From the history of museum work in Crimea: Activities of the Russian Society for the Study of the Crimea — Society for the Study of the Crimea (1922–1932)

Abstract

The article deals with the museum direction in the popularization and research activities of the Russian Society for the Study of Crimea — the Society for the Study of Crimea against the background of the active development of the local history movement in the USSR in the 1920s and early 1930s. Three main forms of cooperation between the public scientific organization and the museum institutions in the region are traced: the participation of the Society members in the work of museums, and in creating new museums of local history (in Alushta and Kerch); publications of employees of Crimean museums about the profile work of institutions on the pages of the Society’s printed organ — the scientific journal “Krym”; author’s methodological articles of members of the Society on museum topics on the pages of the journal “Krym” (K. E. Grinevich, V. G. Opalov). Consideration of the plots of cooperation between amateur local historians, professional historians, archaeologists, ethnographers and museum workers allows us to form a comprehensive picture of the atmosphere and moods that were decisive in the scientific and social movement of the first decades of Soviet power. The dynamics of local history initiatives, the change of priorities in popularizing work helps to trace the patterns of transformation of the local history movement by the beginning of the 1930s. This was fully reflected in museum work, particularly in the leveling of any creative independence of museum teams and their incorporation into the structure of state ideological apparatus. This led to a crisis in the local history and museum movement and contributed to the unleashing of harassment and repression against local Soviet historians and museum workers, both at the all-Union and regional levels.