SMOLNY MUSEUM

3 ploshchad Proletarskoy diktatury 193060 St. Petersburg
Open: 10am - 6pm, Fridays 10am - 3pm
Closed: Saturdays and Sundays
Tel. 276-1461, 276-1321
Nearest metro stations: Chernyshevskaya and Ploshchad Vosstaniya

The museum dedicated to Vladimir Lenin at the Smolny Institute offers displays describing the revolutionary events of 1917-18 and the historical and j architectural significance of the Smolny Institute ensemble. The first state-owned educational establishment for women in Russia, the Smolny Institute was built between 1806 and 1808 by Giacomo Quarenghi. Until the summer of 1917, the female offspring of the nobility were educated here. During the October armed uprising it served as the Bolshevik headquarters. Following the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks, the building housed the first Soviet Government. The regional and city committees of the Communist Party were housed here until 1991.

In 1927, the room in which Vladimir Lenin and Nadezhda Krupskaya lived from 10 November 1917 until their departure for Moscow on 10 March 1918, was converted into a museum. The furnishings have survived almost intact, reproducing the interior of a Smolny living-room.

In 1974 Lenin's study was opened to visitors. The museum contains a number of Lenin's and Krupskaya's personal belongings, as well as materials illustrating the early work of the first Soviet Government - the Council of People's Commissars.