Page 2 of About the military Museum of Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of AK-47

It can be seen clearly in the photos that the orientation of the hallway passing through the museum was carefully designed: the rear entrance looks out upon the Opera & Ballet Theater, while the main entrance looks out on the St. Mikhail Cathedral (currently under construction), and is surrounded by birches.

Pic.1-5 View of the Opera & Ballet
Theater from inside the rear entrance

Pic.1-6 Opera & Ballet Theater
is visible against the background

Pic.1-7 View of the St. Mikhail
Cathedral, yet to be built

Pic.1-8 Drawing of how the
Cathedral St. Mikhail will look

Pic.1-9 The St. Mikhail Cathedral
construction area. Domes of
Maiden of Kazan Church are
visible against the background.
Temporary belfry is behind the
billboard.

Pic.1-10 Construction area billboard

Ballet, birches, churches and AK-47s: all famous symbols of Russia gathered together in one place - a quintessence of the true Russia.
Our guess is that the architect had in mind a "temple theme", although we failed to see any mention of this in the press. A few other elements might confirm this guess: the arch of the open passage hall to the main entrance of the AK-47 Kalashnikov Museum resembles the arch of the main entrance to the St. Mikhail Cathedral (see the drawing), and the central hall of the exhibition is designed in the so called "temple style".

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Please note that the St. Mikhail Cathedral
wasn't named after Mikhail Kalashnikov!
The original temple construction was initiated back in 1893 by workers of the Izhevsk Arms Factory who had willingly been donating 1 kopeck from each ruble of their annual wages toward this purpose.
The original temple (later transformed to a cathedral) was designed in a style similar to the Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed in Moscow, or The Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ in St. Petersburg.
Its main bell was cast from old cannons, and the reinforced bricks used in its construction had been pressure tested in labs of the Izhevsk Arms Factory. Seventeen copper crosses were also made at this factory; thus, the Izhevsk gunsmiths were closely involved with the project.
The building was finished in 1907 after 10 years of construction ... then later was ruined by the Bolsheviks in 1937. There was no better reason than the need for a source of building material - 882,780 of the cathedral's bricks were used to build the Medical College across the road from the Maiden of Kazan Church.
Images credit:
Pic.1-11: Wen-Hsiang Tsai, National Chiao Tung University (NCTU)
Pic.1-12: David Crawshaw, Wikipedia
Back in the year 2000, it was decided to recreate the St. Mikhail Cathedral within 5 years, and Maiden of Kazan Church, as part of the cathedral, was promptly built with generous financing from a local oil company.
As of February 2005, foundation of the main building has been finished.

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