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Culture
The Smolensk region takes pride in its high cultural potential. There are 568 libraries, 532 institutions for culture and leisure activities, 21 municipal museums with 3 branches, 3 regional museums with 4 branches, 2 federal museums which contain unique exhibits and artifacts in their collections, 4 amusement parks, 3 theatres, the Philharmonia, the Centre for Folk Arts and Crafts, the Exhibition Centre for Culture and Arts, the Centre for Historical and Cultural Monuments Protection, the Centre for Culture and Leisure, Institute of Arts, a music college and 56 children’s schools of arts (according to the kinds of arts).

164 centres of socially important information were established on the basis of the regional libraries.

In Smolensk there is the regional universal library named after A.T. Tvardovsky. It is acclaimed to be one of the best regional libraries in the country. In 2013 a renovated building of the Smolensk regional puppet theatre named after D.N. Svetilnikov welcomed its audience. The Exhibition Centre for Culture and Arts named after the Tenishevs has also been opened.

All the traditional festivals and events held in the region are constantly becoming more popular. These are the following: the International Theatre Festival “Smolensk Ark”, the All-Russian Film Festival “Golden Phoenix”, the All-Russian Glinka Musical Festival, the reenactment of the Valutino battle on 7 August 1812 in the Kardymovo district, the Festival of Military and Historical reenactment “Gnyozdovo barrows” and many others.
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In Smolensk and in Zagorye in the Pochinok district there are museums of A.T. Tvardovsky, the author of a timeless novel about a Russian soldier “Vasily Terkin”. In 1985 a museum of songs “Katyusha” was founded at the birthplace of the famous poet M.V. Isakovsky in the Vskhody settlement. In Rudnya there is a memorial house of the renowned standard-bearer of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War M.A. Egorov. Art in architecture is rapidly developing in the region. Thus, there have been erected monuments devoted to such outstanding fellow countrymen as G. Potyomkin, Yu. Nikulin and A. Papanov.

The most significant event of the XX century is the first human flight into outer space on 12 April 1961. This first human was our fellow countryman Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin who was born in Gzhatsk (currently called Gagarin) in the Smolensk region. The memorial museum of Yuri Gagarin welcomes thousands of visitors every year.

Recently the Art Gallery of the Smolensk open-air museum has become one of the most visited places by Smolensk citizens and guests. It displays a valuable exhibition of the Russian art ranging from ancient Russian icons to works of artists of the ХХ century, namely, V.А. Tropinin, I.I. Levitan, I.E. Repin, F.S. Rokotov, I.K. Aivazovsky, V.А. Serov, К.А. Korovin, А.N. Benua, К.А. Somov, R.R. Falk, N.К. Rerikh. There is also a display of the west-European painting of XV-XX centuries in the Art Gallery. This exhibition is characterized by a rich and extensive scope of schools of painting (Italian, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, French, German) as well as by a most high artistic level of these art works.