Internet in Russian Museums
Even 2 - 3 years ago it was clear for Russian specialists that the lack of modern communication facilities would be the major impediment for offering the public an opportunity to see the most interesting exhibitions and fully participate in the global collaboration between museums and cultural institutions. That is why the project "Internet in Russian Museums" has been initiated in 1995 with a group of Russian Museums.

Two main tasks has been accepted for the period 1996 - 1997:

  • to supply a group of Russian Museums (about 10 Museums) with the equipment to implement Internet into the Museum practice,
  • to create a powerful Internet Russian Site.

Supported partly by the Soros Foundation, coordinated by ADIT, the project is under fulfilling now. Some Museums in Moscow and St.Petersburg (Moscow Kremlin Museum, Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, State Hermitage) are already supplied with the equipment and offering access to Internet for stuff (sometimes - for public), some others will be equipped in nearest future. The experience accumulated in other institutions (including CIDOC and ICOM Internet activity) made it possible to avoid a number of mistakes and to get in short time some benefits.


The first official manifestation of Russian Museums activity in Internet was the Internet server "Museums of Russia" established in 1996 by the special team with the technical support of The State Darwin Museum in Moscow. Opened in 1995 in a new building and supplied with powerful equipment, The State Darwin Museum is considered as a leader in the Russian Museums Community. The site "Russian Museums" is considered by Internet users as one of the best of such kind. There are a powerfull database of russian museums and museum web sites, a lot of information was prepared for museum professionals. The site presents information on the Russian, English, France, German, Italy, and Spain languages. Provision is made to link to the ICOM and CIDOC home pages, to several hundred Museum home pages all over the world, a comfortable service. I do not think it is necessary to present a description of this site: the best thing is to access it in Internet, the site address: http:\\www.museum.ru.
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