Welsh District Municipal Museum of Local History

The Welsky District Municipal Museum of Local Lore was established in 1919 on the basis of a unique collection of antiquities of the local peasant V.F. Kulakov. Today, the museum is located in the city center, in three stone buildings built in the early 20th century. The museum also has three branches on the territory of the Veli district: "Aleshkin House" (the family house of painters-painters Petrovsky) of the XVII century, in the village of Churkovskaya Blagoveshchenskaya rural administration, fire tower of 1913, in the village of Bereznik Shadreny rural administration.

The Welsh Museum of Local History is a multifunctional institution, a state repository of monuments of material and spiritual culture and natural history.

Historical and household expeditions have become traditional for the museum, both in the city and in the district, as a result of which about 500 items are annually received by the museum. Over the years, the museum has collected more than 21,000 museum items that characterize the development of the region from the Mesolithic era to the present day. More than 1500 monuments are presented in permanent expositions "Nature and natural resources of the region", "History of Povazhye from ancient times to the beginning of the XX century" and at exhibitions.

The research work of the museum was supported by the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation (project No. 97-01-00371). In the process of implementing the project "Northern Russian Province: Source Studies of History and Culture of the Vazhsky Territory (XVIII-XX centuries)", a large number of museum and archival sources were introduced into scientific circulation, an interesting source on the history of the northern peasantry "Diary of Ivan Glotov" and an annotated bibliographic index "Pavage in the XVIII-XXX centuries" were prepared and published.

In recent years, there has been an active development of the near-museum territory, on which, with the financial support of the IOO (Soros Foundation) and the Welsh Interdistrict Committee for Environmental Protection, a children's museum park "Ladushki" was built and arboretum (about 30 species of trees and shrubs of various natural zones) was laid, which makes it possible to introduce new directions and forms of work with visitors.

In 2000, the studio "Positive-film" at the film studio "Mosfilm" made a documentary about the Volsk Museum of Local History from the cycle "Provincial Museums of Russia", which was awarded a Diploma in the nomination "non-fiction film" at the 2nd Moscow forum of young cinema "Debut-Kinotavr" in 2001.