Museum of Happy Childhood (Kazan)

The Museum of Happy Childhood (Muzey schastlivogo detstva) is a private museum of Soviet childhood in the centre of Kazan, on pedestrian Bauman Street near Tukay Square. Its two floors in an old townhouse are filled with things Soviet children grew up with in the 1970s and 1980s, along with objects from the 1990s, and nearly everything can be touched, leafed through and photographed.

History

The museum opened on 18 March 2015. It was created by designer and photographer Rustam Valiakhmetov, who had earlier founded Kazan's Museum of Socialist Everyday Life; the new museum continued that project with a focus on childhood. The building dates from the mid-19th century, and in Soviet times it housed communal flats where, by some accounts, up to 28 people lived. The museum covers about 200 square metres and holds around a thousand exhibits.

What to see at the Museum of Happy Childhood

The ground floor, with bright red walls, is devoted to the Soviet school. It recreates a classroom of the 1970s and 1980s:

• wooden desks and benches, textbooks, exercise books and stationery;
• globes, teaching aids, busts and paintings;
• musical instruments and Young Pioneer symbols.

The first floor holds the "Labyrinth of Life" exhibition: objects from the 1970s to the 1990s arranged in chronological order, so visitors follow a Soviet child's path from childhood to adult life. It includes:

• toys: roly-poly dolls, wind-up cars, dolls, toy railways;
• books, school record books, stamp and sweet-wrapper collections;
• children's clothes and shoes, sports equipment;
• television sets, radios, record players and vinyl records.

A separate room has old arcade machines and the first Soviet video recorders. The museum also keeps gifts from well-known people: one display case holds the school satchel of Sergey Shnurov, frontman of the band Leningrad.

The interiors are styled as a Soviet flat and a school classroom, and there are themed photo spots: taking pictures is one of the main reasons families come here. Guides tell visitors how Soviet children lived, and the gift shop sells badges, postcards, Soviet toys and sweets.

Getting there

The museum is at 47 Bauman Street, Kazan (some directories list it as 47/9, with the entrance from Universitetskaya Street). The nearest metro station is Ploshchad Gabdully Tukaya, a few minutes' walk away; Kremlyovskaya is also close. The nearest bus and tram stops are Ploshchad Tukaya and Kombinat Zdorovye.

Good to know

• The museum is open daily from 10:00; sources give the closing time as 19:00 or 20:00.
• According to guidebooks, an adult ticket costs about 350 roubles, with a lower price for schoolchildren, students and pensioners, and free entry for children under 3; a combined ticket covers the Museum of Happy Childhood and the Museum of Socialist Everyday Life.
• Photography is allowed in almost all rooms, without flash.
• The museum appeals both to children and to adults who remember a Soviet childhood.