It is supposed to have been Russia's first major public art museum outside Moscow or St. Petersburg.

It was founded by Alexey Bogolyubov and named after his grandfather, the 18th-century revolutionary writer Alexander Radishchev.

The naming was a direct challenge to the authorities: Bogolyubov had to endure a legal battle to get permission.

It includes work by Camille Corot, Auguste Rodin, Ivan Kramskoy, Vasily Polenov, Ilya Repin, Ivan Shishkin, Fyodor Vasilyev, Aleksandra Ekster, Pavel Kuznetsov, Aristarkh Lentulov, Robert Falk, Pyotr Konchalovsky, Martiros Saryan, Fyodor Rokotov and others.

[1][2][3] During the Great Patriotic War, future Director of the Belarusian National Art Museum, Alena Aladava, worked there.