The Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography named after Peter the Great is one of the largest and oldest ethnographic museums in the world. It is the successor of the first Russian state public museum, the famous Kunstkamera, founded by Peter I in 1714. The Kunstkamera was created for the purpose of collecting and researching rarities created by nature and human hands.

Nowadays, the Kunstkamera is not only an academic museum, but also one of the leading research centers of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The heritage of the great Russian ethnographers and anthropologists of the XVIII–XX centuries continues here.

The priceless ethnographic, anthropological and archaeological collections preserved in the Museum are among some of the most complete and interesting ones in the world.

They count more than 1.2 million exhibits, reflect cultural diversity of the peoples of the Old and New World and are part of the cultural heritage of the whole mankind.