Museum of Socialist Life (Kazan)

The Museum of Socialist Life is a private museum of Soviet everyday life in the historic centre of Kazan, on Universitetskaya Street, a few minutes' walk from Tukay Square and Bauman Street. Often called the museum of Soviet life or the USSR museum in Kazan, it fills a former communal apartment with the furniture, appliances and objects familiar to several generations of Soviet people.

History

The museum's founder and director is Kazan photographer and designer Rustem Valiakhmetov. He began collecting Soviet household items in 1991, while still a student at Kazan University, at a time when most people were throwing such "outdated" things away. In his own words, he managed to "uncouple one carriage of the departing train".

At first the collection filled an ordinary flat hung with Soviet memorabilia, then it moved several times, including a spell in a small basement. Today the museum occupies a former communal apartment of about 200 square metres on the second floor of a mid-19th-century residential building. The rooms were deliberately left almost untouched: cast-iron radiators, old wiring on the walls and the very same Soviet light switches.

The collection opened as a public museum in the early 2010s; one of its first exhibitions, "The Soviet School", was largely made up of items donated by Kazan residents. Valiakhmetov calls the exhibits "a collection of stories and good feelings".

What to see

The collection is said to number more than 10,000 items. At its core are Soviet apartment interiors with original furniture, appliances and tableware from the 1920s to the 1990s, with the 1960s to 1980s best represented. Among the exhibits are toys, arcade machines, audio equipment, cameras, clothes visitors can try on, and a Soviet toilet.

There are themed rooms and exhibitions: on Soviet space achievements, "Toys: Made in the USSR", "Bad Habits in the USSR" and a "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" with guitars and memorabilia of Russian rock. Labels are scarce, things stand as they would in a lived-in flat rather than in display cases, many can be touched, and you can play "Sea Battle" on an old arcade machine.

Legends and stories

According to the museum's staff, it was Andrei Makarevich who suggested turning the collection into a real museum: on seeing it, he reportedly said it was "not just a studio, but a real museum". Another story concerns a denim jacket that Joseph Brodsky is said to have sent from America to his friend, the poet Yuri Kublanovsky; the jacket is now on display.

Getting there

Address: 6/39 Universitetskaya Street, Kazan, second floor. The nearest metro station is Ploshchad Tukaya, with bus and trolleybus stops Ploshchad Tukaya and Skver Tukaya nearby. The pedestrian Bauman Street is a few minutes' walk away.

Good to know

Guidebooks say the museum is open daily; check opening hours and prices before you go. Money from tickets and from the gift shop, which sells genuine Soviet-era items, goes to developing the museum and expanding the collection.