The fate of cultural and historical values of Russia at the crossroads of eras (1917-1927)

Abstract

The paper deals with the problems of preserving objects of Russian history and culture in 1917-1927. The author analyzes contradictory processes in the cultural life of the Soviet state in the first post-revolutionary decade. Based on archival sources, she shows the activities of the departments for protection of art monuments and antiques, the role of creative intelligentsia in saving and museumification of cultural and historical values. For example, she describes the first state inventory of art and historical values, as well as realization difficulties of their protection policy in some provinces. There are also some wreck and ruin examples of nobilitys country estates. The author emphasizes the role of creative intelligentsia in saving and museumification of cultural values and characterizes some cultural workers of the designated era accentuating that they have corrected, to a certain extent, revolutionary nihilism of the authorities concerning the cultural heritage. Due to this fact, the 1920s became the Golden age in the history of museum business. During this period, public and private repositories replenished countrys museums with works of art and antiquities. The author concludes that the museumification of Church buildings and objects relating to divine worship was a way to save them for total destruction. The author uses new dates, gathered in the central and regional archives of Russian Federation.