History and Culture: International Exhibition Project "Krusenstern: A Travel Around the World" to open in Moscow

On October 22, 2021, the State Historical Museum (Moscow) will launch the International Exhibition Project "Krusenstern: A Travel Around the World".

The exposition is devoted to Ivan Fyodorovich Krusenstern - a navigator, scientist, one of the founders of the Russian Geographical Society, a man who made the first Russian Circumnavigation.

The exposition features memorial items and relics from collections of museums, archives and libraries of Russia, Germany and Estonia. A significant part of the historical artefacts will be presented for the first time.

"The multifaceted personality of Ivan Fyodorovich Krusenstern is striking - he was a military man, scientist, and teacher. His research was a significant step in solving the most important geographical and oceanographic issues of the XIX century. Marking the 250th anniversary of Ivan Fedorovich's birth, the State Historical Museum prepared a large exhibition project. Also, the project involves 15 museums from Russia and Europe. It allows visitors to discover the brightest moments of the life and work of one of the most famous seafarers", says Alexei Levykin, the Museum Director.

One exhibition section features memorial items of Ivan Fyodorovich Krusenstern, including books from Krusenstern's private collection and the ship's library of the sloop Nadezhda, atlases with pencil marks of the navigator.

The central part of the exhibition presents exhibits telling about the first Russian Circumnavigation. The exposition comprises more than twenty items of the ethnographic collection of the peoples of Russian America collected by the participants in the trip. Atlas of Maps and Drawings for Travelling around the World in 1803-1806 of Captain Ivan Krusenstern on 16-gun Sloop Nadezhda and Atlas of the South Sea are the key exhibits in the section. A separate section showcases items related to visiting Japan: ambassadorial gifts to the Japanese Emperor - a bone vase and a sabre in a scabbard, the book A Guide to the Knowledge of the Japanese Language, Composed by Nikolai Rezanov, and the famous manuscript Kankai Ibun containing records of interrogations of Japanese sailors who occurred in Russian Empire as a result of a shipwreck and returned to Japan. For the first time, the exposition includes items from a unique Japan fish collection by G. I. Langsdorf, a result of his round-the-world expedition.

The exhibition will run until February 14, 2022.