SERGEI KIROV HOUSE/MUSEUM

One of Petersburg's better-kept secrets, this museum was originally created as an essential part of the vilification process of the Leningrad Party Leader surreptitiously assassinated in 1934 on Stalin's orders. Located in a regional government building, the house/museum consists of two parts: Kirov's apartment (on the fifth floor), and an exhibition hall (fourth floor).

The apartment is interesting only in that it is luxurious and has very nice furniture and bear skins (somewhat bourgeois for a revolutionary leader) and for the couple of pieces of history contained therein: the cap Kirov was wearing when he was assassinated (complete with bullet holes) and his shirt with cut-marks around the heart. Apparently doctors rushed to the scene of the assassination and gave him injections and mouth-to-mouth in an attempt to revive him. They labored for two hours before concluding that he had died instantly and irrevocably upon being shot through the head.

The exhibition hall displays items dedicated to Russia at the time of Kirov's leadership, i.e. the Stalin period. The current exhibit displays gifts given to Stalin on his 70th birthday from people representing countries (and republics) all over the world. Only a small portion of the fifteen hundred gifts that belong to the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg are displayed at one time, but nonetheless they are certainly interesting. An adjacent hall also holds relics of Sovietana, including a portrait of Kirov made from feathers.

Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt 26/28. Metro: Gorkovskaya. Open 11:00-18:00, Tue, Fri 11:00-17:00, closed Wednesdays. Tel: 346 1481 (excursions <\p>