Poltava hotels

Among the great number of a holiday events there was an opening ceremony of the Museum on the battlefield in Tsar’s Nikolai II’s presence. Initially it was planned to place the Museum in the annex of St. Sampsony church situated near the Common grave of Russian warriors but afterwards a separate small single-storey building for the Museum was built not far from the church.

The Poltava battle Museum was founded due to efforts of historian Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Pavlovsky, who at that time served as teacher of history in Poltava cadet school. He also was the first director of this Museum. The initial exposition of one-room museum was not very large. It included old Russian and Swedish firearms and coldsteel, regimental colours and uniforms as well as portraits of Swedish and Russian commanders. The Poltava battle Museum was opened on June 26th 1909.

After the rebellion of 1917, the Poltava battle Museum as well as many others became unattended. It was broken into and stolen from many times in the 1920s. In 1921 all the remaining exhibits were transferred to the city Museum of Local Lore and the Poltava battle Museum was closed. After World War II the question concerning the renewing of the museum was raised. In 1949 the Council of Ministers of the USSR resolved to recreate the Poltava battle Museum.
It was inaugurated in 1950 in the former hospital building that was built in the end of the nineteenth century for the disabled veterans of Russian-Turkish war. Many famous historical and art museums of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Kharkov, and Lvov shared their exhibits with the new museum. In 1981the Poltava battle field was declared a State Historical and Cultural Reserve. Since late 1990s many valuable gifts were delivered to the museum by Swedish Society of Military History (SMB). This museum without doubt is a most important sight of the Poltava battle field that attracts thousand of tourists that come to Poltava each year to learn more about a decisive battle of the Great Northern War.