In the technological revolution era, one might wonder: why do we need museums at all?
Museums are keepers of memory, places where the past comes alive. To get acquainted with the life of different nations, historical peculiarities of life in other countries, to find out how people lived in the past centuries – all this can be realized in a museum. The inquisitive mind will find answers to many questions.

The Hermitage, the Tretyakovka, the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Prado in Madrid, and the Archaeological Museum in Cairo are world famous museums. Practically every town in the world has its own local history museum, which houses rare items related to its history and stages of its development.

International Museum Day is also a professional holiday for all museum staff that carry out huge educational, popularisation and pedagogical work. International Museum Day is celebrated annually on 18 May.
International Museum Day is a professional holiday of all galleries of the world and all museum staff who carry out huge educational, promotional and pedagogical work. Today's international holiday owes its origin to the International Council of Museums (ICOM), established in 1946. Since the mid 20^th century, it has included the Soviet Union, and today it includes Russia.

In 1977, the museum community created its own professional holiday, which became International Museum Day. A resolution was adopted in 1977, during the General Assembly of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in Moscow. Each year a key theme is chosen, which determines the specifics of the celebration. Thus, on 18 May this year, the theme is ‘The Future Museums in Rapidly Changing Communities’. The very designation of the theme reflects the desire of cultural institutions to respond to the challenges of modernity in a timely manner.
International Museum Day has long outgrown the professional holiday of museum workers. Today, it is a large-scale cultural event in which millions of people all over the world participate. The main tradition of this day is publicity. Many museums refuse to charge entrance fees and organize free guided tours, lectures and workshops, providing opportunity to visitors to take a fresh look at their collections.

The main event of the holiday in Russia is the Night of Museums, which traditionally starts on the weekend nearest to the date of the holiday. During this event, guests can attend evening and night programmes with concerts and performances, spin-off quests, interactive tours and watch documentaries about art.

Tsar Peter the Great was the first in Russia to understand the museum as a social institution designed not only to preserve the memory of cultural values, but also to educate people. He also created the first Russian museum. Travelling anonymously as part of the Great Embassy (1698) to European countries, the Tsar was very impressed by the collections of items, which in German were called ‘Kunstkabinett’. Curious and greedy for novelties, the young sovereign began to purchase separate items of historical and cultural value, as well as entire collections. He sent the acquired valuables home, and they formed the basis of his personal collection (the Sovereign's Parlour). When the capital was moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg, one of Peter’ first orders was to transport the rarities and libraries collected by the tsar to the new capital of the state. They were placed in the first royal residence - the Summer Palace. The first museum in Russia was called in the European manner – Kunstkabinett (Parlour of rarities). This event took place in 1714.

The number of collected items was so large that it was impossible to organize them in an orderly manner and to provide proper storage and care. Therefore, it was decided to adapt the confiscated vast chambers of the disgraced nobleman Alexander Vasilyevich Kiki (1670-1718) for the Kunstkabinett and library. After the collections were transferred to Kikin’s chambers in 1718, by order of Peter the Great, they became publicly available and free of charge. By giving the collection of ancient and unusual items a state importance, the tsar, first of all, pursued educational goals.
Due to the increase of the collection, it was decided to build a special building on the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island. The present building was erected in the period from 1718 to 1734. At the end of the 19^th century, the Kunstkabinett was given a narrower purpose, becoming a collection of exhibits on anthropology and ethnography. The museum repository was enriched with valuable collections from major maritime expeditions. During the Soviet era, the building of the Kunstkabinett housed the Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology.

At average of 650-750 thousand tourists visit the Kunstkabinett every year. The museum offers sightseeing, thematic and interactive excursions, game activities and quests. There are permanent and changeable expositions. In general, this unique museum even today can offer visitors a lot of interesting things that supplement the collections of anatomical anomalies that have become its highlight. The full name of this institution is ‘The Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences’.

For many, visiting a museum on May 18 becomes an annual ritual, and for cultural institutions themselves, an opportunity to show that they remain vibrant and constantly evolving spaces where history meets innovation.

Today, on International Museum Day, we invite you to join millions of people around the world by checking out the museum Collection Video Archive.