Formation of the Regulatory Framework for the Emergence of Museum-Reserves in the USSR in the Late 1950s - 1960s

The article presents an analysis of the legislative initiatives of the Soviet state in the field of registration, protection, preservation and popularization of cultural heritage in the post-war period, from the late 1940s to 1960. The author attempted to identify key changes in the regulatory measures of monument protection, which provided the opportunity for a new form of heritage museumification through the creation of museum-reserves. Since the late 1950s, they have been assigned the status of the most reasonable and correct form of using historical and cultural heritage. The author proposes a historical and modern justification for the central term «museum-reserve», and traces the process of the term’s transition from the environmental sphere and its adaptation in museum practice. The article provides a brief description of the ideological and political situation in the country, which determined the change in the attitude of the state and society towards architectural monuments and cultural heritage in general. The unprecedented wartime destruction stimulated attention and interest in the partially lost heritage. Efforts to restore ruined monuments and care for cultural heritage have become a means of political propaganda in the international arena, as proof of the superiority of the socialist system and ideology. The article provides a consistent analysis of key government decisions and resolutions, starting from the war years. Already in the first documents, much attention was paid to the peculiarities and approaches to the protection of architectural monuments, as the most vivid and visual evidence of the greatness and power of the national cultural wealth. Subsequent documents formulated the paramount importance of historical and cultural monuments for the state and society, proposed basic approaches to their classification, and defined the areas of responsibility and obligations between central departments, local cultural authorities and users. These acts gradually formed the regulatory framework for the protection and adaptation of monuments, and contributed to the development of important concepts, approaches and solutions. The results of the legislative measures of the period under study provided the foundation for modern legislation in this area.