The State Altai Regional Museum is one of Siberia's oldest museums. It was founded in the anniversary year, 1823, of the mining industry in Altai, in the city of Barnaul. It was designated as the 'Mining Museum', under the initiative of Chief Mining Engineer Pyotr Frolov – the Head of the Kolyvan-Voskresensky Factories, with the collaboration of Friedrich Gebler – a doctor, naturalist, and Corresponding Fellow of the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences. From the time that it first opened, the museum was visited by such celebrated scientists and explorers as the botanist Karl Ledebour, the legendary naturalist and traveller Alexander von Humboldt, the zoologist Alfred Brehm – and many others, who left their autographs and messages of goodwill in the VIP Visitor's Book, containing 'the personal signatures of the individuals who paid visits to the Barnaul Museum”.
The museum's collections are spread between its two buildings – both of which are architectural and historical monuments in their own right, in the city of Barnaul. The main collection is situated in a building which had previously been the Central Chemical Laboratory for the Altai District (today known as the Altai Province). The building itself is a federally-designated architectural monument, built in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1913, as part of the celebrations of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty's rule, His Majesty's Imperial Cabinet issued an edict to transform the building into a museum. The address of the building in modern streetnames is 46, Polzunova St. The museum's displays continue at its second premises, a building from the early 20th century, located at 73, Komsomolskaya Street. Until 1990 the building had housed the Regional Hospital. Today it hosts the museum's contemporary displays, including 'Man & The Environment', 'Ancient Altai', 'The Mining Industry in the 18th and 19th centuries', 'The History of Doing Business in Altai in the 19th and early 20th centuries” and “Russian Troops”. These exhibits make an excellent introduction to the history and development of Altai from the 18th century to the 20th.
In 2013 the museum opened a branch museum, 'The Kalashnikov Memorial Museum', at the home town of the great weapons developer, in the small town of Kurya, in the Kurinsky Region of Altai Province. Mikhail Kalashnikov (1919-2013) was a Soviet and Russian inventor and builder of handheld weaponry, a Doctor of Scientific Technology, a Lieutenant-General – and of course, the designer of the world-famous Kalashnikov automatic rifle, the AK. Kalashnikov was a decorated Hero of the Russian Federation, was twice awarded the Hero of Socialist Labour medallion, and was a Lenin Prize and Stalin Prize-holder, First Class.
The Kalshnikov Museum is situated in a historic building listed as an architectural monument of the early 20th century. This two-storey building was built in 1905, and served as the school where the future military engineer received his early education. The museum's displays are titled 'A human legend, Mikhail Kalashnikov', and consist of sections including 'The History of This Museum', 'The Guy From Altai', 'The Human Rifle', 'Family', 'Arsenal', 'Human Legend', and 'Design Bureau of the 21st Century”. The displays are based on the M.T.Kalashnikov Memorial Foundation.
