The local history museum in Miass, founded in 1920, is one of the oldest cultural institutions in the Chelyabinsk region. E. I. Mali, an artist and teacher, the initiator of the creation and the first director of the museum, left a bright mark on the history of the city and a good memory in the hearts of culture lovers.
The museum's collection, which initially consisted of 1195 exhibits, today has grown to 51 thousand. They reflect all aspects of life, development, activities of Miass, a city with a long history.
Miass and city-forming industries
The city of Miass grew out of a working village at a copper smelter, which was founded in 1773 by I. I. Luginin. The location was chosen for commercial reasons: close to raw material reserves. The city received an impetus for economic growth with the development of gold mining in these parts. At the beginning of the 19th century, large-scale work began at the gold mines in the valley of the Miass River.
This period of the life of the city is closely connected with the name of Yegor Mitrofanovich Simonov, who grew up from a simple miner to the richest gold miner, philanthropist,who made a great contribution to the development of the city.
Modern Local Lore Museum of Miass, address: st. Pushkin, house 8, is located in his mansion. At the beginning of the 20th century, after the revolution, large nationalized enterprises collapsed, and the scale of gold mining in the region dropped sharply.
At the end of the 19th century, the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway line connecting Miass and Vladivostok began, which also strengthened the position of the city. The sawtooth plant, evacuated from Riga during the First World War, gave a new development to the industrial sector of Miass. It still works, today it is a tool production.
Evacuated to the Urals in the 40s, factories from different cities of the country served as the basis for the creation of the machine and automotive industry in Miass. Today, these industries are city-forming.
All these events and many others from the life of the city served as a topic for expanding the funds of the museum, which reflects the historical path of Miass in its expositions.
Museum Funds
The collection of archaeological finds, replenished during local history and scientific expeditions, has more than 20 thousand items.
The mineralogical collection is not inferior to the previous one in value and diversity. Here are samples of deposits and we alth of the Ilmensky mountains: rocks of ore-bearing layers, ornamental and precious stones.
Kusinsky and Kaslinsky foundry and machine-building plants, which worked on samples of products by famous artists P. K. Klodt, E. A. Lansere, V. F. Torokina, presented a collection of art castings to the Miass Museum of Local Lore.
Documents valuable from the point of view of history reflect the entire path of the city from the creation of the village at the Miass copper smelter to the present.
The rare book department has collected rarities of secular and spiritual content over the years. There are the first acquisitions of the museum - publications of the Ural Society of Natural Science Lovers (UOLE), there are publications of private printing houses of the Miass Plant, there are two Gospels published in the 18th century.
The collection of the ethnographic department was replenished, thanks to the inhabitants of the surrounding villages and villages. It included household items, clothing, tools of different segments of the population.
Experts build permanent expositions of the Miass Museum of Local Lore and temporary exhibitions from the collected collections, acquainting city guests and local residents with the history of the region.
Exposition: "Foundation of the copper smelter and the history of the development of gold mining"
The atmosphere of the 18th-19th centuries was created in the halls, reflecting the activities and life of workers, the production process and the result of hard work.
Two dioramas - a copper-smelting furnace and a gold mine - clearly show the working conditions, tools and devices used at that time, clothes and life outside the work of ordinary people. It also provides documented information that 52 nuggets were found at the Tsarevo-Alexandrovsky mine, the largest one weighing 36.6 kilograms. They called it the Big Triangle.
Mannequins participating in dioramas,made in human height, dressed in accordance with historical data and very realistic.
Exposition: “Mining Engineer's Office”
The factories operating in Miass, like any production, required qualified specialists and wise leaders. There are many such people, even dynasties, whose names are carefully preserved by the Miass Museum of Local Lore. The Redikortsevs, Romanovskys and other specialists with Ural roots have done a lot for the city-forming industry.
A room in the house of the gold miner E. M. Simonov, which used to be his office, is now turned into a mining engineer's office by museum workers. Modest, ascetic, nothing more. A cupboard with technical books, a simple table with a set for writing, a bookcase (art casting). From the furniture there is also a Viennese couch for relaxing and comfortable chairs.
Museum Activities
In total, the museum has six permanent exhibitions, which are viewed with curiosity by tourists, and history lessons are regularly held here for schoolchildren. Reviews of the local history museum of Miass are all warm and grateful. Many wishes of success in creative activity.
In addition to excursion work, thematic meetings and exhibitions, theatrical performances, festivals are held here, leisure activities for young people and the elderly are organized.
