Moscow museums
Not every museum in the city, but those that can open new worlds, point to genuine masterpieces, sharpen the mind and move the soul. Every entry carries our own rating of the collection, what matters most here, a minimum route to the essentials, when to come to avoid the crowds and what it costs. Every entry is dated with its last check.
The Pushkin State Museum
The permanent displays Pushkin and His Age (fifteen rooms of the manor house) and Pushkin’s Fairy Tales; first editions, portraits of his circle, everyday objects of the early 19th century.
Tropinin Museum
Portraits by Vasily Tropinin and his Moscow contemporaries, work by serf artists, Russian Biedermeier. The quiet Zamoskvorechye lane and the house itself are half the pleasure.
Apollinary Vasnetsov Museum
The studio with its original furnishings, and the views of old Moscow — historical reconstructions by which the medieval city is still imagined.
Exhibition Hall of the Federal Archives
Original documents from the State Archive of the Russian Federation, RGADA, RGVIA and other federal archives: things that normally stay in the stacks.
Experimentanium Museum of Entertaining Science
_01.jpg){kind=link}
Halls of mechanics, optics, acoustics and electricity; a mirror maze; science shows to a timetable.
Lomakov Museum of Antique Cars and Motorcycles
A Mercedes-Benz 540K the museum links to Joseph Goebbels; government ZIS limousines; vehicles from the collection have appeared in more than 120 films.
Museum of Folk Prints
Lubok sheets of the 17th to 19th century, printing boards and a press, and work by living artists who continue the craft.
Museum of Moscow Archaeology
The white-stone piers of the Voskresensky Bridge of the 16th to 18th century — the museum was built around them; coin hoards found in the city centre; the everyday things of medieval Moscow.
Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines
.jpg){kind=link}
Sea Battle, Gorodki, Sniper, Safari — the machines work rather than stand behind glass; and the soda machine with a faceted glass.
State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia
The building of the Moscow English Club — the club of Eugene Onegin and War and Peace, with the lions on its gate; Soviet propaganda porcelain; the collection of gifts to Stalin.
We give the rating ourselves and answer for it: it is about the value of the collection, not the size of the building, the visitor numbers or the fame of the name.
- world-class
- In the same rank as the world's leading museums.
- outstanding
- A strong collection: worth setting aside a day for.
- significant
- There are things here worth seeing.
- for enthusiasts
- Of interest to those already drawn to the subject.
- niche
- Valuable to a narrow circle, without wider recognition.
Checked on 15 August 2026 — against museum websites and open sources. Every entry carries its own date of checking and what it was checked against. A price we could not confirm we say so, rather than leaving the old one.
Time needed is for the essentials, along our minimum route, without the café, the shop or the cloakroom queue. Going through the whole museum almost always takes longer.
The photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and the licence are given under each one.
18 May is International Museum Day (since 1977), and the night of 17–18 May is Museum Night. On those days museums keep different hours and are often free.
We answer for every figure and date on these pages. If a museum has changed its hours or its prices, if a link has died, or if you think a museum is missing from the list — write to us. We will correct it and set a new date of checking.