9 October, 1919. Minutes of the session of the Petrograd council where the foundation of the museum of revolution was proclaimed. 

The first part of the text was made by the first director of GMR Mikhail Kaplan.

Comrades, M. V. Novorussky, a Shlisselburg native who spent 17 years in the Shlisselburg Fortress, was supposed to speak about the Museum of the Revolution. Naturally, it should have been his turn to speak. But urgent matters compelled him to delegate this task to me. Comrades, in the month of May, Comrade Lunacharsky called a meeting to organize the Museum of the Revolution, and this meeting outlined the general principles of the guiding line upon which the museum was to be built. This museum, according to the meeting, should not be a dead museum where materials and revolutionary monuments are stored under lock and key.

According to the thoughts of the meeting, this museum should be a living organism, a laboratory of revolutionary thought. In this museum, there should be an organized publishing house for all sorts of books; lectures, theater, and cinema should be organized, all serving the museum. The museum should encompass the entire revolutionary movement, starting from its origins, from Radishchev and Novikov, these revolutionaries who fought for the people, from Radishchev and Novikov to the Decembrists, many of whom died on the gallows, suffered in hard labor, in exile, and in prisons, from the Decembrists to the People’s Will, to these solitary heroes, yet unheard by the people, who proudly went to their death, who selflessly fought against autocracy. Then to the revolution of 1905, the revolution which first created the Soviets, those Soviets that now rule in Russia and will rule the entire world (applause). So, comrades, as a result of this meeting, a commission was organized by the department for museum affairs, which **** took a number of practical steps towards the realization of this necessary monument, the Museum of the Revolution. Courses on the revolutionary movement will soon open, which will prepare new cadres of employees, future workers of this museum. The program is outlined, lectures are being prepared in the center and in the regions. Surveys of places associated with the revolution are being conducted. Measures have been taken to protect the Shlisselburg Fortress where fighters for the people’s will long languished and suffered. Photographs are being taken from the places of confinement where fighters for the people’s cause languished. Materials on the revolutionary movement are being collected.<…>

The guiding lines of this museum, this enormous monument to the revolution can only be created by the joint efforts of all who love and create revolution. All comrades who participated in the revolution should be employees of this museum, all materials are valuable, all memories are precious. No proof of the necessity of this museum is needed, I think, I do not need to make fiery agitational speeches on this matter, you know how necessary this museum is, which should transform from the Museum of the Russian Revolution into the Museum of the World Revolution. It can only be created by the efforts of all of you and here, from this Petrograd Soviet, the following resolution and decisions are proposed.

Further spoke Ilya Ionov, who joined the GMR as member of the governing council. 

Comrades, each one of you participants in our revolutionary events has, to one extent or another, taken part in the revolutionary movement that has brought us to October, to the achievements we are now consolidating. Comrades, you know that it is not only important to struggle, but it is also crucial to secure and preserve the memories of those who have fought, who have earned freedom for the working class . You are aware that we had great predecessors, the French Communards, and if we know about how they fought, how they died for the cause of labor, it is only because their descendants preserved documents, memories, *** and of this struggle. And do not be disheartened, comrades, by the fact that many of you are not adept at *** ****writing; every line is precious to us, every word in this respect will aid the great cause of organizing the revolutionary museum, will contribute to making it more complete. Many things that at first glance seem insignificant, old proclamations, old newspapers, magazines, letters from the executed, will be magnificent material that will serve as the foundation of our museum. To this end, you are invited by the Petrograd Soviet

Source: Central State Archive of St Petersburg. F 1000, op 3, d 30.