The Rescue and Protection of National Cultural Values as Part of the Cultural Process of 1917-1927 in Russia

The paper is devoted to the problem of preserving the cultural heritage of Russia in 1917-1927. The author aims to analyze the confrontation between two trends in the cultural process of those years: the policy and practice of saving national cultural values and the denial of their importance in the new conditions of the Soviet system. It is emphasized that for the first time the preservation of historical and cultural monuments in the country has begun to be carried out at the state level. On the basis of archival sources, the author studies the activities of the All-Russian Board for Museums and the Protection of Monuments of Art and Antiquity of the People’s Commissariat of Education and similar bodies in provinces and counties, which were engaged in the survey and registration of civil and church buildings, architectural complexes, collections of valuable manuscripts and books, and works of art. The author emphasized that this activity allowed to form an idea of the cultural wealth inherited from previous generations and its state, and that in the conditions of social perturbations and social changes of those years, artistic and historical monuments could only be saved by turning them into museum objects. The preservation of the largest museum collections can be considered the most important achievement. A characteristic feature of cultural processes until the mid-1920s was that the authorities took into account the competent opinions of museum specialists, art historians, architects, and restorers. The author traces their role in saving the artistic and historical values of Vladimir, Suzdal, Smolensk, Vologda, and others. It is shown that the new tasks faced by the scientific and artistic intelligentsia were perceived by them as a duty to society. The article also presents the facts of violation of the legislation on the protection of monuments of art and antiquity for political and ideological reasons. In examining the influence of the campaign for the confiscation of church values on the preservation of this part of the cultural heritage, the author argues that by the end of the 1920s, the negative narrative was intensifying regarding historical and cultural monuments associated with the Russian Orthodox Church, and a departure was emerging from the course to save monuments of art and antiquity regardless of their origin proclaimed in 1918.