Built in a gap in the kremlin walls, which start with the reconstructed Kassandalovskaya Tower, is what was once the City Academy and now Smolensk's most popular museum - the Museum of Smolensk Lands during the Second World War. Smolensk played an important role during the Second World War and this museum details the first months of the war, the occupation, partisan activity, the liberation and then the role of soldiers from Smolensk in the liberation of Eastern Europe. The museum is run as part of the Smolensk State Museum-Reserve.