It is one of the most famous and oldest museum centers in Ukraine. It was founded in 1899 as a division of the city Museum of Antiquities and Arts. The present building of the museum was given to the museum in 1944 some months after Kiev was liberated from the German occupation. Its location is very symbolic – it stands on the Old Kiev (Ukr.- Starokyivska) hill. Nearby one can see the  remains of the Tithe (Ukr.-Desiatynna) Church, constructed in the 10^th c, close to the building in ancient time stood  the prince’s  palace and other constructions where the nobility lived in the 10^th -13^th centuries. The surrounding area was called “Detinets” – fortified inner walled section of the old city.  The collection of the Museum amounts to more than 800 000 original exhibits - the archaeological monuments of the primeval society, the objects dating to Tripillia culture, the Scythians and the early Slavs. The museum has the richest Kiev's archaeological, ethnographic and numismatic collection of fine and applied arts, a collection of weapons and firearms, glass- and chinaware, unique items of decorative and applied arts, manuscripts. It also keeps the most interesting works of painting, graphics and sculpture, books published in Russia before the 18th century and a collection of important historical documents from the Cossacks time to the present day.  Big collection tells about the Cossack period and numerous peasants uprisings, about the struggle of the Ukrainians for freedom and independence. Unique exhibits explain the complicated and tragic events of the beginning of the 20^th `century when Ukraine was involved in the First World War, bloody revolutions in 1917-1918 that were followed by the civil war that lasted till 1920. Interested in Soviet period will find some rare documents about the first years under the Soviet power. Very impressive are the exhibitions dedicated to the Famines in Ukraine (1921-1923, 1932-1933, 1946-1947) and the liberation of the country from the Nazi occupation. Among the new museum acquisitions are the first documents of new independent Ukraine and specimen of state decorations of the country.