This is a private museum, it is not supported financially by the state, but moral support is comprehensive.
The museum was founded in 2006 on the initiative of the CEO of the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC) Andrey Kozitsyn, who, according to Forbes, is one of the TOP richest people in Russia (30th place) with a fortune of $ 4.3 billion (2023).
At the age of 14, he was awarded the medal “For saving the drowning.”
PS I didn’t know it myself: The museum has about 15,000 exhibits, including more than 50 running models of military equipment from the 1930s and 1940s. In 2024, the museum was visited by almost 500,000 people.
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Well, anyone who saves another person’s life deserves praise, especially at such a young age. I see that Kozitsyn is also a substantial philanthropist for various charities. The statistics you mention for this, his museum, are impressive. Is it possible to summarise where all these exhibits came from? Other museums? Private collectors? And if so, all within Russia or from other countries?
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Hello Yuri,
I realize this has been said already many times, but I will happily add thank you for sharing your actual and chorological journeys through this - it is a remarkable resource!
Cheers
Nick
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This is a big and complex question. I think that I will not be able to cover this question in more detail than I have already written.
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No problem, I knew it was a big question. Instead, I wonder if the museum has been restoring wrecks? As you may be aware, in the west there has been an archaeological drive to preserve military hardware from 1914-1918 and 1939-1945, I imagine Russia has plenty of opportunities to do the same – AFVs and aircraft.
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I believe their T-35 is new build (they do have a heavy machinery factory next door) while their T-28 has an original hull, but is rebuilt in line with Finnish survivors, which were modified after capture. Of the 500 or so T-28s built, about 200 were knocked out in the wars against the Finns, but as the latter lacked the capacity to recover such large vehicles they were usually just stripped and left where they were, the carcasses recovered by the Russians and dragged off to Leningrad (only a short distance) and rebuilt, with one T-28 undergoing this process five times…
Regards,
M
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