Manuscript Room of the State Historical Museum

Address: 103012, Moscow, Krasnaia pl. 1/2
Metro: Teatral'naia, Ploshchad' revoliutsii, Okhotnyi riad

For the manuscript room (and also the library), enter through the staff entrance. This is entrance no. 1, located directly behind the statute of Zhukov, so on the opposite side of the museum to St Basil's Cathedral. When you have passed the militia check, go through the doors to the fountain (there is a cloakroom for coats on your left - bags can be left upstairs in the lockers). In the far right corner of this room is a door. Enter using pass card. Take lift to 6th floor. Take the door on the left into the collection room. In the next room to your left there is the entrance to the manuscript room locker room. The manuscript room is accessed through this room.

Web: http://www.shm.ru/
Email: codexdep@mail.ru
Phone: (499) 292-11-70
Archive Director: Aleksandr Ivanovich Shkurko
Chief archivist: Marina Viktorovna Chistiakova
Head of reading room: Elena Ivanovna Serebriakova

Opening Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday: 1100- 1700
The sanitarnyi den' is the first Monday of each month The manuscript room is closed in July and August

You should email or call the reading room a couple of days before you intend to visit. They will order you a propusk, and you may also pre-order items (see below). When you arrive at the staff entrance, you will see the propusk office on your right as you enter the building. Give them your passport, and they will give you a propusk and a pass card. You will need to leave your passport as a guarantee against the pass card. (Note the propusk office closes for lunch between 1300 and 1345). You can then enter the building by showing both to the militsiia on the gate by the propusk office. When you get to the manuscript room you will need to show a letter from your supervisor addressed to Shkurko. Propuski are normally only issued for 3 month periods, so you may need quite a few letters.

You should use one form per delo. You need the document title, number, fond number, date of production, and size. There is a basic electronic catalogue. Documents should arrive the next day. On your first day (if you have not preordered), scholars who come from outside Moscow can be given items the same day. The maximum order is 5 dela

Mobile phones may be used in the locker room. All large bags must be placed in the locker room. Laptops may be used, and there are sockets. There are also table lamps and bookstands. You may leave your documents on your desk if you go out for lunch, but you must close them and leave them neatly piled on the desk. Sometimes documents are unavailable due to being on display. When possible, the staff can arrange for such documents to be taken off display for a limited time so that you can view them. There is no internal stolovaia for readers. Okhotnyi riad shopping centre is very close, and several restaurants there do a business lunch, including kofe khaus (not recommended) and il patio. There is a cheap stolovaia chain restaurant called Pelmeshka nearby. Go on to red square, then turn on to the road leading off it, so that you pass GUM on your right. 2 minutes walk up the road is pelmeshka on the corner of the second street. Currently there is scaffolding up, but it is open anyway. There is also a stolovaia on the top floor of GUM itself.