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Thursday, 19.07.2007
Museum of the Political Police
The building now called ‘Museum of the Political Police’ was in the months following the October Revolution of 1917 the headquarters of the first Soviet state security service, the Cheka. The exhibition traces the history of the Russian secret service from its beginnings in the 19th century to the official dissolution of the notorious KGB in 1995.
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The Tsars created the secret service to combat the revolutionary socialist underground organisations. But after the Bolshevists seized power, they simply stood the ideological orientation of the organisation on its head: Its goal was now to achieve world revolution.
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Its founder, Felix Dzerzhinksi (1877-1926) described the ideal agent as having a ‘cool head, a fiery heart and a spotless jacket.’
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| Coordinates |
Gorokhovaya ul. 2
(entrance from Admiraliteyski Pr. 6)
Nearest metro:
Nevski Prospekt / Gostiny Dvor
Opening hours: 10.00am – 6.00pm
Closed: Saturday, Sunday
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The museum, opened in 1975, contains uniforms, equipment, decorations and portraits, as well as numerous newspaper articles and documents. Dzerzhinskii’s study has been reconstructed. The non-Russian captions are however largely uninformative.
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(hw/rUFO)
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