Interior Ministry Museum in Minsk

The Interior Ministry Museum opened its doors after a major renovation conducted in the run-up to the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the Belarusian police. Now the museum welcomed its visitors with new ideas and exhibits. The sculpture of the early 20th-century policeman recently installed in Minsk and the old police patrol cars near the entry doors help people find the museum.

The building erected in 1914 has been renovated to its original design. The exhibition space has been increased by one third, which allows for putting more exhibits on display. The museum’s holdings are impressive: there are 14,000 items, and all of them have digital copies. The holdings feature photographs and documents, honors, arms and personal possessions of policemen, physical evidence of crimes solved by the Belarusian police...The five halls of the renovated two-story museum tell about the law enforcement bodies that operated on the territory of Belarus back in the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The development of the Belarusian police in 1917-1939, and first and foremost the Minsk city militia led by Mikhail Frunze, is one of the key themes of the museum. The museum also shows the police during the Great Patriotic War, its participation in the restoration of law and order in the devastated cities. A separate page in the history of the police was the involvement in the Chernobyl relief effort. And, of course, the museum tells about the activities of the Belarusian Interior Ministry units and its specialized agencies to protect the public order and fight against crime in the 21st century.