On the Formation of the Exhibition “Religion and Atheism of Ancient Greece” in the Museum of the History of Religion and the Atheism of the USSR Academy of Sciences (According to Documents of SPbB ARAS)

Abstract

The purpose of the publication is to describe the history of the creation of the exhibition “Religion of Ancient Greece” in 1954 at the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Documentary materials related to this case are stored in the museum fund at the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences (fund 221) and are being introduced into academic circulation for the first time. The author of the concept of the exhibition was an employee of the museum, a young antiquarian A.A. Neikhardt, who made efforts to replenish the museum with original exhibits and also contributed to the transfer to the museum of the finds of the Bosporan expedition from the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the USSR Academy of Sciences, thus being a “founding father” of the ancient archaeological collection of today's State Museum of the History of Religion. The figure behind the concept was the deputy director of the museum M.I. Shakhnovich. Two more St. Petersburg antiquarians were involved in the organization of the exhibition: S.I. Kovalev, the future Director of the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism, and I.A. Shishova, a young specialist. The formation of expositions took place against the background of a certain ideological pressure when a researcher who wanted to engage in pure science had to subordinate his work to the ideological paradigm established by the state.