State A.S. Pushkin Museum

Elena Potemina

State A.S. Pushkin Museum

Moscow, Prechistenka str. 12/2

Moscow, Russia
Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation prize 2012 - Museum as a main informational resource for the cultural tourism

Museum is the main informational resource of cultural tourism

Nowadays The State A.S. Pushkin Museum - museum of the great Russian poet - is one of the recognized culture centers of Moscow and Russia. Beside the Head Museum where the main collection is gathered, The State A.S. Pushkin Museum includes 5 other affiliates: Memorial Apartment of A.S. Pushkin on Arbat street, Museum of V.L. Pushkin, Memorial Apartment of A. Bely, Museum of Turgenev and also Exhibition halls in Denezhniy side-street.

Our museum was founded in 1957. The main museum complex is situated in a wonderful landmark of the beginning of XIX century - the noble mansion of the Khrushev-Seleznev on Prechistenka street 12/2. The history of the museum is rather unusual. There were no exhibits in the museum's funds at the moment of its establishment. But the first exposition was opened just in two days, it was dedicated to Pushkin's life and work and his role in Russian culture. That was possible not only due to selfless labor of the museum's workers but also to the participation of ordinary people, of poet's work admirers, who donated to the museum different pieces of rarity that were somehow connected with Pushkin and his epoch. Today the museum is proud of the richest collection of paintings, graphics, furniture, rare books and manuscripts, art and craft items and count about 160 thousand exhibits. The majority of this collection you are welcome to see at our permanent exhibition "Pushkin and his epoch", that was opened in 1997 in honor of the 850th Moscow anniversary.

The State A.S. Pushkin Museum celebrated its 55th anniversary since the day of foundation on October 5, 2012. Our museum has interesting and rich life. We are arranging exhibitions, holding scientific meetings and international conferences, Pushkin reading, evenings, concerts, performances, organizing special programs for children, New Year balls, celebrations, publishing unique museum books - collection catalogues, albums, monographs and many other things. Beside a guided tour of the museum we also offer touristic trips to our visitors.

There was established the Pushkin Museums Community of the country in 2006 due to what we got an opportunity to develop new branch of activity - museum tourism. The State A.S. Pushkin Museum has become an initiator of creation of an inter-museum excursion and tourism project. We call this project "Our Litera-Tours". The project is meant for people of all ages and professions, literary men, families with children, school boys and girls. There was created a Tourism Department under the museum, which offers different routes. The routes were elaborated and prepared by the scientific officers of the museum in collaboration with colleagues from other first-rated museums of Moscow and Russia. We offer an opportunity to our excursionists to visit lots of places connected with great names of Russian history and culture. Excursionists together with us have an opportunity to see the unique exhibits of museum funds where the priceless paintings and memorial treasure of past centuries, examples of high Fine Arts, crafts like paintings, sculpture, furniture, genuine manuscripts and documents, rare books are kept.
The main thing in our program is a Pushkin places tour. Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Russian provincial towns such as Gatchina, Tsarskoe Selo, Torzhok, Tver, Nizhniy Novgorod are presented in a new special way for our excursionists. Our guided tours give an opportunity to become familiar with Puskin epoch and see the places that gave an inspiration to the poet himself.

The Tourism Department has developed one-day excursions by bus along Moscow, bus excursions along Moscow and Kaluga Region, as well as multi-days bus tours to Petersburg, Boldino, Pushkinskiye Gory and weekend trips to the Regions of Smolensk, Orel and Tver.
In total for the whole period of the Tourism Department existence there were developed 14 touristic routes among which there are 3 multi-days tours and 3 weekend trips. As it was previously said, our trips are meant for people of all ages and professions, admires and devotees of work of the Great Russian poet.

In 2012 the State A.S. Pushkin Museum participated in the competitive program of All-Russian museum festival in Moscow "Intermuseum" and was the winner in the nomination "Museum is the main information resource of cultural tourism". Tourism Department of the museum represented a tourist project "Journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg".

"Journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg" is one of the many multi-day tours created by the scientific officers of the State A.S. Pushkin Museum with the museum-partners. This area of focus represents special interest for our museum and our intended audience because there was no any lane so familiar to Pushkin as the one that linked two Russian capitals. It should be mentioned that Pushkin spent approximately eight out of twenty after-lyceum years and covered 34 thousand versts (a Russian unit of distance equal to 1.067 kilometers (0.6629 mile).
Petersburg is a city that was very close to the poet where he lived for about 10 years and if we add 6 years more when the poet studied at Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum then we could say that he lived there the half of his life.

Petersburg has always attracted and attracts great number of tourists. That is why the tourist product should be challenging and different from the others to be competitive on the market. And we've tried to do our best to create the program that interests the audience by its exclusive peculiarities. We're creating it by special methodological manual of our museum. Program was made for the most exacting audience, followers of the poet's works who is fascinated by literature, art and who desires to visit not just the well-known tourist places but to see the heritage sites of the country that are far from the traditional tour itineraries.The National Pushkin Museum in Saint-Petersburg is our main partner and gives us opportunity to accommodate the tourist groups in the hotel apartments of the house-museum of G.R. Derzhavin that is the main advantage of the journey. People live in the residence of the 18th century which is on the quay of Fontanka-river.

The main purpose of our participation in the nomination was to attract attention to the new project of the museum tourism. In spite of the fact that the tour itineraries suggested by the State A.S. Pushkin Museum are in high demand the economic indicators cannot be compared to the indicators of a small tourist company though the quality and difference of suggested tours and objects would not disgrace and sometimes even are superior in suggested tour agencies programs. Of course the project is quiet "young" to attract great number of tourists but we believe that taking part in such kind of competitions we can attract attention of the audience that can help to develop the project.

Certainly we would like to attract the attention of the foreigners with the purpose of partnership links extension as well as extension of geography of our journeys and experience exchange.We still continue to try to promote the museum and Pushkin and Literature museums-partners; to promote literary heritage of Russian Federation. We try to attract tourists to such affiliates as the State A.S. Pushkin Museum ( ?.Bely museum, V.L. Pushkin museum, I.S. Turgenev museum) as museum-partners of the State A.S. Pushkin Museum (for example house-museum "Lopasnya-Zachatievkoe", A.P. Chekhov museum "Melikhovo", house-museum "Polotnyany zavod", A.S. Griboedov house-museum "Khmelita" and other memorial estates of Russian Federation). It helps to develop the inner tourism of the country, to attract a number of tourists to the regions of Russia and also to attract attention of the authorities and as a consequence to do fund raising for recovery and reconstruction of the objects of cultural heritage.

The Best in Heritage

State A.S. Pushkin Museum

Elena Potemina