Nowadays, it is the only museum in Russia and one of a few museums in the world with the permanent and temporary exhibitions showing such a universal phenomenon of human culture as religion.
The Museum was established in 1932 by V. G. Bogoraz-Tan, eminent Russian public figure, science organizer, linguist, ethnographer and anthropologist, poet, writer and journalist, historian of religion, and a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. For 88 years, the Museum has been a major scientific centre for the study of religion. Just as the complex and versatile religious phenomenon determines the interdisciplinary study of religion, so the storage, collection and exposition of artefacts associated with religious beliefs and practices in the Museum are of complex nature and based on the comparative and historical-typological study of religion. The museum collection and exposition represent a wide panorama of religious beliefs from ancient times to present days and illustrate the evolution of religion in the entire diversity of historical forms.
Nowadays, the Museum collection is approaching 200,000 items. It includes both objects of religious worship, personal piety and everyday life, as well as genuine rarities possessing undoubted cultural, historical and artistic significance; works of domestic and foreign fine and decorative-applied art. The collection is formed on a religious and denominational basis. Separate stores include collections of philately, fabrics, precious metal objects, photographs and negatives, rare books and historical archives.
You can learn more about this topic in the book-album “The Collection of the State Museum of the History of Religion” (Volume XII) from the series “Cultural legacy of Uzbekistan in the world collections”.
The general sponsor of the project is the oilfield services company Eriell-Group.
The State Museum of the History of Religion located in St. Petersburg
In the very centre of historic Saint Petersburg, in the immediate vicinity of such famous architectural monuments as the Admiralty building and Saint Isaac’s Cathedral at number 14 Pochtamtskaya Street, there is a unique museum – the State Museum of the History of Religion.