The exhibition “Personal Belongings of Red Army Commanders” has opened at the Cannon Yard Museum. The display features unique artifacts from the collections of the Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (Ministry of Defense of Russia) and the Kazan Kremlin Museum-Reserve.

For the first time in Kazan, visitors can see personal items, uniforms, and weapons that belonged to notable military leaders of the Great Patriotic War, including: Ivan Konev, Fyodor Tolbukhin, Vasily Chuikov, Nikolai Vatutin, Ivan Chernyakhovsky and others.

Ilnur Rakhimov, Director of the Kazan Kremlin Museum-Reserve, remarked:

“In this significant anniversary year – the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory – we are deeply grateful to the museum for giving us this fascinating project that reveals small glimpses of wartime life.”

Vladimir Lukin, Deputy Director for Exhibition Work at the Central Museum of the Armed Forces, added:

“This exhibition is quite specific. It doesn’t feature a vast number of objects, but those on display offer insight into both the lives of common soldiers and commanding officers. Military items are often humble – a hat, boots, a belt, a mess tin – but even these speak volumes about history.”

What Visitors Will See

The exhibition includes:

• Domestic firearms and melee weapons

• Captured enemy weapons, such as: Degtyaryov tank machine gun, TT pistol, German dagger. Walther pistol (1931 model), 1927-model cavalry saber.

Among the notable exhibits are: the overcoat of Kliment Voroshilov, one of the first Marshals of the Soviet Union (1935), personal items of Pavel Rybalko, Marshal of the Armored Forces (1945), who served as the head of the Reconnaissance Department at the Higher Special School of the General Staff in Kazan from 1941 to 1942.

The exhibition is enhanced by wartime and postwar posters portraying both the hardships and the victories of the Soviet people.

Exhibition Details

Open until: October 19, 2025

Opening hours:

• • Monday–Thursday: 10:00–18:00

  • Friday: 11:00–20:00

  • Saturday–Sunday: 10:00–18:00

Venue: Kazan Kremlin Museum-Reserve, Cannon Yard Museum

Source: mincult.tatarstan.ru