The MICEX-based Museum of the Exchange Business History is open again after renovation, timed to coincide with the celebration of the 15th year the MICEX’s history. The Museum, created in cooperation with the State History Museum, is dedicated to the centuries-old history of Russian exchanges, from the time of Velikii Novgorod (the 12th century) to our times. According to the MICEX President Alexander Potemkin, the Museum plays a unique role as Russia’s first museum of the exchange business and the only institutions collecting and storing historical documents and objects related to the history of Russian exchanges. As a result of the renovation, the Museum expanded it collection by adding exhibits illustrating the modern history of financial markets. It was equipped with up-to-date audio-visual means and turned into a multipurpose information and presentation complex.
The Museum’s collection presents the history of Russian exchanges during the period from the 12th to the 20th centuries, emphasizing the modern phase of exchanges’ revival and development. New exhibits illustrate the emergence and development of financial markets in today’s Russia, the formation of the country’s exchange infrastructure and the development of the MICEX Group, which is the main element of the exchange infrastructure of the Russian capital market. The Museum contains collections dedicated to the history of Russia’s first exchanges: the St.Petersburg Exchange and the Moscow Exchange. It also presents documents and exhibits describing the modern history of Russian exchanges.
The MICEX-based Museum of the Exchange Business History has several sections presenting:- Velikii Novgorod of the 12th century;
- the emergence and the work of the Moscow Exchange;
- the St.Petersburg Exchange, the opening of the stock market department;
- a collection of Russian securities;
- Russian entrepreneurs;
- a collection of numismatic exhibits;
- brokers’ artels (teams);
- guberniyas’ exchanges;
- awards;
- books on subjects related to the exchange business (the library);
- the modern state of the exchange business.
The Museum’s collection contains commemorative badges and medals connected with the activities of exchange committees and authentic documents, including a letter from Finance Minister Kankrin and fill-in forms of brokers’ notes and quotations lists of the Moscow and the St.Petersburg exchanges. Especially interesting are the collection of Russian securities and banknotes and the library of exchange-related century-old financial and legal literature, showing the importance of the exchange business in the past. Visitors can see a silver tobacco-box advertising the state loan of the early 20th century, an exchange bell, which was used to start trading, commemorative badges of brokers’ artels and many other exhibits.
The Museum’s windows display exhibits related to different epochs, cities and people. Visitors can learn about brokers’ artels and guberniyas’ exchanges of the Tsar’s Empire, see the last loan of the Provisional Government and documents related to the futile attempts of the Soviet Republic to make the country’s exchange work. Exhibits of the 1990s illustrate the revival of the exchange business in the new Russia and the emergence of the Russian Mercantile Exchange, the Russian Mercantile and Raw Materials Exchange and the MICEX.
The Museum’s work is aimed at enhancing the image of Russia’s exchange-based markets. The Museum organizes tours for delegations, participants in conferences and seminars, foreign visitors and journalists. It also arranges photographic sessions for the mass media, thematic shows and presentations by leading experts, as well as introductory tours for the MICEX’s new employees. The Museum’s activities include the publication of historical literature, the production of corporate videos and the popularization of the exchange business through Russian and foreign mass media.
