The "Night of Museums" campaign united thousands of Russians across the country

Until the morning of May 17, thousands of cultural sites within the framework of the "Night of Museums" campaign worked for free, offering visitors special programs, lectures and master classes. In 2026, the main theme of the event was the Unity of the peoples of Russia. This was announced on May 17 by Izvestia correspondent Artyom Yakovenko.

The campaign, which originated in the 1970s as an opportunity to visit exhibitions for those who cannot do it during the day, has covered more than 2.5 thousand venues this year. The number of participants has increased significantly compared to last year.

This is the night when history comes to life, sometimes in such detail that it literally chills to the bone. An experiment for the most emotionally resilient: "Museum Night" opens the door to professional criminology — when it would still be possible to find out that anthropologists are also involved in crime investigations.

"The bones can lie somewhere for 20-30 years, and then they can be extracted and, with the help of examinations, they can understand what kind of person he was and solve the murder," said Maria Pogrebnyak, the host of the True Crime Podcast.

The pavilions of VDNH have become one of the central points in Moscow. There, visitors were presented with an exact replica of a nuclear reactor and told about developments in the field of nuclear energy, including a mobile nuclear power plant project for remote regions. The guests were also shown a quantum computer and a mock-up of a futuristic nuclear car, the design of which was not implemented for safety reasons.

"A quantum computer is a controlled quantum system. This is the only device where we take a whole piece of nature to simulate another piece of nature," said Alexey Semikhatov, Doctor of Physico—Mathematical Sciences, scientific curator of the ATOM Museum.

The film studio named after Gorky prepared a screening of rare archival footage for the campaign. The visitors saw photos from the filming of the films "Seventeen Moments of Spring" and "A Guest from the Future", and also learned about the technologies of Soviet cinema.

Smolny Cathedral joined the action for the first time in St. Petersburg. Despite the ongoing restoration, the sub—church was opened to visitors - a space under the building with walls up to five meters high, where the treasures of the sacristy were displayed. Representatives of VGIK toured Volgograd as part of the campaign: students and teachers prepared a performance about the life of the city of Tsaritsyn in the 19th century.

"This is a project that, in the form of a performance, reveals interesting pages of the life of the provincial city of Tsaritsyn of that period," said Marina Fiksimova, Candidate of Art History.

More than 2.5 thousand sites across the state are taking part in the campaign. Compared to last year, their number has increased significantly. There won't be enough nights to get around at least half of it, so the campaign is constantly expanding its boundaries, attracting more and more new participants.

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Earlier it was reported that the annual action of the Department of Culture "Night at the Museum", which took place on May 16 and 17, is dedicated to the International Museum Day. Over 600 events were held at 170 venues — museums, exhibition halls, libraries and parks. Guests were able to join excursions, lectures, concerts, performances, exhibitions and master classes, as well as explore the expositions for free.