Published on: 2026-10-08
Source: Moscow Government – Правительства Москвы –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
The third week of every month is time to discover something new. As part of Moscow Museum Week The venues under the jurisdiction of the city’s Department of Culture participating in the event can be visited for free. Each museum has its own free admission day. You will need to book an electronic ticket in advance through the service. “Mosbilet” using Mos ID. Both a full and a standard account will do. All the details are at promotion page. The campaign will run from October 12 to 18.
On Monday, October 12, opens its doors Museum-Panorama “Battle of Borodino” — a whole world of events from 1812. Its heart is Franz Roubaud’s “Borodino,” one of the largest panoramas in the world: 115 meters long and 15 meters high. In addition, the exhibition features battle paintings, decorative and applied arts, and authentic samples of weaponry, uniforms, and equipment from the early 19th century. On October 1, the museum opened a new exhibition “Scents of Time,” dedicated to products of famous Russian confectionery factories, perfumery productions, and textile manufactories that appeared on shelves in 1912 — during the celebration of the centenary of the Patriotic War. Here you can see, for example, tin boxes and paper labels with portraits of commanders and battle scenes, as well as advertising cards from the “Einem” factory, depicting important battles.
On Monday, you can also visit museum “Old English Court”. The fate of the chambers on Varvarka is remarkable: in 1556, Ivan the Terrible gifted the house to English merchants from the Moscow Trading Company, founded in London. Thus, the oldest residence in the capital, preserved to this day, appeared. Today, the museum has recreated the interiors of a merchant’s house from the 16th–17th centuries: the living room called the “Kazennaya Palata” with a checkered floor, a recreated tiled stove featuring images of a unicorn and the Sirin bird, and in the White Stone basement you can see niches and a loading hatch through which bales of goods were lowered directly from the street. Here, until November 1, the exhibition “GOST. Russia 1967–2006” is open, showcasing unique artifacts that allow visitors to see the everyday life of the “Russia” hotel.
On Tuesday, we suggest continuing the cultural program at contemporary art venues. At “Multimedia Art Museum” The 16th International “Photobiennale-2026” is underway. It features seven exhibitions. One of the central ones is “The Theater of the Subconscious” by Roger Ballen, an important figure in world photography of the second half of the 20th century. Muscovites will be the first to see his new project “Inferno,” created based on Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” The exhibition “Lilya Brik: style icon and muse of the avant-garde,” dedicated to the 135th anniversary of the heroine’s birth, will tell her story through photographs from the 1910s to the 1970s, photo collages by Alexander Rodchenko, and posters. City lovers should also check out the project “Metro — the pulse of time”: photographers have dedicated it to the new stations built over the last 15 years.
Tuesday’s second address — Moscow Museum of Modern Art. In the building at At Petrovka The retrospective “Rukhin. A Step into Abstraction” opened — a major exhibition of the nonconformist artist Evgeny Rukhin, whose scattered legacy was gathered for the first time into a single narrative tracing his journey from “Roerich-style” landscapes to the heights of abstract painting. The exhibition includes works from the Tretyakov Gallery, museum collections, and private collections. And in the educational center museum In Ermolaevsky Lane, there is an exhibition titled “Paths, Hooks, and the Red Thread”: it is dedicated to how clothing is reflected in the art of the 20th to early 21st century. The exhibition is arranged like an open wardrobe: behind the cabinet doors hide more than 50 works of painting, graphics, photography, video, and installations, and in the design — waistcoats, shawls, quilted jackets, and T-shirts of different eras.
On Wednesday, we suggest visiting the memorial apartments State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky. In “Apartment on Bolshaya Presnya” the poet’s creative path began: his like-minded peers would drop by here, debates took place here, poems were read, and manifestos of new art were born. In the Mayakovsky family’s apartment in Studenetsky Lane There is currently an exhibition “Mayakovsky Reads” — about the poet’s circle of reading. The exposition presents publications from the museum’s collections, books from the Brik family library, copies with dedications, and materials from the family archive, which shed new light on the literary connections of the Russian avant-garde. The memorial apartments are intimate spaces, so no more than 12 guests can be present at the same time. Visits are held in sessions from 12:00 to 19:00, and it’s best to get a free ticket in advance.
Two apartments, five women, one fate: heading to the Mayakovsky Museum with a “Mosbilet”
On Thursday, October 15, we invite you to immerse yourself in the world of wildlife — K.A. Timiryazev State Biological Museum on Malaya Gruzinskaya Street, where biology becomes truly tangible: showcases with taxidermy and skeletons, interactive modules, and halls that clearly explain evolution, anatomy, and ecology. On this day, admission is free not only to the building on Malaya Gruzinskaya, but also to Pavilion No. 31 “Geology” of the “Biocluster,” where an exhibition is held “12 Signs of the Living” — about what distinguishes the living from the non-living.
The second route of the day – Vladimir Vysotsky State Museum on Taganka. This is a unified space where personal belongings, manuscripts, posters, and stage costumes create a vivid portrait of the poet. From October 9 to November 2, the exhibition hall features “A Song of the Transmigration of Souls” — a joint project by Kolomna artists Vladislav Tatarinov and Yulia Chuguevskaya. Paintings are displayed alongside works of art glass, and the title refers to the famous 1969 song.
We’ll start Friday in Moscow State Museum of S.A. Yesenin. Constant exposure S.A. Yesenin House-Museums in Bolshoy Strochenovsky Lane, opened in 1995, on the 100th anniversary of the poet’s birth, tells about Sergey Alexandrovich’s Ryazan roots and his family. In “Yesenin Center” Two exhibitions are underway. The anniversary “Memory of the Poet,” dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the museum, has brought together memorial items, rare archives, and materials related to the history of Yesenin’s heritage — some exhibits are being shown for the first time. The exhibition “I Dreamed of the Ryazan Sky…” immerses visitors in the images of Yesenin’s lyrics.
Let’s continue the day in one of the most atmospheric Moscow estates — in Izmailovo, on an artificial island ordered to be created in the 17th century by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. It was here that the young Peter I found the old English boat ‘Saint Nicholas’ — since then, Izmailovo has been called the ‘cradle of the Russian fleet.’ In the large exhibition hall, there is a display ‘Izmailovo — the Tsar’s estate of the 17th century’: fragments of the Lion Gates, old plans of the Izmailovo lands, an authentic 17th-century water pipe, and a model of that very boat. And in the southern building — a collection of ceramics from the 17th to the early 20th century: a permanent exhibition “Open Storage. Ovens and Tiles” with ceramic icons by the master Stepan Polubes. It is now complemented by another exhibition “Taught (Learned)”, where historical ceramics stand alongside works by graduates of the Department of Artistic Ceramics of the Stroganov School.
Saturday is a day of remembrance and reflection. On State Museum of the Defense of Moscow The history of the Great Patriotic War appears as a living chronicle: authentic documents, photographs, personal belongings of the capital’s defenders, fragments of weapons and uniforms. Five thematic halls sequentially reveal how the city’s defense was organized, how Muscovites lived and fought in 1941–1942, and at what cost victory was achieved. There is no place for pathos here — only facts, testimonies, and a silence in which the voices of the past are especially clearly heard.
Sunday concludes Moscow Museum Week in a special way: through destinies, letters, and living memory of Russia. The first address is Alexander Solzhenitsyn Russian Abroad House. This is not just a museum, but a space where the stories of those who carried Russian culture beyond the homeland come alive. The permanent exhibition “Russian Abroad. Paths and Fates” leads from the emigration of the 1920s to the return of the heritage to the homeland: letters, photographs, archives, and rare editions form a large picture of the emigrant era. The Sunday route can be continued at Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Museum-Apartment on Tverskaya: there is an exhibition “Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Contemporary Musicians,” dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Galina Vishnevskaya. Here you can see photographs, posters, scores, and footage from newsreels of the 1960s.
The second route — Alexander Shilov Gallery on Znamenka. Here every canvas is a character, an era, a fate: from military and scientists to people of art, whose faces hold a whole history. Currently, the gallery features a new exhibition “Drawing is the foundation of everything,” dedicated to the pencil graphics of the master.
Find out about plays, concerts, exhibitions, and other interesting events on the official channels of “Mosbilet” on “Max” and “Telegram”.
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