Russian Museum - the country's first state Museum of Russian fine art, founded in 1895 in St. Petersburg by Decree of Emperor Nicholas II. It was officially opened to visitors on March 19 (March 7, old style) 1898.

Currently the collection of the Russian Museum has about 400 000 exhibits and covers all historical periods and trends of development of Russian art, all its basic forms and genres, trends and schools of more than 1000 years: from X to XXI century. The main exhibition is housed in the Mikhailovsky Palace and Benois wing, which is part of the Palace ensemble.

To the Museum complex, in addition to the Mikhailovsky Palace and Benois wing and wing Rossi, also include Marble and Stroganov palaces, Mikhailovsky (engineers') castle and unique parks - Summer garden with Summer Palace of Peter the great and the Mikhailovsky garden.

Currently in the collection of the Russian Museum is composed of the following departments: Russian and Soviet painting, sculpture, graphics, decorative-applied and folk art (furniture, porcelain, glass, carvings, lacquers, metal products, fabrics, embroidery, lace, etc.). In the ancient division is widely represented in the monuments of iconography, the works of Andrei Rublev and Simon Ushakov. The most comprehensive collection of art of the XVIII — first half XIX centuries, including works Borovikovsky, Levitsky, Kiprensky, Karl Bryullov. The second half of the nineteenth century is represented by works of artists — Itinerants: Shishkin, Kramskoy, Repin, Vasnetsov, Surikov, etc. you can see Also the works of Vrubel, Kustodiev, Roerich, artists of the Soviet period – Petrov-Vodkin, Mukhina, etc.

Russian Museum today is a unique repository of artistic treasures, a famous restoration centre, an authoritative research Institute, one of the largest centers of cultural and educational work, scientific-methodical center of art museums of the Russian Federation overseeing activities of 260 art museums in Russia.