Local history activities of the state museums in Altay in the 2nd half of 1950s - 1st half of 1960s

The purpose of the article is to analyze concrete historical conditions and results of the practical implementation by the museum institutions of the state strategy of revival of the mass local lore movement in the “thaw period” at the regional level. The authors set the following tasks: to identify state approaches to regional studies and management mechanisms in the sphere of culture, and to show specific features of their appliance in the region. The article is based on methodological principles of new local history and on established practice of modern regional historical research. The source base of the paper comprises unpublished materials of accounting and control documentation and reports of museum institutions. Spatial boundaries of the study include Altai territory and the Gorno-Altaisk Autonomous Region, constituting a single administrative space during this period. The chronological frames cover the second half of the 1950s - the first half of the 1960s, which is determined by changes in museum policy in the USSR being a result of reforms initiated by N. S. Khruschev. The problematic field of the work is associated with transformation of local history practice under the influence of changes in internal political course and ideological bent in the country. As a result of the study, it was found that Altai heritage preservation and popularization appeared to be possible in the studied period due to the efforts of museum staff-enthusiasts and to the methods of organizing local history work among local residents. In view of this, it became popular to collect antiquities, documents and photographs of the history of schools, villages and districts and, based on them, creation of museums on a voluntary basis. Local history in the post-Stalin era was considered by Soviet authorities to be a means of constructing the «necessary» past and of control over social memory. In the socio-cultural landscape of Altai, the main obstacles in the practical activities of the museums in studying local history and popularizing local knowledge were weak material and technical resources, underfunding and personnel problem. The persistent political dictatorship of the center made museum workers display historical and cultural heritage objects in the context of communist ideology.