Museum The Regional Museum of History and Local Lore of Semey

The Regional Museum of History and Local Lore of Semey is the only museum that fully represents the history of the Semey region development. The museum, in fact, is the golden gateway to the world of the history of the city of Semey. Our museum is one of the oldest on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, it was founded in eighteen eighty three.

Throughout its history, the museum has changed its location eight times. The last move took place in nineteen seventy eight and up to now the Regional Museum of History and Local Lore is located in the building of the former Governor's House. During the years of the revolution and civil confrontation, the building was called the House of Freedom. Here, in nineteen seventeen, at a meeting with residents of the city, the leader of the Alash movement, Alikhan Bokeikhanov, made a programm speech. In the same year, the first Semipalatinsk regional Congress of Kazakhs was held here, where the issue was considered and a decision was made on the formation of autonomy.

As is known from the history of the museum, the fund takes a beneficial beginning from private collections by political exiles and political emigrants. Gaining more and more volume, at the beginning of the new twentieth century - by the time of the establishment of the SRGO – the museum had two thousand four hundred eighty nine items in its collection. The scientific library of the museum contains more than thirty six thousand publications: a unique collection of Notes of the SRGO, rare publications since the seventeenth century - the works of researchers from Russia, Central Asia and China, reports of the Semipalatinsk Statistical Committee, periodicals of Semipalatinsk nineteen - early twenty centuries.

Today, the museum’s collection includes more than one hundred and seven thousand items. The renewed and newly created exposition of the museum is represented by the following sections in six halls of the museum: "Geology and paleontology", "Nature of the Semey region", "Archeology and history of the city", "Ethnography", "Culture and education of the region", “Semey in the years of independence”. The exhibition hall regularly hosts exhibitions on various topics.