Московский Кремль. Императорская Рюст-Камера (на англ.яз.)

«Московский Кремль. Императорская Рюст-Камера (на англ.яз.)»: The collection of weaponry housed at the historical museum of culture "The Moscow Kremlin" was mainly founded during the early 19th century on two earlier assemblies: the 16th—17th century weapon treasury of the Russian tsars and the Imperial Ryust-kamera (from German "Ryustkammer", literally Russian "Armoury Chamber") of the 18th — early 19th centuries. The Ryust-kamera was merged with the Moscow Kremlin Armoury Chamber in 1810 following a decree of Tsar Alexander 1st and presently constitutes over 50% of the entire museum collection. However, for quite some time neither the curators nor the reviewers knew what institution had assembled it, what its history had been, or why the decision to transfer it from St. Petersburg to Moscow had been passed in the early 19th century. This, as usual, was the result of a complete lack of written sources. In fact, the researchers had for a long time no more than two documents at their disposal: a Ryust-kamera catalog of 1810 and a copy of an inventory compiled after gunmaker Illing's death in 17373. As early as in the late 19th century, they were used by L. P. Yakovlev for the arms description in the "Inventory of the Moscow Armoury Chamber".