Russian Military Historical Society, Moskva, Russia

The Imperial Russian Historical Society (Russian – Императорское Русское историческое общество) was a public organization of Imperial Russia. It was subject to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of National Education. It was founded in 1866 and dissolved in 1917. It published studies on Russian history and historical documents connected with the Imperial Russian state. It is most notable as the publisher of the Russian Biographical Dictionary. Its emblem was an image of the Monument to Minin and Pozharsky.

Russian Military Historical Society fully named the Imperial Russian Military Historical Society, a military science society founded in 1907 for studying the military history of Russia. According to its charter, the society was under the control of the Ministry of Defence. It held its meetings in the Artillery Museum, now known as the Military History Museum of Artillery, Engineering Corps, and Signal Corps. The society had a council with General D. A. Skalon as the chairman and A. Z. Myshlaevsky as the vice-chairman, replaced by N. P. Mikhnevich in 1912. The society had about 3,000 members by 1913 with branches operating in all military commands. Members of the society opened museums and libraries in military units, arranged military archives, and excavated battlefields. The society comprised of departments for history of warfare, regiment and naval stories, military archaeology and archaeography. It published Journal of the Imperial Russian Military Historical Society in 1910-14, as well as Notes on Military Archaeology and Archaeography and Proceedings published in St. Petersburg. The society played a major role in collecting and publishing documents and popularising the military history. It was dissolved after the outbreak of World War I.

The Russian Historical Society was founded in St. Petersburg in March 1866 on the initiative of prominent Russian historians, military and government figures. The Charter of the Society was approved by Emperor Alexander II on May 23, 1866. The society was subordinated to the Ministry of Public Education.

The goal of the Russian Historical Society is “to comprehensively promote the development of Russian national historical enlightenment.”

The activities of the society consisted in collecting, processing, and then distributing documents and materials on history in Russia and thereby introducing them into scientific circulation. The selected materials were published in the “Collections of the Russian Historical Society”: during the 50 years of the society’s life, 148 volumes were published. Usually, rare or previously unknown documents were published, indicating some historical facts. To find such unique materials allowed personal connections and opportunities of Prince Vyazemsky.
In addition to the regular publication of the Collection, a jubilee edition, prepared by the historian of Russian literature, was prepared by V.I. Saitov, a historian of Russian literature, with 61 illustrations (28 color and 33 black and white), 104 portraits, letters and other rarities to the 50th anniversary of the society.

On December 29, 2012, the Russian Military-Historical Society was reconstituted by Order № 1710 of the President of Russia, with the goal of consolidating the resources of the State and the Society for the study of Russia’s Military-Historical past, facilitating the study of national military history and counteracting attempts to distort it, as well as to popularize the achievements of military-historical study, encourage patriotism, and raise the prestige of military service.

Russian Military Historical Society host a temporary exhibitions of Russian, Soviet & international art, in a 19th-century industrial building Exhibition and Trade Centre.