Local transformations of museum «places of memory» in post-soviet era: historiographical notes and direct observations

Abstract

The problem of transition from soviet era to modern Russia and associated transformations attracted the attention of scientists (sociologists specially). Within the framework of recent sociological research (the project Russia reforming), it was noted that in the historical memory of the population, the collapse of the USSR and the realities of the new Russia have ambiguous manifestations, and the collective memory is declining. It is necessary to refer to the characterization of the situation with assessments of ongoing transformations by representatives of other scientific fields in the context of the memory paradigm. The article is devoted to modern interpretations of local museum transformations like places of memory. It is necessary to compare approaches to the problem of museologists, cultural scientists and historians. The basis for historiographical notes and observations is intellectual history as an interdisciplinary subject field of actual historical knowledge about various types of creative activity, creative processes and its results. The novelty of our research is that the memory studies uses a historical and cultural model for the analysis of Museum places of memory with a separate emphasis on the assessment of the modern specifics of the representation of images of the Soviet past. As the obtained historiographical results, we record the greatest activity in considering the problem of transformations in Museum publications. However, their authors reduce the essence of the problem to the inner world of museums (the appearance of additional functions and forms of activity). At the same time, since the mid-2000s, there has been a convergence of museology with historical science (the project Role of museums libraries archives in the information support of historical science). The problem of possible creation of a Museum of local history of a new type has been raised. The first publications which connecting museum and historical memory in modern Russia are most important to memories historiography. Specifics of source base for research of local transformations museum places of memory are considered information from direct observations. Transformations of museums in culture space of some Siberian cities are used for example.

Keywords

• intellectual history
• modern interpretations of local transformations
• museum
• places of memory
• soviet era.