Museum of Political History guided tour

This lesser-known museum a short walk from the Peter and Paul Fortress boasts one of St. Petersburg's most intriguing and informative collections. A must for history buffs, it can be brought alive equally successfully for all visitors with the assistance of an engaging and properly qualified tour guide.

Founded as the Museum of the Revolution and housed for decades in the Winter Palace itself, the museum was designed to celebrate the rise of Bolshevik power for the benefit of schoolchildren and factory workers, amassing and correlating the mass of agitprop material churned out by the different branches of the Soviet state, as well as photographs and documents relating to major events and everyday life in the Soviet Union. In the early 1990s, the museum underwent a quiet revolution of its own, with the staff reframing the vast archive of materials to create in place of what was essentially a propaganda exercise a much more nuanced, objective and entertaining exhibition.

A guided tour of the Museum of Political History is a unique opportunity to explore the history and culture of the Soviet Union in all its bombastic, flawed and at times awful glory, as well as viewing the magnificent Kschessinska Mansion, one of St. Petersburg's most beautiful Art Nouveau buildings.

Itinerary and route details