Useful and Enthralling Educational Manual

Abstract

The article reviews the educational manual by M.A. Polyakova “Cultural Heritage of Russia. The History of Protection and Current State” (Moscow: Russian State University for the Humanities, 2015). Sections of the publication: “Cultural Heritage in the Humanitarian Knowledge”, “The History of Protection of the Monuments of the Past during the 18th - 20th Centuries”, “The State and the Monuments of History and Culture in the Soviet Epoch”, “Cultural Heritage in the Post-Soviet Russia”. Every section is complemented by a list of control questions. The main text of the publication is complemented by a list of sources and literature, dictionary of basic concepts and terms, index of names. The book is characterized as a publication rich in content and enthralling in the form of presentation. The author gives a positive response to the way the manual presents the multidimensionality and complexity of formation of the attitude of Russian society to its historical and cultural property during a vast historical section. The article focuses on the analysis objectivity of the formation of idea about the protection value of the objects of the past. The legal aspects of the protection of cultural and historical monuments are particularly important. The manual analyzes the law projects and the comments to them. The actualization of cultural heritage in the modern conditions is considered in the sense of formation of the Russian self-identity.