The very first exhibition that told about the military situation of the Soviet Republic and the Red Army was an exhibition organized in Moscow inside the building currently occupied by the GUM. It was in May of 1919. This exhibition was timed to coincide with the first display of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Republic during the Red Square parade of the Vsevobuch (a Russian word for "total education") regiments. This parade took place on 25th May 1919; right after it had finished, V. Lenin and participants of the parade visited the exhibition.
On 23rd December 1919, the Revolutionary Military Council (the central command of the Armed Forces during the first two decades after the 1917 Russian Revolution) issued a decree that created an exhibition called Life of the Red Army and Navy (decree no. 2207). The exhibition was allocated lower floors of the Upper Trading Rows (now the GUM) in Red Square then occupied by the People's Commissariat (Ministry) for Food. The text of the decree emphasised that the goal of the exhibition was to get the widest possible circle of people acquainted with the achievements of the Soviet Russia in terms of military, cultural, and political education of the Red Army and Navy, made during the two years after the 1917 Revolution.
In 1920, an exposition dedicated to the 11th Communist International Congress in Moscow was organised; the exposition told about everyday life and work of the Soviet Republic and its "young" Armed Forces that were protecting the "gains of proletariat". The exposition was visited by congress delegates followed by over 150.000 people during 6 weeks. In 1921, the Life of the Red Army and Fleet exhibition was transformed into the Museum of the Red Army and Navy. In 1922, the museum moved to the building at 6 Vozdvizhenka Street and stayed there until 1928 (that building was situated opposite the present-day Russian State Library and was demolished in 1930s).
The most important event during the first years of the existence of the museum was an exhibition that commemorated the 5th anniversary of the Red Army. This exhibition was very popular among the public. Since the exhibition opened (23rd February 1923) and by the time it closed (1st November 1923), the materials of the exhibition had been viewed by 500 groups and over 70.000 individual visitors.
In 1924, the museum was renamed the Central Museum of the Red Army and Navy. In 1951, it was renamed the Central Museum of the Soviet Army and in 1965 it was renamed the Central Museum of the USSR Armed Forces. In 1993, the museum acquired its present-day name, the Central Museum of the Armed Forces.
In 1928, the museum moved to the left wing of the Central House of the Red Army in Yekaterininskaya Square (now Suvorova Square) and stayed there until 1965. In 1965, a new building (designed by the architects N. Gaygarov and B. Barkhin) was built; since then, the Central Museum of the Armed Forces has occupied that building.
The museum possesses "relics" of military heroic deeds of peoples of Russia that span the complete history of the existence of the Russian state. These invaluable materials helped to create a sort of chronicle telling about courage of Russian freedom and independence defenders.
Over 700.000 military history related items are carefully kept in the holdings of the museum. A part of the holdings is on display in 25 rooms as permanent and mobile exhibitions.
The first six rooms present materials related to the first years after the 1917 October Revolution including the Civil War that followed. One of these rooms displays a photocopy of the text of the decree that founded the Read Army, with notes by V. Lenin as well as a banner of the 195th rifle regiment where V. Lenin was enlisted in as an honorary Red Army soldier. Weapons, documents, decorations, personal belongings of private Red Army soldiers and legendary heroes of the Civil War (M. Frunze, G. Kotovsky, V. Chapayev, V. Blyukher, etc.) and other materials reconstruct the image of a revolutionary.
The exposition of the next rooms tells about main stages of defensives and offensives of the Great Patriotic War, about events of the heroic battle with Fascism, about heroic deeds of the Russian people. There rooms display unique materials on famous military leaders and simple soldiers, on heroes of the battlefront and home front and on guerrillas. In the rooms, one may see things that belonged to the front commander I. Chernyakhovsky who was mortally wounded in February of 1945 during a battle in East Prussia (his fur coat hit by a shell), to the Soviet Guard Private A. Kleshchuk (his Order of the Patriotic War torn into pieces by a splinter), to the Hero of the Soviet Union A. Matrosov (his assault rifle and his Komsomol membership card), to the Hero of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Guard Sergeant M. Yegorov who participated in the 1945 Battle for the Berlin Reichstag and erected the Victory Battle Banner over its dome. This banner is kept here, at the museum. There is a simple, red battle banner on a granite pedestal, in the centre of a room. It belonged to the 150th Idritskaya rifle division decorated with the 2nd Class Order of Kutuzov. The battle banner has become an invaluable relic.
Other rooms are dedicated to the modern army and navy including the military commonwealth of the CIS states. The rooms display works of Russian military pictorial art, sculpture, graphics, and poster. Open-air areas of the museum are occupied by samples of rocket, artillery, tank, navy, and aviation technology.
War and labour veterans wrote in the guestbook: "Your museum is rightfully called a treasure trove of monuments to the people's heroic deeds. People need this museum very much. If they had more museums like this one, people would understand that they need peace, not war…"
The Central Museum of the Armed Forces is a member of the Russian Union of Museums, of the Russian Committee of the International Council of Museums, of the International Association of Arms & Military History Museums; the museum actively participates in the work of these organisations.
An open-air area presents over 200 samples of arms and military technology, ranging from an armoured train from the Civil War, the legendary T-34 tank and the Katiusha multiple rocket launcher to the S-300 surface-to-air missile system, supersonic fighter aircraft and ballistic missiles.
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