Soviet Period

Brief information about the Baku branch of the Central V.I.Lenin Museum

The Baku branch of the Central V.I.Lenin Museum was established by a decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU on 4th August 1954, as part of the Azerbaijani J.V.Stalin Museum of the History of Bolshevik Organisations and was opened to the public in April 1955.

From 1955-59 the Baku branch of the Central V.I.Lenin Museum occupied the former site of the Museum of the History of Bolshevik Organisations (6 Kommunistichesky Lane, 3) in which there were fifteen medium-size exhibition rooms. In April 1960, on the eve of V.I.Lenin’s 90th Anniversary and the 40th anniversary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party and the Azerbaijan SSR, the museum moved to its present location at Neftchilar Prospect 123a. This new, four-storey building was built in a project led by H.A.Majidov. It should be noted that the building of the Baku branch was the first to be carried out in the Soviet Union especially for the V.I.Lenin Museum.

There are more than 110,000 exhibits stored in the museum, but on view in the twenty-six rooms are about 6,000 exhibits. There are photocopies of Lenin’s manuscripts here.

The Baku branch of the Central V.I.Lenin Museum, as the principal museum of the history of the revolution in the Republic, was a Scientific Centre which researched, unearthed and collected materials about Lenin, about his students and followers in the Caucasus and in Azerbaijan.

The museum held forty-one exhibition rooms, each of 70m², and an end room of 300m², a 250-seat cinema-assembly room, offices and subsidiary areas.

The Baku branch of the Central V.I.Lenin Museum, together with four memorial historical revolutionary museums (the ‘Nina’ museum of “Underground Publications”, the M.Azizbekov House Museum, the S.M.Kirov House Museum and the museum of “The Union of Oil Industry Workers and the Editing of the ‘Gudok’ (Siren) newspaper”) was a centre of ideological work for the propagation of Leninism and teaching workers about the life and work of V.I.Lenin in the Republic.

The branch exhibition displayed more than 9,000 exhibits, including photographs and lithographs of Lenin’s manuscripts, original editions of V.I.Lenin’s publications, works of art and large visuals such as maps, plans and models.

Information about the building of the Baku branch of the Central V.I.Lenin Museum

The new building of the Baku branch of the Central V.I.Lenin Museum was built on the 90th Anniversary of V.I.Lenin (April 1960). It is a four-storey building. Its volume is 46,800m³. Area in use 7,400m².

On the first floor there is a foyer of 220m², offices (the directorate, scientific workers, lecturers, store, library, photographic laboratory and toilets, with an area of 700m²).

On the second floor, there are thirteen exhibition rooms, with an area of 930m².

On the third floor there are also thirteen rooms, with an area of 940m².

On the fourth floor, there are fifteen exhibition rooms, with an area of 1450m², a Round Hall, 230m² and a depository for museum stores, 240m².

Between the second and third floors there is the Lenin Cinema, with an area of 240m², in which conferences and lectures are held and films shown.

The ground floor houses a boiler-room, two ventilation chambers, a special area, a woodwork shop and storerooms.

The building of the Baku branch of the Central V.I.Lenin Museum lay within the jurisdiction of the No 7 Housing Office, 26 Baku Commissars’ District.