Fantastic review of Russian art from Iconography to modern times by our guide Sergei who is an art historian and an expert on Russian culture. It was a privilege to walk with Sergei who imparted his extensive knowledge in a simple and witty way.

Not at all what we were looking for - a big disappointment!

We were expecting an overview of all the Russian Museum has to offer. The guide, Sergei, was a very nice man but he appeared to be an art historian and wanted to focus on his interests. We spent the first 25 minutes of the two hour tour in two rooms featuring religious icons. Although they were beautiful we did not want such an in-depth discussion at the expense of missing other important works at the museum. This approach continued through the tour - he gave a very long explanation of a few works. There were 4 of us - two couples. After over an hour seeing very little with very long-winded explanations of what we did see, the other couple said that they would move on - that they wanted to see some of the more modern works the museum had to offer. This is what we wanted to. Sergei agreed but at the next exhibit he continued to go 'on and on'. The other couple left and we also ended the tour after only 90 minutes, not seeing everything we had wanted to see.

Very interesting visit ; guide had excellent skills about art.