Educational Activities of the State Russian Museum in the 1940s

Abstract

The relevance of the article is indicated by referring to archival primary sources that characterize the forms and methods of scientific and artistic educational activities of the State Russian Museum in the 1940s, in particular — during the Great Patriotic War (a museum tour, an exhibition session, a lecture, a conversation with slides). This makes it possible to more accurately identify the direction of work in the following years and at the present time and indicate the need to introduce other forms of work with visitors: lectures with slides, traveling exhibitions, concerts, cycle subscriptions, trips to villages and enterprises, lectures on the radio, cooperation with the museum’s publishing house and the country’s press bodies.The influence of the Department of Scientific and Artistic Propaganda of the 1940s on the State Russian Museum’s subsequent work on communication with the audience is expressed in the revision of the content of the excursion and lecture courses. In the 1950s—1970s, messages on the heroic past of the Soviet people, presentations of the activities of warrior artists, and communication with national unions of artists gained particular popularity. The State Russian Museum became a center for advanced training of tour guides for peripheral art museums.Documentary sources, which include archive materials, are of particular importance in the preservation of memory. Together with them, works of art created during the war or in the first post-war years play an invaluable role in restoring the truth.