The "Lights of Moscow" Museum

The picture shows Red Square and the Kremlin lit at night.

This is a panorama shot of Moscow Kremlin and Moskva river in a winter night, revealing the bright illumination of Kremlin wall, towers and orthodox church.

The picture shows a display within the "Lights of Moscow Museum", showing a few different light sources and other documents revealing information about the history of the lights.

This is a closer picture of a few of the lighting sources displayed within the Moscow Lights Museum.

City illumination underwent a particular history in Moscow, especially with the gradual rounds of city-wide lighting following the invention of electricity. Nighttime lighting always held particular symbolic significance throughout each of the different political regimes of the nation, often reflecting the nation’s efforts to assert itself as a modern and global city as well as the class disparity revealed by the uneven reach of service to city residents. Until the 20^th century, much of Moscow’s streets were left dark and unsafe at night, especially with the city’s long winters and short hours of daylight[1]. The invention of the electric light therefore had a “profound effect on Russian cultural consciousness[2]”, seen as a “transformative force” under Bolshevik ideology and directed to “bring enlightenment to the masses, transforming a peasant culture to a modern industrial society, and asserting new Soviet life in distinct contrast to the “dark kingdom” of the tsarist era” during the 1920’s electrification project[3]. However, Moscow did not become fully electric-lit until the 1930s, and not further expanded to a greater reach until after World War II through gradual rounds of heightened illumination. The 1990’s saw yet another new multimillion-dollar illumination project for the city center that included “bold colored lights and modern designs to give Moscow skyscrapers a strong nighttime presence[4]”. Today, Moscow has become a “major global twenty-first century “city of light””, a result of a long history of culturally and politically symbolic lightings.

Given such a long and meaningful tradition, the “Lights of Moscow” Museum may be a particularly interesting site to tangibly experience the multiple phases of illumination the city went through. This relatively lesser-known museum reveals the history of street lighting in Moscow, and displays illuminating sources from various points in Moscow’s history. The museum was opened in 1980 and displays a wide range of lighting equipment, including a torch of splinters, hand lanterns and street lamps light fixtures of various shapes and sizes. Street lamps encompass oil, kerosene, gas, and electric lamps, and many of the displayed lanterns still function and may be lighted for visitors to enjoy. The lights are organized into four different halls of the museum’s relatively small interior, with a few decorating the exterior of the museum along a courtyard. Many of the exhibits are interactive for families to enjoy, with a number of friendly museum guides on duty to help lead visitors through the rich history behind Moscow’s city illumination. Given the lights' active usage by and significant meaning for the Soviet state, stepping through the continually evolved light sources from various points in Russian history should provide visitors with a layered presentation of the sociopolitical and technological timeline of the city and state. Each light symbolizes a specific point in history in which it was used, as well as the USSR's position and reputation in the global stage, the nation's technological and industrial progress, the 'status' and needs of the neighborhood that held the light and the nation-wide spirit and ideology that enraptured the population all at that specific moment in history. Whether it is by igniting a kindling or kerosene lamp, or sitting at the outdoor lighting control center that operated in Moscow from 1940 to 1984, a trip to this museum may be a great way to re-experience these various points of Moscow's past within a singular space and time through what were once perhaps seemingly unnoticed and overlooked objects of daily life.