The UMMC military equipment museum is the largest private museum collection in Russia, well known far beyond the Sverdlovsk region. The museum complex includes a multifunctional exhibition center and an open area.
To date, the total area of the museum is 65,650 m2; area of the Exhibition Center is 7,298.5 m2. The museum’s collection has about 400 military exhibits, including a large number of rare examples.
About museum
The UMMC military equipment museum is the largest private museum collection in Russia, well known far beyond the Sverdlovsk region. The museum complex includes a multifunctional exhibition center and an open area.
To date, the total area of the museum is 65,650 m2; area of the Exhibition Center is 7,298.5 m2. The museum’s collection has about 400 military exhibits, including a large number of rare examples.
The exposition covers a significant chronological interval – from the beginning of the 18th century to the present day and includes various models of equipment of all types and branches of the Armed Forces, as well as collections of awards, uniforms and mock-ups of small arms.
The museum was created on the initiative of the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company and is located in close proximity to the production site of the main enterprise – JSC “Uralelektromed” (Verkhnyaya Pyshma).
The museum’s history began on May 9, 2005, when the Memorial complex “Cranes” was opened in memory of the factory workers who died during the World War II. Artillery guns installed on its territory became the first exhibits of the museum.
For the years of the museum’s existence, the thematic, temporal and territorial boundaries of the exposition have significantly expanded, which allows to present the development of armaments in the context of the country’s military history as fully as possible.
Exposition
The Exhibition Center presents three main expositions.
On the ground floor there are samples of Soviet light tanks, artillery tractors of the period 1930s – 1940s, and planes from the countries of the Anti-Hitler Coalition.
On the second floor – Soviet armored vehicles, military vehicles, motorcycles, aerosleighs, field kitchens.
The third floor is occupied by an exposition dedicated to the military history of the Ural from the 18th century to the beginning of XXI century: collections of awards of imperial Russia (orders, medals, badges, award documents), samples of uniforms and equipment, mock-ups of cold and firearms, personal belongings, documents of the Ural people participating in various wars.
In the basement of the exhibition center there is an interactive area, which includes an interactive theater, a simulators zone and electronic shooting gallery.
On the open exhibition area are presented artillery, armored vehicles, self-propelled units, engineering machines, aircrafts and mock-ups of ships are represented.
The opening exposition dedicated to the Soviet Naval Forces shows full-scale model of submarine “Malyutka”, motor boats of project 161 and 194, and also a recreated river motor boat of project 1125, which was used during the Battle of Stalingrad.
Special exposition dedicated to the feat of Soviet railway men during the World War II. It presents original samples of locomotives of the 1930s, and also samples of rolling stock – cars, cisterns, and platforms. The highlight of the railway collection can be considered a full-scale model of the armored train BP-43.