Volume 7. Smolensk state memorial estate
Literally two weeks after the start of the Great Patriotic War (in June 22, 1941), the museum in Smolensk was able to send 26,052 exhibits to the east of the country in July 9, 1941, store them in the evacuation and returned them to his hometown in 1945. Museum workers not only managed to take out the exhibits, but also partly to keep records and research archives.
However, to the east of the country only a portion of the museum's collection was evacuated. In total funds there were 65,148 items. Remaining in the occupied Smolensk museum collections were looted, and then, in March 1943, by order of the German authorities were shipped to Poland and Germany.
Heavy there was the meeting of workers from its museum after the liberation of Smolensk in September 1943. There were dilapidated buildings and ignited, twisted equipment.
In 1949, major museum exhibitions in the city of Smolensk were opened to visitors. That was made possible thanks to the return of museum items from the evacuation and found the museum's exhibits of Smolensk in Poland.
Rescued during the war memorials of history and art were represented in 10 museum exhibitions of Smolensk and 4 branches in the area.
In the halls of the building, which was built by the founder of the museum - Princess Tenisheva and where the Nazis staged a hostel for the soldiers, today there is the exposition of an art gallery, which is based on works of ancient art of XV-XX centuries, paintings by Linen Rokotov, Tropinin, Aivazovsky, Shishkin, Levitan, Roerich, Benoit, Malyutina. The museum presents works by Italian masters saved the Renaissance, the samples of painting of the Netherlands, Spain, France and other Western countries of XVII - XX centuries.
The exhibition of the history museum is revived. It also shows the exhibits saved during the war: manuscripts and printed books, among them the unique monuments of book art by Ivan Fedorov (1580, 1581 years) "Gospel" and "Bible", a wealth of documentary fund, firearms and cold steel of Russian, Western European and Oriental works, porcelain, glass, textiles, various items of the nobility and people's everyday life of XVI - XX centuries.
The museum reformed the archaeological collection completely destroyed by the invaders in which great scientific and historical value writings on birch bark of XI - XII centuries were represented.
