Tatarstan became the first in Russia in the number of applications for the All-Russian School Museums Competition.

      The project collected 4,696 applications from across the country. The Republic of Tatarstan is the leader of the application campaign for the school museums competition organized by the Society "Knowledge". The project gathered 4,696 applications from all over the country. The competition was organized at the request of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin with the support of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation. A total of 653 applications were submitted from the Republic of Tatarstan, which is the first place among all regions of Russia. The most applications from the region were submitted in the nominations "Best exhibition dedicated to the memory of defenders of the Fatherland" and "Best ethnographic/local history exhibition". Employees of 570 local museums noted that they conduct educational events for schoolchildren dedicated to the special military operation.

      Exhibitions of Tatarstan schools

      School No. 32 in Kazan presented a museum dedicated to the legendary pilot-attack aircraft Nikolai Stolyarov and the history of evacuation hospital No. 3657, which was located in the school building during the Great Patriotic War. The exhibition contains the hero's personal flight log, "Flight" wristwatch, officer's scarf, autobiography, medical book, award documents, as well as a model of the aircraft made according to drawings with corrections by Stolyarov himself. The "Revival" museum of the Tashkirmen school in the Laishevsky district is dedicated to the local culture and history of the village. The collection includes more than 200 exhibits: the interior of a house, ancient women's costumes, spinning wheels, millstones, coal irons, a coin collection, and archaeological finds. The multidisciplinary Lyceum No. 18 named after M.V. Lomonosov in the city of Zelenodolsk has gathered a natural science exhibition featuring a mammoth tooth and a collection of minerals from Tatarstan, the Urals, Crimea, Karelia, Baikal, and other regions of Russia. The museum has a space for practical work with stone.

      Statistics and themes of the competition

      "The school museums competition has shown a high interest in the themes of patriotism and cultural heritage: of the 4.6 thousand applications from across the country, 43% are dedicated to the memory of defenders of the Fatherland, and 23% to ethnography and local history. It is nice to see that the project involves heads of school museums, educators, and school directors aged from 18 to 89. They are united by a common goal - to preserve and pass on to future generations the invaluable historical and cultural heritage of our country," said Kirill Khvil, Deputy General Director of the Russian Society "Knowledge".

      Funds of school museums

      The funds of school museums contain tens of thousands of exhibits, the largest of which includes 5,437 items. The collection includes unique artifacts: natural-historical finds (remains of a mammoth, stones from Antarctica, fossils of mollusks, teeth of ancient sharks); household items of ancient peoples (parts of horse harnesses from Scythians and Sarmatians, coins of the Golden Horde and the ancient trading city of Madjar); full-scale reconstructions of peasant huts; elements of national costumes (dresses, shirts, belts, decorations, bast shoes, boots) and ancient icons from the 19th century; space-themed items, including a model of the "Buran" spacecraft and items from cosmonauts; collections of Soviet technology (radiograms, gramophones, reel-to-reel tape recorders, cameras from the "Zenith" and "LOMO" factories, sewing machines); military exhibits (a shell head for the BM-13 "Katyusha", trench candles, shells, telegrams from the front, reactive grenade RPG-30 "Hook").

      Digital formats and educational work

      School museums use modern digital formats: virtual tours, electronic catalogs of funds, interactive maps of expeditions, and multimedia exhibitions. As part of the competition, museum staff have already conducted 966 educational events for more than 20,000 listeners. These include excursions, intellectual tournaments, and lectures based on materials from the Society "Knowledge". Next, participants will have to defend their practice of working with students before experts. The final tests and the award ceremony will take place in October at the "Memory Lives" forum organized by Yunarmiya and the Movement of the First in Moscow. A collection of the best museum practices will be presented there.

      Support for participants

      All participants will receive methodological and expert support. Special methodological materials will be developed for them on preparing schoolchildren as guides and a calendar-thematic plan for the museum's work, conducting excursions, and other areas of activity. Participants can also expect online meetings with mentors from among leading specialists in museum and archival activities, as well as heads of state museums.

      Information about the Society "Knowledge"

      The Society "Knowledge" is the largest educational organization in Russia with a rich history and traditions of educational work, the main platform in the country for open dialogue between youth and outstanding individuals. The Society's projects and events, dedicated to the most pressing topics, aim to popularize scientific knowledge in new formats, develop and educate people of all ages and professions, and demonstrate domestic achievements in science, technology, sports, art, and other fields. The Society annually conducts tens of thousands of educational events, creating opportunities for personal development and self-realization, for obtaining reliable information and in-demand knowledge in both face-to-face formats and on digital platforms. Since its reboot, the community of lecturers of the Society "Knowledge" has united 32,000 people. They have conducted over 256,000 lectures in 89 regions of the Russian Federation. 8,100 hours of educational content on a wide variety of topics have been created: science, technology, space, culture and art, history, medicine, sports, and others. Online broadcasts from educational events of "Knowledge", as well as educational video content, have gathered over 5 billion views.