The history section charts the development of the harsh north, from its settlement by dispossessed and exiled peasantry in the 1930s, to the Gulag camps, to the suffering of the 'second St Petersburg' during WWII, with the second-highest number of civilian casualties in Russia. Downstairs, the extensive nature section shows off the taxidermied wildlife of the land shaped by retreating ice.
Regional Studies Museum
Top choice in Northern European Russia