UMMC Museum of Military and Automotive Equipment

The UMMC Museum Complex (Russian: Музейный комплекс УГМК), officially the UMMC Museum of Military and Automotive Equipment, is a museum complex located in Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. The private museum is dedicated to the mechanical and military history of the Ural Federal District. The complex, which constitutes two museums, is funded by the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company and houses a substantial collection of vehicles and other artifacts.

Museum of Military and Automotive Equipment
Exterior of the military museum in 2017.
Established2005 (military museum)
2018 (automotive museum)
LocationVerkhnyaya Pyshma, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia
Websitemkugmk.ru/ru/

Description

Background

The Russian Urals has a long history of manufacturing as the region's natural resources made it conducive to industrial activity. During World War II, the region underwent a massive change as its industries were geared towards producing war materials. In addition, the relative remoteness of the Ural mountains provided safety from the German invasion of the Soviet Union; as such, factories and their workers were evacuated from Western Russian and relocated to the Urals, leaving a further martial legacy in the region.[1]

Military Museum

The military museum opened in 2005 in preparation for the 60th anniversary of the Soviet victory in World War II (referred to as the Great Patriotic War in Russia).[1] Funding for the museum came from the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, a major industrial conglomerate headquartered in Verkhnyaya Pyshma. The museum has since hosted several exhibitions, and in 2011 construction finished on a new visitor center. A 3-story exhibition hall is also located on site.[2]

The predominantly open-air museum displays a range of Soviet and Russian equipment dating from the 1920s into the 1990s. Equipment on display includes tanks, various types of towed and self-propelled artillery pieces, trucks, motorcycles, and other assorted military vehicles. In addition to ground vehicles, the museum has a collection of aircraft.[1][3] The museum's collection also includes some American equipment (including Sherman and Stuart tanks) sent to the Soviet Union as part of Lend-Lease.[2]

Automotive Museum

The automotive museum (officially the Museum of Automotive Technology) was considered a temporary exhibition from 2016 until 2018, when it became a permanent part of the museum. According to the museum's website, the automotive museum houses the most extensive collection (numbering around 500 vehicles) of cars and motorized bicycles in Russia. Vehicles on display include vintage cars (including Soviet-era race cars), motorcycles, civilian and military trains, and other assorted vehicles.[4][2]

References
  1. "Без прошлого нет будущего". Известия (in Russian). 2012-01-30. Retrieved 2020-11-01.
  2. "US Consul General visited UMMC's Museum of Military Technology and Automobile". U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Russia. 2017-03-17. Retrieved 2020-11-01.
  3. Sorokina, Anna (2020-05-09). "Military hardware that became symbols of victory in WWII". www.rbth.com. Retrieved 2020-11-01.
  4. "Музей автомобильной техники". mkugmk.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2020-11-01.

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