MOSCOW, May 18 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's first mobile polar museum on the role of history in life and business has opened in Moscow Thursday.
The majority of its exhibits came from the world's first exhibition, which opened this April in the North Pole, Alexei Shaburov, chairman of the board and director general of MVK Ltd., the exclusive representative of Russian exhibitions for companies in North America, said at a news conference in RIA Novosti.
"This is an important historical and patriotic project," he said. "The museum was set up in honor of the 70th anniversary of two heroic expeditions, the first Soviet drifting station North Pole I, established by Otto Shmidt and Ivan Papanin [in May 1937], and the longest non-stop flight by Valery Chkalov and Mikhail Gromov [from Moscow to the U.S.] over the North Pole."
The mobile museum has some 200 exhibits from Russian museums, including the St. Petersburg-based Arctic and Antarctic Museum, and some 100 exhibits from private collections.
From Moscow, the museum can move around any of the 18 regions that have sent in their invitations, Shaburov said. The next stop will be St. Petersburg, after which the museum will move to Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, Yekaterinburg in the Urals, Novosibirsk in Siberia, and other cities.
The museum opened in the North Pole, becoming an unforgettable part of the International Polar Year, along with the first cello concert given in the North Pole by young talented musician Denis Shapovalov, winner of international competitions.
