The Oryol Military History Museum was founded in August 1983. It is located in the former mansion of the merchant Ivan Ivanovich Chikin. The museum’s exhibition is dedicated to the military history of the Oryol region and the participation of the Oryol people in the largest military campaigns of the 18th — early 20th century.
Special attention is paid to one of the key events in the region’s history — the liberation of the region from Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War. The central place in the museum’s exhibition is occupied by two dioramas — these are large-scale works of the Russian painter and People’s Artist of the USSR Andrey Ilyich Kurnakov.
The first diorama is
dedicated to the beginning of the breakthrough of the German defense on July 12,
1943 at the turn of the Zusha River near the village of Maloe Izmailovo in the
Novosilsky district. The second one illustrates the Battle of Kromy in the
autumn of 1919 during the Russian Civil War. In 2005, the museum opened a hall
dedicated to the participation of Oryol natives in local military conflicts of
the second half of the 20th century.
