Museums in Russia
181 museums in Russia. Most visited: Hermitage Museum.
Top museums in Russia
Hermitage Museum
4,956,529 visitors a year
The State Hermitage Museum is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with a main complex of six historic buildings along the Palace Embankment. It was founded in 1764 when Catherine...
Moscow Zoo
Zoo or aquarium · 3,129,100 visitors a year
Moscow Zoo is one of the largest zoos in Russia and one of the oldest in Europe. It was founded in 1864 by professor-biologists from Moscow State University and has been run by the Government of...
Moscow Kremlin Museums
3,101,550 visitors a year
The Moscow Kremlin Museums are a major state-run museum within the Moscow Kremlin. Their origins trace back to the Kremlin Armoury, founded in 1806, and the museum took its current form in 1991.
Tretyakov Gallery
Art museum · 2,836,000 visitors a year
The State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow is considered the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world. It grew from works by Russian painters that the merchant Pavel Tretyakov began buying in...
Russian Museum
Art museum · 2,260,231 visitors a year
The Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg is described as the world's largest depository of Russian fine art. It is located on Arts Square and was founded in the 1890s as the Russian Museum of His...
Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow
Art museum · 2,242,405 visitors a year
The Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow is a Russian state museum dedicated to the presentation and development of contemporary art. It was founded in 1996 and opened in October 2010 on the grounds of the...
Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
Art museum · 1,300,900 visitors a year
The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts is the largest museum of European art in Moscow, on Volkhonka Street opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. It was established in 1912. Its holdings total...
Garage Center for Contemporary Culture
Art museum · 882,000 visitors a year
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Музей современного искусства «Гараж») occupies a Soviet modernist restaurant in Gorky Park, rebuilt by Rem Koolhaas and OMA. The 1968 Vremena Goda (Seasons of the...
Memorial Museum of Astronautics
Transport museum · 750,000 visitors a year
The Memorial Museum of Astronautics (Мемориальный музей космонавтики) sits in the base of the Monument to the Conquerors of Space, a soaring titanium-clad obelisk topped by a rocket that rises above...
Fabergé museum in Saint Petersburg
420,000 visitors a year
Nine Imperial Easter eggs made by the House of Fabergé for the last two Russian tsars form the centrepiece of this private museum, the largest such group anywhere. They include the Hen Egg, the first...
UMMC Museum of Military and Automotive Equipment
Military museum · 255,000 visitors a year
Kaliningrad Regional Amber Museum
141,500 visitors a year
Ryazan Oblast State Art Museum named after I.P. Pojalostin
Art museum · 46,600 visitors a year
Website of Ryazan Oblast State Art Museum named after I.P. Pojalostin
A.A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum
Music, film or theatre museum
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia describes the A.A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum as the largest theatre museum in the world. Devoted entirely to the theatre, it suits visitors with a...
Anna Akhmatova Literary and Memorial Museum
Historic house, palace or castle
Opened in 1989 to mark the centenary of Anna Akhmatova's birth, this St Petersburg museum is devoted entirely to the poet, who lived from 1889 to 1966. It is both a literary museum and a historic...
Apartment Museum of Joseph Brodsky
The apartment of Nobel laureate poet Joseph Brodsky in Saint Petersburg's Muruzi House is the setting for this informal memorial museum, known in Russian as Музей-квартира И. А. Бродского. It was...
Arctic and Antarctic Museum
Polar science fills the former Nikolskaya Old Believers' Church in Saint Petersburg, a building constructed between 1820 and 1838 to designs by the architect Avraam Melnikov and closed as a church in...
Art Deco Museum
Les Girls by Demetre Chiparus and The Fire and the Flame by Ferdinand Preiss are among the best-known works at Moscow's Art Deco Museum, which opened in 2014. Alongside them are La Chasse by Jean...
Museums by city in Russia
Russia’s museum landscape stretches from the grand palace museums of St. Petersburg to the historic collections of Moscow and regional institutions across Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, and Vladivostok. Visitors can move from imperial state rooms and Orthodox treasures to Soviet design, archaeology, literature, and natural history in a single trip. On Mooseum, these museums are easier to explore, with digital tools that help you understand sprawling sites and plan your route before you arrive.
St. Petersburg is closely associated with the Hermitage Museum and the Russian Museum, where visitors encounter imperial collections, Russian painting, sculpture, and decorative arts. In Moscow, the Tretyakov Gallery, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Multimedia Art Museum, and Moscow Kremlin Museums offer a different perspective, combining national art history with European masters, photography, and court ceremonial culture. Mooseum helps visitors compare these major institutions and navigate them with more confidence.
Russia also has many specialized museums that reflect the country’s scientific, literary, and social history. You’ll find house museums dedicated to writers, military collections shaped by twentieth-century history, ethnographic museums focused on the peoples of the Volga, Caucasus, and Siberia, and family-friendly institutions such as the Moscow Zoo. Together, they show how varied museum-going in Russia can be, whether you are interested in icons, avant-garde art, Romanov history, or contemporary culture.
Map of museums in Russia
Museums in Russia: questions
- How many museums are there in Russia?
- Mooseum lists 181 museums in Russia. Moscow has the most, with 60.
- Which cities in Russia have the most museums?
- Moscow (60) and Saint Petersburg (40).
- What are the most visited museums in Russia?
- By annual visitors reported on Wikipedia: Hermitage Museum (4,956,529), Moscow Zoo (3,129,100) and Moscow Kremlin Museums (3,101,550).
- What kinds of museums are in Russia?
- Of the 108 whose type we know, the most common are art museums (31), historic houses, palaces and castles (20), military museums (15) and transport museums (10).
- Imperial collections and palace interiors at the Hermitage Museum and Moscow Kremlin Museums
- Major holdings of Russian painting, icons, and sculpture at the Tretyakov Gallery and Russian Museum
- Strong representation of modern and contemporary art in Moscow, including Garage and the Multimedia Art Museum
- Museums tied to literature, religion, and state history, from writer house museums to Orthodox and royal treasures
- Broad regional variety, with ethnographic, archaeological, industrial, and natural history museums beyond Moscow and St. Petersburg
- Book timed-entry tickets in advance for major museums in Moscow and St. Petersburg, especially in summer, on weekends, and during school holidays.
- Many large museums are closed one day a week, often Monday or Tuesday, so check schedules carefully before planning multi-museum days.
- Allow extra time for security checks and cloakrooms, particularly at the Kremlin and other high-profile institutions; large bags may need to be stored.
- Use the metro in Moscow and St. Petersburg for the fastest access to central museums, and keep winter weather in mind when planning walking routes between sites.
All museums in Russia
Every museum in Russia listed on Mooseum. Search by name or type.
| Name | Type | Website | Links | Stats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
A.A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre MuseumThe Great Soviet Encyclopedia describes the A.A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum as the largest theatre museum in the world. Devoted entirely to the theatre, it suits visitors with a... | Music, film or theatre museum | www.gctm.ru |  | — |
— | www.rustelecom-museum.ru | | — | |
— | www.abramtsevo.net/eng | | — | |
— | gov.cap.ru/?gov_id=865 | | — | |
Anna Akhmatova Literary and Memorial MuseumOpened in 1989 to mark the centenary of Anna Akhmatova's birth, this St Petersburg museum is devoted entirely to the poet, who lived from 1889 to 1966. It is both a literary museum and a historic... | Historic house, palace or castle | akhmatova.spb.ru | | — |
Apartment Museum of Joseph BrodskyThe apartment of Nobel laureate poet Joseph Brodsky in Saint Petersburg's Muruzi House is the setting for this informal memorial museum, known in Russian as Музей-квартира И. А. Бродского. It was... | — | www.brodskymuseum.com | | — |
Arctic and Antarctic MuseumPolar science fills the former Nikolskaya Old Believers' Church in Saint Petersburg, a building constructed between 1820 and 1838 to designs by the architect Avraam Melnikov and closed as a church in... | — | www.polarmuseum.sp.ru | | — |
Art Deco MuseumLes Girls by Demetre Chiparus and The Fire and the Flame by Ferdinand Preiss are among the best-known works at Moscow's Art Deco Museum, which opened in 2014. Alongside them are La Chasse by Jean... | — | en.artdecomuseum.ru | | — |
ART4.RU Contemporary Art MuseumIgor Markin's collection of contemporary Russian art forms the basis of the ART4.RU Contemporary Art Museum, a privately owned institution that Markin founded in Moscow. It opened to the public in... | Art museum | www.art4.ru | | — |
— | artmuza.spb.ru | | — | |
AuroraThe cruiser Aurora is best known as the ship that reportedly fired the shot signalling the start of the attack on the Winter Palace during the October Revolution. Today the vessel, Avrora (Авро́ра)... | Maritime museum | www.aurora.org.ru | | — |
— | www.азовский-музей.рф | | — | |
Art museum | museum-nesterov.ru | | — | |
— | www.boldinomuzey.ru | | — | |
— | yeltsin.ru | | — | |
— | borzmuz.wix.com | | — | |
Bulgakov HouseThe building at Bolshaya Sadovaya ulitsa 10 is where Mikhail Bulgakov once lived, and it is also where some major scenes of his novel The Master and Margarita are set. The Bulgakov House occupies its... | Historic house, palace or castle | www.dombulgakova.ru | | — |
Bulgakov Museum in MoscowFlat No. 50, where Mikhail Bulgakov and his wife lived from 1921 to 1924, became the model for the apartment in The Master and Margarita where Woland and his retinue settle. Since April 2007 the flat... | Historic house, palace or castle | www.bulgakovmuseum.ru | | — |
— | www.dommeyerholda.ru | | — | |
Military museum | www.monino.ru | | — | |
Military museum | www.cmaf.ru | | — | |
Central House of Artists, MoscowFor four decades the Central House of Artists (Центральный дом художника) shared a single four-storey building with the New Tretyakov Gallery. From 1979 to 2019 it was one of the most famous... | — | www.cha.ru | | — |
Central Naval MuseumThe Botik of Peter the Great and Catherine II's marine throne are among the relics on permanent display at the Central Naval Museum, which Peter the Great founded in 1709. Its full Russian name,... | Military museum | eng.navalmuseum.ru | | — |
Centralny Dom KinoFilm premieres have been the business of the Central House of Cinema (Centralny Dom Kino) in Moscow since its founding in 1934. Today it is run by the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian... | — | unikino.ru | | — |
— | www.chnm.ru | | — |