The idea
to establish a Museum on UN Peacekeeping was born at
the 1-st Russian National Conference «Peace-keeping
Operations. Problems and Experience» held in Moscow
and Solnechnogorsk, April 11-12, 1993. It was formulated
after observation of a small exhibition (a blue helmet
and a few shoulder straps) by the Deputy Minister of
the Interior of Russia then Lieutenent-General A.S.Kulikov
and was supported by participants of the conference.
The first exhibition of the Museum under the title
«In the Service of Peace and Humanism» was
open for the public by the Union of Peacemakers May
18-20, 1995 in the Federation of Peace and Accord (Moscow,
Prospect Mira, 36). A few artifacts of the exhibition
were shown over national TV by "Mir" (Peace) broadcasting
company.
The second exhibition «UN Peacekeeping: In the
Service of Peace» was organized October 18-28,
1995 by the Union of Peacemakers in collaboration with
the UN Information Center in Moscow, on the occasion
of the 50-th anniversary of the United Nations. At the
opening ceremony the Deputy Chairman of the Council
of the Federation of Russia Ramazan Abdulatipov underlined,
that this kind of exhibition may be useful both for
experts and for schoolboys for the study of the UN history.
December
1996, at the request of the «Vystrel» Military
Academy Command the Union of Peacemakers moved the exhibition
named «Museum of Peacekeeping Operations»
to the territory of Russian Center for Training of UNMOs
(Solnechnogorsk) where it is used for training of Russian
and international peacekeepers as well as for presentations
for Russian and foreign delegations.
7 years after its foundation the Museum enjoys support
of Russian Foreign affair, Defence and the Interior
ministries and receives assistance from the UN Information
Center in Moscow, «Vystrel» military Academy
(now Training Center of the Combined Arms Military
Academy), UNA Russia and Moscow government.
Exhibitions organized by the Museum were visited by
approximately 1500 persons. And among them there were
over 400 children participants of the game «Model
of UN Peacekeeping».
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