Sorry for the disappearing act 
In Moscow, the museums have underwhelmed me but there is one museum I have been to so far that blew my mind. The Great Patriotic War Museum.
I have never really talked in detail how much of a history buff I am, but I love history – World War II is incredibly interesting to me. I have been lucky enough to visit Berlin, Potsdam, and Krakow (including Auschwitz) so I’ve been able to see first-hand some of the effects WWII had.
This museum, located at Victory Park, was huge. It first opens up to a wide pavillion with lots of statues and a really long walk to the museum itself!
As I said before, I wasn’t expecting much. Many museums here don’t even have English displayed in the exhibitions, just Russian. At first, it was just Russian but gradually as I went through the museum, more and more English popped up.
One of the coolest things was the dioramas. In each room, they had an English text explaining each battle. I just liked the intensive detail in these portrayals of the war, it was incredible.
My excitement increased as a veteran walked in. I asked his son if any of them knew English. The son knew a little and we chatted a bit
I wish we were able to converse more but with my limited Russian and with their limited English, it was kind of hard. But I understood that this veteran fought on the battle lines and he said that war was awful.
We parted ways but the son later came up to and thanked me. He said he talked to many veterans and they all remembered how the Americans helped them during World War II, supplying equipment when the Soviets didn’t have any. He said that even during the Cold War, the veterans never forgot how nice the American soldiers were.
After he told me that, I didn’t exactly know what to say. I felt a lot of pride for my country but at the same time, it was weird being thanked for something I didn’t help with at all. My parents weren’t even born until (many years) after WWII. But it was incredibly nice of this guy to convey his gratitiude, although misdirected, especially since it was very hard for him to get the words out in English.
It totally made my weekend, not going to lie.
The museum just got better from there. They had so much on display and so many signs in English that I was overwhelmed.
They had some artifacts from people in concentration camps. This museum really went into incredible depth – not only concentration camps were covered, but also the plight of the Soviet people during the war, explainations of the battles, the Nazi view of the Slavs and it was just so much.
Here are people’s teeth from the concentration camps. After the Nazis gassed their victims, they took their teeth out.
Propoganda:
When I thought this museum was finally over, I stumbled on the most interesting part. It was on the fifth floor and an incredibly modern exhibition.
This picture below consists of 87 forced labour workers that were shot dead by SS officers. The Germans were fleeing from the Allies and decided to murder the predomantly Polish and Slavic workers.
Not only did they have original audio testimony from people who were forced into labour and people who were persecuted, but they translated it in English and Russian.
They really went above and beyond to show what life was like being occupied by Germany.
They also had gorgeous murals on the ceiling.
I found it very fascinating that there were many German companies that used slave labour and are still around today…
This museum was awesome. I cannot convey into words how amazing it was. I’ve visited many museums about World War II and this one is one of the better ones, along with the Berlin Wall Museum, Schindler’s Factory and Museum and Auschwitz.
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My friends and I left January 2nd at 2 AM…so many drunk people!
We had very interesting conversations about the differences between Russia and America. 
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