Educational Activities of the State Russian Museum in the 1940s

The relevance of the article is indicated by referring to archival primary sources that characterize the forms and methods of scientific and artistic educational activities of the State Russian Museum in the 1940s, in particular — during the Great Patriotic War (a museum tour, an exhibition session, a lecture, a conversation with slides). This makes it possible to more accurately identify the direction of work in the following years and at the present time and indicate the need to introduce other forms of work with visitors: lectures with slides, traveling exhibitions, concerts, cycle subscriptions, trips to villages and enterprises, lectures on the radio, cooperation with the museum’s publishing house and the country’s press bodies.

The influence of the Department of Scientific and Artistic Propaganda of the 1940s on the State Russian Museum’s subsequent work on communication with the audience is expressed in the revision of the content of the excursion and lecture courses. In the 1950s—1970s, messages on the heroic past of the Soviet people, presentations of the activities of warrior artists, and communication with national unions of artists gained particular popularity. The State Russian Museum became a center for advanced training of tour guides for peripheral art museums.

Documentary sources, which include archive materials, are of particular importance in the preservation of memory. Together with them, works of art created during the war or in the first post-war years play an invaluable role in restoring the truth.

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10. Sundieva A.A. Formation of the Categorical Apparatus of Museology in the First Third of the 20th Century, Akademicheskie i vuzovskie muzei: rol’ i mesto v nauchno-obrazovatel’nom protsesse [Academic and University Museums: The Role and Place in the Scientific and Educational Process]. Tomsk, 2009, pp. 172—180 (in Russ.).

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12. The Work Plan of the Cultural and Educational Department of the State Russian Museum for 1940, Vedomstvennyi arkhiv GRM [Departmental Archive of the State Russian Museum], coll. GRM (I), aids 6, item 1400, p. 1 (in Russ.).

13. Resolution on the Report of the Spectator Study Commission, Arkhiv Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha [Archive of the State Hermitage Museum], coll. 1, aids 17, item 233 (1932), pp. 101—105 (in Russ.).

14. A Brief Explanatory Note to the Annual Report of the State Russian Museum, Vedomstvennyi arkhiv GRM [Departmental Archive of the State Russian Museum], coll. GRM (I), aids 6, item 1543 (1944), p. 33 back (in Russ.).

15. The Work Plan of the State Russian Museum for 1941, Vedomstvennyi arkhiv GRM [Departmental Archive of the State Russian Museum], coll. GRM (I), aids 6, item 1469 (1941), pp. 3—4 (in Russ.).

16. Boikov V.A. Putevoditel’ po peredvizhnoi vystavke zhivopisi Gosudarstvennogo Russkogo muzeya [A Guidebook for the Traveling Exhibition of Paintings of the State Russian Museum]. Voroshilovsk, Ordzhonikidzevskaya Pravda Publ., 1941, 48 p.

17. Dmitriev Yu.N. Gosudarstvennyi Russkii muzei. Drevnerusskoe iskusstvo: putevoditel’ [State Russian Museum. Old Russian Art: guidebook]. Leningrad, Moscow, Iskusstvo Publ., 1940, 72 p.

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20. Plans and Topics of Lectures, Reports on Patronage and Lecture Work, Vedomstvennyi arkhiv GRM [Departmental Archive of the State Russian Museum], coll. GRM (I), aids 6, item 1535 (1943), pp. 2—4 (in Russ.).

21. Lists of Those Submitted for the Award of the Medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War”, Characteristics of the Employees, References, Vedomstvennyi arkhiv GRM [Departmental Archive of the State Russian Museum], coll. GRM (I), aids 6, item 1618 (1946), pp. 1—2 (in Russ.).

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24. Plans and Work Reports of the Chief Custodian and Employees of the State Russian Museum on the State of the Collection and the Building during the Siege. 1942—1943, Vedomstvennyi arkhiv GRM [Departmental Archive of the State Russian Museum], coll. GRM (I), aids 6, item 1522 (1943), p. 37 (in Russ.).

25. Baltun P.K. (ed.) Leningrad v dni blokady: katalog vystavki [Leningrad in the Days of the Siege: exhibition catalog]. Molotov, GRM (filial) Publ., 1943, 24 p.

26. Kornilov P.E. (ed.) Vystavka proizvedenii V.M. Konashevicha [Exhibition of V.M. Konashevich’s Works]. Leningrad, Leningradskii Soyuz Sovetskikh Khudozhnikov Publ., 1943, 16 p.

27. Correspondence with the Department of Art Affairs about the Organization and Opening of the Exhibition of I.E. Repin Dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of his Birth, Vedomstvennyi arkhiv GRM [Departmental Archive of the State Russian Museum], coll. GRM (I), aids 6, item 1550 (02—10.1944), pp. 2, 4—4 back (in Russ.).

28. Lebedev G.E. (ed.) Vystavka pyati khudozhnikov: katalog vystavki proizvedenii khudozhnikov V.M. Konashevicha, V.V. Pakulina, A.F. Pakhomova, E.I. Rudakova, A.A. Strekavina [Exhibition of Five Artists: Catalog of the Exhibition of Works by the Artists V.M. Konashevich, V.V. Pakulin, A.F. Pakhomov, E.I. Rudakov, A.A. Strekavin]. Leningrad, OGIZ Publ., 1944, 16 p.

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30. Report on the Organization of the Repin Exhibition in the State Russian Museum (August 1944), Vedomstvennyi arkhiv GRM [Departmental Archive of the State Russian Museum], coll. GRM (I), aids 6, item 1543 (1944), pp. 2, 33—38 (in Russ.).

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33. All-Russian Meeting of Directors and Curators of Collections of Art Museums: transcript, Vedomstvennyi arkhiv GRM [Departmental Archive of the State Russian Museum], coll. GRM (I), aids 6, item 1668 (16.06.1947), pp. 6—6 back (in Russ.).

34. A Book of Reviews on the Exposition of the State Russian Museum, Vedomstvennyi arkhiv GRM [Departmental Archive of the State Russian Museum], coll. GRM (I), aids 6, item 1595 (28.07.1946—17.03.1952), pp. 5, 11, 17 (in Russ.).

35. Republican Meeting (on the Organization of Political and Educational Work). Verbatim Report, Vedomstvennyi arkhiv GRM [Departmental Archive of the State Russian Museum], coll. GRM (I), aids 6, item 1721 (21.12.1948), pp. 5—5 back, 8, 18 (in Russ.).

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37. Tuminskaya O.A. K yubileyu Byuro prosvetitel’skoi sluzhby: materialy po istorii otdelov nauchno-khudozhestvennoi propagandy Gosudarstvennogo Russkogo muzeya [To the Anniversary of the Educational Service Bureau: Materials on the History of the Departments of Scientific and Artistic Propaganda of the State Russian Museum]. St. Petersburg, Dmitrii Bulanin (DB) Publ., 2018, 142 p.

38. Put’ k Pobede: al’manakh [The Way to Victory: almanac], issue 112. St. Petersburg, Palace Editions Publ., 2005, 108 p.

39. Bakhtiyarov R.A. Zhivopis’ blokadnogo Leningrada [Painting of the Besieged Leningrad], cand. art. diss. abstr.: 17.00.04. St. Petersburg, 2008, 24 p.

40. Memory! Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, Russkii muzei: Korpus Benua: sait [Russian Museum: Benois Wing: website]. Available at: https://rusmuseum.ru/benois-wing/exhibitions/memory-for-the-75th-anniversary-of-the-victory-in-the-great-patriotic-war/ (accessed 10.08.2021) (in Russ.).