Minsk. House Museum of the First Congress of the RSDLP

The first Congress of the RSDLP was held from March 1 to March 3, 1898 in Minsk. The organizer of the congress was a local revolutionary E. A. Gurvich, who found half of the house on Zakharyevskaya Street for its holding. This house belonged to P. V. Rumyantsev, an employee of the Libavo-Romensk railway, and was rented from a philistine Frantishka Rzhetskaya. The windows of the house faced the Svisloch River and Hospital Street. The congress was disguised as a celebration of the name day of Rumyantsev's wife, Olga Mikhailovna.

The detectives of the security department have been following Boruch Eidelman for a long time, who brought them to Minsk from Kharkov. On Zakharyevskaya Street, they also noticed their acquaintances P. L. Tuchapsky and N. A. Vigdorchik. However, the head of the investigation, S. V. Zubatov, did not attach any importance to this, since the "clients" had already left.

In January 1923, in connection with the 25th anniversary of the RSDLP, the Central Committee of the CPB discussed the opening of the museum, and on March 14, the House Museum of the First Congress of the RSDLP was inaugurated in the Rzhetskaya house. The opening was attended by participants of the first congress P. V. Rumyantsev and B. L. Eidelman. It is interesting to note that the second half of the house remained residential before the war.

During the Great Patriotic War, the house was destroyed by bombing. In 1948, the building was restored according to the project of architect I. I. Volodko, a graduate of VKhUTEMAS. The basis for the restoration was the preserved foundation and documents that made it possible to accurately recreate the layout and architectural details of the house. In 1953, due to the reconstruction of Stalin Avenue, the house museum was moved closer to the Svisloch River. In 1954, the furnishings of Pyotr Rumyantsev's apartment were reproduced. Now the house is a small rectangular one-storey building, facing the front facade on Independence Avenue. The walls of the house are made of logs, dazed, with rectangular window openings, architraves and shutters.

Until 1959, the house museum was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture of the BSSR, then it was transferred to the Institute of Party History under the Central Committee of the CPB. Since 1992, the museum has been under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus and is a branch of the National Historical Museum of the Republic of Belarus.

There are more than 400 exhibits in the museum's collections and exhibition halls. Among them are documents and materials about the first Marxist circles in Russia, the Liberation of Labor group, the Union of Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class, a copy of the RSDLP manifesto published in Bobruisk, issues of the Iskra newspaper and much more. The memorial rooms have restored the furnishings of 1898, including a cuckoo clock, candlesticks and hung photographs. The last major exhibition directly related to the congress is called "The History of the Socialist Idea" (1995). Currently, the museum mainly demonstrates the life of the provincial Minsk and an exhibition of posters from the 1920s and 1980s.

The modern permanent exhibition of the museum includes the themes: "Minsk at the end of the XIX — beginning of the XX century", "Congress in person", "Gendarmerie investigation" and "History of the House Museum of the First Congress of the RSDLP". The museum regularly hosts exhibitions of Belarusian artists and master classes.

During the Soviet era, pioneer and Komsomol meetings were held in the museum, Komsomol tickets were awarded and meetings with veterans of the party were held. The House Museum was visited by up to 500 thousand people a year.

Visiting the museum was considered mandatory for all Communist movement figures coming to Minsk. Among them were L. Brezhnev, M. Gorbachev, F. Castro, M. Torez, Ho Chi Minh, E. Gerek, T. Zhivkov and many others.

The House Museum of the First Congress of the RSDLP in Minsk is an important historical and cultural object that attracts many tourists. This museum offers visitors a unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the history of the formation of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party and the revolutionary movement of the late XIX - early XX centuries.

The museum also actively participates in the cultural life of the city, holding various events, exhibitions of Belarusian artists and master classes. This makes it a great place to visit for both locals and tourists interested in the history and culture of Belarus.