated and persistent petitions, was transferred to the museum on July 30, 1922.

In 1924, the Akim Ryzhichkin ^[1] City Museum and the Art Museum, created in 1918, were included in the museum complex.

In 1931, the museum became known as the "Regional Basic State Museum", the funds of which were transferred to the property of churches and monasteries, items from estates. By 1939, the funds totaled more than 10,000 exhibits ^{[2] [3] [4]} .

During the occupation of Kaluga, part of the collection was looted. Funds in the fall of 1941 failed to evacuate. In Protocol No. 2/11 of the Commission of the USSR Academy of Architecture on the Protection and Restoration of Kaluga Architectural Monuments dated April 4, 1942, it was noted:

Fascist vandals partially plundered (about 10% of the exhibits) the collections of the Museum of Local History, located in one of the best houses of the classicism era of the late 18th century

- Paragraph XI of the Protocol

With the formation in 1944 of the Kaluga region , the museum acquires the status of a regional. In 1945, 7712 exhibits were stored in the museum, 2413 were exhibited.

The priceless funds of the Kaluga Museum of Local Lore have been formed for over a hundred years. The museum’s collection has over 100,000 units of the main fund only, systematized into thematic collections ^{[3] [4]} .

Branches and expositions of the museum-reserve in the city of Kaluga and the region:

The museum can be reached by trolleybus routes: 1, 2, 3, as well as by taxi: 2, 3, 92. Stop "st. Bauman. "