MuseumMuseum of Nature and Human

Dear visitors, we are pleased to welcome you to the Museum of Nature and Human.

 The Museum of Nature and Human is the oldest in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Ugra, founded in 1934. The museum has witnessed the formation and development of the autonomous region, it grew and changed along with this unique territory of Russia.

On October 15, 1934, the Decree of the Presidium of the Ostyako-Vogulsky district executive committee “On the deployment of the work of the district museum” was signed, in which the establishment of the institution was given great “scientific and political significance”. The first director of the museum was the exiled Ivan Andreevich Shabalin. His great merit was the opening on November 4, 1936 of the first museum exposition in the former building of the Fish Trust, one of the first buildings of the working village of Ostyako-Vogulsk (now the city of Khanty-Mansiysk). The exposition consisted of eight sections, which reveal the political history, natural wealth and economy of the district, the new and old ways of life of the Khanty and Mansi peoples.

During the first years of the museum’s existence, the exhibits were received in different ways: they were acquired, received as a gift, they were transferred to the museum for the intended purpose directly from the stands of other exhibitions and, as a result of the repressive policies of the 1930s, from the offices of the Ostyako-Vogulsky District Department of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs and the Berezovsky district executive committee.

Today the museum is located in a modern building in the very center of the city. The museum’s stock collections contain over 150,000 items. The museum collection includes paleontological, biological, archaeological, ethnographic, historical and domestic collections, documentary and written sources, a photo fund, a rare book fund, and much more.

The visiting card of the museum is the stationary exhibition “Link of Times”, opened in 2007. Its sections - “Historical Time”, “Mythological Time”, “The Rhythm of the Biosphere” - combining classical and modern museum technologies, represent the historical past of the region, the stages of its development and development from antiquity to modern times. It also shows: the natural diversity of Ugra, the distinctive culture of the Ob Ugrians - the indigenous peoples of the North living in the Autonomous Okrug (District).

We recommend you to start exploring the “Link of Times” exposition with the “Historical Time” section.

Enjoy your visit!