Research Zoological Museum of Lomonosov Moscow State University MV Lomonosov is one of the oldest museums in the capital. It was founded in 1791. Initially, it was a university collection of textbooks in the natural sciences. In the future, the collection of exhibits greatly increased. To house the new collection, at the beginning of the 20th century a new building was built on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street. Today the Zoological Museum in Moscow is one of the largest museums of natural history in the world. By its size in Russia, it ranks second after the St. Petersburg Zoological Museum.

You feel very comfortable in the spacious halls of the museum. It is interesting for both adults and children. The entire diversity of the living world of the planet is represented by more than 10,000 exhibits.

The exposition begins with single-celled animals, and ends with higher forms of life.

On the first floor of the museum you can see amphibians, reptiles, insects, mysterious inhabitants of the oceans. In one of the halls there is an exposition of shells. Very beautiful. I got some good photos. I was impressed by the butterflies of unusual shapes and colors.

On the second floor is the "Bone Hall". It contains the skeletons of animals of various zoological orders. It is interesting to compare the skeletons of modern animals with those that died out many thousands of years ago, such as mammoths in.

But perhaps the most interesting hall is on the second floor, where mammals from all over the world are collected.

Of course, this is not a zoo where it is interesting to watch live bears, wolves, tigers and other animals. In the zoological museum there are only stuffed animals and skeletons of animals. When studying the expositions of the museum, one should not forget that all the exhibits are a collection of manuals on the natural sciences.

The museum conducts intensive scientific work. Well-known domestic and foreign scientists cooperate with the museum. The Zoological Museum houses a huge library, which contains more than 200 thousand books and materials on biological topics.

The museum regularly hosts tours, lectures, and a circle of young naturalists.

Museum halls

crocodiles

reticulated python

Showcase with preserved reptiles

Showcase with corals of different shapes and sizes from around the world

combed crocodile

hieroglyphic python

Gopher polyphemus. Southeastern USA

Elephant turtle. Galapagos Islands

Lobster

king crab

Strombus

newt charonia

Sea stars

Prionocidaris bispinous

Pentacrinus

Porbeagle

European sawmill

Sterlet

Siberian sturgeon

Coelacanth. The only representative of the extinct lobe-finned fish. Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa

In the lobby of the museum there is a very interesting exhibit - a stuffed Indian elephant Molly. In the post-war years, she lived in the Moscow Zoo. The world's first baby, born in captivity in August 1948, was Molly the Elephant.

Another exhibit, impressive for its size, is the skeleton of a male rare woolly mammoth. It was found in Yakutia in 1973. This is the last species of mammoth that lived on the planet. The skeleton has an interesting feature. There is a defect in one of the tusks. Most likely, during his lifetime, the animal received a serious injury to the bones of the facial part of the skull in a fight, which affected the abnormal development of the tusk. But this did not prevent the animal from living to an advanced age.

Unique picture-application "Coat of arms of the Russian Empire" (1842) made of beetles and butterflies. A personal gift from a resident of the city of Lubava (Slovenia) F.J. Schmidt to Moscow naturalists.

Museum staff

Scientist's office

Quote from Mikhail Bulgakov's "Fatal Eggs"

Comparative Anatomy Hall

Indian elephant skeleton

Skeletons of large animals are displayed side by side for comparison.

Indian rhinoceros skeleton

Display cases with skeletons of small animals

hippo skeleton

bison skeleton

Showcases with skeletons

Babirus skull with overdeveloped fangs

giraffe skeleton

Our "ancestors" according to Darwin's teachings (the origin of man from apes). Cute 🙂

Human skull. Textbook of the 19th century.

Very interesting old books and scientific papers

Lynx from the Klin district of the Moscow province. The work of F.K. Lorenz 1886

Hawk Owl. The work of F.K. Lorenz 1886

Mezhnyak (hybrid of capercaillie and black grouse). The work of F.K. Lorenz 1886

Hall of large mammals and birds. In my opinion, the most interesting.

Lama. South America, central Andes. Known only as a pet, domesticated about 4500 years ago.

Magnificent bison

Showcases with different goats and rams

Indian sambar. Hindustan, southeast Asia

Musk deer. Mountain coniferous forests of central, eastern and northeastern Asia. One of the subspecies is included in the Red Book of the USSR.

It's amazing how these stuffed animals are made, how well they are preserved.

Hippo skull (for comparison)

Forest glade with roe deer

Cupid's bow"

Mom with baby

Gorgeous horns

Boar female with cubs

reindeer

Caught a fish for lunch

Mongoose and cobras. The product of the folk craftsmen of India. A terrible sight.

I never cease to wonder how the master could make stuffed animals in motion?

Hunter with prey in his mouth

Leopard female with cubs

lion family

tiger family

beautiful pussy

Red Lynx. West of North America.

Manul. Mountain deserts and steppes of Central Asia. The species is listed in the Red Book of the USSR.

Polar she-bear with cub

hyena family

Wolf - click teeth

Brown bear

Anteater and others.

Sea leopard. Seas surrounding Antarctica.

Serious face"

goes somewhere

Frilled bird of paradise. New Guinea.

Fan bearing dove. New Guinea.

Passenger pigeon. North America. Exterminated in the late XIX - early XX centuries.

Malay Colao

Longitudinal section of the skull of a two-horned colao.

Bustard. Current male. Southern Europe, steppes of Asia, Northwest Africa. The species is included in the Red Book of the USSR.

Museum halls

Showcases with birds

Capercaillie. Forests of Eurasia.

The chick has hatched. Happy birthday! 🙂

falcon family

Flamingo

Pelicans

Herons, storks, etc.

Swan geese

Ostriches and others

Seagulls, albatrosses, etc.

penguins

prehistoric birds

Zoological Museum of Moscow State University official site:

zmmu.msu.ru

Working mode:

The museum is open for visits from 10.00 to 18.00 (ticket office until 17.00) Thursday from 13.00 to 21.00 (ticket office until 20.00) Day off - Monday Sanitary day - the last Tuesday of each month

Ticket price:

for schoolchildren, students and pensioners - 150 rubles. for adults - 300 rubles. biolecture - 150 rubles.

Free - children under 7 years old, employees and students of Moscow State University, preferential groups of citizens.

Zoological Museum of Moscow State University on the map

Address: st. Bolshaya Nikitskaya, 6 Directions: to the metro stations "Okhotny Ryad" or "Biblioteka im. IN AND. Lenin", then on foot

(MGU) will be very interesting. It is located in the very center of Moscow and is great for a family visit.

The Zoological Museum of Moscow State University has the second largest collection in Russia in terms of the number of exhibits and is one of the ten largest museums of this profile in Europe. It is also a working laboratory for Russian biologists: its scientific funds currently include more than 8 million units. Among its exhibits there are those that are more than 100 years old. Note that all of its exhibits, with a few exceptions, are representatives of modern fauna. The fossil remains of ancient and extinct animals are included in the collection of another,.

Visiting the museum has the strongest impression on children. They gladly enter the unknown world and completely plunge into the atmosphere of new discoveries. For this, the museum has all the conditions: the grouping of exhibits, explanatory plates with them, the work of guides who are passionate about their work, and a host of various events. But even for adults, a trip to this museum becomes a memory of their school childhood. Moreover, the prices in it are low, with the ability to take photographs without restrictions.

Located in an old building of impressive monumental sophistication, the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University has changed very little over the past decades. In its halls, one can feel the spirit of the Soviet times, noticeable both in the organization and maintenance of expositions, and in the condition of the exhibits. Caretakers of the halls, guides, employees, work "not for fear, but for conscience." Such old-fashionedness gives the museum a special charm.

The Zoological Museum of Moscow State University was founded in 1791 at the Imperial Moscow University. It was called at that time the Cabinet of Natural History. During the war with France in 1812, almost all of it burned out and was painstakingly restored. Initially, the Cabinet was planned as a large-scale teaching aid for students of the Faculty of Biology, which until 1955 was located in the same building. Almost from the moment of its opening, the museum was accessible to the general public.

Working mode

Tue*: 10.00 - 18.00 (ticket office until 17.00)
Wed: 10.00 - 18.00 (ticket office until 17.00)
Thu: 13.00 - 21.00 (ticket office until 20.00)
Fri: 10.00 - 18.00 (ticket office until 17.00)
Sat: 10.00 - 18.00 (ticket office until 17.00)
Sun: 10.00 - 18.00 (ticket office until 17.00)

* - Except last Tuesday of the month

Weekend

Monday, Last Tuesday of the month

Ticket price

From 100 rub. up to 300 rubles depending on the category of the visitor and the visit program.
Photo and video shooting is included in the ticket price.

Visiting Rules

Standard.

Additional Information

The museum hosts interactive classes, popular science lectures, children's parties, festivals and birthdays. Works circle of young naturalists.

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Gallery

Selected Reviews

Visitor ratings:

June 2017
The most interesting was on the second floor, because. we entered the kingdom of birds with bright plumage, birds of paradise, and mammals. A very rich collection of stuffed animals, in good condition, gives a complete impression of the animal world of the earth. There are a lot of parents with children, even with babies. It is necessary to combine a visit to the Zoological Museum with the Moscow Zoo. Nobody gets worse.

May 2017
Accidentally went ... And did not regret it! Discovered a brand new museum with history and understanding of the world of flora for Russians, since the beginning of interest officially in Russia! Insightful - Visible! Gorgeous room! But a major overhaul in the spirit of the times... It would not hurt to have a virtual immersion in the world of our researchers and their discoveries!

April 2017
I went to this museum solely for emotions. Amazing atmosphere of a real museum from the doorstep. The building of wonderful architecture, extensive exposition. I am glad that the museum has not been touched by some kind of technical upgrade, I am convinced that its charm and uniqueness lies precisely in the authenticity in which it has been preserved.

Zoological Museum of Moscow State University- one of the oldest museums in the capital. It was founded in 1791 as a university collection of textbooks in the natural sciences. By the beginning of the 20th century, the collection of exhibits had grown so much that a separate building was built on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street to house it. At present, the museum is one of the largest and most representative institutions of its kind in the world and the second largest in Russia (after St. Petersburg).

In the spacious halls of the museum, visitors can see more than 10 thousand exhibits that illustrate the diversity of the living world of the planet. The expositions are built in accordance with evolutionary criteria and the international zoological classification, which makes it easy to navigate in any section of the collection. Miniature forms of life - for example, unicellular organisms, are presented in the form of dummies.

In the hall on the first floor there is a large part of the museum exhibits - from shells and insects to higher forms of life. Original dioramas provide an opportunity to see amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals in their natural habitat. One of the rooms houses an unusual exhibit that presents deep-sea life forms and ecological systems of the ocean floor.

On the second floor there is the “Bone Hall”, where the skeletons of animals of various zoological orders are collected. The "Upper Hall" is completely dedicated to the exposition, which tells about the diversity of birds and mammals. The objects of this collection are stuffed animals made by the best domestic taxidermists at the end of the 19th and throughout the 20th century. Most of the exhibits are placed in accordance with biological systematics. A number of effigies were mounted as part of biogroups, which are located along the central line of the hall. The part of the exposition devoted to birds includes several thematic showcases - "Bird's Market", "Hunting with birds of prey", "Birds of the Moscow region". Sections on birds and mammals are illustrated with information marts.

The two largest and most interesting exhibits of the museum, due to their solid size, settled in the lobby. One of them is a stuffed Indian elephant Molly, who lived in the Moscow Zoo in the post-war years. This is the first female elephant in the world, from which cubs born in captivity were obtained. The second exhibit is the skeleton of a male rare woolly mammoth - the last species of mammoths that lived on the planet. It has an interesting feature - traces of a serious fracture of the bones of the facial part of the skull. It is noticeable that the injury led to a violation of the normal growth of one of the tusks. Probably, the animal was injured in a fight, but later the bones fused, and the mammoth lived safely to an advanced age.

In addition to biological exhibits, the museum has a large collection of paintings by famous animal painters.

The Zoological Museum is famous for its library, which contains more than 200 thousand volumes of scientific literature and research on biological topics. Scientific work is carried out in the institution, well-known domestic and foreign scientists cooperate with it.

The museum hosts guided tours designed for visitors of different ages, and interactive activities for children from 4 to 15 years old. Lessons are held in the form of active communication - the guys independently complete tasks and discuss problematic issues. Seminars are accompanied by computer presentations and work with natural objects. For a better perception of information, the permanent exhibition and the educational collection of the museum are used. The museum has a circle of young naturalists, in which children not only receive theoretical knowledge in zoology, but also regularly go to field practice. The lecture hall of the museum conducts extracurricular activities for schoolchildren, it delivers unique popular science lectures designed for a wide audience.

A scientific terrarium is open on weekends - the museum has a large collection of living reptiles. Visitors can hold a live agama in their hands or feed a chameleon. The staff of the terrarium will talk about the life and habits of its inhabitants.

The cost of a visit to the museum: for adults - 300 rubles, for schoolchildren, students and pensioners - 150 rubles, a visit to a biological lecture hall - 100 rubles. For children under 7 years old, employees and students of Moscow State University, admission is free.

Total 16 photos

Today we are next in line - the Zoological Museum of Moscow State University. And the emphasis in the topic will not be in terms of the exposition of this magnificent museum, but as a remarkable architectural object of Old Moscow. The Zoological Museum of Lomonosov Moscow State University has a glorious history. And besides, it was in this museum that Vladimir Ipatievich Persikov, the main character of Mikhail Bulgakov's fantastic story "Fatal Eggs", worked. We will not leave history either - and we will also examine this architectural masterpiece both from Bolshaya Nikitskaya and from the courtyard of Moscow State University.

The Research Zoological Museum of Lomonosov Moscow State University is one of the largest natural history museums in Russia. In terms of the volume of scientific funds, it is among the top ten largest museums in the world of this profile, and ranks second in Russia. Its scientific funds currently include more than 8 million items. The annual increase in scientific collections is about 25-30 thousand items. storage. The most extensive collections are entomological (about 3 million), a collection of mammals (more than 200 thousand) and birds (157 thousand). About 7.5 thousand exhibits are exhibited in the modern exposition: two halls are reserved for the systematic part, one for the evolutionary-morphological part. More than 150 thousand people visit the museum every year.
02.

The museum was founded in 1791 as a natural history cabinet at the Imperial Moscow University. Back in 1759, a natural science museum was formed at Moscow University, which was then called the Mineralogical Cabinet. After biological exhibits appeared among its exhibits, in 1759 a “natural history cabinet” was created from them.

In 1802, Pavel Grigoryevich Demidov, who had his own natural science museum, which included excellent collections compiled by the three kingdoms of nature (including minerals) and an excellent library, expressed a desire to transfer it to Moscow University and previously contributed 100 thousand rubles to the safe treasury in order to a percentage of the donated amount went to the maintenance of the museum and to the salary of that special professor of the formed department of natural history, who would become the custodian of the collections.
03.

Specially invited to Moscow in 1803, G.I. Fischer von Waldheim, in 1804, took up the organization and description of the university collections and the museum of P.G. Demidov. The first inventory of the collections was made by him in 1806-1807.
04.

In the Moscow fire of 1812, the priceless scientific wealth of the museum was almost completely destroyed. Fischer, who remained in Moscow, managed to save only part of the conchological collection (mollusks). Fischer, having transferred all his personal collections and the library to the museum, began to involve many naturalists and private collectors in the active acquisition of new funds and concerns for the restoration of the museum, and already in 1814 there were 6 thousand items in the revived museum. In the inventory of the restored museum collections published by G.I. Fisher in 1822, there were almost 10 thousand items. The zoological and mineralogical collections were finally separated - even territorially. The revived zoological museum is located in the wing of the new classroom building. By the beginning of the 1830s, G.I. Fisher managed to bring the volume of the collection to 25,000 items. Initially, the collection served primarily educational purposes. Since 1866 the museum became public. The building on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street was specially built for the museum according to the project of K. M. Bykovsky (in 1892-1902) in the eclectic style. In the 1930s, the museum was introduced into the Faculty of Biology of Moscow State University.
05.

The Zoological Museum consists of two buildings set at right angles along Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street and Nikitsky Lane. At the junction at the corner, there is a semi-rotunda the height of the first tier with a portal framed by Tuscan semi-columns. Decorative elements use animal and plant motifs.
06.

Now, let's look into the courtyard of the Zoological Museum and, at the same time, Moscow State University ...
07.

Before us is the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics.
08.

On the right is the building of the Institute of Asian and African countries.
09.

To the left - Research Institute and Department of Normal Physiology.
10.

And this is the building of the Zoological Museum from the courtyard.
11.

The Zoological Institute became the setting for Mikhail Bulgakov's fantastic story "Fatal Eggs". It was here that Professor Persikov invented a certain red ray, which contributed to the rapid development of animal organisms. Reptiles then flooded the capital and nearby regions, a catastrophe set in ... The story was perceived by contemporaries as a libelous satire on the communist idea: Vladimir Ipatievich Persikov was seen as the figure of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, and the red ray was a symbol of the socialist revolution in Russia, which was carried out under the slogan of building a better future but brought terror and dictatorship.

Zoological Museum of Moscow State University MV Lomonosov is the oldest and largest university museum in Russia. It was founded in 1791 as the Cabinet of Natural History at the Moscow Imperial University. By the end of the 19th century, the number of exhibits in its collections was so great that in order to place them according to the project of the academician of architecture K.M. Bykovsky, a special building was built on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street, striking in its beauty even the most sophisticated viewer.

Museum visitors can expect an extensive exposition of about 10,000 exhibits, illustrating the diversity of the living world of the planet: these are representatives of all groups of animals, from unicellular organisms to birds and mammals. Animals are arranged in a systematic order, type by type, squad by squad, in accordance with ideas about the degree of their relationship and the course of evolution. The traditional arrangement of exhibits in accordance with the natural system has been preserved, which makes it easy to navigate in any section of the collection.

Guests are greeted by the two largest exhibits located in the lobby of the museum. Near the stairs leading to the halls of the second floor, there is a skeleton of a woolly mammoth, one of the few exhibits of the Zoological Museum, which cannot formally be attributed to modern fauna. This skeleton is genuine, one of the most complete mammoth skeletons kept in natural science museums in Russia. To the right of the lobby, on the way to the Lower Hall of the Museum, there is a stuffed Indian elephant Molly, a favorite of visitors to the Moscow Zoo in the last century.

The main variety of animals, from unicellular to reptiles, is concentrated in the Lower Hall, on the ground floor of the museum. Here are exhibits of insects, lower chordates, fish, amphibians and reptiles, invertebrates, as well as showcases with the newest part of the permanent museum exhibition - the exposition of the "Hydrothermal Springs Communities".

Above it is the Upper Hall, it is entirely reserved for an exposition that tells about the diversity of birds and mammals. Most of the exhibits are located in accordance with the systematic position, but there are also separate biogroups, where animals and birds are presented in their natural habitat.

Also on the second floor is the Hall of Comparative Anatomy (the so-called Bone Hall), the exposition of which is devoted to the evolutionary morphology of vertebrates, i.e. changes in their structure in the course of historical development.

In the corridor of the second floor there is an exposition "The Zoological Museum in the history of Moscow University: collections and people", dedicated to the history of the museum from its foundation in 1791 to the present day.

The foyer and halls of the museum are decorated with more than a hundred paintings and panels by famous animal artists, whose works of art complement and illustrate groups of natural objects in their natural habitat.

The Zoological Museum of Moscow University has the status of a scientific and educational institution. Intensive scientific work is carried out in it, leading experts study various aspects of the diversity of modern animals. Experienced guides conduct guided tours and interactive activities designed for visitors of all ages. The museum has a lecture hall, where important biological information is prepared and presented in a popular form for our young guests and their parents, as well as unique popular science lectures designed for the widest audience. The museum has a circle of young naturalists in which the guys receive not only theoretical knowledge in zoology, but also regularly go to field practice. Even on weekends, the Scientific Terrarium is open with an extensive collection of live reptiles, where you can hold a live agama in your hands or feed a chameleon, and lecturers of the terrarium talk in detail about the animals presented.

Address: st. Bolshaya Nikitskaya, 6

Working mode:

The museum is open to the public from 10.00 to 18.00 (the box office is open until 17:00)

Day off - Monday

Sanitary day - the last Tuesday of each month

Ticket price:

for schoolchildren, students and pensioners - 50 rubles.

for adults - 200 rubles.