The cultural heritage in museum sources: the Russian country-estate after 1917

The article explores the most important problems of the Russian estates after 1917. Basing on a brief historiographic context the author highlights scientific value of both the newly identified and already published sources for the historic reenactment of the estate collections that were disrupted after 1917 Revolution. The author examines sources of the estate valuables export, which are important for modern museum-estates, and poses the problems that arose in the implementation of this process. By giving specific examples, the author clearly demonstrates the complexity and ambiguity of this process. This depended on both subjective factors and cultural policy of the government in general. The author brings up for discussion the problem of the existence of the Russian estate after the revolutionary developments, describes the story of its ex-owners and stresses the importance of the memoir literature.