Long-Term Expansion of Regional Museums in Russia: A Quantitative Analysis of Historical Dynamics

Abstract

Museums help to conserve regional heritage and sustain regional identity, which is especially important in large countries. Russian regional museums constitute a whole phenomenon. Indeed, this phenomenon is a large field for research, and it cannot be comprehended by any single study. This is why attention should be paid for its particular aspects such as a historical dynamics of the expansion of regional museums in Russia. The information from the official websites of 76 regional museums sensu stricto of the entire country and 10 smaller museums of the Vologda Region was analyzed to measure the dynamics of their foundation and the relative importance of the different founders. It was established that regional museums were created in the Imperial, Soviet, and Modern periods of the Russian history, and the majority of them appeared in 1861–1935. Governmental founders prevailed, although private and societal initiatives also mattered, especially in the particular time slices. The smaller museums of the Vologda Region were created chiefly in the Soviet period, and both governmental and private initiatives were important. The results of this analysis were interpreted regarding attention to the broad public education and activity of so-called intelligentsia in the late Imperial and Soviet periods. It is hypothesized that the regional museum foundation can be brought in correspondent to the idea of a wise state and society development. Importantly, major transformations of the Russian society (particularly, in the beginning of the 20th century) did not interrupt the expansion of regional museums. It is proposed that the existing national network of regional museums itself has a heritage value, which can be important to tourism development.