RUMYANTSEV MANSION

A branch of the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg
44 Angliiskaya naberezhnaya 190000 St. Petersburg
Open:  1lam - 6pm, Tuesdays 11 am - 5pm
Closed: Wednesdays Tel. 311-7544
Nearest metro station: Nevsky prospect

Since 1939 the Rumyantsev Mansion has housed the Museum of the History of the City. In 1964 an exhibition entitled "Leningrad During the Years of Soviet Power" was opened here.

A monument of Late Neoclassicism, this mansion belonged to Count Nikolai Rumyantsev from 1802. Before his death in 1826, Rumiantsev specified in his will that the house should be rebuilt as a "public museum". The mansion was reconstructed in 1826 by the architect Vasily Glinka. He adorned the facade with a majestic twelve-columned portico and placed a high relief Apollo on Parnassus (sculptor Ivan Martos) on a triangular pediment.

Opened in 1831, the museum comprised Rumyantsev's art collections, his library and ancient manuscripts, as well as collections of coins and medals. In 1861 the museum was transferred to Moscow.

The present exhibition is devoted to the 900-day defence of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. The authentic materials on show give an impressive account of the fortitude displayed by the Leningraders during those terrible and, at the same time, heroic years. Particularly fascinating is the diary of the schoolgirl, Tanya Savicheva, in which she recorded, day by day, how her grandmother, mother and all the other members of her family died of starvation and cold.