UK "Shklovsky District Museum of History and Local Lore"

The Shklov Museum is located in the heart of the city, next to the town hall, which is a reminder that Shklov once had Magdeburg rights. In the 19th century, Shklov was a famous Jewish center, where the main kahal (government body) for the entire region was located. Today, traces of the rich Jewish culture can be seen in the city, such as the Jewish cemetery, which is over 500 years old. At the entrance to the cemetery there is a bisheim - a staircase symbolizing purgatory.

History of the museum :

The museum was founded on June 27, 1990, and on September 1, 2007, the museum halls were opened to visitors.

The regional history and local history museum includes two branches: the P. Aleynikov House Museum in the village of Krivel and the Selkhoztekhnika Museum of Labor and Military Glory in the city of Shklov.

A unique feature of the city of Shklov is that throughout its history it changed location three times and at each stage of development it had certain features. This is reflected in the section of the exhibition "Medieval History of Shklov".

Research is still being conducted on the territory of the district, the materials of which are transferred to the museum, and the most interesting finds are presented in the exhibition. The Belarusian Voluntary Public Association for the Protection of the Historical and Cultural Heritage of Shklovshchina, the Memorial search team, and the scientific and creative association Know and Love Your Land operate on the basis of the museum.

Museum exposition:

The permanent exhibition “Shklovshchina from ancient times to the present day” has 7 sections:

• "The Ancient History of Shklovshchina"
• "Medieval History of the City"
• "The era of Zorich in Shklov"
• "Shklov town in the 19th century"
• "Shklovshchina during the wars and hard times of the early 20th century"
• "The Great Patriotic War" and the hall of post-war and modern history of Shklovshchina

The museum sections present the material culture and economic activity of the population of Shklovshchina, using such museum forms as models, dioramas, installations and others, and the exhibition sections are accompanied by numerous original documents and photographs, personal belongings and other items.

The oldest and most unique exhibit is a mammoth tooth (150 thousand years old), more than 200 valuable museum exhibits adorn the section of medieval history, the most significant of which are a pectoral cross from the 11th century, a medallion from the 12th century, coins from the 12th-13th centuries, jewelry from the 11th-12th centuries, ceramics from the 14th-17th centuries, etc., an original collection of steelyards and clay dishes, soft ethnography and labor items.

In the display cases and on the podiums you can see objects-symbols of the Soviet era, on the stands there are photographs of famous fellow countrymen: heroes of Socialist Labor, artists, political figures, poets and writers, teachers, military men and scientists. New pages in the history of Shklov complete the exposition.

Museum collections :

The museum funds consist of fifteen collections. Each of them contains both typical and unique items. The most significant is the archeology collection. Unique exhibits of this collection are a mammoth tooth (150-120 thousand years BC), a fibula (10th century), a pendant-amulet in the form of a conic (11th-12th centuries), a cast pectoral cross (12th century), an encolpion (12th-13th centuries), a pot tile with an image of a stamp with the ancient coat of arms of the Polotsk land "Strange Beast" on the bottom (16th century), a medallion with an image of saints (17th century), etc. There are extensive collections of bonistics, numismatics, phaleristics. A collection of documents from 1918, printed on paper of the Spartak factory in the KLAZ printing house, has been collected.

There is an extensive collection of photographic documents, which includes a collection of photographs from the Snytko photo salon (late 19th - early 20th centuries), as well as a collection of photographs from the personal archive of the film actor P.M. Aleynikov.

The main areas of scientific research in the museum :

The museum explores and studies the history of Shklov region from ancient times (archaeology) to the present day (events of modern history). The most interesting scientific research is the period of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Archaeological collections, measured in thousands of units, allow us to reconstruct the castle culture of the Shklov castle of the 16th-17th centuries, pottery production from the era of Kievan Rus and beyond.

The pages of the history of the Jewish culture of Shklov in the 18th-19th centuries, the First World War, personalities in the history of Shklov region, and Soviet history are being studied. As a result of the activities of the Memorial search team, the pages of the history of the Great Patriotic War in Shklov region (the Dnieper line of 1941, occupation, partisan movement, etc.) are being studied and researched in a new way. New research is being conducted in the field of folk, both material and spiritual culture. The museum holds and publishes materials from scientific and practical conferences and seminars held on the basis of the museum, and itself participates in regional and international conferences and meetings with its research and developments. Traditionally, the museum hosts regional studies readings named after M.F. Ilyushenko, seminars and workshops.