«An absolutely new museum is needed»: the Russian Academy for the History of Material Culture and the project on creating the Central Museum for the History of Material Culture in the 1920s

The early Soviet period saw repeated discussions of various projects on organization of archaeological museums. The project on organization of the Central Archaeological Museum was proposed by the Institute of Art History in 1917. This subject was discussed at the first All-Russian Museum Conference in 1919; the Commission on organization of the Central Museum for the History of Material Culture tried to implement decisions made at this conference in 1920-1921. For this project to come to fruition, this Commission was transformed into a joint commission of the Russian Academy for the History of Material Culture and the State Museum of Hermitage. At the end of the 1920s the State Academy for the History of Material Culture discussed another project aimed to organize the Museum of Human Culture. None of the projects was implemented because of the lack of resources and outstanding issues related to insufficient number of exhibits to be put on display; however, the documents from the archives of the Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, clearly demonstrate how the discussions on the mission and the structure of this museum, in general, and archaeological museums, in particular, proceeded. The projects on organizations of the Museum for the History of Material Culture is a memorial to unrealized ambitious projects in the museum sector in the 1920s.