The Russian Museum is the world’s largest collection of Russian art. Its holdings comprise more than 450,000 exhibits spanning the 10th to the 21st century: from the earliest icons to works by contemporary artists. The halls of the museum’s palaces display masterworks by such celebrated artists as Ivan Aivazovsky, Karl Brullov, Viktor Vasnetsov, Mikhail Vrubel, Arkhip Kuindzhi, Boris Kustodiev, Kazimir Malevich, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Ilya Repin, Nicholas Roerich, Vasily Surikov, Pavel Filonov, and many others. Visitors can also explore its rich holdings of folk art, decorative and applied arts, and sculpture.
The decision to found the Russian Museum was made by Emperor Alexander III. In 1895, Emperor Nicholas II signed a decree “On the establishment of a special institution to be named the Emperor Alexander III Russian Museum, and on the transfer for this purpose of the state-acquired Mikhailovsky Palace, with all its adjoining wings, outbuildings, and garden”. That same May, reconstruction began on the palace premises to prepare them for future museum exhibitions, under the direction of architect Vasily Svinin. On 3 May 1895, the “Regulation on the Museum” was approved. The Russian Museum officially opened its doors to the public on 7 March (19 March N. S.) 1898.
Today, the Russian Museum stands as a unique architectural and artistic complex in the very heart of St Petersburg. Its buildings are historical monuments from different eras, created by the finest architects of the 18th–20th centuries. The museum complex includes the Mikhailovsky Palace, the Benois Wing, the Marble Palace, the Stroganov Palace, St Michael’s (Engineers’) Castle with its Eastern and Western Guardhouses, the Cabin of Peter the Great, the Summer Palace of Peter the Great, and two gardens: the Summer Garden and the Mikhailovsky Garden.
In 2024, the Russian Museum ranked first among Russian museums in global attendance ratings and 11th among the most visited museums worldwide. Over the course of 2024, the Russian Museum welcomed more than 3.6 million visitors.
The exhibition Vasily Surikov. 175th Anniversary of the Artist’s Birth attracted 334,000 visitors. In 2024, the Russian Museum successfully organised the first comprehensive monographic exhibition of Vasily Surikov’s work in nearly 90 years. At the time, it set an all-time attendance record for the museum and earned the top spot in visitor numbers among all museums across the country.
The exhibition Viktor Vasnetsov. 175th Anniversary of the Artist’s Birth drew more than 392,600 visitors, setting an absolute attendance record in the century-long history of the historic Benois Wing.
In 2024–2025, the Academy Halls of the Mikhailovsky Palace hosted an unprecedented exhibition, Karl the Great. 225th Anniversary of Karl Brullov’s Birth. It brought together every masterpiece by Russia’s most internationally celebrated painter, with the Russian Museum uniting more than 300 works of art in a single unique display. The Karl the Great exhibition became the most visited in Russia over the past five years, drawing 477,000 visitors.
In 2024, the Russian Museum received the top award in museum affairs – the title of “Museum of the Year”, conferred by the Dmitry Likhachev National Museum Award.
In May 2025, the Research Library of the Russian Museum received the “Libraries of Leningrad: Contribution to Victory” Award. The library of the Mikhailovsky Palace holds publications that are themselves works of art, unique monuments of printing, and gifts from great figures of culture – among them, the collection of Sergei Makovsky. It also preserves the very first catalogues of the Russian Museum and various pre-revolutionary editions.
In 2025, Alla Manilova, General Director of the Russian Museum, was awarded the Honorary Badge “For a Special Contribution to the Development of St Petersburg”.
In February 2026, the Russian Museum won the Sobaka.ru Magazine Award in the category “Exhibition Strategy of the Year”. The “St Petersburg of the Future” Award was presented to Alla Manilova, General Director of the Russian Museum. The publication recognised the scale and impact of the museum’s exhibition projects: Karl the Great , which became the most visited exhibition in Russia over the past five years; Avant-Garde: The Great Experiment of Russian Art, the official exhibition of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF); and the grand exhibition Arkhip Kuindzhi: The Illusion of Light.
In March 2026, the Russian Museum received the prestigious “Museum of the Year” Award from the leading international publication The Art Newspaper Russia. The State Russian Museum became the only Russian museum to enter the top ten most visited museums in the world in 2025, ranking 6th in the annual global rankings compiled by The Art Newspaper. Compared to the previous year, the Russian Museum climbed five positions, surpassing such world-renowned institutions as Tate Modern and the National Gallery in London. Over the course of the year, the museum achieved a remarkable 41% increase in attendance, welcoming an unprecedented 5.1 million visitors.
In April 2026, the Russian Museum received the “Best News Story of 2025” Award, based on data from Medialogia, the country’s leading media and social media analytics system, for its exhibition of masterpieces from its collection at VDNKh in Moscow. A total of 115 absolute masterpieces from the Russian Museum’s collection were presented in the Central Pavilion (Pavilion No. 1) at VDNKh. Several of the works left the museum’s halls for the very first time. The exhibition The Image of Moscow in Russian Art from the Collection of the State Russian Museum became one of the most popular in the capital, attracting over 330,000 visitors during its five-month run.
In May 2026, the Russian Museum’s exhibition Avant-Garde: The Great Experiment of Russian Art won the “Exhibition Project” category at the Dmitry Likhachev National Museum Award. This marked the second consecutive year that the Russian Museum received this prestigious prize. The Avant-Garde: The Great Experiment of Russian Art exhibition was one of the largest projects in the history of the Russian Museum. Spanning twenty rooms of the Benois Wing, it featured more than 400 works representing key figures and movements of experimental art, including Kazimir Malevich, Wassily Kandinsky, Olga Rozanova, Pavel Filonov, Marc Chagall, and many others. In a truly unprecedented move, the decision was made to retain the exhibition after its official closing and fully integrate it into the permanent display of the Benois Wing. Today, these halls present masterpieces from the world’s largest collection of Avant-Garde art from the holdings of the Russian Museum, including paintings, drawings, and sculptures.