PUSHKIN MUSEUM, Introduction

Hi, my name’s Rick, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to one of the Wonders of the World, the Pushkin Museum.

The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, opened in 1912, is the most important and certainly most visited museum in Moscow. Although it is dedicated to Alexander Pushkin, it actually has nothing to do with the famous poet. Initially named after Emperor Alexander III, the current name dates to 1937, when it was changed to mark the centenary of the great Russian poet’s death.

By the mid-nineteenth century, many intellectuals had already begun to insist that a museum dedicated to fine arts be created, but it was thanks to Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev, professor at the University of Moscow, and later the first director of the museum, that this became a reality....