Avant-Garde Museology E-Flux Classics

Avant-Garde Museology e-flux Classics

Avant-Garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev, Editor

Distributed by the University Published in collaboration with of Minnesota Press V-A-C Foundation CONTENTS

Acknowledgments ...... 13 Arseny Zhilyaev

Preface ...... 15 Julieta Aranda, Brian Kuan Wood, Anton Vidokle

Introduction Avant-Garde Museology: Toward a History of a Pilot Experiment ...... 21 Arseny Zhilyaev

I Museum as Common Task

The Museum, its Meaning and Mission (c. 1880s) ...... 59 Nikolai Fedorov

The Art of Resemblance (of False Artistic Regeneration) and the Art of Reality (Real Resurrection): Ptolemaic and Copernican Art (c. 1890s) ...... 143 Nikolai Fedorov

The Voronezh Museum in 1998 (1898) ...... 149 Nikolai Fedorov Contents Contents the Catherine the Great Exhibition II at the Voronezh Regional Museum The Museum of Avant-Gardism (1896) ...... 165 Nikolai Fedorov and Nikolai Peterson

On the Cathedral of the Resurrecting The Museum of Art, an excerpt from Museum (1921) ...... 171 the novel Red Star (1908) ...... 255 Vasiliy Chekrygin Aleksandr Bogdanov

The Church Ritual as a Synthesis of On the Museum (1919) ...... 267 the Arts (1918) ...... 197 Kazimir Malevich Pavel Florensky The Museum Newspaper: Suggestions for On the Creation of a Pantheon in the Regional Museums and Community Centers USSR: A Proposal (1927) ...... 215 (1931) ...... 275 Vladimir Bekhterev V. Karpov

Materials on the Institute of Biography Avalanche Exhibitions: The Experience (1920) ...... 223 of the Leningrad Organization of Worker-Artists Nikolai Rybnikov (1933) ...... 279 leonid Chetyrkin The Revolution Memorial Reservation, an excerpt from the novel Chevengur On the Question of Museums: Record of (1926 –28) ...... 233 the Discussion of Problems and Objectives of Andrey Platonov Fine Art Museums at the Art and Industry Board (1919) ...... 281 The Astronomical Observatory at the Moscow Department of Museum Affairs Perm Regional Museum (1935) ...... 249 V. I. Karmilov The Museum and Proletarian Culture: Speech at the Meeting of the First All-Russian Museum Commission (1919) ...... 289 Osip Brik Contents Contents

On the Results of the Museum An Experiment in Marxist Exhibition- Conference (1919) ...... 293 Making at the State Tretyakov Gallery Nikolai Punin (1931) ...... 363 Natalya Kovalenskaya On the Museum Bureau (1920 –21) ...... 299 Aleksandr Rodchenko Everyday Life of the Working Class from 1900 to 1930 Exhibition: The Museum of Painting Culture at History and Everyday Life Department of the Rozhdestvenka Street, 11 (1926) ...... 307 State Russian Museum (1931) ...... 377 From Museums and Places of Interest in Moscow Valentin Kholtsov

On a Museum of Industry and Art III (1931) ...... 389 David Arkin The Materialistic Museum A Museum Exhibition or a Theatrical Performance? (1932) ...... 399 Lenin’s attitude Toward Museums N. A. Shneerson (1931) ...... 315 Nadezhda Krupskaya On the Question of the Principles of Exhibition: Central Park of Culture and Dialectical Materialism and the Leisure Exhibitions (1932) ...... 411 construction of the Museum (1931) ...... 319 I. M. Zykov Ivan Luppol

Marxist Exhibition Methods for Natural Science Museums (1931) ...... 341 — Boris Zavadovsky Plates Permanent Collections of Fine Art — Museums: Joint Report (1931) ...... 351 Aleksey Fedorov-Davydov Contents Contents

IV V The Museum Outside Museum of the History of the Museum of the Revolution

Museums in Industrial Enterprises Marxism-Leninism in Exhibitions (1931) ...... 443 in the Museums of Revolution (1931) ...... 499 K. I. Vorobyov Andrey Shestakov

The Experience of Developing Mobile Museums of the Revolution (1931) ...... 509 Exhibitions (1931) ...... 453 Nikolai Druzhinin yuri Samarin A New Exhibition at the Leningrad Museum in the Street (1931) ...... 469 Museum of the Revolution (1931) ...... 533 P. N. Khrapov Vera Leykina

Bringing the Agitprop-Truck to the The Museum as a Weapon of Class Service of Cultural Construction Struggle: Here and Abroad (1934) ...... 543 (1932) ...... 481 roza Frumkina M. S. Ilkovsky

The Mobile Model of the Instructive VI Laboratory Hut and its Operation (1935) ...... 489 The Atheists’ Museum I. F. Sheremet

An Exhibition and Panorama of the Moscow Crematorium (1931) ...... 553 A. F. Levitsky Contents

The Question of Exhibitions in Acknowledgments Antireligious Museums (1931) ...... 557 S. P. Lebedyansky

The Museum on the Frontlines of the I couldn’t visit the museums of revolution in Soviet times. War on Religion (1932) ...... 569 But luckily, and paradoxically, Soviet history museums fully yuriy Kogan conserved their exhibitions following the end of the Eighties. The revolution—even the word is basically forbidden and Antireligious Work at the Kliment marked as pure evil in contemporary Russia—has continued Timiryazev Biomuseum: Supplementary its quiet life in glass cases in the hidden but still beating heart Report (1931) ...... 581 of our present ideological constructs. Vorontsovsky We must admit that this duplicity is not radically new. From the beginning of the 1930s, Soviet museums hardly Church Painting and its History as an allowed any open discussion of the revolution outside the Object of Antireligious Propaganda canon upheld by Stalin’s History of the Communist Party of the (1932) ...... 587 Soviet Union. But something very deep, something connected Ivan Skulenko to the very physical organization of exhibitions—namely, the very idea of the Museum of the Revolution—continued to access the avant-garde impulse that museologists shared Authors’ Biographies ...... 605 with the artists of the Great October Socialist Revolution, with the Bolsheviks, and with the people who believed that Notes on the Original Publications ...... 615 the miracle of the proletarian revolution was possible. It’s probably similar to the way minerals hidden in the depths of the Earth, helping to sustain life on the planet, testify to the Earth’s origin and its future. This publication is a result of five years of research. Its goal is to direct attention to incredible but nearly unknown material on the exhibition experiments and radical rethinking of museums that occurred in Russia and the USSR at the end of the nineteenth century and during the first third of the twentieth. These various projects may, at first glance, seem isolated from each other, but in fact they have

13 Arseny Zhilyaev deep-rooted commonalities in their fostering of what I call avant-garde museology. Preface It is important to note that this publication doesn’t pretend to fully cover this subject or circumscribe it on a theoretical level. Born of my own artistic interest, this exploration of the exhibition and museum projects carried out Avant-Garde Museology is the first title to be released in e-flux by the Russian Cosmists, avant-garde artists, and Marxist classics, a new book series aiming to open the story of art to museologists is more literary than academic in its selection the full complexity and paradoxicality of artistic thought. and organization of works. But this doesn’t negate my hope The contemporary museum might be the most advanced that the subject of avant-garde museology will garner public recording device ever invented. It is a place for the storage interest as well as the interest of discourses surrounding cur- of historical grievances and the memory of forgotten artistic rent artistic production. experiments, social projects, or errant futures. But a museum I would like to heartily thank Teresa Mavica, Anton can also be the very tomb where these projects are declared Vidokle, and Kadist Art Foundation for their limitless trust dead and laid to rest—joining other elements of the past: in the project; Dmitry Potemkin for his comprehensive sup- despotic kings and their belongings, an old order stretching port for the idea of this publication from the very begin- back centuries, perfectly preserved. This is why many artists ning and for helping to organize the material included in it; of the early Russian avant-garde in the years surrounding Anastasia Gacheva, Maria Chehonadskih, and Vlad Sofronov the 1917 October Revolution called for the destruction of for their valuable advice and commentary; Boris Groys and museums—as fortresses of history, they could only hinder Claire Bishop for their support of this book, and those with- the creation of an entirely new culture. Life, in all its vitality, out whom Avant-Garde Museology would never have seen must supersede art. the light. But artists were not the only ones who realized something had to be done with the museum. Around the same — Arseny Zhilyaev time in Russia, a number of others joined artists such as Malevich in realizing that the meaning and purpose of the museum had to be reinvented. For artist Arseny Zhilyaev, these were the avant-garde museologists—a disparate group of state officials, art historians, writers, philosophers, and amateur scientists who identified the museum as a crucial site to be placed in the service of the collective production of life. While some of these thinkers are little known or completely unknown, both to readers today and to each other in their own time, their placement in Avant-Garde Museology

Avant-garde Museology 14 15 Preface Julieta Aranda, brian Kuan Wood, anton Vidokle alongside the encompassing influence of Vladimir Lenin, of contradictions that arose when ideas of progress came Kazimir Malevich, and Nikolai Fedorov distinguishes for the into contact with brute historical realities. And yet, the rich- first time a mature line of thinking running through early ness and character of the art and thinking that grew from Soviet society. a confrontation with these very contradictions is often flat- For Zhilyaev, the avant-garde museologists can be said tened under the weight of grand historical or art historical to have exceeded the magnitude and imaginative scope of narratives applied to explain them from a distance. The early the early artistic avant-gardes themselves. They internalized Russian avant-gardes, for instance, have been mainly under- the critique of the museum voiced by artists and sought to stood in the English-speaking art historical and museum advance its pedagogical function accordingly. If Malevich fields in formalist terms as abstract geometric experimenta- himself called for a museum of life to replace the incinerated tion, or subjected to analysis through a Cold War political lens remains of the backwards past, the avant-garde museologists fetishizing the otherness of communism. A collection such as further asked how such a museum of life would be realized, Avant-Garde Museology should hopefully inspire a reader to whether through museology and curation or philosophically forget all that immediately before reading further. and temporally. Still, it is important to bear in mind that the history writ- In fact, for Nikolai Fedorov, the eccentric philosopher ten by that very English-language art history and museum who laid the foundation for Russian Cosmism, the museum complex remains a primary source for our knowledge and was the very site where the border between life and death awareness of not only the early Russian avant-gardes, but could be negotiated, precisely because it is the crematorium of art history in general in the period of contemporary art. for the epochal dead described by Malevich. But the func- While many rich histories of art exist, language barriers tion of Fedorov’s museum of the future had to be turned have limited their availability to audiences beyond the con- not only to serving life, but also to conquering death itself in texts where they originated. Which is to say that this his- the service of immortality for all people. Other figures such torical canon has already shown itself to be irrelevant at the as the neurologist Vladimir Bekhterev sought to preserve same time as it is being upheld as the only de facto historical human intelligence through a “pantheon of the brain,” while record available. Aleksandr Bogdanov, first an ally and later a rival of Lenin in e-flux classics would like to take this as a historical con- the early Bolshevik days, created the world’s first Institute tradiction of our own time by asking what an artistic canon of Blood Transfusion. Many avant-garde museologists also for the period of contemporary art might be. Rather than sought to rethink existing museums and the role of peda- resurrect the old order or invent a new king, the approach gogy and material preservation according Marxist dialectics, might be more similar to what Zhilyaev proposes: to rewind writing in the pages of journals such as Soviet Museum from the tape to resurrect in memory all that deserves life. the perspective of a state official or museum worker. russia is only one part of the world among many where — Julieta Aranda, Brian Kuan Wood, Anton Vidokle the period of modernity marked a passage through an era

Avant-garde Museology 16 17 Dedicated to the sweet memory of my beloved grandmother Anna Kirsanovna Golysheva Introduction Avant-garde Museology: Toward a History of a Pilot Experiment

Arseny Zhilyaev Avant-garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev

Translated by Serge Levchin * * * Contemporary art’s angel of history is famously turned toward the past. And all he sees is a pile of catastrophes. The idea of the museum as a staging ground for transcending Perhaps the angel would like to remain there, to resurrect the the social and physical limitations imposed on mankind can dead, but he cannot. The winds of progress propel him inex- be traced back to the works of Nikolai Fedorov, one of the orably forward. His only hope is an angelic video recorder most prominent exponents of religious philosophy, origina- that can document the losses wrought in this struggle for the tor of the philosophy of the “common task,” and founding future. Perhaps when the storm dies down at last, he will be father of the Russian cosmism movement, which in large able to review the tape and create a happy paradise of con- part inspired the Soviet space program. The idea of space temporaneity that can accommodate all the aspirations of colonization was a natural consequence of Fedorov’s concep- innocently slaughtered artistic hopes. tion of man as a transformative force in the universe—a kind But what exactly is this recording device? The answer of universal artist. is simple: the museum of contemporary art. Naturally, the The designation of such a role necessitates certain regula- museum as we know it today will not do. Its scope is incom- tions on nature and the cosmos. plete, and the unspoken rules dictated by its format do not One of the key aspects of Fedorov’s conception of man- allow it the same degree of freedom that drives the winds kind’s place in the cosmos was the resurrection of the dead of artistic progress, desperately gunning for salvation. But and the subsequent resettlement of newly resurrected gen- sooner or later its turn will come, and then the freedom of the erations on other planets. After all, if the physical act of resur- artist will be equal to the freedom of the curator, who chooses rection were to take place on a singular planet, the sudden the angle of perspective and rewinds the tape to resurrect in superimposition of the dead on the world of the living would memory all that deserves life. lead to acute overpopulation. If we closely examine the history of this particular strug- Space exploration, however, was not a principal tenet gle for freedom, we will find many courageous experiments of Fedorov’s teachings. His “common task” was premised, in bringing the project of the avant-garde museum to life. first of all, on the need to assume direct control over the Moreover, we will see that these experiments yielded positive mechanisms of evolution and to conquer death. At the same results. But the laboratory where these experiments were time, mere immortality would not suffice: the generation staged was destroyed before the truth about the art of the destined to triumph over death would stand on the graves future could be made public. All that was left were ruins and of all those who gave their lives in the service of the grand scraps of notes in a laboratory journal, on the cover of which ideal. Thus the blessed brotherhood of the Sons would we can just barely make out the title, effaced by the passage be forever indebted to the Fathers. Accordingly, the resur- of time: “Avant-Garde Museology.” rection of the dead is at the core of the philosophy of the “common task.”

i 22 Introduction 23 Avant-garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev

The ethical radicalism of the idea of indebtedness became a “dead archive.” The situation demands a radical reconsid- the driving force behind Fedorov’s futuristic constructs. The eration of the very conception of man’s creative life. To this creative transformation of the universe and its planets by end, Fedorov introduces the distinction between Ptolemaic means of space travel, the regulation of natural phenomena and Copernican art. The former entails the creation of “false on Earth and beyond, the transcendence of humanity— likenesses,” and thus refers to virtually all of mimetic art, or presently the pinnacle of evolution, but subject to improve- more broadly, to art as a distinct practice, constrained by ment—these are but some of the more striking corollaries of institutional boundaries, that must, moreover, be content the idea that mankind must assume an active position with with merely imaginary solutions to the conflicts it purports to respect to the debt it owes its forebears. One of the central address. Copernican art implies an active, creative transfor- places in this activist agenda is occupied by the museum, mation of reality, aimed, ultimately, at physical resurrection: understood in the broadest sense of the word as an institution that can subsume virtually all of man’s activities in the The transition from the art of resemblance to the art service of the “common task.” of reality, from Ptolemaic art to Copernican art, must Needless to say, the museum as it existed toward the end be served by the museum of all sciences, unified in of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries astronomy. This museum should have a tower, and be could not accommodate such an ambitious project. With an connected to a church-school—the tower would serve ideal institution of the future in mind, Fedorov thus mounts for observing the falling stars, that is, for observing a strident critique of traditional museum practices. He notes the continuous construction and disintegration of that the museum had often been used to enshrine mankind’s the world, and likewise for meteorological obser- poverty, strife, and misconceptions concerning its own des- vation, which transitions to experiment, to action; tiny. The museum of the future, on the other hand, must be through transformation of military art into the art of construed as a place of reconciliation—an institution that, natural sciences.1 like the church, will register every new life and every new death. The church, which proffers an important—but so far The call for an art that transcended its own boundaries illusory—vision of immortality (one that, moreover, does not resonated with the ideas put forward in the late nineteenth extend to the physical body and is withheld from the sinner), and early twentieth centuries by Russian religious philoso- must be supplemented by the museum, and reimagined, in phers such as V. S. Solovyev and N. A. Berdyaev, as well as turn, as a research facility for the preservation and resurrec- the Symbolist poets, and also prefigured the pathos of the tion of every individual in his physical and mental totality. avant-garde aspirations of Marxist-leaning artists. But in Hence Fedorov espouses the need to combine the museum contrast to the Soviet Constructivists-Industrialists—whose with a scientific laboratory, library, and church-school. 1. Nikolai Fedorov, “The Art of Resemblance (of False Artistic At the same time, Fedorov denounces the functional orga- Regeneration) and the Art of Reality (Real Resurrection),” written nization of the museum, which has effectively turned it into c. 1890s. Reproduced on p. 143–147 of this volume.

i 24 Introduction 25 Avant-garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev idea of bringing art into life amounted to little more than In the second half of the 1890s, Fedorov traveled regularly propaganda for the new way of being under conditions of to Voronezh to visit with his friend and former pupil Nikolai socialistic construction and an unsuccessful attempt to rec- Peterson. There he became acquainted with the founder of oncile the contradictions between mechanical and artistic the Voronezh Regional Museum, S. E. Zverev, a priest and labor—Fedorov goes further, calling for the elimination, by regional ethnographer, and was subsequently instrumental way of the museum, of the most deep-seated personal affects in organizing several of the Museum’s exhibitions: of death and sexual desire. The latter he construed as a delusional attempt to assuage one’s fear of death. Since 1896, at Fedorov’s initiative, the Museum Needless to say, although many progressive institutions has mounted a number of theme-based exhibitions for the contemporary arts have subsequently realized some devoted to the most significant events of the year, of Fedorov’s intuitive insights, his project as a whole seems which practice later became a tradition. Between unfeasible even today. It is all the more astonishing then to 1896 and 1899 we organized six such exhibitions: on consider that it originated in the late nineteenth century. It the subject of the Coronation (May 1896) and on the is commonly believed that Fedorov counterposed museums rule of Catherine (November 1896); an exhibition and exhibitions. This, however, is only true of certain kinds of engravings bearing religious themes (May 1897); of museums and certain kinds of exhibitions. His critique an exhibition devoted to St. Mitrophan of Voronezh was directed specifically at the industrial exposition on (Nov.–Dec. 1897); an exhibition commemorating account of its glorification of unbridled capitalist consump- one hundred years of the printing trade in Voronezh tion and its promulgation of false values.2 At the same time (May 1898); and an exhibition titled The Nativity of he wholeheartedly welcomed museum projects stemming Jesus Christ and Conciliation (Dec. 1898–Jan. 1899). from other premises. Accordingly, in an article written in Fedorov was directly involved in each case: he chose 1897 advocating for the unification of the library and the the theme and participated in the selection of materi- museum, he makes the following analogy: “If a repository als, some of which were either brought to Voronezh may be compared to a grave, then reading, or more precisely by him personally or delivered from Moscow at his research, is a kind of exhumation, while an exhibition is, as request. He also wrote the introductory articles for it were, a resurrection.”3 three of the exhibitions: (on Catherine, on the printing trade and on the Nativity).4 2. Nikolai Fedorov, “Vsemirnaya vystavka 1899 goda” (The Universal Exhibition of 1899) in Sobraniya sochineniy (Collected Works with Commentary by A.G. Gacheva and S. G. Semenova) vol. 1 Voronezh also became the site of the first incarnation of (Moscow: Tradition, 1995–2005), 442–459 the Resurrecting Museum, created by the local artist and 3. Nikolai Fedorov, “Dolg avtorskiy i pravo muzeya-biblioteky” (The Authorial Debt and the Bylaws of the Museum-Library) in Sobraniya sochineniy (Collected Works) vol. 3 (Moscow: Tradition, 4. Nikolai Fedorov, Sobraniya sochineniy (Collected Works) vol. 3 1995–2005), 235 (Moscow: Tradition, 1995–2005), 235

i 26 Introduction 27 Avant-garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev disciple of Fedorov, Lev Solovyev. A widower, Solovyev was Revolution were unable to reconcile their ideas: in 1922, determined to resurrect the memory of his lost wife by turn- Chekrygin was killed in a train accident. He was twenty-five. ing his home and garden into a prototype of the museum of His Resurrecting Museum remained confined to paper. the future. To this end he created several studies for murals Toward the end of the 1920s, another version of the avant- that would decorate the walls of the Resurrecting Museum; garde museum appeared in the writings of one of the great- he also opened a free painting school. Fedorov highly valued est Soviet authors, Andrey Platonov. The novelChevengur , the project, devoting several articles to it and including his unpublished in the author’s lifetime, became a critical reflec- literary description of the museum of the future in an article tion on the fate of mankind’s dreams of social transforma- titled “The Voronezh Museum in 1998” D( on no. 64, June 14, tion as they collide with reality. The novel is set in the small 1898 — reproduced on p. 149 –163 of this volume). Russian town of Chevengur during the Civil War, in the years The second attempt to realize the Resurrecting Museum 1917–21. Despite the war and the ongoing struggle for con- project was made in the early 1920s by the avant-garde art- trol of the territory, the local residents believe that commu- ist Vasiliy Chekrygin. Chekrygin was twenty-three when nism has already come, and consequently all the aspirations he first encountered Fedorov’s ideas. By that time he had of a liberated mankind must be realized in everyday life. The already served on the front lines of World War I (albeit not world described by Platonov sheds light on the ambivalent by choice), had befriended Vladimir Mayakovsky, and was challenges facing Soviet society in the immediate aftermath instrumental in founding the artistic movement “Makovetz.” of the first years after the revolution. At the close of the novel The philosophical doctrine of the “common task” had so the communist commune is attacked and destroyed. impressed the young artist that he devoted the final years To a certain extent the isolation of Chevengur and its of his all-too-brief life to making sketches for the monumen- residents from the realities of life under civil war trans- tal fresco that would grace the walls of the Resurrecting forms the town into a kind of open-air museum. Indeed, the Museum, and to writing a long prose poem of the same name. citizens of Chevengur embody in their manner of life and The poem was completed, but Chekrygin’s artistic vision physical presence a unique—if somewhat grotesque—social was never realized. The surviving correspondence between formation, hurtling toward collapse. Moreover, one could Chekrygin and Nikolai Punin (one of the theorists of Left argue that Platonov’s novel also presents an allegory of the Art, closely associated with Futurism) contains a discussion art museum. The residents of Chevengur not only collect of the idea of synthetic art and the Resurrecting Museum things, but also create or re-create them collectively. The project.5 Unfortunately these two leaders of the Cultural tragic image of the open-air museum as a metaphor for the establishment of communism in a single society is made con- 5. “… we must direct our efforts toward the creation of the first crete in “The Revolution Memorial Reservation” (translated Cathedral of the Resurrecting Museum, which shall be an event unprecedented in history, the first attempt to lay the cornerstone of Punin, February 7, 1922, in N. F. Fedorov: Pro et Contra: Antologia, the Cathedral that would bestow consciousness upon history and self- vol. 2 (St. Petersburg: Izdatel’stvo Russkogo Hristianskogo gumani- knowledge upon nature.” From a letter of V. N. Chekrygin to N. N. tarnogo instituta, 2004), 489.

i 28 Introduction 29 Avant-garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev in this volume by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler and Olga truly encyclopedic scope: among them is a study of optical Meerson). Platonov describes an “amateur” reservation cre- perspective, a scientific paper on the methods of extracting ated by a madman, Comrade Pashintsev, “in Honor of World iodine, and one on construction techniques in permafrost Communism.” Its objective is to preserve the revolutionary conditions (the latter due in part to his arrest and exile to spirit of all who are fighting for mankind’s bright future. We Siberia). Despite his status as a priest, Florensky continued to soon learn, however, that the museum supplants rather than lecture widely in the early years of rabidly anticlerical Soviet sustains life, making a grotesque parody of the principles of rule, and was involved in some of the most important artistic justice and equality that it purports to preserve. debates in the years of the historical avant-garde. His texts Platonov’s work is said to have been influenced directly on church ritual were delivered before a commission for the by the philosophy of the “common task.”6 Several of his works preservation of artistic and historical monuments. Its imme- make reference to the need for scientific resurrection, evince a diate goal was to preserve a unique cultural institution—the fascination with space exploration, and lay special emphasis Trinity-Sergius Lavra—from distortion and possible destruc- on the relationship between “fathers” and “sons.” Platonov tion. Florensky points to the frequently overlooked artistic also shares with Fedorov a special affinity for science. Early in aspects of the church ritual, which lose their meaning and his life, the future author of Chevengur worked as an engineer cultural significance as soon as they go through the process of and independently designed mechanisms aimed at trans- museification. In contemporary terms, we may see this text as forming life by bringing it closer to the socialist and Cosmist one of the first attempts to critique the museum as a secular- ideal of rational control over nature. By the 1930s the social izing institution, incapable of fulfilling its mission without a optimism of Platonov’s youth gave way to more somber tones forcible decontextualization of its subject matter. At the same in his descriptions of actual realized projects and their conse- time, Florensky’s report was part of the unfolding debate on quences. In that sense, the reservation-museum can be inter- the role of the cultural heritage of religion in the USSR. preted as Fedorov’s Resurrecting Museum turned inside out: Another project that may be considered alongside instead of a staging ground for the affirmation of life, it is a Fedorov’s ideas on the museum is the “Pantheon of the place where life decays and eventually disappears. USSR.” The project belongs to the renowned Soviet neuro- A unique perspective on the union of museum and church, pathologist and psychiatrist Vladimir Bekhterev, one of the albeit one consistent with Fedorov’s ideas, is to be found in pioneers of reflexology. In the final years of his life, Bekhterev Pavel Florensky’s “The Church Ritual as a Synthesis of the became convinced of the need to create an institution that Arts.” Florensky is said to belong to the tradition of Russian would study the brains of leading Soviet citizens with the religious philosophy. At the same time, his works exhibit a aim of finding connections between the physiological features of the cerebral cortex and the individual’s mental abili- 6. Scholars point to the fact that Platonov’s personal library con- ties. Bekhterev called for a special legislative act requiring tained several works by N.F. Fedorov. See S. G. Semenova, Nikolai Fedorov. Tvorchestvo zhizni (N. F. Fedorov: Life’s Work) (Moscow: Sov. the brains of all prominent Soviet citizens to be extracted Pisatel, 1990), 364. at their deaths and delivered by a special commission to the

i 30 Introduction 31 Avant-garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev institution in question. In addition to its research activities, among others, the brains of the following citizens: the poet the Pantheon of the USSR would also house an exhibition Andrei Bely; prominent party activist, scientist, and writer hall, showcasing actual brain specimens, plaster casts, and Aleksandr Bogdanov; psychologist and Marxist philosopher molds, as well as products of the individuals’ creative activi- Lev Vygotsky; writer Maksim Gorky; Nadezhda Krupskaya, ties, biographical information, and psychological profiles fellow revolutionary and wife of Lenin; prominent party based on (questionable) data from close relatives and asso- and cultural leader Anatoly Lunacharsky; poet Vladimir ciates of the deceased. Mayakovsky; physiologist Ivan Pavlov; leader of the inter- A similar project had been conceived earlier, between national communist movement, Clara Zetkin; and, finally, 1918 and 19. The psychiatrist Nikolai Rybnikov proposed one of the founding fathers of the Soviet space program, the establishment of a “Biographical Institute,” whose Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.7 mission would be to collect, archive, and study the biogra- Although Fedorov’s philosophical legacy was never pub- phies of every single Soviet citizen (and eventually every lished in systematic form during his lifetime,8 the ideas of human being). Rybnikov did not possess the administra- cosmism lived on in the works of his pupils and disciples. tive resources necessary for such a project, and it never The foundations of the Soviet space program laid out by advanced beyond a few generalized thematic studies. Tsiolkovsky, the writings of the Proletkult poets under Bekhterev, on the other hand, was a prominent figure, occu- Aleksandr Bogdanov’s guidance, and the general awareness pying the influential position of Director of the Leningrad of momentous social changes all contributed to making the Institute for Reflexology, and his proposals received far theme of space exploration one of the major components of greater attention at the highest level. Bekhterev’s remarks Soviet cultural production. Accordingly, without any overt calling for the creation of the Pantheon of the USSR were reference to the “common task” or the role it ascribed to the printed in Izvestiya, one of the most widely read papers of museum, Soviet museums began organizing observation the time. The launch of the project was timed, moreover, to decks for astronomical observation and measurement. At mark the ten-year anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. the same time, the idea of the rational exploitation of natural But before his plans could be realized, Bekhterev died unex- resources and agriculture became an integral component of pectedly under circumstances that remain unclear to this exhibitions-laboratories that traveled to distant villages to day. A special commission then ceded the project’s mission spread scientific knowledge. to the already existing Institute for the Study of the Brain, which at that point already possessed Lenin’s brain and 7. For more on Bekhterev’s project, see Monika Spivak, Mozg otpravte po adresu … (Deliver the Brain to the Following Address … ) would soon receive Bekhterev’s own brain and remains as (Moscow: Astrel, 2010). well. This marks the beginning of the history of the succes- 8. Only two volumes appeared in print, the first in 1906, the second sor project to the Pantheon, which continues to this day. We in 1913; a third volume, prepared by Fedorov’s pupils, was never published. An edition of complete works, including correspondence and know that the collection of the Institute for the Study of the commentary, appeared only in the late Nineties, thanks to the efforts Brain was significantly enlarged in the 1920s–30s, receiving, of A. G. Gacheva and S. G. Semenova.

i 32 Introduction 33 Avant-garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev

* * interruption. Ideally, the museum must be made entirely of * moving parts. Any tendency toward the stasis of the church icon must be eradicated.”10 In a related statement, he opined: Contemporary life has invented crematoria for the “The contemporary museum is a scholarly institute. To pro- dead, but each dead man is more alive than a weakly duce contemporary European art museums from any kind painted portrait. In burning a corpse we obtain one of kunstkammer or cabinet of curiosities is to produce the gram of powder: accordingly, thousands of graveyards modern state directly out of the feudal order.”11 In essence, could be accommodated on one chemist’s shelf.9 the idea was to create a museum that could answer to the professional demands of pioneering artists, i.e. a museum of the So wrote Kazimir Malevich in his article “On the Museum” avant-garde. The demands, however, focused principally on (1919). The article was printed in the Russian paper Art of access to exhibition facilities and changes in the purchasing the Commune (then well-nigh the official media outlet of the policy that would benefit innovative art. There was no talk avant-garde art movement), in the issue preceding the first of transforming the very role of the museum beyond a more major museological conference to take place after the revo- active approach to exhibition and a greater emphasis on the lution. Malevich was unequivocal: the museum is a relic of a museum’s undoubtedly important educational function. dusty past, and must be destroyed. Others expressed similar At its core, this thinking was inspired by the Marxist opinions. The majority of artists associated with the histori- interpretation of artistic creation under the conditions of cal avant-garde were sharply critical of the museum as an capitalist production and its potential transformations once institution. Those who did not clamor for the incineration of the latter was eradicated under socialism. On that account, the past in the crematoria of the present nevertheless spoke following the proletarian revolution, the emphasis on the of the need to take control of the institution and reorganize it artistic creation of a liberated mankind must gradually with a view of creating conditions that would be more favor- shift from the museum to life and production. This inter- able for the new art. If the museum were to survive in a post- pretation of art received its most coherent expression in the revolutionary future, it had to become highly mobile; it had writings of Boris Arvatov, the theorist of Productionism, to be made to keep pace with the transformations of real- and in the activities of the Constructivist artists. If society ity as it sped toward socialism. “Collections in art museums has overcome the social contradictions associated with are archives that can be be freely used by anyone,” insisted class struggle and inequality, then the artist, as a distinct one of the contributors to The Art of the Commune, Nikolai

Punin. “Let the paintings be hung and rehung without any 10. Nikolai Punin, “On the Results of the Museum Conference” Art of the Commune no. 12 (February 23, 1919): 1. Reproduced on pages 9. Kazimir Malevich, “On the Museum,” originally published 293–297 of this volume. in 1919; in Kazimir Malevich, Essays on Art, vol. 1 (New York: 11. Osip Brik, “Speech at the meeting of the First Soviet Museum George Wittenborn, 1971), 68–72. Reproduced on pages 267–273 Commission,” archival material, 1919. Reproducedon pages 289–292 of this volume. of this volume.

i 34 Introduction 35 Avant-garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev professional occupation, must gradually give way to the museums in a developed communist society,”13 exclaims engineer—be it an engineer of industrial machines or social Bogdanov’s astonished protagonist upon his arrival on Mars, interactions. At the same time, this state of affairs could not home to a highly advanced communist civilization. As it hap- be brought about under the dictatorship of the proletariat, pens, the museum has survived. Its function, however, has with its ongoing struggle against enemy classes (and, in the been modified. In the communist future, art and the museum case of the Soviet Union, its struggle for the formation of an have shed their role of being a bourgeois ghetto, the reposi- industrial proletariat as such). Arvatov was aware of this, tory of all the delusional hopes for the resolution of social pointing to the need for a gradual transition to an industrial contradictions. These are resolved by the liberating force of art that presupposes the total convergence of art and life in proletarian revolution and the ensuing dissolution of class labor. Accordingly, one could not expect an instantaneous divisions as such. Accordingly, art, once an autonomous pro- reconciliation of mechanical and artistic labor under the fessional sphere, is integrated into the everyday life and work conditions of accelerated industrialization. Therefore the of humanity liberated with respect to its artistic formation. work of Productionist artists principally amounted to the What role could the museum play in such a society? “The production of artistic prototypes for industry, rather than museum showcases distinct specimens of art conducive to in collaborating directly with mechanical laborers in cre- the upbringing of new generations,” replies the Martian com- atively reimagining their labor. Moreover, Arvatov believed munist in a rather platonic fashion. The model described by that there would still be a place for traditional media even Bogdanov—one of the closest associates, and subsequently in a highly advanced communist society. After all, even fiercest opponents, of Lenin—sets out a basic outline of the after the social contradictions are resolved, man will be attitudes toward the museum held by the then-contemporary left with the indelible remainder of reality: the materiality Marxist avant-garde. Later, when internal party divisions of his body and its principal affects—death and love.12 In forced the author of Red Star to move from politics into this way Arvatov was theorizing the potential boundaries science and cultural activities, his theories would inspire of the avant-garde interpretation of postrevolutionary art, autodidact artists of the Proletkult to invent their own less drawing them precisely at the point where the museum of conventional variations on the museum exhibition, such as Fedorov and his disciples was to begin. “avalanche exhibitions,” i.e. worker-organized and continu- A literary account of the museum in communist socially augmented exhibitions at factories—a variation on the ety first appeared in the 1908 science-fiction novelR ed Star “museum of moving parts” described by Punin in 1919.14 An by Aleksandr Bogdanov. “I imagined there would be no extension of the idea of the materialist-dialectical museum would appear in the 1930s in the form of the museum news- 12. See Boris Arvatov, Iskusstvo i proizvodstvo (Art and Industry), paper, where the image-based exhibition changed daily in (Moscow: Gos. izd-vo, 1927). 13. Aleksandr Bogdanov, Red Star: The First Bolshevik Utopia 14. See the chapter “Avalanche Exhibitions: The Experience of the (Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1984). A chapter of the Leningrad Organization of Worker-Artists” by Leonid Chetyrkin on novel is reproduced on pages 255–266 of this volume. pages 279–280 of this volume.

i 36 Introduction 37 Avant-garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev response to current events.15 But all these are examples of The professional museum created by and for avant-garde “amateur” variations on the avant-garde museum. artists did not survive long. But its torch was taken up by A professional version appeared in Moscow in 1919 museums of modern art outside the Soviet Union—institu- in the form of the Museum of Painting Culture. A guide tions that told the story of a rupture in the history of art, to Moscow’s museums from 1926 describes its mission as whose mission was to demonstrate its independence within follows: “to demonstrate the chief preoccupations of new the space allotted to it by the capitalist means of produc- Russian painting. With this theoretical foundation, all exhib- tion. Inside the USSR the museum of modern art had no ited materials can be divided into two groups: volumetric and place. The presence of the industrial avant-garde and the planar.”16 The museum lasted for ten years, and in that time materialist-dialectical museum made its existence impos- it functioned as a collection of works by left-leaning artists, sible. An equivalent of the modernist museum was perhaps arranged in accordance with certain theoretical conceptions the museum of the revolution, an institution that told the of the evolution of artistic form. In his polemical remarks story of a rupture in social history. “On the Museum Bureau” the avant-garde artist Aleksandr Rodchenko proposed fundamental changes to exhibition * * strategies espoused by the old-guard museum: *

Above all, the space and the wall are seen as a techni- “Vladimir Ilyich [Lenin] was no lover of museums,” wrote cal means to show the picture. Given this approach Nadezhda Krupskaya in her article “Lenin’s Attitude Toward to the question [of installation], the question of Museums.”18 It was not so much that the leader of the inter- economy in utilizing a given wall no longer arises. national proletariat, like the avant-garde artists, wanted to The carpet approach to covering the wall is undoubt- incinerate all the achievements of past history in a cremato- edly rejected. The wall does not play a self-contained rium. Krupskaya recalls that Lenin was simply bored by the role, and the work doesn’t adjust to the wall; the work unsystematic collections of armor and other useless accou- becomes an active agent.17 terments of the ruling classes. At the same time, an exhibition at a biological museum that showed the comparative stages of development of man and the hominid ape fascinated him. 15. See the chapter “The Museum Newspaper: Suggestions for Regional Museums and Community Centers,” by V. Karpov on pages So did the Museum of the French Revolution, which offered 275–277 of this volume. practical value for a future liberation struggle. 16. “The Museum of Painting Culture atRozhdestvenka Street, 11” from the guide Museums and Places of Interest in Moscow. Reproduced But what was wrong with the old-guard museum? And on pages 307–312 of this volume. what had to happen before it could inspire real-life inter- 17. Aleksandr Rodchenko, “On the Museum Bureau,” trans. Jamey est in a practicing revolutionary such as Lenin? To answer Gambrell, from Aleksandr Rodchenko: Experiments for the Future, Diaries, Essays, Letters, and Other Writings (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2004), 115. Reproducedon pages 299–306 of this volume. 18. reproduced on pages 315–317 of this volume.

i 38 Introduction 39 Avant-garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev this question we have to reconstruct the institution of the exposition of said collection for the general public. If we museum from the perspective of an adherent to a material- remove from this definition its final term concerning exhibi- ist doctrine, whose work, moreover, is revolutionary strug- tion, we will be left with a definition of the archive, or even gle: i.e. we must imagine the kind of museum that conforms more broadly, of any repository, such as a library, warehouse, to Marxist method and philosophy. What method and what information center, virtual server, and even, to a certain philosophy are these? Once, when Lenin was asked if there extent, a prison and a hospital. Consequently, the specific was a particular work that summed up the principles of nature of the museum, which distinguishes it from the rest Marxist philosophy, he replied, just as Engels had before of these institutions, is first and foremost its exhibitional or him: Capital, suggesting that Marxism is not a philosophi- expositional aspect. It reveals the specific character of the cal dogma that could be packaged into an instruction museum, transforming its collection into an utterance. manual. Marxism is a method that allows one to analyze Every exhibition is composed of discrete elements, i.e. and act in any new situation without recourse to previously museum exhibits, drawn from the collection of a given imposed guidelines or metaphysical categories. Lenin museum, or of other museums, or from everyday life. called dialectical materialism the backbone of Marxist Moreover, an important characteristic of the museum method. Moreover, Lenin advised that anyone who wished exhibit is its partial abstraction or idealization. This has to to get at the core of this method would do well to familiarize do with its being necessarily severed from its natural inter- himself intimately with Hegel’s Logic and Phenomenology connections in reality and placed in the abstract context of Spirit, which described the dialectic as a special mode of interaction within the museum exhibition. Even in the of reasoning, and only then proceed to Marxist analysis, case of a fragment of reality, it too has been in some way which purged from Hegelian constructs such unnecessary selected, differentiated, and thus bears the stamp of ratio- idealistic elements as the world spirit, and which added eco- nal activity. Accordingly, the elements of a museum always nomic analysis, i.e. analysis of social relations, which form contain some aspect of artificiality: none belongs to primary the necessary materialist basis of the dialectic development reality in its pure form, which we encounter in everyday life. of history. Accordingly, the materialist dialectic of Marx was This can be readily ascertained in the case of the visual arts a distinct form of logic, different from formal logic: it was museum, which gathers artistic expressions, images of real- the logic of human reasoning that allowed one to analyze ity, arranged in a particular manner. the historical development and formation of various social But it would not be enough simply to extract certain ele- forms as a result of interactions within the framework of ments from reality to produce an exhibition. These elements materialist industrial relations. must also be arranged in space with respect to one another. let us get back to the museum. What does this insti- Typically, such an arrangement reflects the development tution represent in its most general form? The museum is and transformation of the principal subject of the exhibi- an expedient collection of elements, extracted from real- tion, as represented by the exhibits. For example, the sub- ity and arranged in a particular manner, presupposing the ject may be the succession of styles or artistic movements in

i 40 Introduction 41 Avant-garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev history (as it is often still the case today in museums of the * * visual arts) or the development of some distinct art form * (as it was in the museum of the avant-garde). Accordingly, a museum exhibition can be defined as a spatial arrangement By the late 1920s and early 1930s, a certain consensus of elements of reality, processed and modified by human emerged in the Soviet Union concerning the role of the reason and creative activity, which expresses certain ideas museum in a society bound for communism. This took the about the development of the immediate subject of the exhi- form of a series of resolutions passed by members of the First bition. In other words, the museum, in the very method of its National Museological Congress, as well as the establish- organization, tends toward materialist-dialectical construc- ment of the journal Soviet Museum, the official publication tion, since it presupposes a conceptualization of elements of Soviet museologists, wherein these resolutions were elab- extracted from reality and presented according to the stages orated. Accordingly, dialectical materialism was named the of their development. principal method of museum activity. In general, this meant As a Marxist thinker, Lenin could not reject the museum that, in contrast to the bourgeois museum of the past, its as a material, spatial expression of the idea of the develop- Soviet counterpart must treat natural history, social history, ment of some aspect of reality, but he could reject a par- and the cultural sphere not as alienated and antagonistic ticular way of thinking that the museum expressed. As an to man, but as products of his conscious effort. Thekunst - adherent of a materialist dialectic, Lenin could not accept kammer, i.e. the vulgar materialist or idealistic museum so the vulgar materialist museum—at the very least he would despised by museologists, would be replaced by the museum consider inadequate any exhibition that asked the viewer to as an integral aspect of the artistic transformation of life. dispense with thought, limiting him- or herself to the strictly Passivity, neutrality, the pseudo-positivist or metaphysi- material basis of the exhibition, the strictly material charac- cal stance of the museum with respect to the phenomena teristics of its exhibits—i.e. a grossly materialist exhibition. within its purview would become a thing of the past. Political Nor could he accept the idealist museum, a mere inversion of engagement, partisanship, direct participation in industrial the materialist museum, expressing an idealistic, abstractly processes in the ongoing class struggle, critique of ideologi- metaphysical worldview, be it a solipsistic vulgar idealist pri- cal superstitions, critique of fetishism—these were the new vate museum or one arguing (even if dialectically) for the pri- guiding principles and slogans of Soviet museology in the macy of abstract categories over the reality of life. But after Twenties and Thirties. the triumph of the proletarian revolution, the museum could The First National Museological Congress was an impor- finally ascend to the proper level of thinking, i.e. could finally tant milestone in the drive toward the achievements and stand upon a dialectically materialist foundation. ideals of new museology. However, there was no tried-and- true procedure whereby the museum was expected to put the principles of dialectic materialism into practice. This, in turn, opened the doors for experimental ideas. One

i 42 Introduction 43 Avant-garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev such idea came from the future editor-in-chief of Soviet must invariably enter into commercial relations and even- Museum, Ivan Luppol, a Marxist philosopher, who proposed tually become a petit-bourgeois, and that consequently dividing the museum network into two types: the base capitalism leaves virtually no room for the formation of a (economic museums) and the superstructure (museum of truly free art, since it will inevitably be taken over by com- everyday life, visual arts museums, and so forth); this idea, modity fetishism. however, was never realized. The Soviet Union of the 1930s was free from the capi- The possibility of extending the methods of dialectical talist commodity fetishism of the art market, but most of materialism to natural processes and sciences was actively the art production of the past nevertheless bore its stamp. debated throughout the 1920s. In terms of museum orga- The Experimental Complex Marxist Exhibition proposed nization, this took the form of proposals to create specially by Fedorov-Davydov at the Congress and subsequently organized museums of natural history, curated by Boris mounted at the State Tretyakov Gallery was supposed to Zavadovsky. However, one of the most serious and most invent a new method of exhibition that applied the dialecti- discussed proposals was for a new Marxist approach to the cally materialist approach to visual arts museums. organization of visual arts museums, put forward by the The exhibition was structured around class-based inter- director of the department of new art at the State Tretyakov pretations of artworks and was comprehensive insofar as it Gallery, Aleksey Fedorov-Davydov. comprised a selection of characteristic artworks that recon- Fedorov-Davydov was an exponent of so-called sociolog- structed the hypothetical living spaces of their commissioner ical aesthetics, pioneered in the Soviet Union by Vladimir or potential buyer. In addition to old-guard artworks, admit- Friche. Sociological aesthetics argued that various aspects ted by the bourgeois museum, the exhibition also introduced of a work of art were conditioned by the artist’s position works that were not granted such status, including folk art, within wider social relations. This largely accurate assump- street design, political slogans, and banners. Finally, the exhi- tion was often put into questionable practice. Thus an analy- bition included economic information, diagrams, eyewitness sis of this sort often amounted to little more than scouring accounts, literary fragments, and so on, meant to substanti- the artwork for expressions of revolutionary struggle or to ate the various aesthetic interpretations of the artworks on the drawing of rather reductive parallels between a formal display. Those amateur viewers who were interested specifi- analysis of the artwork and a social analysis of the artist’s cally in the historical development of a particular art form class background. Consequently, anyone could be declared were invited to visit a special study room, where they could a reactionary on account of one’s non-proletarian roots, or familiarize themselves with historical materials tracing this vice versa. development in a manner similar to the presentation at the By the time he delivered his report to the Museological Museum of Painting Culture. Congress, Fedorov-Davydov had already defended a dis- The principles of dialectical materialism were to be sertation on the art of urban capitalism, where he was able adopted not only by all types of existing museums, but by to demonstrate that an artist working in such conditions new types of museums as well. As an example of museological

i 44 Introduction 45 Avant-garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev innovation, we can point to the industrial museum project, representation or archiving. And yet the works in the muse- presented before the Congress by David Arkin. The project ums of the Revolution became one of the most important largely echoed the ideas of the industrial avant-garde, devel- artistic discoveries of twentieth-century museology. oped by Boris Arvatov, but implemented them at the institu- And if the museum of the avant-garde, effectively the tional rather than individual level. The industrial museum prototype of the museum of modern and contemporary art, is a laboratory-museum, tasked with preserving and devel- was a museum of the ongoing rupture in the history of art, oping creative prototypes for subsequent implementation the museum of the Revolution served the same function in production. The scope of this project concerned first of with respect to social history, and in doing so it often pushed all handcrafts and design-based industries such as textiles, the boundaries of traditional media even further than the ceramics, and so forth. most radical artists of the times. The very structure of the An area of particular interest to the new museum, built exhibition in a revolutionary museum is a collage of varying on the dialectical materialist principle, was everyday life. types of artistic media and auxiliary nonartistic information, Naturally, this concerned first and foremost the living con- facilitating their analysis. It may be said that such a museum ditions of the social classes previously excluded from official was built on principles closely related to those elaborated in historical and museological practices. Exhibitions of the liv- the realism of Bertolt Brecht, aimed at the “estrangement” ing conditions of the working class constituted a new form of the literary narrative. In the Soviet museum, the critique of creative museology. One example of this may be seen in of spectacle through estrangement was meant to awaken in the works of another contributor to Soviet Museum, Valentin the viewer a conscious stance, grounded in the understand- Kholtsov. New types of exhibitions, the complexity of the ing of historical processes. This was the principal distinction historical period, and the need to continuously maintain between the Soviet and the fascist museum, which used simi- the balance between the exhibits and the logic of their inter- lar means to achieve opposite ends. pretation, i.e. to apply the Marxist method, demanded from One of the outcomes of the dialectical approach to the Soviet museologists the highest level of professionalism. In museum was the apparent need to bring the institution this they were not always successful, especially if we consider into everyday life, i.e. for the museum to transcend its own that former industrial workers were then actively recruited boundaries. In this respect, Soviet museologists were very into museum work. The pages ofSoviet Museum bristle with much in accord with avant-garde artists. At the same time, critical reviews, including a series of remarks on the charac- their engagement with respect to industrial production teristic excesses of artistic expressivity in articles written by and agriculture had a more systemic character and was, I. M. Zykov and N. A. Shneerson. moreover, materially supported by the state. In the pages An important innovation of Soviet museology was the of Soviet Museum we find numerous reviews of so-called museums of the Revolution, the very idea of which seems “mobile exhibitions” that traveled to locations far beyond contradictory in and of itself. Indeed, the Revolution is an the reaches of traditional institutions. Museum agit-trucks event that, in its scale, transcends any traditional methods of and mobile museums housed inside vehicles were organized

i 46 Introduction 47 Avant-garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev as part of the campaign aimed at the successful completion to borrow Pavel Florensky’s term), and on the other, for the of the Five-Year Plan. total rejection of an alien and dangerous ideological delu- One of the more striking examples of this practice was sion—determined the specific character of antireligious the “mobile laboratory hut” i.e. a combination of an exhibi- museums and, at the same time, served as the driving force tion and a small agricultural laboratory, mounted on wheels. of their development in the Soviet Union. Thus, oftentimes These mobile museums used experimental exhibitions to the critical aspect of an exhibit differed considerably from persuade farmers to adapt new strains of crops. There were what is generally thought of as the more temperate museum experiments of other kinds as well, such as partnerships presentation within the context of a functioning house of between museums and schools and other educational facili- worship, which treats religious attributes strictly as cultural ties to create exhibitions of living plants, as described in artifacts. Indeed, to be persuasive, exhibitions and exposi- P. N. Khrapov’s project “Museum in the Street.” Another tions in the atheist museum had to transcend the effect of a logical extension was the workplace museum. Museums typical church ritual, while at the same time “estranging” it located directly on factory premises were meant to be used by providing analytical information that lay bare the inner as research centers for the development of new technologi- workings of its mechanisms. cal solutions, as well as to instruct newly hired workers in the history and organization of the industrial process. * * Finally, a peculiar variation on the dialectical-materialist * museum was the atheist museum. The original materialist critique of religion as a refuge for irreconcilable social con- But the dialectical-materialist museum in its avant-garde tradictions belongs to Ludwig Feuerbach. In the visual arts, form was not fated to last long. Beginning in the 1930s, however, one had to wait for the iconoclastic impulse of the alongside the intensifying political crackdowns directed historical avant-garde to mount an artistic critique of religion against museum workers, among many others, we witness a as a kind of camouflage for exploitation and social inequality. reorientation of dialectical materialism from Lenin’s original The Soviet years saw the rise of the Union of Militant Atheists, conception to a new interpretation promulgated by Stalin. numbering several million members at one point. Many of The new Soviet leader had evidently personally written the the major church compounds were expropriated for the use text on philosophical method for the introductory course on of various kinds of antireligious institutions. Modest muse- Bolshevism. At the time, mounting political persecutions ums of atheism were organized in schools and workplaces. precluded virtually any possibility of a polemic against the The fervor of antireligious propaganda often matched that of highest authorities. Accordingly, despite the fact that the offi- any religious fanaticism. cial name of the philosophical method—essentially the offi- The opposing tendencies—on the one hand, calling for cial philosophy of the USSR—did not change (both before the preservation and study of religious art (be it iconic paint- and after the mid-1930s dialectical materialism remained ing or the church ritual as a whole, a “synthetic work of art,” the intellectual mainstream, admitting no alternatives),

i 48 Introduction 49 Avant-garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev seemingly minor differences in the interpretation of one progress of the forces of production and of historical con- and the same method led to a gradual transformation of the sciousness expressed in human thought, but as the laws of revolutionary method into a dogmatic semblance of a philo- the progress of matter and nature in and of themselves, with sophical religion.19 their subsequent realization in human activity, including The origin of the philosophical conceptions that production and philosophy. Accordingly, in the Soviet ver- became the basis of the subsequently canonized variant sion of dialectical materialism, the dialectic acquired a meta- of dialectical materialism can be traced back to the work physical quality and began to resemble an abstract science, of G. V. Plekhanov, subsequently elaborated by his pupils. whose principles governed all other natural sciences and, in Immediately after the revolution, these people assumed the their application to the laws of social progress, engendered leading posts in academia, despite the fact that they initially their own doppelganger, i.e. historical materialism. This belonged to the opposition Menshevik party. Lenin was well interpretation effectively rejected Marxist analysis, which aware of the political and the philosophical differences that derives the materialist dialectic from the economic analysis existed between him and Plekhanov’s disciples. This did not, of the dialectical progress of the spirit as posited by Hegel, however, prevent him from supporting their advancements and reduced materialism to its pre-Marxist mechanistic, to influential academic posts as a tactical expediency of the reductive interpretations. Accordingly, the establishment moment, especially given the dearth of adequately trained of the official philosophical Marxist doctrine transformed professional philosophers. Soviet dialectical materialism into an ontology, and dialec- Without delving too deeply into the disputes of the time, tics proper into abstract principles, typically superimposed we can point out the main tenets of Plekhanovite dialecti- over the phenomena under consideration. cal materialism that came to be adopted by the victorious The outcome for experimental museologists was that, Stalinist Bolshevist party line. From Plekhanov, the future beginning in the mid-Thirties, they were subject to virulent official philosophy of the USSR inherited the conception of criticism for erroneous interpretations of dialectical materi- the dialectic as a theory of progress, driven by the struggle alism. For many, these attacks spelled the end of their pro- and synthesis of opposites—the transformation of quantity fessional career; for many others, it amounted to an arrest into quality and the negation of the negation. Certain new warrant or a death sentence. Built on the application of ideas were introduced in the intervening years. Thus, among Marxist critical rhetoric, Stalinism did not and could not other postulates, emerged the principle of partisanship. The accept the dialectical-materialist museum in its Marxist- key difference in the Plekhanovite understanding of the dia- Leninist form. And so the museum, which had begun dialec- lectic, which essentially rendered it a dogma, was the concep- tically to overflow its banks, was forcibly re-confined within tion of dialectic principles not as the logic of the historical its narrow course, to remain there as a kind of doppelgänger of the church, touting the illusory triumph of the revolution- 19. See S. Mareev, Iz istorii sovetskoi filosofii: Lukacs-Vigotkiy-Ilienkov (From the History of Soviet Philosophy: Lukacs-Vigotskiy-Ilienkov) ary idea and the ultimate coming of communism. (Moscow: Progress, 2008).

i 50 Introduction 51 Avant-garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev

* * that had previously been processed by art—as art, for art, * and about art. In this he came close to the Soviet museum in its use of the method of dialectical materialism, as in the Had Nikolai Fedorov’s resurrection project ever come to life, experiments of Fedorov-Davydov. But unlike the latter, Krupskaya might have posted her quip that “Lenin was no Greenberg was more of a Hegelian, inasmuch as he was able lover of museums” to Facebook and Twitter. The trouble was to give a faithful account of the development of the art of the not that the leader of the international proletariat, like the past and outline its potential future, but failed to take note conservatively minded realist artists of the post-Soviet acad- of the materialist basis of this development, subordinating emies, despised everything “Western” and modern. Lenin it to the abstract idea of medium-specific art for art’s sake. It was equally bored by the conveyor belt of artistic innovation, fell to the Conceptualists to take the next step in the history with its vulgar materialist obsession with object fetishism, of contemporary art. and the giant factories for knowledge production, with their In other words, conceptualism was an example of faith in reason as the ultimate aim of mankind’s develop- materialist analysis. Moreover, like the Soviet museum, ment. But he would be absolutely fascinated by exhibitions Conceptualist artworks transcended the naive attachment to of Conceptualist art. He would find there much useful mate- one particular medium, characteristic of Greenberg and the rial for ruminations on revolutionary practice under the con- postwar American avant-garde. In contrast to the museums, ditions of late-stage capitalism. And while these specimens however, Conceptualist art could become dialectical only in still fell short of progressive dialectical materialism, Lenin the context of a curatorial installation, which estranged its found in them that essential quality that pointed the way to subversive potential by inscribing it into the social framework the future progress of art and museology. of bourgeois democracy.20 The Soviet dialectical-materialist What was so special about Conceptualist practices? To museum, on the other hand, was a form of conceptualism in answer this question we would have to reconstruct the mind- its movement, its self-evolution, aimed at its own dialectical set of a practicing revolutionary and Marxist thinker with sublation without any limitations. Perhaps this was what the respect to the practices of contemporary art. Conceptualism Soviet post-avant-garde artists dreamt about in the Twenties was built around the analysis of the conditions of art produc- when they tried to invent a special conceptual form of realism, tion, the analysis of the medium that serves as the vehicle for capable of transcending the stasis of the materialist (albeit artistic utterance, and consequently presupposed the exami- analytical) image. And had they been able to get hold of the nation of objective material relations underlying all forms of journal titled Avant-Garde Museology, history might have fol- the aesthetic experience. lowed a different course.21 At the same time, its groundwork was laid a short while beforehand by the theorist of medium-specific art Clement 20. See Boris Groys, “Politics of Installation,” e-flux journal no. 2 (January 2009). Greenberg. This former radicalL eft Trotskyite defined all 21. See Arseny Zhilyaev, “Conceptual Realism: The Vulgar Freedom of avant-garde art as the artistic reflection of elements of reality Avant-Garde Museum Work,” e-flux journal no. 60 (December 2014).

i 52 Introduction 53 Avant-garde Museology Arseny Zhilyaev

* * was always reflexive with respect to its own foundations and * was directed against the possible fetishization of the critical method as such. As we know, no such journal and no such term ever existed. Although the museological projects that emerged in Avant-garde museology is a paradox, made up of seemingly the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries did not contradictory, mutually exclusive principles. Indeed, gener- coalesce into a uniform whole—indeed, they were often in ally speaking, the avant-garde presupposes art’s transcen- conflict, supplementing and critiquing one another—we dence of its institutional boundaries, which are typically can nevertheless argue that they embodied a common ten- understood to be the museum. No wonder then that the dency. On the one hand, all expressed dissatisfaction with majority of artists associated with the historical avant-garde the old-guard museum, i.e. an institution that enshrined a took such a stridently negative view of the museum. But “non-brotherly,” “exploitative,” “ethically erroneous” state the mass of ideas and practices that comprised avant-garde of affairs that sustained the perception of art and culture as museology was hardly limited to the activities of the artists “alienated” from human life; on the other hand, all displayed who strove to break through museum boundaries. Rather, a tendency toward a conception of the museum as a pro- it may be argued that the avant-garde museum of the new gressive institution, progressing through self-development art, with its emphasis on the pedagogical function, had itself toward the sublation of alienation and convergence with life become no more than a phase in the evolution of the proj- and human artistic activity in the broadest sense of the word. ect that had transcended it historically and artistically. At If the historical avant-garde artists’ struggle against the old, the same time, it must be acknowledged that, in their basic alienated, vulgar materialist or vulgar idealistic museum aspirations, the theories and practices of Russian and Soviet could be construed as a first-order critique, then the experi- museologists in the late nineteenth century and first third ments of the late Twenties and early Thirties aimed at creat- of the twentieth echo and in some aspects even exceed the ing a museum consistent with the Marxist method, one that impulse of the historical avant-garde. In the museological took the next step by proposing a series of practical solutions projects of the time we find the tendency, typical for radi- to the problem of the reorganization and reinterpretation cal artists, toward transcendence of institutional (i.e. the of the museum as an inalienable part of the development of museum’s own) boundaries, and a reconsideration of the human cultural production—namely, as a museum progress- role of art as an integral part of the collective production of ing in its dialectical development toward the transcendence life—one that, moreover, aspires to freedom from social con- of it own boundaries and, simultaneously, of class contra- tradictions and, ultimately, from individual death and the dictions. Finally, the ultimate horizon in the evolution of the physical affects associated with it. They also contain a radi- museum was set out in Fedorov’s project, which added to the cal critique consistent in its tone with the negation expressed sublation of social contradictions the transformation of man in the emblematic works of the avant-garde, with the differ- by means of a museum, which will eventually bring about the ence that the critique mounted by the avant-garde museum artistic transformation of the universe.

i 54 Introduction 55 Avant-garde Museology

The creators and theorists of avant-garde museological projects did not, as a rule, consider themselves to be artists I in the traditional sense of the word, and did not refer to what they were doing as art. In that respect they once more resembled the exponents of the industrial avant-garde, who also rejected the attachment to art, at least in its traditional form. Accordingly, the problem of the attribution of the work of Soviet museologists, as well as of the industrial avant-garde, cannot be resolved within the context of the existing social and aesthetic precepts. The history of contemporary art, which traces its origins to the modernist and emancipatory projects of the late nineteenth century, despite the long list of its artistic innovations, cannot by definition transcend its boundaries without formally abandoning its subject. Still, based on our analysis of the potential future genealogy of the avant-garde museology project (which seems reasonable, considering that we are speaking of a phenomenon Museum that presumably runs ahead of its time), we can at the very least retrospectively position this project alongside related as Common Task artistic practices similar to it in their formal and substantive tenets. That means that Stalinist purges and the branding of the museological experiments of the Twenties and Thirties as “leftist errors” were not able to destroy it entirely. The discoveries, made at one time in the laboratories of avant- garde museologists, reappear in Conceptualist and post- Conceptualist art, in the practices of institutional critique, in artistic gestures that construe the exhibition and the museum as a distinct medium of artistic expression, as well as in innovative curatorial practices and experimental institutions. If the journal with the title Avant-Garde Museology never existed, then perhaps we ought to create it. After all, if one believes the imaginary history of the future of this ambitious project, we still have a great deal of work ahead of us.

i 56 The Museum, its Meaning and Mission

Nikolai Fedorov The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov

Written in the mid-1880s, and first published in 1906 donation to the museum of, for example, the first steamship, Translated by Stephen P. Van Trees which, until this donation, was perhaps used for transporting Africans or for transporting manufactured junk and then Our age is proud and self-loving (i.e. “civilized” and became useless for this purpose. And is it possible to think “cultured”)—when it wishes to express disdain for some of any use for this steamship, or generally for any other cre- work, it knows no more disdainful an expression than “put it ation besides this steamship, the forced cessation of which in an archive, in a museum …” By this alone one can judge the would cause regret? Such use would be undoubtedly higher, sincerity of the gratitude of posterity, for example, to genius and not lower, than inactivity, which is the fate of everything inventors, and generally to ancestors, to whom contempo- that is donated to a museum! The transportation or earning raries are often so cruel. In any case, the respect expressed in of bread, for example! But bread is transported from the vil- “museum-quality,” in the contemporary sense of this phrase, lage to the city; it is the trade of the city with the village—it is not devoid of hypocrisy and contains an ambiguity. Thus is not a brotherly exchange, service to which would be hon- the museum, in the sense of disdain, and the museum, in orable. Just as the transport of an army is not a brotherly the sense of respect, is such a contradiction that it requires task! … Nonetheless, if a museum is just a depository, even a resolution.1 in a respectable sense, then donations to the museum, as One must, however, remark that disdain for the archives with donations to the grave, cannot contain anything good, is completely baseless, and originates from the fact that our even if accompanied by artistic or “learned,” i.e. dead, reha- age is completely incapable of recognizing its own defects. bilitation. And in this case the destructive meaning that is If it were not deprived of this capability, then of course it ascribed to it has a basis. But if a donation to the archive, as would recognize not as disgraceful, but as truly honorable, a if to a depository, is worthy of disdain as dead resurrection and does not satisfy living beings, then leaving the donation 1. In a similar self-contradiction is the Kremlin, from which the in life as it is is also not respectable. Rest and death, eternal museum will arise, and into which it will itself transform. The Kremlin discord and struggle, are equally evil. Hypocrisy is inevitable falls into an outrageous contradiction when, while defending itself from those most like it, from those who as verbal creatures are created as long as the museum is only a depository—only dead reha- for agreement, it does not defend itself against a dissimilar force, with bilitation—and life is only struggle. which verbal agreement is impossible. But the contradiction becomes In the meantime the scope of preservation grows larger even more terrible when people, not realizing it, become instruments of a blind lethal force and do not only destroy one another, but also and larger as the struggle becomes more energetic. The annihilate ancestors’ ashes preserved by fortresses, instead of, after intensification of the struggle is beyond doubt. It is under- having recognized their mutual guilt, uniting in order to transform that lethal force into a life-giving one by way of returning life to those stood that an age that calls itself progressive will be as abun- killed by it. These are the contradictions that contain the question of dant, as rich in its donations to the museum, as it is true to its unbrotherhood, of hostility to fathers, and of means of restoring uni- name as the age of progress. Progress, or, more accurately, versal kinship. It is necessary that the all-peoples’ museums, having become all-science museums, transform the blind force of destruction struggle offering so many sacrifices to the museum, saving into a re-creative force. what is donated to it from unbrotherly activity, could not be

Museum I 60 as Common Task 61 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov considered as causing pain and being deadly, if each work The second contradiction of the contemporary museum did not have its author-creator and if progress were not is the fact that the age that values only what is useful ends crowding out the living. But progress is precisely the produc- up collecting and preserving what is useless. Museums serve tion of dead things, accompanied by the extrusion of living as justification for the nineteenth century; their existence people. Progress can be called a true, real hell, whereas the in our iron age demonstrates that conscience has not com- museum, if it be paradise, is only in planning, because now it pletely disappeared. Otherwise it is impossible to under- is collecting, under the guise of old tatters, the departed souls stand preservation in our crudely utilitarian world where of the dead. But these souls reveal themselves only to those everything is for sale, just as it is impossible to understand who have a soul. For the museum, man is infinitely higher the high sales value of objects that are useless and outdated. than an object; for the installation, for factory civilization By preserving things despite its exploitative tendencies, our and culture, the object is higher than man. The museum is age, in spite of self-contradiction, still serves the unknown the last remnant of the cult of ancestors; it is a special type of God.2 But will this respect for monuments of the past be that cult, which while being expelled from religion, as we see preserved during further progress, during an increase in with Protestants, is reestablished in the form of the museum. artificial needs, deemed necessary at the time of intensified The only thing that is higher than the old tatters preserved concern for the present? Egyptians entombed the mummies in museums is the very dust itself, the very remains of the of their ancestors out of need, despite the fact that according dead; just as the only thing higher than the museum would to their beliefs, such entombing was equal to worsening their be the grave, unless the museum itself does not become the fate; our time, with future progress, can completely abandon transposition of the dust to the city, or the transformation of everything related to our ancestors, all monuments to them; a cemetery into a museum. but at the same time man, having lost the very sense and con- Our age deeply reveres progress and its full expression— cept of kinship, already ceases to be a moral being, i.e. will the exhibition, i.e. the struggle, the extrusion—and of course attain complete Buddhist impassivity; for him there will be would wish eternal existence for this extrusion, which it calls nothing dear, and society will truly become an anthill, which, progress, this perfecting, which will become so perfected as however, is also capable of “progress!” to annihilate that pain which necessarily accompanies this However, one cannot annihilate the museum; like a perfecting, as it does all struggle. And our age in no way shadow, it accompanies life, like a grave, it is behind all the dares to imagine that progress itself would ever become the achievement of history, and this grave, this museum, 2. Those who fancy seeming fresh call things that go out of use “a rag,” forgetting that if what goes out of use becames a rag, it’s only becomes the reconstruction of all of progress’s victims at because during use, it was already in tatters to begin with. The only the time when struggle will be supplanted by accord, and thing that will not be in tatters is that which has the power to with- unity in the purpose of reconstruction, only in which parties stand the transformation into rags and rot, and at the same time also has the ability, i.e. a power arising from the mind, to always restore of progressives and conservatives can be reconciled—parties freshness. Only restoration contains within itself the power to coun- that have been warring since the beginning of history. teract destruction; while progress only provides splendor to decay …

Museum I 62 as Common Task 63 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov living. Each man bears a museum within himself, bears it department within the museum. For the museum, there is even against his personal wish, as a dead appendage, as a nothing hopeless, “sung out,” i.e. something that is impos- corpse, as reproaches of conscience; for conservation is a sible to revive and resurrect. Only those who wish revenge basic law, preceding man, having been in force before him. will find no consolation in it, for it is not a power, and contain- Conservation is a characteristic not only of organic, but of ing a reconstructing force within itself, it is powerless to pun- inorganic nature; and especially of human nature. People ish—for only life can resurrect, not death, not deprivation lived, i.e. ate, drank, judged, decided cases, and put those of life, not murder! The museum is the highest instantiation that were settled into the archives,3 not even thinking at the that can and must return life, not take it. time of death and losses; in reality it turned out that putting The Kremlin, transformed into a museum, is the expres- matters into the archive and transferring all the remains sion of the whole soul, the completeness and agreement of of life to the museum was a transfer to a higher order, to a all capabilities, the absence of internal discord, the expres- domain of investigation, to the hands of descendants, to one sion of unity, of spiritual peace and happiness, i.e. of all that or several generations, depending on the position and the is lacking in our progressive era; a museum is indeed the state in which the investigation is found, also depending on “higher world.” When the museum was a temple, i.e. a regu- how widespread this investigation has become. Its highest latory force, supporting the life of ancestors (at least in peo- degree will be attained when those who settle affairs are also ple’s understanding), then will, expressed in this (i.e. in the their investigators, i.e. make themselves members of the temple), even if it was an imaginary action, was in agreement museum; in other words, when investigation becomes self- with reason that justified it and acknowledged this imaginary study and in this way leads to the point at which resurrection action as real. At that time reason too was not separated from immediately follows death. This level is not a court, for every- memory, and the act of commemoration, nowadays just a cer- thing that is deposited in a museum is there for rehabilitating emony, had a real meaning; at that time memory was not just and redeeming life, not for judging everyone. The museum preservation, but a restoration, even though only imaginary is the collection of everything outlived, dead, unsuitable for and conceptual, of course, but all the same serving as a real use; but precisely because of this it is the hope of the century, guarantee of preserving the fatherland, the common origin, for the existence of a museum shows that there are no fin- brotherhood. When reason is separated from the memory of ished matters. That is why the museum provides consolation the fathers, it becomes an abstract exploration of causes of to everyone who is afflicted, because it is the highest level of phenomena, i.e. philosophy. When not separated from the development for judicial-economic society. For the museum, memory of the departed, it is not the seeking-out of abstract death itself is not the end but only the beginning; an under- principles, but of fathers; reason, directed in this way, ground kingdom that was considered hell is even a special becomes the project of resurrection. Linguistic investigation supports this original unity of capabilities: one and the same 3. Or the remnants of life, of activity, themselves become the content of museums, for example, like kitchen scraps from prehistoric root appears in words (of Aryan, or perhaps other languages times that end up in museums. too) that express memory (moreover, memory specifically

Museum I 64 as Common Task 65 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov of fathers, of the dead) and reason, and soul in general, and a complete, healthy being, there was no separation between finally the human as a whole. Psychological investigation of the spheres of knowledge and action. There was no fencing the positivists also supports the unity of memory and reason, off of these spheres from each other, they were not limited to attributing the processes of knowledge to the law of memory, only the present tense, satisfying only animal lust, as is done of association, turning will into the regulator of action. And nowadays, thanks to the separation of these spheres from thus we can say that muses and museums were born from religion, which is done out of enmity toward the latter. The memory, i.e. from the whole man. In other words, linguistic first sages (not yet philosophers) were astronomers, adher- as well as psychological investigation convinces us that muse- ents, probably, of the muse Uranus. They were not only natu- ums and the muse are contemporary with man himself, they ral experimenters, in the present sense of the word, but also were born together with his consciousness. Consequently, anthropologists and theologians. So “sages” and “astrono- the purpose of the museum can be nothing other than the mers” were equivalent words, and wisdom was in astronomy, purpose of the circle dance and the ancestral temple, into which embraced all that is divine and human, celestial and which the round dance was transformed, i.e. the sun-path, terrestrial, dying and living, and was not just abstract knowl- returning the sun for the summer, awakening life in all that edge, but learning and, at the same time, veneration of the had faded in winter. The difference here is only in the means of father-ancestors. The question of the death of man, of the action that had no real power in the round dance and temple; end or destruction of the world, is a question that is theo- the action of a museum must have power that really returns, and cosmo-anthropological, or what is the same, a ques- gives. This will be, when the museum returns to ashes itself tion of astronomy. It could not proceed from idle curiosity, and creates tools that regulate the destructive lethal forces of because at that time there were no people yet who lived solely nature that control it. by knowledge of being a library scholar. Neither could this We would not exaggerate, of course, if we said that the question arise from idle curiosity because knowledge then museum, as an expression of the entire soul, will return to us was not yet separated from action, even imaginary action, the spiritual peace, internal accord, will give us happiness like the limits of which they did not yet perceive, because they could father feels upon the return of his prodigal son. The sickness not yet separate their own action from the action of nature. of the age consists exactly in the renunciation of the past, the Ionian sages questioned only the means of action, the reality renunciation of a common purpose for all generations. This of mythical actions, which, as it was then considered, trans- sickness has deprived our life of meaning and purpose, and formed heaven into the habitat of the dead, and therefore in literature has created Fausts, Don Juans, Cains, and gener- they searched not only for that element to which everything ally restive types, while in philosophy it has created subjec- returns, from which everything arises, but also that force that tivism and solipsism. When there was no discord between binds everything together and directs all. However, even con- capabilities, there was no separation between religion (as the temporary science does not have a right to live for itself, and cult of ancestors) and science and art (being celestial and ter- it must consider itself the means or investigation of the true restrial, as well as subterranean). As man himself was then nature of real action, instead of the mythical, the artistic, but

Museum I 66 as Common Task 67 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov it has no right to consider itself knowledge for knowledge’s experience; that is why clocks (predominantly hourglasses) sake and to free itself from the obligation to serve a common became an attribute of death. With the help of the gnomon, purpose. Even though such a demand, such an encroach- man also created a calendar in which he marked off not only ment on the freedom of the individual, would seem shocking the times of nature’s rebirth (holidays) and fading, but also to a contemporary man, this comes from a habit of thinking the days of the passing of fathers, i.e. the days of commemo- that the freedom of an individual is absolute, in a century rating ancestors. That is why a museum, as a formation of that does not accept anything as absolute. The right to such memory of the fathers and of everything that is connected freedom is only the right to live according to one’s whims, with them and with the past, is inseparable from the obser- turning life into the trivial and empty, and then in despair vatory.4 Astronomical calendars were thermal, optic, and asking, “Life, why were you given to me?” generally physical and chemical, for the forces of nature— This is why, based on the unity of knowledge and action, especially the biological, organic force—change according astronomy specialists have no right to avoid an obligation to the time of day and the time of year. to serve, a duty given to man at birth; likewise, all natural- The educational significance of observatories as schools science investigators do not have that right either, whose sci- demands that idle gazing be turned into obligatory obser- ence is only a split-off from the celestial science, a diversion vation, so that the sky has as many observers as there are from the science of the universe. Based on the same prin- stars in it. Platonizing Christianity tried to hold thought “on ciple, the observatory is the same kind of necessary feature high,” but to prevent thought from falling “down low,” one of an all-science museum as external senses—the organs of must raise one’s eyes to the sky, one must turn contempla- perception—are necessary to every man for his internal feel- tion into observation. ing and memory. By “observatory” we mean not an agency Thus, the observatory is related to the museum as the of abstract science, but of physical astronomy, of a chemical external senses (the aggregate of which, i.e. of all means of science of every substance, organic and inorganic, vegetable, observation and organs of perception, is actually an obser- animal, and human, such that humanity (which can consti- vatory) are related to reason, but to reason in the widest, tute a museum only in its entirety) observes the whole uni- or more accurately, in its actual, real meaning and signifi- verse from the observatory—from the outside, and observes cance: to reason that cannot be separated from the mem- man himself from the anthropological side. An observatory ory of the fathers, and contains within it one indivisible observes the world that, one might say, is merged with the whole; to such reason that only the son of man possesses, memory of the dead, of the past. The past is the subject of history. The beginning of the observatory was the gnomon, the 4. A tower, as the simplest, original observatory, is a necessary, natu- invention of which we credit to the Ionian sages. Primordial ral accessory of a museum, because the museum is the creation of a man probably told time using his own shadow; in later times, being that has assumed the vertical position, turned toward heaven, which hostility and unbrotherhood turned into the position of a in urban life, the gnomon replaced this way of telling time; it guard, a position that is detached from heaven, awaiting attack from was an instrument for measuring one’s actions and one’s life one’s neighbors, and asking deliverance from heaven.

Museum I 68 as Common Task 69 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov elevated to the state of a criterion for humanity, in mental happening independently of man. This organism (a museum and moral respects. with an observatory) will remain without hands if the city The museum, then, unifying the sons of man for the uni- and the village remain separated, in which case the natural- versal investigation of the sky or universe, is related to the historical museum will remain outside of the natural process observatory not as a depository of mere chronicles and pho- of nature, will not be its reason, those memories preserved tographic snapshots of the sky and stars and generally of in the museum will not be a true, material resurrection, nor natural-historical observations; for an astronomical obser- will they be a regulator of nature. It is due to this separation vatory there is no past, as there is no past for the movement of city and village, and to this concentration of all mental life of the solar system, which is not a past, but a continuous in the former, that nature seems elusive to us; while we blame event, revealed by the changing position of the stars, which nature for hiding from us. Wouldn’t it be fair to say that we do is why it is necessary for astronomers to remember, to hold, not discover it for lack of time, occupied with manufacturing so to speak, within themselves, the positions of the stars, and everything connected with it? Due to our busyness we entered in the very earliest of catalogues. Thus, here memory cannot prepare observers and investigators, because from is merged with reason, and the past with the present to such childhood we enslave them in the factory in order to satisfy an extent that the death of the observers appears only as a our most trivial desires. It is equally unfair to say that nature changing of the guards who organize the regulation of the gives us no way, and having attached us to Earth, makes us world and, at the very least, open the way for the establish- powerless to establish control. All of these complaints are ment of control over the world. The powerlessness to estab- equally justified, as would be an earlier complaint that nature lish control has deprived man of the opportunity to hold and deprived us of the opportunity to sail across the oceans, until restore life. Likewise, there is no past for natural science, as Columbus managed it. And at present, in, for example, pho- it is itself only a human representation of nature, or (which tographic images of the Sun, we have, one must suppose, is the same), a project for controlling it, enacted in the shape everything that we need to grasp the concept of what the Sun of a museum by the whole human race. The museum, thus, is, and it is our fault that up to this point we have not used all is an historical enterprise not only in the sense of knowl- this available data and have not interpreted it. edge, but of action: as natural science, it is astronomy with Astronomy, once it has reunited with the sciences which the physical sciences contained within it; on the other hand, have been unnaturally detached and unlawfully separated natural science itself is the same as history, it is the project from it, which have forgotten their origin, like physics and of control, enacted. the chemistry of inorganic and organic substances (for However, a museum with just an observatory, which pro- there can be a physics and a chemistry of the Earth or plan- vides only reconnaissance, still remains an organism without ets, suns, interplanetary or intersolar spaces, but the only active organs, without hands and feet. Because humanity on people who can defend the independence and separation of the whole is yet incapable not only of action but of move- these sciences are those who do not acknowledge the com- ment, unless we accept as such the movement of the Earth, mon task of the human race), astronomy will be transformed

Museum I 70 as Common Task 71 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov into astrocontrol, and the human race will become the concept of the top with the center of the Earth; it became astronomer-controller, which is its natural vocation. necessary to create a whole new physics, a new concept of Not only physics and chemistry and natural sciences falling bodies. Anaximenes considered air as the foundation in general, but philosophy as well—all have been detached of the world and as its first element, which he considered from astronomy. The first philosophers or sages were astron- the soul of the cosmos and of man. Pythagoras had already omers, the temple was the first portrayal of the world, and become the Copernicus of the ancient world, but in this the Earth was considered a foundation and the first element world the triumph was left for Ptolemy’s system. However, of being.5 But for a philosopher, who is not a sage, but only the Copernican system will not hold in the new worldview, an amateur, a virtuoso of wisdom, for a philosopher in the unless it acquires practical value. literal sense of the word, Earth is no longer a foundation, an The detachment of philosophy from astronomy ren- element. For Anaximander, for example, it was a meteor and dered incomprehensible the very problem of basis, foun- remained immobile as a result of its equal distance from the dation, reason. Philosophy, searching for the meaning of edges of the universe. Thus the Copernican worldview began everything, did not know its own origin, its raison d’etre, to be constructed; the sky was not just the height, but also and lost the meaning of its existence. The fear of the destruc- the depth; it embraced the Earth. Theoretically, the search tion of the world, doubts about its stability, caused the for reason, and practically, the search for a foundation, for appearance of a new science of the conditions of Earth’s support, was the necessary manifestation of a being that stability, its preservation, and its reconstruction from the assumed an unstable, vertical position. The same problem primary element. Astronomy sought the indestructible, from of a foundation relates to the whole Earth. If we recall that which everything could be reconstructed. But astronomy throughout history there has been the uninterrupted fear itself was born from the decline of religion, which always of the destructibility of Earth, of the end of the world, then considers itself the possessor of the means for the preser- it becomes understandable why this question of a founda- vation and reconstruction of the world. In the question of tion, of a reason for the world, has always remained open. maintenance and reconstruction, physics, chemistry, and What a great shift must have occurred in worldviews when philosophy itself became understandable. Anaximander, in place of a firm foundation, of a base, or even Constant discord gave the question of the world and soci- of a liquid as Thales considered it, left Earth at the center ety a primary place, and overshadowed the fundamental, without any tangible support, having unified the concept of universal question. History, having as its subject the eternal the bottom with the circumference of the world, unified the discords, separated into an individual science; but as long as it speaks of man as creator of discord, as long as it looks at 5. It is not possible for man to not create resemblances; resem- the life of the human race as it is now, only as a fact, not ask- blances are necessary for analyzing the idea and partially for proof; ing the question of what it must be, i.e. a project of future life, and if a secularized and secularizing church is a museum, then the armillary spheres, the globes (states), were also the beginning of the humanity will not discover either in astronomy, or in cosmic museum. art, or in world regulation, its common purpose.

Museum I 72 as Common Task 73 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov

In order to have internal peace and spiritual accord, applicable to selfish goals, neither for the majority nor for without which external peace is impossible, we must not be the minority, it can only be a regulator of falling, i.e. can only enemies to our ancestors, but really be their grateful descen- become the foundation of the world. Instead of being an dants; it is not sufficient to limit ourselves to only internal external support and scaffolding, it can become an internal commemoration—merely a cult of the dead—it is necessary regulator, counteracting disintegration and destruction, it that all the living, having united as brothers in the temple can become a link, i.e. it can introduce the interrelationship of ancestors, or the museum, which has as its elements not of heavenly worlds and thus restore life, for cosmic dissocia- just the observatory, but also the astronomical regulator, this tion alone is the root cause of death, of the change of genera- would transform the blind force of nature into one that is tions. Only simultaneously can two goals begin, in essence directed by reason. Then the insensible would not prevail, composing one purpose: on the one hand, natural sciences it would not take the life of the sentient, then all that is sen- must unite in the form of astronomy so that their common tient would be restored, and all worlds would be united in investigation becomes the revelation of the means and the resurrected generations, and an infinite area would open for plan of world regulation; on the other hand, we must begin their conjunctive activity, and this alone would make internal the collection of all forces of all people for the realization of discord unnecessary and impossible. the plan of regulation, we must begin the transformation of Astronomy, taken separately from physics and the natu- urban conscription intended for struggle against one’s own ral sciences, can have application only in defining places on kin into a village that has the task of transforming the lethal Earth, especially in the art of navigation. Separately, phys- force of nature into a life-giving one. ics has application in industry, in a synthetic task. And only The museum as the ancients meant it (from whom we physics in a meteorological sense, as the physics of planet have borrowed this enterprise) is a congregation of the Earth and other heavenly worlds, i.e. astronomical physics learned; its task is investigation. But in this definition, the and physical astronomy, can have practical application to powerlessness of the museum is apparent; by this defini- meteorological regulation. One can, of course, unite natural tion it set itself limits for expansion. Thus the museum in science with physics as well, as the knowledge of nature, of the Christian world too remained pagan: it likewise lim- what was born, but such a unification would be a complete ited itself in scope and content, such that the investigation renunciation of any application of natural science to practi- became abstract, scholastic, and the museum-congregation cal life. In such a case, natural science would come to serve itself remained a closed school, a social class. The museum- only to increase pleasure and, consequently, not only would congregation will be filled and collecting will become it not serve universal good and everyone, for it would exclude universal only when self-consciousness is not simply inves- the dead, but it would not even embrace all the living, in that, tigation, but the study of reasons for the disunion between in increasing material pleasures, it at the same time would scholars and non-scholars, the precise reason that all are intensify internal sufferings and would bring a deep discord not members of museums, which, of course, falls under the to life. Natural science in the form of astronomy cannot be question of universal kinship. Then knowledge will be just

Museum I 74 as Common Task 75 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov as limitless as universal collecting, i.e. the communion will reasons for the unbrotherly state, i.e. of those same reasons be truly universal, and knowledge at its highest level will that force us to abandon the purpose of the fatherland, the annihilate the disunion of worlds through the restoration goal of the Heavenly Father. Only the goal gives religion life, of all past generations. soul, otherwise it will be word only, and moreover, a vain The museumis not an aggregate of objects, but a congrega- word, and not God’s goal. One must pay attention to why tion of persons; its activity consists not in accumulating dead religion, producing an uplift of the spirit, can never retain things, but in restoring life to the remains of the dead, in rees- people at the height to which it raised them. tablishing the dead through their works, via living agents. Science, investigation, in its turn, wishes to live either Abstract knowledge cannot be a universal obligation, knowl- for itself or only for the present. But what right does it have edge of what makes us enemies cannot be but a duty for all, to refuse the human goal, being itself the goal of the people, in that it cannot remain only knowledge, but must become or to narrow, limit its activity to only the present, when it a purpose, a religion reconciled with science. Dissociation itself is not just the goal of the living? Can such a position be and disintegration is a fact not only of human, but of physi- called normal, one in which investigation, quality, and the cal nature; and disintegration in the latter is completely directing of reason are made the domain of one class, and understandable, inevitable, necessary, if dissociation exists not of all rational beings? What right have we, for the sake in the former. Disintegration is determined by the blindness of the well-being of production, satisfying not our needs but of natural force and is explained by laziness, the inactivity only our whims, to cease the instruction of the great major- of rational beings who, due to some misconception, exist ity at the age when reason has just come into force? Do we in blindness. However, dissociation cannot be absolute and have the right to leave the museum, according to the ancient omnipotent merely because we already feel in ourselves definition, as a congregation of only the learned, a feast only the urge and force of communication, collecting, restoring. for famous people of the whole Earth—as it was described Religion, science, art, all of these are collecting forces, but by the author of the life of Oedipus Tryannus—instead of taken separately they are powerless, while in the present being a universal Eucharist of knowledge? According to they exist only in separation! Religion assumed the parting Christianity, a museum, obviously, is not a congregation only prayer, the sign of the cross, presumed to take place before of the learned, but a communion of all; the vocation of the a purpose, as the actual purpose; but the prayer, intended museum is to be the “catcher of men.” Investigation, i.e. sci- to be the expression of all religion, not being supported by ence, can no longer remain just abstract knowledge; it must the common purpose, transformed from a prayer emanat- become the investigation of reasons which prevent all of us ing from the heart, from the whole soul, into a prayer pro- from being members of the museum, investigators, and from nounced by the lips alone. The heart, troubled by the present, uniting as one in the purpose of the fatherland. Christianity the concerns of the day, became far from God, and would not has not yet touched the museum, the universal collective approach Him, until the purpose itself became the purpose has not yet been accepted as its obligation. The museum in of God, the universal, the investigation and elimination of its present state is not even related to human nature, which

Museum I 76 as Common Task 77 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov makes reason a common characteristic of all people, while museum would be more ideal than corresponding to reality, investigation is still considered a domain of only one class, although this ideal definition as well is far from correspond- the intelligentsia, while the majority are left only with a ing to what the museum must be. lower power—reasoning, guile, of which not even animals The passive museum, the museum as representation, as are bereft. Presently, the museum is not even a congrega- a likeness of imaginary resurrection, as only a depository, is tion of scholars, for societies of scholars constitute different an ideal museum only in the sense that for it, perfection is agencies, or at least their dissociation from the museum is impossible. On the one hand, the museum is an image of the not yet considered a necessity. Museums do not constitute world, the universe visible and invisible, dying and yet liv- even one Museum, they have not attained unity even in this ing, past and present, natural, produced by blind force, and regard, even though this unity is necessary for the museum, likewise artificial, produced by the half-conscious power of in order not to contradict its essence, for present museums the people. On the other hand, the museum is a creation of as collections of only material objects are only random col- the learned classes, the intelligentsia, of mental labor with lections. What significance can the transfer of things have, the help of the physical labor of the people. This labor, how- the handover of finished affairs, the construction of mon- ever, is not history itself, but only its likeness. The present uments, if all this takes place not according to a concrete museum, ideally represented, can be called a book, a library, plan, not as a way to achieve a concrete goal, but according illustrated by picture and sculpture galleries and generally by to some law of fate, which was disregarded, apparently, by any physical work of art from the Eolithic period to ours, the human reason, and which, after all, it did not even make a new iron or steel age, we could call it. The present museum is subject of investigation or knowledge? Human thought has like a book, explained by demonstrations of physics offices not created a project of collecting, in terms of attaining its and chemical laboratories, expanded to whole special insti- completeness, in order to rescue future generations from the tutes.6 The zoological and botanical gardens, as the image necessity of looking for what must have been preserved, and of the flora and fauna of the whole Earth, with idealized what, however, disappeared, even though we feel the diffi- 6. Painting and sculpture galleries are the same thing to libraries as culty of these searches daily. It’s still a mystery why one thing are pictures appended to the end of a book, for the same thing that is is preserved and another thing disappears, although in blind expressed in a book—the work of a thinker, in abstract formulas—is nature itself there is, apparently, an urge for preservation. expressed for an artist in pictorial and sculptural images. The unification of the library with artistic collections expresses not just simple Museums are mostly born, rather than created, for there is neighborly relation, but serves as an expression of the connection that hardly an awareness of what governs the creation of muse- exists between the abstract formulas of thinkers and works by artists. Axes, blades, potsherds of prehistoric times, the explosives of chemi- ums. Thus, museums in their nature are random, not ubiq- cal laboratories, the tools of physics labs, and so forth, have a relation uitous; the growth of each of them is nonlinear, inconsistent, not just to books of purely archaeological content, or to physics books, not discontinuous, and the internal arrangement of objects or chemistry books, but to the most abstract metaphysical systems, for chemical and physics tools have the same influence on the thought of in them represents more a random pile than orderly collect- the newest philosophers as the invention of the most ancient instru- ing. So the definition that one can give of the present-day ments had on the thought of the ancients.

Museum I 78 as Common Task 79 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov geological cross sections, are also vivid objects, without It is necessary to mention that the museum can place only which the book is incomprehensible, as these objects them- historical emphasis on new books, and the museum itself selves are incomprehensible without a book. This, however, cannot be truth or the expression of it, but only the tran- does not mean that for zoological and other gardens you sition toward it. Preserving the old and collecting the new, need only zoological writings, this means that zoological the museum will possess completeness only when it is not gardens and writings constitute only part of the history of just all-science, all-arts, polytechnic, not just a collection of the knowledge and action of humankind. Astronomical and everything that remains from the past, but also of everything meteorological observatories, combining everything within that is produced today, and not only according to one branch themselves, complete the clarification of the book. This book of knowledge, and not just in one region, but in all branches is history itself, but this means that one must not see in the and everywhere. The museum that remains a depository not book just personal, subjective opinions; in it, the author him- only cannot attain ideal completeness; it also will correspond self is expressed, behind the book stands the one who wrote less to the ideal notion of a museum the more life develops. it, i.e. humankind. He who does not see the author behind And this is understandable! The further man moves on the the book, whose thought does not transition from the work path of present industrial progress, the more objects he to the one who produced it, he does not act normally in will donate to museums, and the more space, strength, and either the mental or moral sense, he does not act in a filial means for preservation will be necessary; while at the same way. From the material side, a museum too (the aggregate of time, less of it will be donated to museums.8 Not accepting persons) is humanity itself as it is expressed through books something, destroying something, even if just a store sign, an and other objects, i.e. a museum is the congregation of living sons with scholars at the helm, collecting works of dead 8. It’s well known that neither the British Museum nor the Bibliothèque nationale de France can for all their efforts attain com- people, fathers. The purpose of the museum is, naturally, the prehensiveness even when it comes to books, i.e. they cannot receive restoration of the latter by means of the former.7 all books in print; they could not attain this even if the ruling powers paid better attention to complaints by curators, and didn’t consider 7. Journalism, in contrast to the museum as a “communion,” donating to a museum as something of least importance. Of course, must be called “discord,” because journalism fractures the academic memory in man is more tightly connected with the organs of activity class, dispersing it among organs (journals) of unbrotherly, hostile and knowledge than a museum (which corresponds to memory in a conditions. Thus the academic class, instead of unification, turns to social organism) is connected to the organs of activity of this organ- disunion; scholars peddle their services to different unbrotherly con- ism; but just as reason doesn’t pay attention to everything, so memory ditions that need bullshitters, and therefore, this class, to the extent doesn’t receive everything from what was even in the mind, and even that it participates in journalism, can be nothing other than “reptil- less from what was perceived by external senses; besides, much of ian.” Journalism is a product of a trading center, the city, it is the hand- what’s perceived by memory is registered in rather vague and pale out- maiden of women; if a journal puts fashion pictures only at the end, lines, and the social organism only exaggerates these defects of man. or doesn’t include them at all, this doesn’t mean (as at an exhibition) However, for contemporary man, the existence of social memory, of a that a woman occupies a primary position. If one surveys all journal- museum, is rather difficult to understand, and we can be amazed that ism as one journal, then specialized fashion journals for both sexes museum have not been turned into stores for toiletries, for example. and all ages, for furniture, for wallpaper, and so on, would have to The mind of contemporary man is no longer occupied with educa- occupy the first place. tion; there is too much “of a real thing,” and moreover, according to

Museum I 80 as Common Task 81 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov announcement, an advertisement,9 would mean renouncing be the expression of the spirit of the time—not to mention the most essential characteristic of the museum, namely, to that accepting only noteworthy things would mean attributing to oneself the right to judge and the privilege of knowing contemporary self-perception, perfecting himself every day, becom- the truth, and by one’s arbitrary judgment, give immortality ing accomplished in selflessness and loving thy neighbor, contemporary man has no need to recover old things, to remember a time when to some things and deny it to others. But what right does he himself and people in general were, of course, much worse. Friends the museum have to refuse to house, for example, even the of humanity assure contemporary man that progress occurs when most outdated outfits, which change not only with the time man does not even think about it; they assure him of this, worried, of course, that man will channel all his energy into this task; assuring of year, but even with the time of day? For the museum to him of this, these friends of humanity point to nature, which doesn’t refuse to keep outfits would be equivalent to an ornithologi- think at all, while at the same time seems to be approaching perfection. Man is heading toward the same perfection as nature, making cal museum refusing to conserve birds in their plumage; it lace and other similar things that he does not perceive as luxuries; would be the same as only keeping plucked birds, i.e. birds but as a result of this perfecting, many consider the museum a luxury, without feathers. This would be still more incomprehensi- i.e. an unnecessary thing, as well. However, if the museum wishes to become a true representation of the age (which is the only thing ble, since for a person who acknowledges enjoyment as the demanded of the museum), it must seem to the original itself to be a sole goal in life, outfits are the ultimate goal of contempo- useless double, an unnecessary luxury; if it is only a depository, then rary life.10 If the museum is going to preserve all of this, then, neither our century, nor any other, will consider the preservation of its image, of its shadow, for the future as being of great importance. Achilles would rather have been a slave on Earth than a tsar in the to advertisements in literature, in painting and sculpture, store signs, kingdom of shadows; and Achilles would think the same thing of and in architecture, the architecture of stores and small shops, rep- depositing things in a museum, but this does not mean that slavery is resent new branches in art created by this century. The purpose of good, it just means that the kingdom of shadows is even worse. And the artist in these new types of art is not easy: with his work, he has to our generation would rather “live” than have the honor of ending up attract, to draw attention, attention that is both very sparse and very in a museum (or what’s worse, in a school textbook). Ecclesiastes said focused; he has to captivate, to draw people, so to say, to the store. that it is better to be a living dog than a dead lion, i.e. better to live like Crude forgetting, prevalent in the Orient, and partially here, turns a dog than enjoy any honors after death! into peddling that is more refined and much more powerful. A store 9. Our age created a new literary genre known as advertising. The sign follows you everywhere, is an eyesore, as they say. Bright colors, output of this sort of literature is amazing, and no other type of litera- gilding, size, symbolism, weight, even live pictures, lives signs, even ture has such a wide range of readers. The nineteenth century takes live performance posters all have to be employed by the artist of the pride in not composing obsequious odes to people of high statue, as present day to achieve his purpose. This art is the “–cratia,” i.e. the happened in previous eras, but then it writes odes to objects. Being power, that rules the contemporary world. Those who think that the a total lie in their content, these odes-advertisements serve as a nineteenth century did not produce its own original artwork are, of real expression of the nineteenth century, and if this type of lyrical course, mistaken: art did not die, it just transformed, i.e. became per- outpouring has not yet received a proper place in literary theories, verted into the literature of advertisements and the art of store signs. that is because the nineteenth century has not yet reached full self- 10. If industrialism, with the help of its humblest handmaided, sci- awareness. When history happens for this century, there will appear a ence, brings labor to a minimum and leisure to a maximum, then the proper evaluation of this characteristic feature of our times. Political whole society will use what is now accessible only to those who are economy, the predominant science of the nineteenth century, which free from labor, who have leisure. The Parisbeau monde that is imi- has supplanted religious economy, the economy of salvation, even if tated by capitals and provincial cities of the so-called civilized world it evaluates this type of literature, it does so only one-sidedly … The can serve as an example of what the current society wants to achieve, nineteenth century is represented not only by advertisements: similar of that which can be called the kingdom of this world. Based on the

Museum I 82 as Common Task 83 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov even having turned all producers into curators, the museum it were felt. Unity must be given, and not sought where it would not be able to hold all the products of this sad manu- does not exist; exactly like predictions must be replaced by facture, of this disgrace of humanity. action, because we can only correctly predict what we can do On the impossibility of unity for a museum of resemblance, ourselves (so, for us it would be easier, more possible to con- a museum of ideals, a museum of knowledge, and not of activ- struct meteorological regulation than to predict the weather ity. The museum has an even smaller opportunity to bring with perfect confidence). its collection into order, to give it unity. If it is a true repre- Discord also exists in the world of thought, in the domain sentation of the past and the present, the museum will be of science; and even though the reason for hostility is not in a depiction not of unity, but of discord. A strict classifica- thought, nor in books, they, however, cannot be considered tion is impossible in the museum for the same reason that it completely innocent of proliferating hostility. In any case, is impossible in science, both natural as well as social—it’s reconciliation can only begin in the world of ideas. Books are impossible because of the lack in the world (more accu- not peaceful beings, and they are just as alien, just as hostile rately, because of the loss) of rational unity, of unity in which to one another as our secular and clerical, military and civil, peace (мир) is not different from the world (мiр), in the sense economic and bureaucratic systems. And therefore, a library, of the Universe.11 And mankind would really be one race, as a collection of books, is a domain not of peace, but of brotherhood, and kin, and moreover, the psychic classifica- struggle and polemics, and the subdivisions or sections of its tion would be more easily understood the more intensively catalogue correspond to all the aforementioned subdivisions of society itself. By reading, one absorbs hostility; fighters description of this beau monde, we can make a calendar, both yearly are raised and created according to every unbrotherly condi- and daily. Years and days are divided not into tending and harvest- tion of society, to every unbrotherly section of the library, to ing periods, but take their division from changes in dress. Changing one’s dress is also armor that captivates and takes prisoner, if not the every section of its catalogue, for the classification of books internal senses then the external ones. Days and years are divided into is based on the same principle of hostility according to which changes in dress, for one type of clothing is worn in Paris, another in society also disintegrates into unbrotherly conditions or the country, at the sanatorium, at the seaside, in Italy, another during morning walks, and at dinners. The ideal of this society is the type of classes; in books we see expressed the generally unbroth- plant that blooms year round. This is a new stage for theology, anthro- erly relations of all people to one another. Corresponding to pology, zoology; it is phytology. Those who don’t see in female beauty the sections of the library or sections of the catalogue, there a divine gift, and in the art of dressing the highest of the free arts, are frivolous (folâtre), says a Parisian philosopher, or something along are journals of different tendencies and specialties, schol- these lines. And he is right, in the sense that treating art, the art of arly societies, departments, and other specialized scholarly dressing, with disdain is very frivolous, for this evil is so entrenched in and connected with the whole contemporary worldview that the departments (the latter negate the unity of knowledge, not philosopher does not even see any evil in it. acknowledging the university as the unity or completeness of 11. In prerevolutionary orthography in Russia, there were two knowledge; in the meantime, the universities too represent words—мир, meaning peace, and мiр, meaning world. After the revolution and the language reforms, there was only мир left, which only an imaginary unity, a unity not of knowledge, but only of meant both things. —Trans. note administration). The museum, as a faithful representation of

Museum I 84 as Common Task 85 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov the contemporary world, is the image of discord and hostil- simplest, the natural, and the only possible path to the reality; but the very creation of a museum, the very collecting of ization of brotherhood, the path which to this point has not objects of hostility, already indicates the necessity of accord, even been attempted, while faith in the realization of broth- already indicates the goal of unification. erhood, no matter how strange it is, has somehow been lost. The museum cannot be a congregation of only scholars Even though we are born brothers, for the preservation and and artists; it does not exclude itself from the Kingdom of still more for the restoration of brotherhood, for the elimi- God—on the contrary, it is the instrument of God’s law. What nation of reasons that destroy the brotherly feeling, what is Christianity produced internally, ideally, spiritually, the necessary is knowledge, the directing of the natural, birthing museum will produce physically. Museum knowledge is the force; what is necessary is mutual knowledge. Brotherhood, investigation of reasons for the unbrotherly condition, rea- like life, is a gift of birth, but for the restoration, as for the sons near as well as far, secondary and fundamental, social preservation, of both, work is necessary, such that brotherhood and natural, i.e. the museum contains all the science of man and immortality can only be the result of work. It is known how and nature, as an expression of God’s will and as a realiza- easily brotherly love transforms into brotherly hatred, and tion of the project of fatherland and brotherhood. Thus, the the latter can be even stronger than the former. The most bru- museum does not curtail the limits of knowledge, but only tal wars are waged between peoples most closely related by abolishes the gap between knowledge for knowledge’s sake, blood, and internecine wars are the cruelest. Upon hearing as it now is, and morality, which is limited at the present sermons on brotherhood, people are enraptured, weep, and time to being a personal and temporal goal. Investigating meanwhile continue to live as before; some give away their reasons for the unbrotherly condition is indeed the dis- goods, offer themselves up for punishment, and many others covery of reasons for the suffering and death that prevent are prepared to do the same; but meanwhile, the same order, people of different classes and nations from comprising a the same discord, continues to dominate. How do we not ask museum-congregation. This is the investigation of reasons about the reasons for such phenomena? … Humanity, one for the separation between the “specialists”—experts—and might say, constantly mourns its discord, and meanwhile not the people, i.e. between scholars and the uneducated. This one sect has lived even a couple of days in brotherly accord; is not sociology, not social mechanics or physics; this is the even the very preachers of brotherhood cannot refrain from science of the unbrotherly condition as fact; the task of the disputes.12 For the realization of brotherhood, all science is universe is to collect by means of investigating reasons for the unbrotherly condition; and this is also not sociology, but 12. As long as the unbrotherly condition exists, there will appear prophets of brotherhood, and they will tempt many. And thus, some the brotherly goal, not res publica, but res fratria, the realiza- think, brotherhood will finally be established: officers will retire, judges tion of brotherhood. will leave their chambers, and so on. But so that others do not appear Scientific collection, according to which science does in the places of those leaving their posts, we must suppose that there will be people who wish to consciously destroy the order; we must sup- not separate itself from morality, i.e. collecting by means of pose that habits, acquired through the centuries, would be instantly investigating reasons for the unbrotherly condition, is the abandoned! … However, just pointing out this difficulty would be

Museum I 86 as Common Task 87 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov necessary, i.e. the organized entirety of the mental efforts of all arguments between them might continue in perpetuity, in people. Brotherhood consists not just only in a brotherly feeling, that each of them has its reasons for existing and not one but in brotherly knowing (mutual knowledge) and in brotherly of them contains the full good, as not one of the philosophi- action-resurrection. Making investigations into reasons for the cal schools contains the whole truth. Only kinship (broth- unbrotherly condition the subject of the knowledge of human- erhood) excludes both aristocratism and democracy, and kind; making the restoration of brotherhood the goal of art is to resurrection (fatherland) unites spiritualism and idealism create a goal for all life. with empiricism and materialism. Parties of all kinds lack the Investigating reasons for this discord makes unnecessary historical grounding to understand their false position. The the assemblies that were created for arguments over recon- museum, as a creation of history, and moreover history, for ciliation. Dogmatic and ritual disputes, if they could lead to which the fact of struggle is not holy, not an idol, for which, peace, would only make a kind of peace that excludes neither on the contrary, the reconciliation of the fighters is the aim hostility, nor war between co-religionist nations, and conse- and project—such a museum corresponds to the demands quently, that would have no meaning. In these arguments, of all possible parties, which consists in being able to under- what is especially clearly expressed is the necessity for inves- stand one’s false position, reconcile, and thus eliminate the tigating to true, real reasons for hostility, for the topics of separation into parties, cease the discord and struggle which exclusively “religious arguments” (e.g. on the origin of the lead to suffering and death. Holy Spirit, on crossing oneself, and so on) in themselves Faith in and hope for the possibility of like-mindedness do not explain the hostility. The contemporary mind has so and unanimity is long lost in humankind; the impossibility of matured, apparently, that it becomes hard to understand unity is considered an indisputable truth, while in the mean- how there can still continue arguments between philosophi- time its necessity becomes more obvious with every passing cal schools, between, for example, spiritualists and material- day, the demand for it is felt ever more strongly. However, in ists, between idealists and empiricists. It would not be hard, spite of this, there has not been the slightest attempt to real- apparently, to agree that each of these schools has its reasons ize unity through the path of knowledge, through the path to exist. We can say the same about political arguments, for of investigating reasons for discord; moreover, measures example, between the aristocratic and democratic party: the are even taken to encourage dissidence. In order to have the right to despair, one would have had to try all possible means considered a crime in the eyes of the enthusiasts; just as afterward, of attainting unity, while in reality, all attempts at attaining when the fascination passes, any reminder of brotherhood will be con- it have been limited to the realm of feeling, i.e. to religious sidered a crime. But where would the officers go after they leave military service? Into the civil or trade service … ? But can there possibly attempts. Reason and its incarnation—science—consider as be brotherhood in civil service and in trade activities?! If they go to their goal the comprehending of unity, and only abstractly, the village, then villagers will be brothers only after they fulfill the filial not the accomplishing of it; education, equally, does not duty, while they associate knowledge and action with centers of resurrection—fatherly science that investigates not reasons for events, but approach it seriously, while art does not even set such a reasons for the unbrotherly condition that leads to suffering and death. goal. The museum is the first scientific and artistic attempt at

Museum I 88 as Common Task 89 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov communion or education in unity, and thus this attempt is a science) that separates moral from intellectual, we must add religious, holy task; this is a call to serve the fatherland, a uni- the intensification of surveillance (the police are like the ner- versal call, to all without exception, beginning in childhood; vous system of the city). A city is a civilian-police organism, the examination of those called is transformed into a mul- and not a union of persons considered brothers. The city is the tiyear course of investigation, connected with education in way it is because it does not have the purpose of the father- the Kremlin as in the original museum, reestablished and land; its memory is a depository (museum) that has neither equipped for the education of those called to take part not unity nor completeness. That which should be a museum is in the struggle with one’s neighbors, which is the last resort, replaced by special institutions, which don’t even suspect the but chiefly in thereconciliation of the two halves of the world, possibility of, or more accurately, the necessity of, unity. the continental and the oceanic. There exist different special- Agricultural life, known to us today only insofar as it has ized educational institutions—military, commercial, and so been changed by the influence of the city, also cannot be forth—but does there also exist a common educational insti- called brotherly. Even though agricultural life does continue tution, which would unify the specialized institutions, which to serve fathers, it does not do so in actuality, because it does would be higher relative to them? For common education it is not have the means of a museum, the tools of memory, by considered sufficient to just have secondary schools, while in which to understand both the means of communication and order to maintain unity after completing this course of study generally all tools of action, besides those that create discord it is not deemed necessary to offer some kind of higher edu- and that cannot be repurposed. Knowing the village only to cation institute. It is only for certain specializations that it is the extent to which it has been changed—only in its igno- considered necessary to have a higher degree; for universal rant form—we don’t at all know the village as a revelation of unity no sort of higher degree is proposed. knowledge and, first of all, natural science. The problem of external reasons for hostility, conse- * * quently, amounts to the problem of the transformation of * nomad and urban conditions into an agricultural condition, i.e. the one that is necessary for the completion of the The city is the agglomeration of unbrotherly conditions, con- purpose of the fatherland, for natural science combined tained by unbrotherly ties. The progress of the city or the urban with agriculture becomes resurrection. The annihilation of organism consists in the constant increase of the number of external reasons for hostility and the restoration of internal unbrotherly conditions (new aspects of industrialism, and accord leads to one and the same purpose. The question of so on). In so-called learned, i.e. unbrotherly language, this is the city, in spite of the fact that the city is the root of evil, is not called differentiation of activity. Along with it, unbrotherly yet fully understood, and not yet put in the proper way. Even relations are differentiated, as are anti-brotherly relations; that country that is obviously worn out, and is already con- new means of theft, counterfeit, and so on are devised. To scious that the reason it is growing thin is urban life, has not “integration” (according to the terminology of the same decided to address the urban problem in all its significance.

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In this country, various measures are proposed for minimiz- urban to rural—the city by that alone would reduce the temp- ing the influx of village populations into cities, but they dare tations of urban life, which are supported by artificial applica- not doubt the dignity of city life, of its ideal: maximum luxury tions of urban natural science. The problem of the city would and minimum labor, or in a word: “otium cum dignitate.” 13 be understood if it were only acknowledged that knowledge France knows that the temptations of city life are on the one can serve not just as temptation; for at present, all reason, all side, and on the other—phyloxera, drought, flood, spring mental forces attracted to the city, serve only as temptations, frosts that kill first flowers on the trees, which force the vil- while the village remains defenseless. The transportation of lage populations into the cities; and nonetheless France reason to the village would save the city from the temptation does not acknowledge the temptations of the city as evil, created by manufacturing industry. The city, purged of this and droughts, floods, and so forth—all this fundamental evil industry, would become a village, and the village, instead of that threatens the destruction not only of villages, but of the imaginary means for defense against trouble, would receive city itself—are not considered serious enough to make these real means for it. The city, having made the village the sub- agricultural plagues a problem for, at least, natural science, ject of its thought; the city, which even from its present muse- not to mention the obligation of the city to feel the trouble ums (if only they were true representations of the past and of the village to its full extent, to make it the subject of all present) could learn of its origin in the village, and of all the its thoughts, of all knowledge, and not only of natural sci- injustices it has committed against the village, could become ence, for the death of the village, undoubtedly, will be the a sort of commission, a communion, described above under death of the city as well. And what would the efforts of one or the name “museum,” that combined all natural science into two botanists or one or two entomologists who are currently the knowledge of the whole Earth as a planet, without sepa- dispatched from the city to investigate villages mean before rating flora and fauna from the general process of Earth. The such evil!14 Transforming natural science, at least, from process under which meteorology, for example, does not have as its purpose the prediction of weather, but makes it a 13. If by leisure we mean the time that remains after the satisfaction tool to regulate showers, droughts, and other events that cre- of basic needs, and satisfaction that is well-equipped, then humankind has not had such leisure. Just the possibility of a poor harvest ate disasters today, while the forces that cause them remain proves that there has never been a complete provision of necessities; therefore, there could not have been leisure, lawful leisure, which we could have used to produce something useless. We are not even the attention of the city to the village. The army and the very highest talking about the insecurities of life in general and of the existence district authorities took part in the defense of the land from the ter- of death, even though we have no right to limit security to just having rible invasion of locusts, while science did not falter in its modesty enough harvest and to assuring ourselves of the impossibility of secu- and stayed on the sidelines. It is necessary to remark that using the rity against death in order to occupy ourselves with something useless. army in situations such as the eradication of locusts, and in similar 14. recently, the appearance of the Hessian fly forced the city to situations, will give the army another mission besides war, and if this pay attention to the village, by sending several botanists and zoolo- latter exceeds the former, then this will be an indication that the army gists there; and now the attack of locusts from the same steppe that is capable of transitioning from fighting its neighbors, from the condi- at one time sent the nomadic hordes, and the exodus of the village tion of antibrotherhood, to truly brotherly conditions, to fighting the population—reminding us of the Great Migration Period—has turned forces that threaten the human race with hunger, illnesses, and death.

Museum I 92 as Common Task 93 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov uncontrollable. But if a Western city can discover its rural ori- one to judgment, it is the complete opposite of the investiga- gins from its museums, then we, from our museums, will dis- tion that created reformation and revolution; it is opposite cover that our cities are not built from natural necessity, but to it in the impulse that creates it, in its means and its goal; are created artificially and even violently, and moreover, they it is distinct from it in its very essence, because it is not an are of very recent origin; around here, the urban problem, one abstract investigation, but one armed with all the museum’s may say, is almost united with the problem of seasonal work. tools of memory, not separable from reason; moreover, this Although there are the same reasons for our city problem as investigation cannot be personal, solitary, it is realizable there are in the West, and here the same reasons drive villag- only through the collective efforts of men, in other words: ers into the cities (in other words, temptations on one side the investigation of the principles of the unbrotherly condition and natural disasters on the other), our peasants are not yet can only be brotherly. It arises from repentance, from the con- becoming permanent dwellers of the city, and only constitute sciousness of the schism between men, the break in mind, in a temporary population, and the problem of seasonal work feeling, in action—in a word, in the soul, as a consequence of would be congruent with the problem of the city if the tempo- which we do not form a society for all-encompassing knowl- rary population did not turn into a permanent one. edge, acting according to a single plan. Thus, when the city begins to realize its guilt before the village and to reduce the production of temptations, no lon- * * ger devoting its whole life to present-day concerns, then * the creation of a true museum or a unification of existing ones begins, i.e. the restoration of ancestors that are com- Investigation, as something universal, is a refocusing to a sin- mon to both the city and the village. When the thought of gle, higher religious and moral goal, of those thoughts, ideas, the city turns to those natural disasters from which the vil- and dreams about exclusively personal minutiae that are lage suffers, and which generally are the reason for death, common to every man, and without which no man can man- then the museum of natural science too will be unified with age, but which lack a stated purpose, and therefore remain the historical museum in all the comprehensiveness of the merely a fruitless and useless waste of energy. Investigation former. When the principles of the unbrotherly condition are gives sacred direction to human thought and sets a goal of revealed through investigation, then the city too will become congregating all people in a common house of the father- brotherhood itself, and personal habitats will be turned into land, in a museum, in a home of the Heavenly Father, the God services of the museum. of all earthly fathers, in a house which, being a museum, is Investigation is not a new matter, while the realization of at the same time a temple. A museum, as we have seen, can- the unbrotherly condition of the world is even older; in their not only be a depository; it must also be investigation; this unification, both of these terms acquire a completely specific is the communion of all learned societies. On the other hand, meaning. Investigation, when it is focused on reasons for the the museum can be neither a reading room nor a spectacle; unbrotherly condition, ceases to be indictment; it calls no it must not serve degraded, so-called “popular” education.

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In this manner, the museum comes between scholars, those which unification has been considered unnecessary, restric- producing constant systematic work by investigation, and all tive for individuality, for personal freedom!16 scholarly enterprises; by means of these it collects everything unscholarly and the whole younger generation, in order to * * introduce them to the domain of investigation produced by * scholars. To put it another way, the museum is investigation, produced by the younger generation under the guidance of The museum resolves that contradiction of present-day life the older one.15 It can be revealed for all only be means of under which the final level of education that the majority learning; access to it passes through institutions of learning, receives is not even on the secondary, but on the elemen- only through which can the congregation be produced, for tary level. As a consequence, the mental development of the education is congregation itself. If a museum is not the highest, majority halts or completely ceases at the time when rea- final institution for all primary and secondary institutions, son has barely awoken. But if the elementary becomes the and the common institution for all specialized institutions advanced, then the advanced level becomes specialized, spe- (specialized educational institutions in themselves, due to cific, and not the common purpose. Primary education insti- their insulation, cannot be considered the culmination of pri- tutions now give advanced education because the factory mary and secondary educational institutions), it will belong needs child labor. And since the factory and the city, in gen- neither to the fatherland, nor to the public; it will remain eral, also need production specialists, specialists in supervi- “closed.” And thus the museum, conscious of its closed sion, then advanced education cannot become universal. nature, isolation, and separation, is not indifferent to the narrow paths that lead to it. On the other hand, even special- * * ists, conscious of their disconnection while at the same time * striving to communicate, to achieve completeness, cannot be indifferent to the condition of the museum. Each profession But in what way can a museum become a real unity for spe- has its own higher educational institute; why should com- cialized educational institutions? And can these latter become mon unity not have a higher institute? Here’s the extent to instruments of unification, of congregation? They could, if these same specialized institutions did not represent such 15. The museum cannot be the site of debates, arguments, polemics between religious sects, political and economic parties, and philo- 16. In essence, “common” not only does not have a higher agency, sophical schools; in this it differs from parliaments, demonstrations, it has no lower or middle one. This common does not exist at all, for and even church assemblies, for investigation consists in the dis- what is presently called common contains an outrageous contradic- covery of reasons for arguments, which does not exclude, however, tion within itself: between the Scripture and all secular subjects there arguments whose causes are rooted in the theoretical, and not the exists such an utter contradiction, as there is between the secular and practical, domain; and since reasons for arguments are rooted in the the spiritual in general. What kind of educational significance can the latter, then they too will cease as soon as the common purpose has teaching of subjects have when ones says something completely differ- been found; they will cease to be, at least relative to the most essential. ent from the other? (This has been pointed out multiple times before.)

Museum I 96 as Common Task 97 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov unbrotherly enterprises, like those conditions and classes for will be possible when investigating reasons for the unbroth- which they are preparatory institutions; if these unbrotherly erly condition and the attainment of brotherhood will be set conditions themselves do not at all feel the need to transi- as the universal goal of all people, i.e. not just of students, but tion to the brotherly, then the museum too will not be unity of all people of all callings and professions, of all presently and fatherland. Nonetheless, as long as family exists, it is not unbrotherly conditions. Only by establishing this goal will the possible to not feel this demand.17 While it exists, there exist, contradiction between the position of man inside the family and more or less, fatherly and brotherly relations; therefore, as his position outside the family be resolved, between his striving long as it exists, there will exist the contradiction between for brotherhood and the unbrotherly condition of the world. the position of a man within a family and his position out- If the museum consists of people from all callings and profes- side of it (i.e. in civil, political, and economic society), and sions (for now just the intelligentsia) who, as members of the such a contradiction will demand a solution. In reciting “Our museum, will investigate, from the point of view of family, Father” (i.e. God of our fathers, of the dead, and our God, i.e. the same things they are compelled and obligated to do out- us, the living) we ask for the coming of exactly this Kingdom side the museum, i.e. if they collectively search, based on the of God, of the common family. The church too will become this data received from their experience, for reasons that stimu- kingdom, if it acknowledges investigation, i.e. if it does not late unbrotherly actions, for example: being a judge of one’s reject reason for the purpose of reconstructing brotherhood. The brothers, being merchants and haggling with your own kin, museum too will become this kingdom, if it sets fatherland and so on—in this case the museum will satisfy this natural and brotherhood as the goal of its investigation. need of any man who realizes the abnormality of his unbroth- Since presently there is no solution provided, there is erly condition and wants to leave it. The museum even pro- no path open to brotherhood, then one cannot blame those vides a way out of this contradiction, one that was not created classes, those estates which have wholly devoted themselves by it, but rather has always existed and constantly intensifies to their specific, special, unbrotherly matters. In order to be more and more. Is it not natural for the convicted, or for the museum members-investigators, one must have some prepa- one who is forced to always convict, to wish to leave this state, ration; present educational institutions cannot provide this, to find a real solution where you do not have to transfer this because they do not have this goal in sight (however, they in unbrotherly task to anyone else, but where the whole need general don’t devote themselves to any goal, which explains in this convitction and punishment is diminished? The plan the low level at which they remain). The requisite preparation of eliminating reasons that produce the necessity of judicial relations is not only holy in the moral respect, but it is also

17. Family and kinship have an enemy that grows with each day, this deep and wide in the mental respect, in the sphere of knowl- enemy is socialism, which can be called the last word and an unavoid- edge. The court has a crude, immediate relationship to events able conclusion of the West; and this last word is the denial of the of reality, taken individually; while the aforementioned plan family. The only means of escape from this rejection of kinship is a true admission of kinship, i.e. acceptance, participation in solving the embraces individual events in their totality, on a wide scale in question of unkinship and of the means of restoring kinship. time and space, accessing the deepest reasons for events of a

Museum I 98 as Common Task 99 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov judicial, unbrotherly nature. When the plan is implemented, a common place for the investigation of the state, for now the contradiction between what is in a museum and what is it is unbrotherly and unfatherly; the state will begin imple- outside of it will be annihilated … menting the project of brotherhood, will start becoming a Instead of trying to forget the realization of this abnormal fatherland, i.e. what it is called at present, but of which it has condition—faintly felt more or less by all—by playing cards no features. The content of the goal will be the solution of the or other games, by trying to drown it in wine, in morphine, all-encompassing question of transitioning from the city to or even in art, in dialogue with books (which is likewise the village. What was said about the city in general is what not a real occupation), isn’t it better to have a goal in mind, the museums of the whole system of cities are doing, both namely, the elimination of all this abnormality? The latter district cities under the control of the provincial ones, and could be resolved only by annihilating the family (socialism) the latter ones under the control of the central ones. Inspired or by the complete restoration of kinship. The donation of by the unanimous wish to eliminate urban and manufacture any matter to a museum constitutes its survey in a fatherly temptations, and wishing for liberation from natural disas- and brotherly spirit, in its final instance. The museum is a ters, these cities, museums, or the single museum, enter into church, but one that offers no peace from the disturbances a union of agriculturists-natural experimenters, of sons. A of life, as Platonizing Christianity does, and not Nirvana, as museum, indivisible from a temple, is the force transforming Buddhism does, but makes everyone a participant in recon- society from the judicial and economic regime to the kin and ciliation. If a museum, on the one hand, accepts people of all moral regime. Transforming the forces wasted in the civic- responsibilities and professions of the intelligentsia, and on economic struggle into the common purpose, and from the other hand scholars of the museum accept responsibili- remnants saved from this struggle, reconstructing models ties and professions corresponding to their sciences—in that of what was lost in it, a museum reproduces the dead physi- case the museum will come into a new relation with society, cally, in reality, by way of regulating nature.18 and the intelligentsia, concentrated on this, will cease to be only a thinking class; it will become a teaching and leading social 18. Easter is not a holiday, but the purpose of a museum, its work, its, one might say, outset, function, sacred activity. But this is not the kind class, and not just self-professed, but by right. of work which we would want to diminish, for it is what only exists The museum, as a transfer of the city to the village. When as a thought in the current holiday, but realized in action. This is not scholars become an active, serving social class, and ser- a holiday, and not quotidian work; it is a transferal from the urban purpose to the village purpose, and by calling this purpose Easter, vants of all degrees become investigators, then the goal of we translate, we propose this word, not as a “transition” where there the museum will become a state goal, or more accurately, the is the concept of unconscious movement, but “transferal,” signifying conscious activity. (Transition relates to transferral, as resurrecting to goal of transforming the state into a fatherland. When public resurrection.) We call this transferal of the urban purpose to the vil- figures together with scholars become investigators of the lage purpose “Easter” because our holiday of Easter, as opposed to state as an unbrotherly society, and the “scholarly” investi- the Jewish Pesach, consists in returning from the capital, and the city in general, to the village, to working the fields, to the graves of our gators together with the public figures become investigators ancestors, because this holiday is the holiday of kinship, fatherland, of the project of brotherhood, then the museum will become brotherhood, which has to replace the judicial-economic state.

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In essence, this is not new, for even now scientists trans- maybe only delay it, slow it down. The expansion of inves- form into public figures, and public figures write investi- tigation (science, criticism) necessarily leads to maturity, gations, but such phenomena are not universal and are because it calls for complete self-investigation. The gap random; they are performed completed separately,19 and between the completion of an event and its investigation yet even the investigators themselves do not achieve the will be more and more decreased and, finally, investigation required depth; the investigated phenomena (judicial and will follow immediately after the completion of the event, economic) are not seen as products of unbrotherly discord, i.e. the history of what has occurred will follow immediately and this is because public figures and scholars have neither after its completion, i.e. public figures themselves will also a common place for activity, nor a common plan; the patri- be investigators. This is a necessary route to take so that archal house (museum) gives us that place, and the goal of history does not happen after the event, but the event follows fatherland, demanding brotherhood, gives us a project of a thought of it, so that thought is a projection of an event; investigation and a plan of action. in this lies a necessary way to the fact that history, as an If the city is a combination of unbrotherly relations event, determined by conditions that are independent of us, and conditions, if it uses reason to destroy brotherhood, would turn into a willed and planned action. The transition and the village, feeding the city and giving it extra power, to complete self-investigation must also happen even in could not use reason for the preservation of brotherhood journalism, even though nowadays it is only criticism, but and fatherland, then obviously the question of reasons for it is journalism that must make itself into a powerful tool the unbrotherly condition is identified as the question of for collecting for a museum. the origin of the city, and the restoration of brotherhood is Immaturity is manifested in the fact that the pres- a question of reconciling the city with the village in the pur- ently undeveloped mankind, subjected to external influ- pose of the fatherland. The museum, in the aforementioned ence, forms into a blind organism; entry into maturity sense, i.e. in connection to it being the temple, as a force, can be manifested only in self-consciousness or complete self- transforming the world from an unbrotherly condition investigation and in self-direction or the collection of forces into the opposite, brotherly state, is history itself, which by means of investigating the principles of discord. Means is transforming from an unconscious flow into conscious of communication already give humankind the possibil- activity; this is the transition of humankind into maturity, ity of coming to consciousness of itself as a single whole. and thus it is impossible to stop this movement, one could Even though there is still no permanent agency of self- consciousness, there is not even a pan-science congress, 19. Actually this transferal or transition signifies the transformation of that which is done randomly, i.e. somewhere, sometime, by someone, but only congresses of specialists in different, isolated sci- into what is obligatory for all actors and for all scholars. For the former ences; but within specialties the realization of this isolation it makes investigation obligatory, and for the latter, activity is oblig- can no longer be discreet, this abstraction of every one of atory, and the one and the other are required to converge with the requirements of the unscholars, i.e. what is demanded is investigation them from the others, and at the same time their necessity not of cases generally, but of causes of unbrotherly phenomena. of unification in one, all-specialty, scientific congress cannot

Museum I 102 as Common Task 103 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov be unrealized.20 In truth, specialized congresses, of which international public figures, as the latter must become mem- exhibitions are a necessary accessory, are still wandering, bers of the museum. Thus the International Museum in its are still searching for an abode, a center, for only there can composition, besides scholars, taking on themselves this or they become the permanent, all-scientific congregation of that activity, will include (a) all diplomatic agents, having all exhibitions. But precisely because of this the constant become investigators, (b) merchants of international trade, communion cannot not turn into a museum in the form of whom education must turn into investigators and whose material collections, cannot not acquire various, correspond- research interests will unite in a museum, and (c) military, ing needs, agencies from observatories to archeological col- whose transition into a museum should be through a con- lections; and just as congresses, even today, are no longer gress on the problem of introducing meteorological observa- international, so the museum will be the concentration of tions and experiments in artillery fire, especially cannon fire. all peoples. But an All-Peoples Museum cannot remain only In its collection of objects, the museum is (a) a trade cabinet, knowledge, neither can it be an arbitration court for resolv- filled according to the progress of investigation, with items ing international disputes, for the same can be said of judges that were considered harmful because of their luxury, (b) an in international courts, as it can be said of judges in general; archive of international diplomacy, i.e. an archive of all min- they must be members of the museum to investigate reasons isters of foreign affairs as expressions of the greatest unbroth- for international arguments and international discord and erhood, and (c) a military arsenal (an international armory), therefore, the museum, being, not only by necessity but by the purpose of which is the application of military weapons its essence, the investigation of reasons for the unbrotherly to the problem of regulating the common force of nature and condition, will also be an action, essentially connected with the donation to the museum of those weapons which are not investigation, i.e. members of the museum must become capable of such primary application or of dual use. The museum, in an international sense, is the transition 20. Although in specialist congresses there could and even should from a legal order, which is inseparable from the interna- appear the realization of unilateralism, as in congresses of local inves- tional and universal-trade discord, into brotherly agreement. tigators and actors, the realization of separation, of being torn from the center, is insufficient for unification in the all-science, all-nation, Turning the forces wasted in wars and international trade constant communion, or the museum. Only military conscription, a struggle toward a common purpose of the fatherland, and, constant expectation of war, arousing or intensifying the realization based on remnants of all weapons (trophies) of struggle, of morality, can serve as a sufficient stimulus for universal unification into a communion on the question of causes of war. Uniting schol- mentally reconstructing images of the fallen, the museum ars, teachers, and actors of state and economic life as members of a will reconstruct the fallen corporeally, really, by the path of museum, we propose first of all that all of them without exception bear a lifetime military conscription, i.e. be prepared each day and hour to the regulation of nature. step out and march, and therefore, realize themselves as more mortal The immediate problem of universal communion and than citizens. Those who constantly wait for war and, therefore, do an all-science museum is the question of the transition or not forget their mortality, must constitute congresses and museums, especially the international ones, the chief purpose of which is the transferal of urban and nomad conditions into agricultural question of the causes of wars among peoples. existence; this is the problem of the unifying Byzantium, the

Museum I 104 as Common Task 105 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov center of agricultural and civilized people, and Pamir, the of International Law! … One needs to say that this law is less center of nomads. Byzantium and Pamir are two points; from unbrotherly than all the others, because it, having no exter- the first, the oceanic force can inflict a blow on the continen- nal military force, cannot be called judicial in the sense of law tal, and from the second, the continental can threaten the alone; it is an illusion. oceanic dominion, and thus the problem of the international museum will be the resolution of the Eastern problem for the * * West and the Western problem for the East, the Southern * problem for Christianity and the Northern problem for Islam; put another way, this is the resolution of a problem Journalism, if it wishes to be the fifth great estate, must trans- of the central city, i.e. the liberation of Constantinople. And form from international abuse, igniting hostility between the really there can be no other fate for Constantinople than to peoples (what journalism is today), to explaining the condi- be either the subject of universal discord or to become the tions of universal peace or creating a project for the transfor- facilitator of universal peace, in the name of fatherland and mation of Constantinople and Pamir (that is, Constantinople brotherhood, i.e. to become an international, and not just in connection with Pamir) into an international museum. In judicial, museum. Without such mediation it is impossible conjunction with this, journalism must transform from inter- for the East (Russia) to turn to even a peaceful agriculture, class abuse, igniting class hostility, which is what journalism enabled by universal regulation; such agriculture is impos- does today in the agencies of the red, black, and gold “inter- sible if Islam remains militant based on everyday life neces- national,” preaching under the guise of international peace sity and religious conviction; the West too will remain armed a war between the people (a revolution)—journalism needs for expansion and the defense of its trade profits, the devel- to turn itself into a project of the people’s museum. The goal opment and expansion of which it sees as the unique and and sacred duty of journalism is to unite in the common goal universal goal of the world. of the fatherland; in the meantime, today each journal would The International Museum is international not just based rather be a large capitalist in isolation, or even be an tool on its staff, but also based on the nature of its activity. Besides of large capitalism, than together be a great estate, even an the aforementioned purposes or occupations, it, as historical, estate over estates. They suppose that it is better to be a chief is the investigation of common origin or kinship, of reasons of a sect or a social class in isolation, than together be the soul for the break, or for forgetting kinship; as linguistic, it has as of the whole human race. the subject of its investigations the unification in language; Interclass peace is just as impossible without interna- as natural, it creates the agricultural and meteorological tional peace as is the reconciliation of nations without the regulator, the tool for keeping the peace. The question of reconciliation of classes. Human brotherhood will be actual- international peace is, of course, not new; in feeling it is uni- ized only when there are no unbrotherly conditions. Until the versal, it’s no coincidence that besides religious sermons and triumph of one nation over another, one class over another, besides the “League of Peace” there even exists a Congress that delights our century, is not substituted with a universal

Museum I 106 as Common Task 107 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov triumph of people over nature in the task of installing regula- transition, completed all on its own, belongs to the period of tion, until then “peace on Earth” and “good will” between the childhood of man, of unconscious history, whereas trans- people (“among men”) is impossible. feral is an expression of maturity, of history as activity; this Fatherland and brotherhood, and the museum along is not yet the fulfillment of God’s Law. This transition is an with them, have no need for either a special international historical law, according to which, despite human will, i.e. agency, nor for national agencies, for as soon as human due to discord and the inactivity of the will of the entirety of thought turns away from criticism as condemnation, abuse humankind, and not, of course, by Divine design, but due to (expression of childhood), to self-investigation, to the clari- personal imperfection, all things, all agencies become unsat- fication of principles of unfraterity, then, by force of this isfactory, unfit for use, and thus are either abandoned (due alone, its subject will become fatherland and brotherhood; to human carelessness) or destroyed (due to human malice), and then this thought will penetrate even the “international- even if they are then preserved (due to inactivity of thought) ist” agencies, no matter how deeply journalism generally has without any initial plan. This transition, fatal and blind, is renounced fatherland and brotherhood; the more this idea accompanied by pain, to the regret of some (the older gener- is refuted, the clearer the truth of the fatherly and brotherly ation) and the happiness of others (the younger generation), goal will be to the refuters themselves. and they call it progress. Transition refers not just to things, but to people; it is the extolment and the expulsion of the old * * by the young, it is unconscious birth and death, in a word, it * is glorified contemporary “progress.” Birth, while it exists, cannot but be accompanied by pain, but never have the pains The museum is an interpretive force, or to put it better, a of giving birth to the new and the pains of the old been as subtracting, taking, removing from use of that which pro- sharp as they are in our time. Even though progress does follow duces discord, serves hostility (we mean things that produce some laws, at any rate, it is done unconsciously and irrationally. discord and serve as tools of hostility), not waiting for the Human development consists in, as it is clear for every adult, point when all these become unfit for use (we mean a vol- making everything that has been happening today by itself hap- untary donation of things, and not their going out of use). pen consciously and independently. Historical, unconscious In other words, enemy forces themselves extract from their transition is accompanied by a break, destruction, whereas surroundings the sources of hostility and through this action the transferal of judicial and economic life to the archive, to cease to be enemies, unbrotherly, transition themselves the museum, consists not only in preservation, but also in and transform everyone with them from a judicial and eco- reconstruction based on the object as a work of art, even if nomic construct into a kind and moral one, replacing urban the makers of those objects, their authors, are hostile. manufacturing with village-handcraft industrialization. Transferal creates a museum of objects, but transferal is The museum is literally atransferal force, because there is at the same time the congregation of scholars, having become a substantive difference between transferal and transition; teachers, and teachers, having become investigators. By this

Museum I 108 as Common Task 109 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov word (“transferal”) we also mean the transformation of the given proper satisfaction. By real desires we mean not only actors of judicial and economic society into investigators, the satisfaction of necessary material needs, supporting the and lecturers and scholars into actors of this society; so that forces of the body and the vitality of the spirit, but also the transferal is investigation too, completed by the younger gen- satisfaction of mental and spiritual needs, i.e. the need for a eration under the direction of the older inside the museum, museum, as a society “for one’s soul,” for realizing the pur- and a realization, completed outside of the museum by the pose of the fatherland. sons (i.e. the younger generation) under the direction of the fathers (i.e. the same older generation). Inside, the museum * * is a project, and outside, it is its realization, the project of exo- * dus and the changing of a thinking city into an active village, the transforming of a lethal force into a life-giving one. Thus, The museum of physical objects will be created when intelli- transferal is the complete opposite of progress, under which the gent society, pursuing a real goal and satisfying serious needs, young eliminate the old (when the student considers himself becomes, on the one hand, conscious of the infantile, effem- above the professor, when boldness becomes the highest vir- inate nature of its urban life, and on the other, sees under tue and the leader begins to fear his subordinates.) Transferal this external, imaginary beauty that arises from a childish is return, the transferring force is a unifying and resurrecting and sensual aspiration all the hostility and squalor of the force. Transferal or Easter is the common triumph, the triumph majority. In this way, the museum of objects will be created of triumphs over nature, instead of the triumph of classes over from velvet and other rags and tatters, while the production classes, peoples over peoples. of luxury objects will be transformed into the production of The museum-temple is a force,which leads from the judi- necessary objects; in place of weapons of struggle will be cre- cial and economic urban discord to village, moral, and kin ated weapons of investigation and even regulation. Prisons harmony, a force that turns energy lost in struggle into the and guard booths, these necessary accessories of luxury and purpose of fatherland. The natural path toward this transi- tools of external, sentry surveillance, will turn into monu- tion consists in a city realizing the artificiality of its existence, ments and will be replaced by self-observation. The present the unlawfulness of its origin, in realizing that at its basis tools of exchange will form the last period of the numismatic lie imaginary, false, artificial (even if they’ve become second phase, being replaced by the mutual knowledge of needs. In nature) desires, and not real needs; in realizing that from a word, all material expressions of the unbrotherly city will these imaginary desires arise unbrotherly production and transform into the creation (a composition, so to speak) of unbrotherly distribution, creating all the urban discord, a museum; moreover, this production will not only be the and this discord explains the necessity of supervision, and representation of the city and its life, but will be a negation of courts, and of the military; a state is a cluster of cities. To of non-brotherhood, and will be the project of brotherhood. eradicate imaginary desires it would be enough to just be The present passive museum of study aids, taken even in conscious of their imaginary nature, if only real desires were an ideal sense (as the likeness of the whole universe) is based

Museum I 110 as Common Task 111 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov on a false theory, even though aesthetics considers it an abso- art on which this theory is presumably based, while depict- lute truth that a work of art is only a depiction of its time. ing the world, have tried to give it their own image; thus, This is the kind of false idea on which we base the museum. reflecting the world in themselves, these artworks deny it. However, the present museum is only urban: it is only a faith- There is no real work of art that does not produce some sort ful depiction of urban difference and discord, taken as a nor- of action, some change in life; in great epic poems there is a mal condition, and thus unnoticed, while the rest of the world plan for such change, or better yet, a work of art is a project is represented here as the city sees it. One only has to open the of new life. In Homer’s epic poems there was a project for the systematic catalogue of any library to see that in its catego- unification of Greece, and only because the epics correctly ries and subcategories it reflects the division of society into reflected the disagreements between the Greeks; there was unbrotherly classes and conditions, the division into parties even a project for the unity of East and West, as represented and sects, in such a way that the catalogue is a real representa- by the Athenians and the Trojans! A true admirer of Homer, tion or resemblance of the world disunited and disintegrated. Alexander, also wished to realize this project, but met with But these dissociations and separations, this absence of unity, opposition from his insincere admirers, the Macedonians, this break, do not produce an impression of pain; we do not the Greeks, and especially philosophers. In Dante’s poem notice them, because of course the transformation from there is a project for the unification of Western Europe, just something living and kindred to something dead-civic does as in the works of Goethe and other German writers there not seem either abnormal or difficult to us; meanwhile, if a is a project for a great separation between Christianity and museum gave such an impression it would not be a simple paganism, between the spiritual and the secular, between depiction of a disintegrating world but would already contain Medieval Europe and New Europe, the new, as the imitator in itself, even in an embryonic state, the project of the unifi- of the ancient but not the Homeric, not the truly Classical, cation of the world. Regrettably, the present age, living in a for the truly classical contained nothing contradictory to world of disintegration and being used to it, does not demand Christianity because it lamented discord and therefore unity from a whole slew of scientific and artistic works (librar- strove for reconciliation. If in antiquity they perceived the ies, art galleries, and from the whole museum, in general); this blind forces of nature as immortal in the form of gods, they unity is just as unnecessary in this regard to our century, just acknowledged them with regret. Christianity, the Gospels, as unimportant, as there is no need for (already having higher even though modern scholars consider it only a work of lit- specialized institutions for separate sciences) a higher edu- erature, is in reality, in essence, a project of reconciliation.21 cational institution for general education, for teaching unity. 21. The French “encyclopedie” of the last century, in the special Our age, even though it experiences an inconvenience from attention it paid to craft, might be called the project of an industrial disintegration, does not realize the source of these inconve- museum, the project of tolerance, the projects of those reforms which niences, from where they arise. Catherine, Friedrich, and others introduced, and especially the project of creating or strengthening the third order of people and the demo- Thus, according to contemporary aesthetic theory, the tion of people of the first two orders. In the works of Rousseau, one museum is only a representation; however, the great works of might say, the project of Deism is contained—this unnatural religion,

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German philosophy at the end of the eighteenth cen- much more unity than in the social classes of writers and tury outlined the theory of the museum of that time, which scholars. On the other hand, each of the artificial works can collected artifacts of language, beliefs, and law; in compar- no longer be called a work of one person; undoubtedly, the ing them they revealed the unity of the origin of languages, German and non-German learned and literatti know very beliefs, and so forth. But this museum was not a project for well of this participation of the many in their works and, the internal unification of even its own peoples; it was, in nonetheless, such multi-author works are signed with one essence, even a strengthening of the disunion between the name. It is self-evident that the authors themselves, no mat- artificial and the natural, between reason and will, between ter how much they would like, cannot list all their collabo- theory and practice, between past and present. The museum rators, and thus they generally refer to the Zeitgeist, which gave not to the people, but to the intelligentsia class of all speaks through them; but this Zeitgeist also spoke through Germany, not common saints, as happens in religious con- those creators of epic poems, whom German scholars do not gregation, but common poets and philosophers. Rejecting now wish to acknowledge as authors. Why do they assume the French poets, Germany became closer to England, authorial rights for works in which the Zeitgeist is also absorbing Shakespeare. Germany treated the latter not crit- expressed?22 A whole science, the history of literature, has as ically but with adoration; Shakespeare was placed outside its subject the restoration of anonymous collaborators, who of history; for the Germans he was not a product of time and observe this Zeitgeist in us, although it’s impossible to judi- age, as were other poets. German science and philosophy cially prove the participation of these anonymous collabora- distinguished artificial works of literature from national, tors.23 The very law that recognizes literary property cannot natural works, as you would distinguish national language remain consistently true to this principle and so allows from literary language, as they distinguished natural law exceptions; by allowing quotations from other works, the (according to kinship) from artificial lawmaking. But such a distinction, even though it really exists, is not as absolute 22. German aesthetics, which discovered the distinction between as German scholars suppose, who have not paid attention artificial literature and natural or folk literature, chose to disregard the similarities between the two. Praising folk literature, German lit- to the other side of the issue, i.e. to similarity. If national erature remains with its defects, and does not perceive as necessary epic poems are the products of the whole nation, then each the unification of individual efforts for the creation of a common pur- nation also consists of individuals; it is a collection of indi- pose, and this is so because nowhere has there been such a contradiction between knowledge and action as in Germany. German literature viduals, with the difference that in this collection there is did not recognize a divine meaning in its works, and even based on its content it was not divine; on the contrary, it was the rejection of everything holy. Germany (and Western Europe in general), while preach- presenting itself as natural, and the project of artificial virtue, real- ing socialism in the production of objects, dealt only briefly with word ized by Robespierre, and especially the project of a return to nature, production, with works of art. whose burden Rousseau, as a city dweller, never felt. There could also 23. Not only the history of literature, but the history of all physical never be a real feeling with Rousseau; there was only sentimentality, works of art has as its subject the revelation and restoration of those i.e. simulated feeling, according to which city dwellers were allowed to producing, laboring, and working on it—in the majority of cases, of envy the peasants, imagining them as shepherdesses and paysannes. course, anonymously.

Museum I 114 as Common Task 115 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov law itself allows a violation of what it itself recognizes as lit- responsibility to preserve unity as soon as it is restored. erary property. In any case, it is a moral obligation to search Actually, journals are more capable of restoring unity than for a solution to this abnormal position, and this solution, of preserving it. one might say, reveals itself: if a nation creates one work, and even if between two works of the most distant nations * * there are similarities, then this proves that all humankind * is one kin; and if it had greater means for preservation, better memory, better strength than it has at present, in this The unification of specialists, i.e. of experts on all unbroth- case it would have one poem, lamenting its disintegration erly conditions, of all without exception—their unification in time and space. And if humankind, before its disintegra- in the library, including all data, all documents, and substan- tion, had the same means of communication as we have now, tial evidence relating to the matter of the unbrotherly condi- then perhaps it would not have disintegrated, at least not in tion, such a unification will create a museum that has the space, and its unity would not have been what it is now. goal of creating a project of unification within a common, People live an urban life; the forefather tells his children brotherly union. A museum, speaking today’s language, is about their ancestors, without demanding an honorarium a commission, and according to previous terminology, is a for this of course; the descendants continue to carry the congregation investigating the matter of the uprising of sons tradition—an epic—so that its authors will be sons speak- against fathers, a universal and basic matter, a matter for the ing about fathers and feeling, recognizing themselves as “young” of all countries, which serves as a sign of the end brothers. Such literature is a sacred task, kinship by content of the world, of the fall, disintegration—in a word, destruc- and by authors, and the transformation of such a system tion. The concept of the end of the world is already contained into property would, of course, be sacrilege. All sciences, all in the phrase “rebellion of the sons against the fathers”; the works of literature, were formed as a result of the disintegra- words “end of the world” and “rebellion of the sons against tion of this epic, because people themselves disintegrated; the fathers” are equivalent expressions, synonyms. forgetting their kinship, they became citizens, and formed A museum is a congregation on the matter of the unbroth- all the unbrotherly conditions, all the professions.24 But now erly condition, which in the course of eighteen centuries has these unbrotherly conditions, these professions, have their not only not moved a step, but has reached the point where dedicated agencies and journals, the absence of which for not only does brother go against brother, but sons go against a different good goal was the reason for disintegration. It is fathers, to such a degree that in a museum, in this graveyard, possible to have such agencies, and it is even our primary the bones of the fathers shudder. A museum is not some kind of a separate attempt, but the combination of all the forces 24. Secular literature is only a distortion, a perversion, and a dis- and means for solving the universal question of unbrother- integration of the literature of the people. The literary expression of unbrotherhood and the oblivion of the fathers are preceded by the hood. Thus the museum is universal both in its personal and real unbrotherhood: citizenship. material content. And therefore if the project created by such

Museum I 116 as Common Task 117 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov a commission cannot be artificial, cannot just be an agree- science and action, which makes teachers teach, not knowing ment of personal opinions, even if numerous, but rather will why, because they take no part in investigation—makes them be a conclusion drawn from all facts and opinions relevant to teach without knowing what for, because they likewise do this, a conclusion produced by the younger generation under not participate in the reality for which they prepare? Because the direction of the older, then the realization of this project- it’s unnatural, the separation of these three functions occurs conclusion will have nothing in common with how judicial either accidentally, unconsciously, and elementally—as pop- and civil law is executed. The creators of the brotherhood ular faith, and so on, was created—or arbitrarily—like the project are not only investigators of the past, but are also palaces of deputies, various present-day commissions, and investigators and observers of the present, i.e. they are not so forth; and thus even if a museum can be called a commis- only scholars, but also actors, they are not only theoreticians, sion, a congregation, as defined above, then it’s only that sort but also practitioners, and only by this path will we eliminate of commission, that sort of congregation, at the creation of the gap between theory and practice. On the other hand, mak- which randomness and arbitrariness are eliminated; more- ing the younger generation participants in this conclusion- over, the elimination of both is necessary not only in the case project will give this matter historical consistency; and then of staff, but also in the case of the main subject, goal, path. A the younger generation will not be in opposition to the older museum is created by a natural force and not by a blind one, generation, and will act in accord with them, without strug- by one that has arrived at consciousness. If we allow ourselves gle; they will continue working on this matter. to curtail the fields of study of a museum, to limit its staff, to generally allow ourselves arbitrariness upon its creation, * * the museum will turn into a legislative body or something * similar. Similarly, if we were to eliminate all the arbitrariness and randomness from legislative bodies, councils, and par- Thus, a museum, as was mentioned, is a commission on the liaments, then such councils and communions would turn matter of the uprising of sons against fathers, on the mat- into museums. Even lawyers, notaries, and representatives of ter of the unbrotherly condition of the world; it consists the commercial-industrial classes, of whom legislative bod- too of scholars who’ve become actors and teachers, and of ies are primarily composed, could form a museum, but only actors who’ve transformed into investigators and teachers, on the condition that they acknowledge the temporality of and also of teachers who must also make themselves actors all their professions and strive to make them short-lived. In and investigators. In other words, in a museum, all these three the meantime, legislative bodies will legalize the existence functions are united: investigation, teaching, and acting, and of these professions and parties, and with them the debates thus those defects that originate from their separateness, themselves, so that judging by the belligerency of the lat- which are completely unnatural, are annihilated. Can there ter, we can see the severity of the hostility that is tearing up be anything more unnatural than the separation of science, the people that are supposedly represented by such assem- i.e. thought, from action, or the separation of teaching from blies. Thus, legislative bodies lead in a completely opposite

Museum I 118 as Common Task 119 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov direction to the one that could lead them to a museum. They which can be heard in the New Testament, comes from inner can get to it only when they set as their goal the investigation consciousness, from the depth of conscience, from dissatis- of reasons why they themselves have split into parties; in this faction that is felt, even if faintly, by every human being who case the parties could reconcile, form a real union, and not a performs or has to perform an unbrotherly task of a judicial random congregation of people, differing from each other in or economic nature. almost everything. However, couldn’t members of legislative The scholarly class and journalism. Firstly, this is a question bodies, after violent arguments in a palace, having gathered of unifying journals, and secondly, of liberating journalism in a museum, discuss these questions philosophically—we from the yoke of capital, which subordinates mental tasks to would say, if these philosophers did not belong to these same the laws of factory production, i.e. to produce competition parties—or discuss them scientifically, if science had not ele- and work falsification, which in turn corrupts journalism, a vated chance and blind development into law? And thus we mental task. This is the question of transforming journalism must say: members of legislative bodies can, after arguing from immaturity, from discord, to maturity, to unity, from in a palace, discuss these same questions in a museum not secular to religious, Christian. philosophically, not scientifically, but from the point of view of If each social class, in each separate location, had an universal humanity, for which there can be no parties. How to agency, then the unification of journals would be the unifica- realize this, how to come to such a union, that’s the question tion of kin; but journalism is an agency of cities and of city that needs a solution. classes, which live in discord. That is why, in journalism, there The history of all legislative bodies, from the ancient to is both external and internal discord. The lowest stratum of the newest (American), despite the historian’s wish to dimin- the human race, the village, which doesn’t read or write, ish their hideousness, indicates (and cannot but indicate, for which speaks differently, but which thinks almost the same their hideousness is not in the fact that they are the extreme, way, but which does not have a common purpose of father- but that they are a normal state of things), that all these cham- land, even though it honors its fathers as one—the village bers would become empty if only there appeared a new way class has no means of expressing its thoughts, its thoughts of for arranging human affairs, which human souls crave , strive fathers as One Father. Only after unifying itself, and unifying for, finding it even in otherworldly existence, like Plato and the quarreling classes of the city, can journalism become an contemporary spiritualists. Plato and the spiritualists were agency for and a leader of the village class, in other words, seeking in the other world what this world should have of all humankind. Current journalism, while infiltrating the provided; a museum is indeed a path to the realization of a village with its advertisements, can only be an agent of urban worldwide idea in the present world. Anyone who is capable temptation and a portent of unkinly and unbrotherly rela- of self-accusation can become a member of a museum, any- tions; it can only destroy kinship and set sons against fathers. one who is capable of doubting their worth, anyone who can Journalism could be a new type of missionary work, a evaluate their actions from the point of view of brotherhood, new stage or phase of unification, if only it could unite itself. which is the essence of the world. A call to this communion, Unification is the goal of the press, of print; it is its religion. As a

Museum I 120 as Common Task 121 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov result of expanding literacy, there opens a possibility for even the too, there is a demand for union, therefore it follows that the most distant regions to hear what is said in the center of faith and goal of journalism too is to attain unity and, instead of opinion, knowledge; literacy, so understood, so posited, is the new means to establish truth, instead of class advantage and party inter- of unification, through the fulfillment of the command “go, and est, to establish a common good. Expressing the opinion of the teach”; in this sense it has a moral-religious meaning. unbrotherly condition, leading the unbrotherly task, can be Our time, in a certain sense, is much more receptive to excusable for a head (i.e. for a journal) that receives its sus- the purpose of fatherland, to unification, than it was eigh- tenance from the body that is materially dependent on the teen centuries ago, when the question of brotherhood was unbrotherly class, the manifestation of which is this journal, first raised. Christianity in our time can deal not just with and which itself cannot escape its unbrotherly condition, individuals but with classes, or unbrotherly conditions, with because it can only realize it in its head, i.e. in a journal, in whole classes of individuals who have their own agencies in which is concentrated (at least the journal serves as such the form of journals and newspapers. To convert one journal a concentration) the intelligentsia of the class. If the head to Christianity, i.e. to repentance for discord, to preparedness for gains some independence from the body, as it must, i.e. if unification in the common purpose of fatherland, this does not the head guides and directs it, not corrupts it with perverted yet mean, of course, to convert a whole class that is served taste, then the transition from opinions to truth will be possi- by this journal as an agency, it is not to convert it from an ble, from class interest to universal good; then the difference unbrotherly to a brotherly state; but this already means to of opinions, imposed by class differences, will disappear, and attain the mission. Journalism has a missionary meaning for the very obstacles to reconciliation, to the unification of the the museum as well, for through journals one can create a journal, will disappear.25 museum, though journals the class of scholars can turn into 25. Present-day journalism can be considered as one part of a disin- a commission or communion on the question of immaturity. tegrated museum, whereas from journalism that has been liberated Journalism is the voice, speaking in all languages of the world, from the influence of hostile classes and even controls them, can be preaching to all tribes and peoples of all the ends of the Earth. created a museum, or a universal editorial board of a journal, which would be a museum. We can say that a museum preexisted in those Journalism has been called the expression of social opinion; communities where there was no distinction between thought and it would be more correct to call it the expression of opinions action, between thinkers, actors, and teachers, where every father of different unbrotherly conditions, of which society is com- and every grown son were teachers of a younger generation. But in such a community a museum existed in an original, embryonic state, posed, or of parties, also unbrotherly, into which society is and not as it is supposed to exist, when created by a mind and con- split. Journalism is also called the leader of public opinion; scious human action. Present-day journalism is in opposition to the museum: journalism, while constituting a greater force, is wasted on this means that journalism is not only an agency of reason, present-day issues, when a real, all-national museum having as its forming opinion, but also an agency of will, of action (not of foundation an all-national purpose remains neglected due to its pow- all of society, but of separate parties and classes); reason, in erlessness, due to journalism wasting these powers on a matter that is foreign to the fatherland, or to the true good. When journalism real- its essence, demands unity, and cannot stop at an opinion izes its defects there will appear a project for a museum, a roadmap or at opinions, and the same must be said of the will: in it, for it, because, as was mentioned, journalism itself can be viewed as

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But in reality, instead of investigating causes for the the parties, not shy to use any means, enraptures the same unbrotherly condition, journalism still intensifies hostil- kind of people who treat the same struggle in a small city ity, occupies itself with exposures, with “public disclosure,” with disdain. Why, however, is one and the same phenom- and its whole activity is limited to creating ephemeral crea- enon ugly on a small scale, but appears majestic in a large? tures which, having appeared in the morning, and having Journalism is an unbrotherly task precisely because it is unfa- stung, disappear in the evening, and on the next day preserve therly; it only knows the present, only deals with issues of the day themselves in a museum. However, even though the activ- and forgets the past. When literature too turns into journal- ity of journalism is ephemeral, the hostility that it creates ism, then it too produces only ephemeral, short-lived works. leaves deep marks.26 Journalism is more harmful the more it Journalism is the expression of “men of the hour”; what else could pulls in and practically absorbs literature, and subordinates it produce other than ephemeral, one-day wonders? Literature, science and art to its influence. Journalism is supported by becoming feuilleton, is not more long-lived than leaves, with- painting with its pictures, by theaters with their productions, ered, fallen, and carried off by the wind. A museum does the and even by music in the feelings it arouses, so journalism same service to the literature of day-laborers as it does to operates with all artistic means. Journalism is a force, and a newspapers, that the public does not remember and uses as great force, but it is wasted on ephemeral tasks—on front-page wrappers, if not for something even less dignified.A nd science articles in which the spirit of the parties is expressed, on the becomes journalism, serves the ephemeral, when it is preoccupied communicating of piquant news and sensational rumors with applying industry to military. which arouse worry and sometimes terror, and often on types Journal literature, the literature of personal and ephem- of speculation, on gossip plus advertisement, and most of all eral writing, is a product of the same mind, the same soul on chatter (“feuilleton”). Being the complete opposite of the that produced agriculture, the natural agricultural religion museum, journalism is the fullest expression of our age; and connected to it, and national epics, even though they were those who treat small cities with disdain, where there is no created in the course of many centuries and by many gen- censure of gossip, at the same time admire large cities, where erations, but nonetheless preserved unity, in the form of bigger gossip has full freedom. The intense struggle between one poem. And in the city, the same mind, having forgotten its origin, became the denial of agricultural religion, not part of a disintegrated museum, even though it considers and makes the denial of what is unreal, imaginary in it, but the whole itself a complete, independent being. In a museum, the older generation supervises research performed by the younger generation when goal of it, the obligation of every general to live for all. The journalism assumes the role of a teacher of the older generation; and agricultural, kindred, communal life was the basis of such that is because educational organizations, elementary and secondary as well as specialized, without having a higher-level course, which can unity, whereas in the city, where existence depends on sepa- only be provided by a museum, produce ignoramuses that are easily rate, personal, quotidian efforts, even literature could not susceptible to journalists’ control. maintain unity. Only habit prevents us from seeing all the 26. True journalism produces not just hostility, but also love. But what kind? Sexual, of course, with its novels, tales, and such things. unnaturalness of this literary disintegration, in which not Arousal of such love also leaves traces. only do the works of separate persons strive to differentiate

Museum I 124 as Common Task 125 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov themselves from one another, as though they do not work and writing of the scientific and literary class, will give it a for one and the same purpose (by the way, they do not even common purpose and theme for a common work, and this wish to acknowledge the existence of such a purpose), but subject is so vast, the problem is so great, that more than each separate man also produces in the course of his life a one generation is necessary for its realization. The problem multitude of works, among which there is, apparently, noth- consists in the unification of unbrotherly conditions (classes, ing common, in which the author himself does not find unity, parties) of the city and in the transferal from the city to the and doesn’t even consider it necessary. The height of such village, or in their reconciliation; the project of the unifica- disintegration is the feuilletonist who converses every day tion of the unbrotherly conditions of the city with the village on topics that have no mutual connection, and he does not for a common filial purpose is possible only for a union of even think about establishing one; it doesn’t even occur to journals, and not for each journal separately. For disunited him, for he writes only to forget himself what he has written. journalism, it was only possible to create a project of consti- Truly, this is the literature of ephemeral trivia! tutional government, of which this journalism itself would be a necessary member; through it, parliamentary hostility * * would become, so to speak, the hostility of the entire state. * It is hard to say whether it is the struggle between parties that is reflected in journalism or the other way around. In If in folk poems individuality was lost and unity was pre- any case, disunion is not an accidental characteristic, and served, then in urban works unity is lost and individuality is discords are not random phenomena; they are just as neces- preserved; however, it is preserved only insofar as unity was sary an accessory of present-day journalism as opposition is preserved in folk poems, for there was no real unity in them to parliament. The foundation for the union of journals could either. The realization that all the discord between parties only be the realization that political passions and debates and classes and the separation of literary intellectual forces that originate in them cannot create anything durable, can- arises from the conditions of urban life—this is the realiza- not create a really human, brotherly society, and that the tion that will lead to the return to village life, if mind and foundation for a brotherly society can only be a fatherly goal. conscience still have any value in life and if the conditions of Journals, like all industrial enterprises, defend their right material existence do not impede it. to exist,27 but producing only ephemeral beings, they cannot But will journalism deal with the problem of the condi- be immortal, for they lack the first necessary condition for tions for disunity and the reasons for unification? Connected immortality: agreement. After being donated to museums, with all sides of life, with the religious and the secular, with journals begin an after-death existence; they are subjected the civic and the military, and especially with universal military conscription, the question of unification cannot but 27. In fact, editorial boards of many journals are not just industrial enterprises, but Pharisee-industrial, because they, under the guise of demand attention. Just the realization of the reasons and serving a common goal, under the guise of disinterest, protect only conditions of disunion will bring unity into the thinking their own interests, often not stopping short any tactic whatsoever.

Museum I 126 as Common Task 127 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov to investigation; an author is defined by his work, an editorial reconciliation. With self-investigation, journalism will trans- board is defined by its journal. In order to evaluate itself in form from an inflamer of hostility into a peace-builder, or the present time, the journal must imagine itself being in a at the very least a museum that is developing the project of museum, i.e. must not leave the work of investigation to our a peace-building agency. Until journals have matured, i.e. descendants, not even to the immediate generation. If a jour- reached self-investigation, they deserve reproach, directed nal leaves it to the descendants to investigate, then it cannot at book scholars, Pharisees, and Sadducees, for they have count on fame in the future, which is easy to determine if you taken the “key of understanding” and themselves do not imagine journals in the state they are in now, participating in enter the kingdom of self-investigation, the international, commercial deception with advertisements, entertaining the interclass, intersectarian kingdom, or simply the Orthodox public with feuilleton chatter, jesting, and fooling, while in kingdom; they should lead, but they don’t even enter them- front-page articles expressing hostility that rips classes and selves! The museum, where journalistic works are delivered, people apart. Generally one can say: that which presently stands before the creators of these works, before their eyes, gives notoriety and furnishes the journal with cash will not but this work that they could complete themselves they serve its honor in the future; self-investigation does not, must impose on the shoulders of our descendants; unfaithful to not, and cannot furnish cash, but it gives a stable existence. If the past, they are hostile to the future, for awaiting the arrival a journal steps on the road of self-investigation, it will make of history and not to be self-historians means to slow the course itself a museum, i.e. a commission on the question of imma- of history. The museum’s investigation is not only harmless, turity, the project for which can be created through recon- it is not nonjudgmental and solely restorative. A museum is ciling the journals. Thus the museum would be open for all, an expression of our duty to the fathers, our dutiful obliga- inviting all to common action, and only then would reconciliation, which we aren’t even paying off; we are even increasing tion begin and journalism start transforming into a great estate. our debt. In present-day journals, as enemy-mongers, there Present-day journalism consists of agencies of hostile people, hos- is neither goodness, nor truth, nor anything beautiful, for tile classes, parties, and sects, and even the hostility expressed the beautiful without truth is only deception. This unification by the journals is stronger than the hostility felt by people, of those who express different unbrotherly conditions and classes, and sects, whose agencies the journals are. And this different aspects of unbrotherly relations must occur in the means that journalism has no unity, that in this great nation, common effort of congregation, in creating a project for the as it incorrectly calls itself, there is no capital, no general edi- Kingdom of God, of an epic poem of exodus from the king- tor; and it has no right to be called either great, or to be called dom of discord and common destruction. And as soon as a nation, i.e. a force, for only a unified nation is great; only it will this natural goal is established, literature will cease to be the be greater than all nations, the nation of nations. depiction of disparate events, of separate types; it will lose Self-investigation will make journalism international, its episodic, random character and out of works of literature and interclass, and intersectoral, for self-investigation, i.e. there will be born on God’s Earth one epic poem, one drama, the exposure of reasons for hostility, leads from discord to unified in direction, uniting authors of different locations as

Museum I 128 as Common Task 129 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov if it were one, not interrupted by the changing generations, does not just contain moral greatness, but a new world for whose main purpose will be congregating into a universal, the mind. Denying freedom only to personal opinion, only to all-human, multi-unity. Now each journal represents a direc- personal activity, freedom of the individual, denying all because tion hostile to every other journal, and the more every section of the absence in such individuals of brotherhood, we will find of the journal is seeped in and permeated by this direction, in brotherly union an action plan of such vastness that each the better armed, according to the present day, it is, and the individual, having renounced the right to live according to his better it fulfills its purpose, the truer it is to itself. To call jour- whims, will become a universal-historical actor. And it is such nals unpeaceful, militaristic, hostile, is no metaphor, for the a world that will open for those who have defended the freedom polemic created by this or that trend is resolved by real wars, of the individual, if they consider their system critically; this is external or internal, or by revolutions. what self-criticism is, self-accusation, repentance—words that There actually exist two trends that divide our journals; are unbearable for our century to hear, but which are salvific! some of them consider it an ideal or, more accurately, cre- Those who have defended the congregation, the choral prin- ate a program for judicial-economic society according to ciple emanating from the peoples’ instinct, will agree with Western models, with bourgeois or socialistic characteris- those demanding a rational plan instead of instinctive striv- tics; this trend, in essence, is urban. The other trend denies ings and indefinite dreaming. And if the first trend acknowl- Western models and apparently does not consider judicial- edges evil in all unbrotherly conditions—the ensemble of economic ideals satisfactory in general; however, this model which constitutes the city—and acknowledges the necessity does not define the essence of the moral ideal itself, and does of unity and completeness through unilateralism, then the not engage in explaining how to realize it. In any case, this second trend will agree with it, because in its demand for trend, in contrast to the first, can be called rural, the super- completeness, unity, and fullness, the first trend will contain stitiously rural; this party is mystical and denies knowledge, what the second trend desires only vaguely. and even though it would never confess to this, it is not ready to abandon industry, even at its most extreme, and therefore it does not just acknowledge practical knowledge, but Addendum to the “Museum” Article respects it, despite the fact that it is in this, practical knowledge, dependent on manufacture, that evil so ruinous to The antagonism between labor and capital will end only the village. Both parties are bitterly critical, but not at all when the object of production will not be luxury, but the sat- self-critical; they have never asked themselves the ques- isfaction only of necessary needs, and not artificial desires. tion: why are we enemies? They have never even considered The question of real and imaginary, artificial needs is the such a question necessary! And how could they confess to question of sanitation and provisions that solve the problem their defects when they base everything on the realization of of physical and mental needs. To this also relates the ques- their personal dignity? Moral greatness is too alien to them tion of labor that medicine knows in the form of postprandial to turn to self-criticism, to self-investigation; meanwhile, it walks, exercises—this false, imitative labor (which, of course,

Museum I 130 as Common Task 131 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov is necessary for those who don’t perform real, agricultural depository, while for a reader the museum also becomes labor). This demonstrates that medicine is an urban science a soul depository, for while reading, it is impossible not to and, in its strictest sense, is not social; for even though there envision the author; a reader unwillingly paints in his imagi- is social hygiene, it is subservient to the city and, acknowl- nation the author’s portrait, hears his voice, enters his feel- edging that the urban lifestyle does not adhere to hygienic ings and thoughts; but he does not do all this on purpose, requirements, does not dare to advise the urban class based independent of will, only because he cannot not do it, even on truth and what is really good for humankind. Instead, though reading is not yet action. It is necessary, following it is inventive only in creating ways for alleviating diseases an involuntary impulse, to purposefully restore, through the that arise from urban living conditions and which demand, work, the book, its creator, its author, and then it will no lon- therefore, for their treatment, a change in peoples’ lifestyle, ger be reading, but analysis, investigation. Criticism is not a transformation of a city into a village, or more precisely, the yet investigation, for criticism, even accepting the dead as reconciliation of the city and the village. Medicine is neither the living, does to them what is against the law of brother- true, nor moral in essence; it is not religious, and is not spiri- hood to do to the living—it judges and punishes them, when tual, because it serves not for redemption, not God, but only the task should be restoration. Criticism as judgment is an the whims of the city. abomination. And investigation—a judicial term—responds The silence of the grave, the stillness of a cemetery, is the with barbarity to the living, which is already completely main feature of the present-day museum, which is the total unacceptable to do to the dead: to strike the dead, to tie opposite of the lively, production-trade city, where it is gen- them to the whipping post, as poet-denunciators say—these erally located. The archeological dissociation of a museum, expressions give the century in which they are used a lowly with its fragments, its objects covered in rust, and its skulls position. Essentially, investigation is a holy task of restora- and bones in the anthropology department—these descen- tion, which has not yet begun and which only approaches dants from the grave—is also a cemetery, but with open what has passed. For prehistoric times, history is just the graves. A museum, we could say, is a cemetery that has been beginning, while for the recently dead, restoration, i.e. his- transported and placed in the center of the city, if a museum tory, should have begun immediately upon their death, their was not one step above the cemetery, for here we see a kind of passing. And if restoration were not only mental, then after protest against death, a struggle against destructive forces, death there would follow a return to life; for those who, dur- and as long as museums exist, the victory of death is not yet ing their lifetime, become their own historians, there would fully decided.28 That’s why a museum is not just a cemetery, be no death at all. because it holds not only decayed bodies, but also souls! reading, as a pastime, as entertainment, is a profana- For the curator of a museum library, the museum is a book tion of the book, and the library does not perform its function when it becomes only a reading room and is guilty of 28. A museum is above and below a cemetery; if brotherhood were not the foal of a museum, then touching the ashes of the dead would the same sin as its readers. Reading rooms commit the sin be sacrilege. of selling holy objects; this is, of course, a sin common to

Museum I 132 as Common Task 133 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov our time, which turns everything into an object of trade. author. Formal education, in which literature plays such an Any rational being, upon entering the museum and seeing important part,30 will remain without application unless books and other works, asks: who wrote these books, who there is included in the purpose of life work on constructing produced, painted, sculpted, and so on, all these works? This libraries, on turning them into collections of biographies. is what a muse, or a choir of muses, tells or answers to its real Essay review that is limited to analysis without any connec- admirers, i.e. to the restorer-sons; moreover, a full answer tion to the life of the author has only formal meaning, and will be given not to each researcher separately, but only to all only works on developing the mind, separated from other of them together, for truth can only be given to a brotherhood. abilities; but it could acquire a real meaning, could develop With investigation, the unwilling imagining, while reading a person as a whole, if it were supplemented with synthesis, a work, of the face of the author turns into a consistent and with compiling an image of the author from his works. In systematic action of restoring life (lives, biographies) from this case, a library, which is not a collection of books that all the works resulting from the previous activity of human- don’t agree in their content, that are alien and hostile to one kind.29 This act of restoration is based on the basic quality another, would become a single book about internal accord, of the mind, on its essence, which is knowledge, the search for alienation and hostility is not contained in books them- for reasons—reasons that are alive and personal, unless the selves, not in the creators of those books, but in external mind is separated from feeling and other abilities, if the necessity. In order to change this part of teaching, we need researcher himself is alive and complete. And religion, as a to put a person in a totally different position in relation to live force, demands that the believer and the one who prays books, as well as to a painting and other works of art. A per- do not stop at the work, at the image, at the book—which is son is first and foremost an actor, while reading and writing also an image—but turn to the original, although not of what are only means; but even reading needs to be taught through is depicted (the original of what is depicted can be ugly), writing, i.e. writing should precede reading, as drawing but to the one who depicted it, to the author, to the painter, should be preferred to studying through painting; generally, extracting these from impure decay, for a museum accepts something active should be preferred to something passive, everything that is dead, decaying, or decayed—in it, objects because a museum is neither a reading room nor a specta- are not “sowed for honor,” but resurrected in glory. cle: a museum creates a project and prepares its executors. Investigation as restoration requires preparation; it is A word is an expression of faith, writing is an expression of clear why reviewing essays is of such importance in school. investigation, and if reading becomes investigation, it will However, review, analysis, decomposition would be with- be reflected in writing; investigation is the transition toward out purpose and completely unclear if from the analysis of action. Writing cannot be a purpose; it is only a means for the work there did not arise the restoration of the life of the action according to a common plan.

29. libraries and books can probably give images of only those generations for which, as for foggy places, you need strong tools in order 30. literature cannot be acknowledged as its own science, for doing to arrange them into separate individuals. so would separate word from deed.

Museum I 134 as Common Task 135 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov

When writing becomes a purpose, then it becomes a responsibility of all? In order to answer these questions we work of art, an illusion. Writing is a remedy for oblivion and a need to, firstly, not forget that under “museum” we under- manual for creating an action plan of restoration. What cannot stand the aggregate of all local and church museums, which be expressed in this plan in writing has to be supplemented are united in a central communion-museum—for which with a sketch, a drawing (painting in its current sense is an churches serve as the origin, as a foundation, so that noth- illusion). Where a sketch or drawing is not enough, a model ing human, no born and mortal being, will pass unnoticed, should be added. The whole of literature and art is just a for every human being has to pass through school in order to means for creating a plan of resurrection. But for the plan of get to the museum, the function of which is restoration. And resurrection, neither models—as stereometrical images, as that is why it is necessary that schools are everywhere where mere skeletons—nor any means of literature and art in gen- people are born, and that museums are where people die. eral are enough; physical and chemical experiments are also Moreover, the possibility of self-restoration is contained in the supplementary means, materials for the creation of the plan restoration of others: the more energy from his soul that the of resurrection. Art for art’s sake and science for science’s restorer dedicates to the subject, to the work of restoration, sake, manias, latrias, bibliomania, and bibliolatria. the more he is expressed in this work, so that there is more Until now writing has served an amoral, ungodly pur- kinship between a restorer and the restored than between a pose, for only with the help of a pen could the current judi- father and son. We can even ask: what better reflects, what cial-economic system have been created. Using writing to better reproduces, your own individuality—an autobiogra- build a Godly Kingdom means making it a moral weapon. phy or the biography of another? In the latter case, wouldn’t Literacy, in its active form, in writing perceived as an aid to intellectual, scientific demands agree with moral demands, memory in its obligation to the fathers, as an aid to the mind which, of course, give preference to the biography of another, in fulfilling this obligation, is the complete, concrete ques- or more precisely, patrobiography over autobiography? Every tion. Notes, like fortresses, once served, as they do now, as biography, illustrated by painting and all other museum tools, a means against oblivion; they were left behind by our fore- elevates, glorifies an individual, but not to the detriment of the bearers in their obligation to us; like a testament, a note is universal. A Universal Museum will be an aggregate not only a guarantee against our own weaknesses, and the whole of local church museums, but also of personal museums that church-museum, with its departments, is the architectural, are deeply united not so much in a central museum, as in their all-artistic expression of our obligation to our fathers; that general reciprocity. This reciprocity would be the realization is why the museum, with its departments, cannot just be of the Holy Trinity—of the fatherland and brotherhood. limited to being a church; there has to be outside-of-church, A museum as a congregation of investigators, using a outside-of-museum action. museum as a collection of books with extensive illustrations, Wouldn’t this restoration be the privilege of the few, recreates from every work their creators and at the same time wouldn’t it only be the fate of those whose works made it makes copies—written, pictorial (portraits), and many oth- into the museum? And would restoration as an action be the ers—from originals that go back generations, recruiting for

Museum I 136 as Common Task 137 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov this task light waves (photography) and sound waves (pho- However, they will return to the museum not to remain on nograph).31 Every generation, being a savior of lives, being the shelves, but in order to be accepted into the souls of the an artist that creates the image of his father, will itself be living and to be returned, restored bodies, for the essence the original for its sons, for the next generation. Every son, of the museum is activity and the action of restoration; the applying his whole soul to the task of resurrecting the father, cessation of this activity is the fall and death. The historical willingly and freely, will unwittingly preserve his own soul. museum is a restoration only in memory, a simple remem- Who wants to save others, saves himself: in a biography of brance, if it is not united with the natural science museum, another, i.e. in patrobiography, is contained an autopbiog- the purpose of which is material restoration, a real resur- raphy of the son, which will be extracted from the former by rection. If there can be no brotherhood without restoration, the next generation. which is the purpose of the sons, then there can be no resto- However, this copying, this reproducing of an image, is ration without brotherhood. not just the salvation or preservation of what happened in The subject of discord between the bourgeoisie and reality, but needs to become redemption, a restoration of the the workers, between the liberal and socialist parties, even one depicted to the way he would have been had the pressure though it does not have a real name, is urban luxury. This of external forces, of fate, of that which the ancients called luxury, the production of which is considered to be a task fatum, been removed—to the way the one being depicted, worthy of humans, prevents the party that is called agrarian clearly or faintly realizing it, would himself like to have been to understand its real position; it keeps all sciences separate depicted. It is to this restoration that the son will apply the and makes them work for the whims of the city. When the better part of his soul and hearth, feeling in himself those great purpose of the fatherland reveals itself to the thought defects that are found in the originals being depicted—in the that has understood the reasons for discord, the thought originals of parents, of whom he is the living resemblance. in which all sciences can be united, and not artificially but The purpose of the son includes the demands of the real naturally, then the sciences that are forcefully separated one and the ideal. Every person will have his own book, his life’s from another and enslaved by the city will be freed from that work, where his soul will be transferred, and then at death, slavery and will return part for part to their own strength. human bodies will be transferred to the cemetery while their All sciences that have recognized in all their special agencies souls, in the shape of these tomes, books, and pamphlets that they serve the unbrotherly purpose will represent a pic- will return to the museum, where the deceased had his ture of the reunification of all sciences and the reunification education, for a museum is heaven for these soul-books.32 of all their members, i.e. of scholars into one congregation. And this is what will constitute the all-science museum. 31. We need to mention that not only ancient poems were works of not just one author, but our new books are works of many and even expression to us, even though the expression belongs to the people, sometimes of whole generations. which stand above the suspicion of sentimentality; “little souls” is an 32. Pamphlets, what people used to call “little souls” (souls of the expression of love toward the dead and of the realization of the incom- departed, which were depicted as newborns), seem a sentimental pleteness of their life; it is not souls, but precisely just “little souls.”

Museum I 138 as Common Task 139 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission Nikolai Fedorov

Thought that investigates discord within the means of A real museum is a museum of all three abilities of the unification for a common purpose will unite artists of all soul, united in memory, i.e. it is the expression of accord and movements, of all places, into one poem, illustrated, dra- spiritual completeness, for it is a mind that not only under- matized, never-ending, even with the death of the whole stands but feels loss, and not one that only feels, i.e. only generation, in such a way that the work of one generation mourns, but also one that acts in order to return, in order to will just be one act of a drama. Thought that uses all artistic resurrect those who have been lost. A museum does not allow means, not disassociated by space, not torn by time, acting divergence from the common good either for knowledge, or educationally, will unite art and will collect all artists into one for truth, or for art, i.e. beauty; but only memory makes good congregation. And this will be an all-artistic congregation- universal. If we extract the origin of morality from the mind museum. Drama, as a result of the investigation of reasons or knowledge, the knowledge will serve sensuality, will create for dissociation in space and time, as a result of the investi- production and will become subservient to it, i.e. as a result of gation of reasons that prevent it from becoming a unified this extraction of morality from the mind the city will be born, action across all locations and many generations, will unite an industrial fair. If knowledge is dissociated from morality, it all our movements into a single human action. It is impos- cannot remain pure, i.e. indifferent to sensuality; while the city sible to not have unity if the work emanates from writers, art- without pure knowledge is the ideal of the fourth estate, which ists, and editorial boards that have come to an agreement; it accepts only appendices, and does not value pure knowledge. is impossible to not have unity when it, this work, is the result If knowledge is dissociated from art, it is dead knowledge. of their communal creativity. The three notorious unities of For its part, art dissociated from morality also turns into pro- drama, which were demanded by classical antiquity and duction, into manufacturing, into a manufacturing-artistic which were rejected by the Romantics, could be accepted by museum. Art dissociated from morality cannot even be art the former and the latter if at their base were the unity of real- for art’s sake. Beauty dissociated from morality is only sensual ity itself; because the unity of location—despite the expanse beauty that creates a society of sexual selection that lives only of space—embraced by action, will happen in reality if local for the present and forgets the past. If you dissociate truth forces act in accord with central ones. There will be unity of from beauty, then you will have deception. Good that is dis- time if the works of subsequent generations are a continua- sociated from beauty will be suffering and not bliss; it cannot tion of the works of previous generations, so that no matter even be dead, soulless ascetism in this case. Good without how enduring the time that embraces the action is, the unity knowledge is illiterate good and either turns into personal, cannot disappear as a result of it. So, this will be a museum egotistical virtue that is powerless to destroy evil, or into civil of three unities: unity of action will be expressed by the uni- virtue that is composed either of passive suffering, or does fied direction; unity of space will be expressed by the unity real evil to some under the pretense of it being an imaginary of all locations in the center; finally, the unity of time will be good to others. Morality, goodness, truth, and beauty became expressed by a succession in which younger generations act abstract concepts, when they should be necessary features of under the leadership of older generations. life and should constitute the nature of a person.

Museum I 140 as Common Task 141 The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission

The feeling of beauty, an aesthetic feeling, is only possible for the rational and moral being, and the object of an aes- The Art of Resemblance thetic feeling can only be something animate, i.e. something (of False Artistic Regeneration) that is also a rational and moral being; for even if one finds beauty, one does so only after ascribing it a soul, a feeling. AND THE ART OF REALITY If there is beauty in works of art it is only because one sees (Real Resurrection): Ptolemaic something animate in them. Only society can be beautiful, and Copernican Art i.e. the union of animate beings. To ascribe beauty only to society does not mean to limit beauty, for art is a reminder, and resurrection as a realization of what was stored in memory is the expansion of society throughout all generations, which becomes the soul creation; i.e. nature, when it is ruled by the mind, becomes an expression of human thought and feeling and becomes, therefore, really beautiful. These three qualities of God and man—good, truth, and beauty—are indivisible; they are also inseparable from the one to whom they belong. They cannot become features of individual classes—truth cannot belong to scholars, and beauty to artists. Beauty cannot belong to things without a soul, not even to persons taken in their hostility or submis- sion. All these qualities belong only to a triune God and to a multiune human.

Nikolai Fedorov

I 142 The Art of Resemblance Nikolai Fedorov

Written circa 1890s cemetery that is Earth, and heaven becomes the dwelling of Translated by Stephen P. Van Trees the resurrected. By singing, or the requiem mass, we understand the Art as resemblance—the resemblance of all that is in heaven whole of divine service; it is liturgy as the work of God, and on Earth—is the reproduction of the world as it appears accomplished through the sons of man; it is the vigil for the to the external senses. It is the reproduction of heaven and dead or for their depictions, with corresponding wailing, Earth, not of heaven and Earth as the expression of the calling for resurrection; and then, the diurnal union (unifi- divine will, but as the activity of the blind forces of nature. It cation) and teaching (preaching), preparation of the faithful is not just as if the blind forces are uncontrollable by rational for liturgy, fathers faithful to God, which is the liturgy of the beings, but rather as if they are acknowledged by men as gods transformation of bread and wine, which have come from the (Uranus, Cronus). The art of resemblance is the depiction dust of the Earth, into the living body and blood. of heaven that deprives us of life, and of Earth that devours The art of sons who have forgotten the fathers will be a the living. That is why this art is indeed denounced by divine reproduction of the world in the form of a universal exhibition, commandment as paganism, as idol-worship or idolatry (that in which industry is united with all arts. The exhibition itself is, the worshipping of idols that represent the blind forces, is an image of a woman, to whose service the men who have rather than controlling them) and ideolatry (worshipping the forgotten their fathers wish to focus all the forces of nature on, thought that does not become deed; worshipping knowledge in order to intensify the charm of sexual attraction, and they that is without goal, without soul, without deed; worshipping think to find life in this attraction, but only find instead death the knowledge of scholars). The reproduction of the world and the hope of returning to life through their children. as it appears to the external senses and which is either inter- Sacred art only violates the commandment when the preted by the internal senses of the sons of man who have image is mistaken for reality, for real ressurection, and when preserved their love for their fathers, or by the internal senses singing—that is, the temple liturgy—is mistaken for the of the sons who have forgotten their fathers, prodigal sons— extra-temple act of ressurrecting. Secular art in the form is in both cases an art of resemblances; but in the former case of the universal exhibition violates all ten commandments it will be a holy, religious art, while in the latter case it will be and, committing sin against the faith, sins even more against a worldly, secular art. Sacred art is the reproduction of the reason in that it subordinates it to the blind force of nature, world in the form of the temple, which unites in itself all arts. forcing one to serve it rather than control it. Moreover, the temple as a work of architecture, painting, and In its proper definition, art is neither separated from sci- sculpture becomes a depiction of Earth, yielding up all its ence, nor from morality and religion, and is represented as dead, and of heaven (the vault of the temple and iconostasis), it is in the real life of the human race, in history. Beginning populated by the resurrected generations; and as the place with man’s first standing, or his vertical position, the pain of of singing, or more precisely of requiem, the temple is the losing the creatures that were closest to him made man bear- voice with whose sounds the ashes are resurrected from the ing the loss lift his face, and turn all his being to heaven; and

Museum I 144 as Common Task 145 The Art of Resemblance Nikolai Fedorov such a position is already an expression of religious feeling In nothing else is the depth and wealth of wisdom so and awakened thought, impressed by art. (Orthodoxy, which expressed as in the salvation of the limitless Universe, in demands standing and permits sitting only as condescen- the salvation that comes from such a negligible mote as the sion, is by this external expression—that is, standing—most Earth. The habitability of one Earth and the inhabitability of substantially distinguished from Catholicism and especially other worlds is the demand of the highest moral law. If the from Protestantism.) world is not the product of blind chance, then between the The transition from the art of resemblance to the art of multitude of dead generations and the plurality of worlds reality, from Ptolemaic art to Copernican art, must be served a possible rational relation exists, where all the inhabitants by the museum of all sciences, unified in astronomy. This of all the worlds were created from earthly dust alone, from museum should have a tower, and be connected to a church- blood alone. But even if the world were a product of chance, school—the tower would serve for observing the falling stars, then a rational and sensate being could not but employ the that is, for observing the continuous construction and disin- plurality of forces to revive the many generations deprived of tegration of the world, and likewise for meteorological obser- life. On Earth itself we have the resemblance of localization vation, which transitions to experiment, to action; through in negligible space and then the expansion of that localiza- transformation of military art into the art of natural science. tion throughout the Earth. Palestine and Hellas are examples Aesthetics is the science of re-creating all those rational of such a localization: arts and sciences in Greece, and reli- beings who have been on this little Earth (this drop of water gion in Palestine, whence it then expanded throughout the which reflected itself in the whole Universe, and reflected the whole Earth. But only with the unification of religion and whole Universe in itself) for their vivification (and control) of science is the further expansion of the influence of rational all the huge heavenly worlds that have no rational beings. In beings beyond our Earth possible. Palestine and Hellas are this re-creation is the beginning of eternal bliss. the representations of East and West, the struggle between The manifestation of power in powerlessness is the law of which constitutes history. terrestrial and extraterrestrial history, and also the essence of Christianity as opposed to Buddhism and as salvation from it. The Earth is a cemetery, and in its possession of history it contains greater content than all the worlds that have no such history. Heretofore, consciousness, reason, and morality were localized on planet Earth. Through resurrecting all the generations that have lived on Earth, consciousness will be spread to all the worlds of the Universe. Resurrection is the transformation of the Universe from the chaos toward which it is heading, into cosmos, that is, the splendor of incorruptibility and indestructibility.

Museum I 146 as Common Task 147 The Voronezh Museum in 1998 (1798 – 1998)

Nikolai Fedorov The Voronezh Museum in 1998 Nikolai Fedorov

First published in 1898 an experiment to ascertain under which meteorological and Translated by Stephen P. Van Trees even solar conditions the most reliable harvest might be retained. It must be noted that no one talks about the largest As far back as 1898, when the jubilee of the printing trade yield from the earth any longer. The trade and mercantile was celebrated, it was acknowledged that the foundation (commercial) view of the earth has disappeared: now one of the Voronezh Museum was laid at the same time as the does not look at the earth as goods, as capital, but rather beginning of book printing in Voronezh; therefore, in 1998 as something sacred; and the view of agriculture as a spe- they celebrated the jubilee of not just the printing trade cific enterprise would be considered immoral in the highest as a specific part, but the whole museum. Comparing the degree at the end of the twentieth century. In the cities at museum of 1998 and the museum of one hundred years ago, the beginning of the twentieth century, the division of labor it turned out that the science of the nineteenth century was had progressed to the point that for factory workers, reason a deduction produced at some place, some time, by some- became a luxury and their head a cap, which they put on only one, while the science of the twentieth century had become on holidays. True, the shortening of the workday to eight a deduction from observations produced everywhere, hours would seem to have given the workers the possibility always, by everyone. The goal set for the museum back in and right to put that cap on even on weekdays; but almost the nineteenth century—“the study of the Voronezh region no one took advantage of this right, because even after just in the past and present in all respects”—was fully realized one eight-hour day of amazingly monotonous labor, in which at the end of the twentieth century: the central museum of only one part of the body is occupied, all effort is devoted to the Voronezh region has branches in all populated areas of maintaining all the other parts of the body in inactivity. After the region, for (local) museums are already everywhere that such labor one must reset the parts of one’s body; there have there are people dying (and they still die in the twentieth to be amusements and orgies, not mental activities. In urban century, although with incomparably greater hope of revolt, leisure there is nothing that would make this leisure trans- than in the unfortunate nineteenth century), just as there form into knowledge, and not into something else, whereas are schools everywhere there are people being born. In the village work itself requires knowledge, knowledge that is all twentieth century, everyone became learners and all became the more profound, and all the more extensive, knowledge the object of knowledge; and something else occurred that that is definitive and all-encompassing, knowledge of the no one would have believed in the nineteenth century: crude Earth and all that determines the condition and existence of peasant plowmen proved much more capable of fruitful plants, animals, and man himself, knowledge of metrologi- knowledge than did the perverted city folk, possessors of cal, solar, and so on, condition. Man himself, as he was taken the serpent’s wisdom. It turned out—an amazing feat—that from the Earth, and so he goes down to the Earth again, hav- no special leisure was required for knowledge in the villages. ing given, or better yet, having passed on life to his children, In the villages, the work itself turned into an investigation of as souls bound by an inherited vow, and being able to be nature, such that every agricultural year is a new experiment, resurrected from the Earth, does not exit the wide circle of

Museum I 150 as Common Task 151 The Voronezh Museum in 1998 Nikolai Fedorov provincial knowledge, so that the village cast turns out to be built an amusement park instead of the promised temple and the one in which all branches of knowledge find their applica- museum on the island destined for it. In fact, Voronezh had tion. Perhaps someone from the nineteenth century, hearing this sin—the construction of amusement parks—in common that all men have become knowers, will think that peasants with others cites, i.e. fortresses. too have become contemplatives? But that would be a huge At one time, the whole Russian land stood constantly on mistake … But what have the peasant farmers become?! … guard against the attacks of steppe nomads; in almost every For the progressives of the nineteenth century it would, of village there was a guard station; in every small city, a bas- course, be strange to hear what a big step peasants have made tion; and in cities, stone fortresses. The Ivan the Great Bell toward the end of the twentieth century. All people have Tower was itself a guard tower. formed in universal mobilization against that force which When disarmament started, the fortresses’ earthen strikes the wheat with a bad harvest, with a terrible yield of approaches, watered with the blood of the ancestors, were sickening (pathogenic) lethal microbes. The military task has turned into leisure walkways, into boulevards, and the come to be identical to the “peasant” task. All armies, i.e. all guard towers were turned into belvederes. Historians of the peoples, have become participants in one all-lands experi- nineteenth century and previous centuries saw an obvious ment of regulation, implemented per the common plan, that improvement in such clear malfeasance—the transforma- is, the direction of the meteorological process, in order to tion of the military into the civil, into something peaceful. receive our daily bread. The prayer for daily bread, accompa- But being a son (filitude) is higher than citizenship. For the nied by labor that provides this bread to us, i.e. not to me, not sons of man, for truly intelligent descendants, the places to just one, but to all, and on only this day (“give us this day”), watered with the blood of the ancestors must be trans- i.e. it is not about surplus, but only this very day—under regu- formed, of course, but into memorials to the fathers, into lations there will be no need to create a surplus—this prayer sacred museums. Generally, disarmament was premature, accompanied by labor is indeed the divine task, performed not to mention the fact that the enemy was only contained, by the hands of men. Here’s what militarism, which so terri- not destroyed. We still have enemies: Central Asia doesn’t fied the nineteenth century, has turned into at the end of the just launch hordes on us, but also drying winds, which inflict twentieth century. It’s as well too that this terror did not lead even greater damage than the hordes themselves; and the to the abolition of military obligation … West constantly threatens us with floods—thus disarma- The movement leading to the above-adduced results ment was premature. The ubiquitous construction of muse- began in a noticeable manner in 1932, when, near the day of ums is the reestablishment of the fortresses, and bastions, the Most Holy Trinity, the descendants fulfilled their ances- and guard stations, as an expression of the guard position, tors’ vow, given one hundred years before this, to establish a but not versus our own kind, but rather against the blind temple to St. Mitrofan and in it build a museum on the island, force which engenders both too much rain, and drought, the where buildings from the time of Peter are still preserved. failure of the wheat harvest, and the yield of the sickening This vow was fulfilled also to redeem the sin of those who microbe. This reestablishment shows that what is necessary

Museum I 152 as Common Task 153 The Voronezh Museum in 1998 Nikolai Fedorov is not the destruction but only the transformation of the called both one-day and three-day. On August 7, on the day military-guardian into the peace-guardian stance. of the memory of St. Mitrofan, the Don newspaper printed It should be noted, however, that the museum and the an excerpt of a letter from Metropolitan Filaret, in which it temple for the fifty-year jubilee of the revelation of the relics said that Most Holy Sergei and St. Mitrofan had appeared to of St. Mitrofan (1932) were built not on the island, as was some English woman in a dream; this appearance occurred earlier proposed, but in another, more appropriate place, at a time in England when there was a certain urge to con- corresponding to the wide dimensions in which it was real- verge with the Orthodox church, and the saints of ancient ized. The very first beginning of the Voronezh Museum in and modern Russian had blessed this convergence. When its renovated form was laid in 1922, the year of the celebra- the excerpt from this letter was printed in Don at the same tion of the five-hundred-year jubilee of the revelation of the time as there were peace negotiations between Russia and relics of Most Holy Sergei, which preceded by ten years the England, and news about a union between her, Russia, and celebration of the centenary jubilee of the revelation of the both Britains, the English and the American, who were at relics of St. Mitrofan (1932). It became known that someone that time considered the rulers of the sea, while Russia, hav- named S. S., even before the five-hundred-year anniversary ing penetrated into Tibet, and in union with China threaten- of the death of Most Holy Sergei (1892), made a proposal to ing Calcutta itself, which compelled England to peace, can construct on the ancient Russian example a temple in one be considered, although not yet in the direct sense, to be the day, like the one that was built by Most Holy Sergei with his ruler on land. The English expected the Russians from the brother (Moskovskie vedomosti [Moscow News], September direction of Pamir, from the northwest; the Russians, making 13, 1892, no. 254). The idea of constructing the one-day an amazing transition, appeared from the northeast, from temple, which is usually erected in days of national calam- Chinese Tibet; this forced England to cease the struggle. In ity, penetrated the people. And at that time there was a great Voronezh they also remembered the vow to construct the plague in Voronezh. The people gathered and decided as a temple to St. Mitrofan with its museum and decided, hav- whole community, with the blessing of the spiritual and the ing turned the railroad-tie temple into an altar, for the hun- permission of the secular powers that be, to build a temple dred-year jubilee of the revelation of the relics of St. Mitrofan for the fifty-year anniversary day. Due to a lack of wood, they (1932), to raise above it a temple to the Most Holy Trinity, decided to use old railroad ties for the construction of the a temple to the God of the fathers, with two wings, to Most temple (“Dobry pochin,” [Good Initiative], Russkoe slovo Holy Sergei and St. Mitrofan. They decided to join to the [Russian Word], 1895, no. 62); at that time they were replac- temple a museum with archives and all facilities for research ing iron ties with steel ones on the railroad, so there was no and teaching, i.e. with libraries, picture and sculpture galler- lack of material (i.e. old railroad ties). The construction of ies, all kinds of laboratories and observatories, and also with the temple began on Friday evening, i.e. on the day of His all scholastic appurtenances, through which alone a fruitful suffering, and turning the day of rest, the Sabbath, into one entrance into the museum is possible; the scholarly appurte- of labor, finished it on Sunday, so that this temple could be nances, architecturally, per their layout, are set as entrances

Museum I 154 as Common Task 155 The Voronezh Museum in 1998 Nikolai Fedorov into the temple-museum. The museum, understood in this of all in the paternal task, in the task of knowledge and the sense, is intended to unite the people (narod) with the intel- direction of the blind force of nature, serves, as all are now ligentsia, in that the museum to this end is first of all a tem- convinced, as the very first and most necessary condition of ple, in which all church antiquities preserved in Voronezh universal peacemaking. churches are collected, all the archives of the spiritual hierar- Everything is educational to the highest degree in the chy are collected, and a special society is established for the temple-museum, where under the roof of the God of the study of church archaeology and church history. father there is both a museum of the fathers and a school Then all secular archive memorials as well, i.e. the of the sons. The internal and external inscriptions on the archives of the civil and military hierarchy, are collected temple are so full of content that explaining them would at the temple-museum, and such a unification of the spiri- take up a large book. The plan of this temple, as it is pro- tual and secular makes the museum both local government posed, was illustrated by L. G. Solovyev, an artist well known (guberniya) and diocesan. Which it was, in fact, at its very in Voronezh. But the external form of this building, amaz- beginning, for in the very beginning the Voronezh Museum ing in its grandeur, has in view not just beauty, but follows contained both icons, church instruments, and objects from educational goals, such that in the museum itself the plan secular-civil and military everyday life. For studying every- of the top area, or roof, occupied by the observatory, where thing collected in the temple-museum, an archive commis- the students under the leadership of the teachers recognize sion is established, or a unification of all the workers who the visible movement of the heavenly spheres, is transformed work on the study of archive matters. The goal of studying into a mosaic map view of Voronezh. The place of the middle the source of the juridico-economic archives is not theo- area, where meteorological and astronomical observatories retical, but rather purely practical: to study the conditions are produced, is transformed into a mosaic map view of the under which on a year-to-year basis we will see a decrease in Voronezh region, and the courtyard itself of the museum, crimes and all misunderstandings which require judicial and embedded with stones, presents a mosaic map view of all administrative handling, and this study would lead to a sig- Russia, and all these maps are the work of the students nificant decrease in cases in the 1998 jubilee year; so that at under the guidance of the teachers. The shapes of the hall the present time, neither on the judicial nor the administra- on which the whole building is built are transformed into tive enterprise does there any longer lie the curse to eternally geological crosscut views of the length of all Russia, from the judge, eternally sort things out and never reason things out, year-round [non-freezing] port at Murmansk, on the border never to close one’s case. There is still the hope that there of two oceans, to the year-round port on the Pacific Ocean, will, finally, come a time when the pugnaciouscitizens will be at the Yellow Sea. Around it is arranged a botanical and zoo- transformed into sons, united not only by common origin, logical garden for the visual, practical study of botany and but in common service to the God of the fathers in a temple- zoology … The museum became a common asset for all insti- museum hallowed to him, and more, there will be no need of tutes, both spiritual and secular, civil and military, male and surveillance, nor of threats of punishment. The participation female, for the study of local history, i.e. the role of the region

Museum I 156 as Common Task 157 The Voronezh Museum in 1998 Nikolai Fedorov in all Russian and universal history, as well as for the study of with the universal naval empire, after which, as they say, the local flora and fauna of the region in the form of its par- an alliance is concluded with it, directed no longer against ticipation in the task of directing the earthly planet by blind ones like ourselves, but against the enemy, who must also be force, insofar as this was accessible to people of the end of called only a temporary enemy, but an eternal friend, against the twentieth century, and also in the forms of further move- nature, a lethal force, on the eve, perhaps, of transforming it ment in this direction. The museum became thus a common into a life-giving force. The traveler who amassed this collec- resource, became, one may say, a book, illustrated by pic- tion was a native of the next province over; he held a promi- ture and sculpture galleries, explained and confirmed by all nent government service position in Voronezh for a long sorts of experiments and observations, and it attained this time. TheV oronezh steamship from the volunteer fleet also through the labors of the teachers and students themselves considered it its duty as its eponym to give the museum of the and the contributions of local residents, who realized that city, along with Paschal and New Year’s greetings, some espe- they could not find a better use of their assets, and especially cially characteristic objects to acquaint the students with the of their different sorts of collections (such as Parenai, Belaev, Far East, which grows ever closer to us. And in the museum Bakhonov, and so on), than to give them to the museum. we see the depiction of the steamship itself, which was of the There’s a collection of icon and landscape examples of cruiser class, and portraits of all active and past duty officer especially well-known Voronezh masters that’s remarkable and men on it. to the highest degree. The museum received it from L. G. The museum became, of course, and first of all, a unifica- Solovyev, who was a historian in these matters. L. G. Solovyev tion of teachers of all educational institutions in the form was known in Voronezh not only as an artist, but also as of teaching circles in all branches of knowledge; it attracts an incisive pedagogue, a man of rare altruism, transform- amateurs too, especially from young people who have just ing holidays from days of rest and ease into days of unpaid finished their courses, so that the knowledge they acquired labor, dedicating them to the service of the drawing school in did not remain sterile, and so that the provinces eliminated Voronezh. Any traveler from the Voronezh region (and trav- the imprecation that in the provinces they just forget what eling has nowadays become the necessary culmination of has been invented in capitals and university towns like it was education and upbringing), going around Russia and over- in the twentieth century. seas, considered it a sacred duty—for himself, for his journey, Having collected as many depictions of the workers of and for the good of the students—to get copies of paintings the old times as it could, the museum collected in-house the of famous artists, photographs of works of sculptures, views portraits of all those serving at the time of its establishment of different places they visited, and so forth. There’s an espe- in its new form (i.e. in 1932); and there was no innovation cially fine collection, collected in the north, in Sweden, in in this, because at the exhibition as far back as one hundred Norway, in Finland, and chiefly in Murmansk, where, later years ago, in 1898, there was a portrait of a staff printer, dis- at this year-round port, there arose a polar capital, or more tinguished only in that he had served forty-five years; from accurately, a residence for the time of the ultimate struggle that point, i.e. from 1932, a portrait of each person coming

Museum I 158 as Common Task 159 The Voronezh Museum in 1998 Nikolai Fedorov on board for service in Voronezh was placed in the museum respect the museum comprises the likeness of the Triune at the time of his entry into service. But what’s especially God as the model of unanimity and agreement. important: this was an introduction of portraits not only of The alliance with China, concluded at the time of the the workers themselves but of their wives and children; this last struggle with England, became a holy union, a spiritual shows the decisive dominance of kin over the judicial begin- union, and not just the kind which is based on a commonal- ning at the time, and at the exhibition of 1998 many people ity of interests. The West from that time lost its authoritative found in the museum depictions not only of their grandfa- significance, and Russia in the twentieth century became, thers and fathers, but of their mothers, with autographs, finally, the true Rus, became itself, and the fifth estate, the with a review of their lives and generally with anything that peasantry of all the world’s countries, turned out everywhere the love of sons and daughters for dead fathers and mothers Russian in spirit, like to the Chinese, and the name of China could conceive. became a synonym for “living” and “great.” Europe’s fear In this manner the museum is the creation of the love of that she would be inundated by legendarily cheap Chinese sons and daughters for fathers and mothers, a love intensi- workers turned out to be groundless—Chinese immigration fied by their deaths. On the other hand, the museum, in that was directed to the tropics, to the equator, to warm climates, it contains teaching and education units, is the expression where Europeans aren’t fit for any work at all. of the love of parents, acting as one man, which increases Nationalism was a dream in the nineteenth century, but the museum, minimizing their personal dwellings, such in the twentieth century it became a reality. The spirit of kin- that these latter present architecturally as “servers” of the ship crowded out all the opposite forces—everything judicial museum, and those living in them really bring voluntary ser- and economic. In China, where every family has its ancestral vice to the museum. temple (museum), all science, in all its fullness, came into The museum is the living likeness of the Most Holy the service of the fathers—the service of the fathers, as one Trinity, the likeness of the love of the Son and the Holy Spirit father, and not to each one’s father in isolation. History was for the Heavenly Father, and the love of the Father for the Son transformed into commemoration, and all natural science and the Holy Spirit. Of course, the likeness would be com- became the path to resurrecting the fathers. The science of plete only in such case as the love of the sons and daughters the nineteenth century, having detected that “everywhere in for the dead father attained the returning of life to them, and nature a ceaseless struggle persists, which always culminates the love of the fathers for the sons attained to their elimi- in the destruction of the weaker,” and bowing before the fact, nation of death. The growth of the museum is conditional has elevated this fact to Law and engraved on the pediment on not only the reduction of the luxury of personal dwell- of its temple: “Death to the weak, to the adapted! Hail the ings. The museum will expand all the more, the more court unceasing bloody struggle!” Now, at the end of the twen- cases and all sorts of discord are reduced; the museum is the tieth century, they think that nature does not set the rules product of those forces which in the nineteenth century were for man, they think that man does not have to obey nature, wasted on mutual struggle in its various forms, and in this but nature ought to serve man. Psychology has revealed the

Museum I 160 as Common Task 161 The Voronezh Museum in 1998 Nikolai Fedorov interrelationship between external and internal character- Such a relation to the fundamental question—of the mean- istics, has revealed the internal relation and, having laid it as ing of life and the goal of knowledge, on the resolution of the foundation of society, has eliminated what in the nine- which the very stimulus of life depends—by a writer who was teenth century was called sociology: in the twentieth century, then recognized as famous, to whose voice many listened, the very word fell into disuse, being replaced by “fratropol- attests to the moral depth to which people at the end of the ogy,” or more accurately, “delphiturgy” (brother-creation); nineteenth century had fallen. psychocracy, the same thing as brother-creation, became the applied science of psychology. Souls ceased to be darknesses, and exteriors ceased to be deceptions; mutual knowledge [vzaimoznanie, intersubjectivity] was laid as the base of society, which was no longer maintained by external law, not by surveillance, and not by threats of punishments, unlike those judicial societies from which feeling is expelled and the soul is torn out. Classical and foreign languages in general have been replaced by the science of the roots of all languages, having revealed the kinship of all nations, and promising in the near future a common natural language, not an artificial one, like Volapük. Everything related to religion and agriculture, i.e. to regulation, to the task common to all, even now, at the end of the twentieth century, bears one and the same name over all the Earth. The twentieth century is the age of museums, i.e. places not for the commemoration of the dead, but rather for their enlivenment, via the path of the investigation of the lethal forces of nature. In this, the meaning of life and the goal of knowledge is revealed to the sons of the dead father, whereas the nineteenth century was the age of critical philosophy, having lost both the meaning of life and the goal of knowledge. The loss of the meaning of life and the goal of knowledge was noted already in the last quarter of the previous, i.e. nineteenth, century by the writer Zola, who was then enjoying great glory. And this confers great honor on Zola, which, however, is reduced in that, having noted the fact, he bowed before it, acknowledging that this was how it must be.

Museum I 162 as Common Task 163 The Catherine the Great Exhibition at the Voronezh Regional Museum

Nikolai Fedorov and Nikolai Peterson The Catherine The Great Exhibition Nikolai Fedorov and Nikolai Peterson

First published in 1896 agencies of science should remember the workers of knowl- Translated by Stephen P. Van Trees edge, inviting people to not just read their works, but also to study the creators themselves. To “study” does not mean In the article “On the Question of the Karazin Meteorological to reproach or to praise, but to restore life … such a study is Station in Moscow” published in Nauka i Zhizn’ magazine possible only in libraries that are open to all. The library in its (Science and life, issue no. 44, November 6, 1893), which present organization, where only a small collection of books includes a proposal for constructing a meteorological station is in circulation, while the majority of the books remain con- at the Moscow Rumyantsev Museum in memory of Karazin, stantly in their places and collect dust, must be called a closed it is mentioned in passing that “a museum is fundamentally book. The only library that can be called an open book is one a book depository,” and it is suggested that everything that that is arranged in calendar order, by the days of writers’ is collected in a museum is merely supplementary material, deaths, because inherent in calendar order is the demand necessary for the study of what is written in books, although for commemoration, i.e. the rehabilitation of the author the material only visually represents what is expressed in himself through his works. With this form of organization, books with words. Developing this idea, one may say that the library will not be a simple depository of books—not a a museum without books, without a library, is absurd, and single book in the library will remain forgotten. With this a library without a museum is an incomplete enterprise, form of organization, there will come a turn for every book— one that is highly insufficient. The relationship of a library a time for study will be assigned, assigned for the very calen- to a museum is like the relationship between a soul and a dar day of the author’s death. The Voronezh Museum has body—the separation of these enterprises is death for the proven with its two exhibitions that for museums too and the museum. A museum cannot completely exist without books, arrangement of objects contained therein—the remnants of and while this is not a total loss (it is well known that librar- the past—that calendar order is the most animated way of ies without museums exist), what kind of life would this be? organizing the museum, “animated” in the actual sense of … In any case, even those who do not agree with the idea the word, because this form of organization leads to study, expressed above will not deny that libraries and museums i.e. to the restoration of life, in agreement with the definition are of the same genus, and thus their structures should have mentioned above. From November 6th to the 10th, during a lot in common. As proof to justify this idea, we will allow the Coronation exhibition, we saw the museum overflowing ourselves to mention the Voronezh Museum, which has with visitors who looked at the displayed objects, for which organized two particularly interesting exhibitions: in May the caretaker of the museum, I. Uspensky, provided the most of this year, the Coronation, and in November, the Catherine interesting explanations. This exhibition also increased the Exhibition. Concerning the organization of public librar- influx of donations to the museum. ies, there is a belief that they should be arranged in calen- One must note with special gratitude that the Voronezh dar order. Similar to how a church daily commemorates Museum was not limited to exhibiting solely the objects and presents its saints who participated in its creation, the from the museum collection alone. Everything related to the

Museum I 166 as Common Task 167 The Catherine The Great Exhibition Nikolai Fedorov and Nikolai Peterson

Catherine era that could possibly be found in the Voronezh reinstated Count Bestuzhev-Ryumin in his rank, honors, and region was collected: thus for the duration of the exhibition pension. M. I. Uspensky exhibited textbooks on arithmetic they borrowed from the Voronezh Nobility Assembly the and geography from the time, and a well-known encyclope- charter of the nobility from April 21, 1785, the velvet-bound dia from the eighteenth century as well. on the genealogy of the nobility from the period of Catherine Thus the Voronezh Museum is not just a collection and the Great (six parts); from the city administration we have depository of anachronistic remnants, but rather a living the book, The Foundations of Governing the Province, from agency, uniting those who study the past. And museums 1775, in a velvet binding with a silver edge, and a small silver should not solely be depositories of objects remaining of bell, both sent for the inauguration of the city’s administra- life of the past as libraries should not only be depositories tion based on the aforementioned foundations; the seminary for books; libraries should not serve for amusement and for provided an autograph from Saint Tikhon, Catherine’s con- light reading, just as museums should not serve to satisfy temporary (an autograph from a letter); the public library idle curiosity. Museums and libraries are schools for adults, lent busts of Catherine II, Peter III, and Paul I, and statues of i.e. higher schools, and ought to be centers of research, the order of St. George and St. Vladimir. obligatory for every rational being—everything must be the And private collectors who are involved in collecting object of knowledge, and everyone must be a learner. However, antiques exhibited their own collections in the museum research should not be directed toward the destruction of for the duration of the exhibition. K. I. Bukhonov exhibited faith, but toward its affirmation, and not just in words, but around 150 coins of Catherine II, and a significant collec- in action, the action of restoring life. Only such research can tion of medals and tokens from her reign. M. P. Parenago be the goal of constructing libraries and museums, the need exhibited books and engravings, among them a portrait of for widespread construction of which is felt so acutely. The Catherine engraved by Utkin; an engraving of a painting most natural thing, of course, would be to make it obliga- titled Reverie dedicated to Catherine, “Le paralitique, servi tory to open libraries in every church, and in every church par ses enfants” from 1767; an engraving depicting Voltaire a museum would also be created as the necessary condition leaning on his cane (Paris, 1778); P. G. Belyaev exhibited of enlightenment, because a museum is only the clarification, manuscripts, books, and icons in casings from the period of by all possible means, of the book, of the library. The creation of Catherine the Great; by the way, among the books there are: a library and a museum in every church would only be the Prayers, which was carried by a sixty-seven-year-old (Count realization of the church’s mission, of its obligation to teach. Aleksey Bestuzhev-Ryumin) when he was under arrest (on We hope that the Voronezh Museum does not limit itself February 14, 1758), and Grace of the same Count Bestuzhev- to these two exhibitions. The museum honored Catherine II Ryumin on the occasion of his release from prison and rein- with the exhibition, even though she doesn’t have any spe- statement at court on July 3, 1762. This book is accompanied cial connection to Voronezh, the museum is just obliged by a foreword by Count Bestuzhev-Ryumin, and at the end of to organize an exhibition in memory of Peter the Great, the book a decree from August 31, 1762, is attached which whose actions enabled Voronezh, two hundred years ago,

Museum I 168 as Common Task 169 The Catherine The Great Exhibition to acquire the status that it has today. The museum should also organize exhibitions for Saint Mitrofan of Voronezh On the Cathedral and Saint Tikhon Zadonsk; and these exhibitions must have of the Resurrecting Museum special significance as well. They must show the appropriate direction for research, must show the kind of science that leaves a great many people in complete darkness and does attempt to become the property of all, that does not connect the expansion of enlightenment with the expansion of knowledge itself, that allows neither students nor teachers to participate in the expansion of the domain of knowledge (as described in the article “On the Question of the V. N. Karazin Monument,” Nauka i Zhizn’ [Science and Life], no. 15 –16, 1894)—such a science is not the true light, enlightening every man coming into the world. Science can become this only through the union with the church, upon which also lies, per the duty of discipleship, the duty of enlightenment. Therefore only the church can and must connect investigation and observation with primordial national enlightenment through hands-on instruction in all national school, those are the church schools and the regional schools, the strange and regrettable separation of which is, apparently, the result of secular fanaticism. Let us hope that this separation is not permanent, for there should be no antagonism between secular and religious, regional administration and church (cf. “Chteniya imperatorskogo obshchestva istorii i drevnosti” [“Working Papers of the Imperial Society of History and Antiquity”], 1893, no. 3, foreword to the tale of the construction of the every-day church in Vologda). Thus, let the exhibitions on Saint Mitrofan and Saint Tikhon at the Voronezh Regional Museum serve to eliminate this antagonism, for even though the museum is a secular institution, it is no stranger to the sacred. Vasiliy Chekrygin

I 170 On The Cathedral of the resurrecting museum Vasiliy Chekrygin

Written in 1921 redemption, an unmoving likeness of his being,2 a way of Translated by Ian Dreiblatt resurrecting the dead. Man unites with man for the struggle with dead strength (Of the art of the future: music, painting, sculpture, and its unenlightened bearers; the son has learned the reli- architecture, and the written word) gion of action, interconnection, seeing in unity a salvation from death. I dedicate this book with reverence to the memory of In building unity, man perceives the brotherhood of all the great sage and teacher Nikolai Fedorovich Fedorov, bloodlines. whose wisdom created it In the rational, brotherly union of sons, cemeteries become communal; graves and tombstones made in the likenesses of resurrected fathers are united. Gathering And together mourning the connection to their fathers (The Creating of the Temple) that death has ruined, sons have mentally resurrected their fathers in the name of universal salvation, in images resem- “Thine own of Thine own we offer unto Thee, in behalf bling the dead. of all and for all!” In performing the funeral mass, the temple has found its —The Eucharist voice, its quickening music (which stirs the ashes of the dead like music from the future), imagining fathers and their fore- By rising up on his feet, man was created—a weak victory bears coexisting (an icon), the notional uplift of the fathers over the death of the world, over its downfall, its terrestrial (iconostasis) into the heavenly fatherland, devising a plan pressure, its torpid law of gravity—and the first thinker was for victory over the unmoving strength of death through the formed, the first artist. sum total of all living arts. Man is the expression of a vital conjunction of the arts in So the mind created the sacrament of the Eucharist, the architecture. His head is an image of the living combination map of the Exodus, of the resurrection of dead fathers, serv- of the arts, the word giving birth.1 A man’s brow is the organ ing in ash as man’s sustenance, completing the construction of his mind, an altar to his fathers. The resurrecting museum of a temple in their own image. is a conjunction. His eyes are a directorate. His ears hear har- like the gathering and the unity, man now sees beauty mony and dissonance. His lips, resorbing fathers, create the and force and follows their covenant into a pure gathering. disincarnate word, the perfection of the arts. But he sees that beauty today has become incomplete, Weeping for his dead fathers in the temple of himself, and shines only in sparse flashes of all men’s future unity. a man builds outside of himself a temple of the dead’s 2. In this way the temple is created, by which I mean the way of the 1. The totality of the arts in their indivisibility. being-son who resurrects his father.

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Truly, the temple is a plan for unity, a school of its making, form of a school in the performance of the Eucharist outside a keeper of the images of our fathers (images from a future the temple. gathering3), a teacher of the resurrecting museum, the true “From a technical perspective, the temple offers a supple- theater of the hero-resurrector. ment to terrestrial mechanics, the distilled effect of which reason has a single teacher, for reason is a knowledge of is the constraint of bodies from falling.” The earthly archi- causation, of the Fathers, for the mind’s nature is the resur- tecture of both temple and man is a resistance to falling, an rection and binding together of the disparate. elevation, a maintenance, a kind of triumph over the falling The true plan: gatherings of the arts, of their recondite of bodies, supporting them, building on the law of gravity. meanings. Not perfectly alive is the temple, and yet not dead; it is, The true plan: defeating time and space, abolishing the and is not; it exists and it does not; bounded by time and Universe’s law of gravity and falling bodies. The plan of the space, riven by stale force. An image of the Universe’s maj- world’s transfiguration and liberation from death. esty, it is lower than the Universe, though higher in meaning. “Its meaning resides in its being a project of the universe * * bustling with all who have perished, and in which those who * bustle have turned to an awareness and stewardship of existence, no longer blind.” However, it is not in reality, only in thought, that the temple now overcomes time and space; its architecture is not live but constrained, and inside it illusory arts are imprisoned (revealed Exodus in a stagnant materiality, an artificially created environment). The temple is the only likeness of future reality that the “But think of it: there is no road to immortality but contemporary arts have created. the limitation imposed by the grave.” “The temple as a work of architecture, painting, and —Filaret sculpture becomes a depiction of Earth, giving away all its dead, and of heaven (the vault of the temple and iconosta- “In pondering the relationship between rational sis), populated by the resurrected generations.”4 In appear- beings and the irrational senselessness of nature, ance, that is, but not really. In reality,5 the temple takes the man, or the son of man, must devote himself wholly and freely to physical toil. He must be a laborer— 3. Every image, whether of a constellation or a flower, a horse or a man, bird or beetle—each of these is an intimation of perfection. neither slave nor master, a mere duplicator, and nei- 4. N. F. Fedorov. The Ptolemaic model of the universe, forged in the ther Creator nor Maker.” belief that the sky is the limit of upward motion and the Earth that of —N. F. Fedorov downward motion, that man was placed at the center of the Universe. 5. The Copernican model, cognizant that there exists only the sky and the Earth, but no limits of motion upward nor downward.

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“We know that which we have created.” He learned to trample with his own feet the dust of rot- —Kant ten fathers, that beyond his own borders were legions of the dead, and that their death had come from the blind world. “We cannot create, but only recreate.” Maturing, he noticed time moving to renew the Sun, to —N. F. Fedorov build a new heaven, impervious. He saw souls dwindle like moisture in the gyre of mat- “Work is a religion”—the ascent of the man who falls and is ter, bearing the imprimatur of muteness, and that the best scattered into death. destroyed death, a good canceling the living. In laboring, a man creates himself, readies himself for the Constructing his mind, he learned that energy untrans- renewal of the Universe. mitted is deadly, devouring the living, and that extreme cold A religion that does not consist of labor is doomed to per- destroys perfection. ish, the vile delusion of a licentious spirit. He saw that the savage will of the vortex—the evil and A man’s intellect is his builder. Building himself, he seeks stillness of air—runs to pestilence and plague. to recreate his own house. He saw that the lights of heaven like fruit wither in their The intellect knows he aspires to a revelation in consub- ripeness, doubling the Earth. stantiality, but for man there is no path to true knowledge He learned that man burns out in the vortex of his race but the labor of constructing himself, in his own household. preserved in time like a pillar of flame, and that kingdoms go In the labor of Resurrection, Life is the work of reconstruct- limp in the turmoil. ing the dead. From the depths of the conscious artist-son there rises a * * holy purpose. * Now the man is called to be a worker—a divine master- resurrector, a great architect of the sky, a keeper of the Exhausting themselves in savage meaninglessness, man’s Universe. arts today are a play of dreams; he who is awake looks with a shudder on the art of a mind indulged with wandering, the * * fruit of a lifeless imagination. * The individual, rational artist today is a son of man, com- passionate toward the dead, who wanders artists’ studios, is Seeking the cause-connection of his own phenomenon, terrified of the savagery in creating images of man and the man discovered that his father was the cause; rational, he dying world,6 is ignorant of art’s elevation, its significance, listened, touched, looked in the Father, and began work on goes drunk on images. an encounter with the dead, coming into reason, never imagining solitary happiness. 6. Of the simulations of art.

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But he knows that artists infuse a secret coexistence with * * nature into the meaning of rising up, and of the gathering * of the world, they scent the secret nature of form (the plan of resurrection) and are sensitive to the silent portent of a The time has passed for man to live in chaotic dreams; the liberation in progress. artist-man-son is called to create not dreams but interrela- A teacher calls the artist-scholars with the force of the tions of bodies—a vital world. With the museum, man frees united arts to be fathers’ fathers, to be architects, to erect the great constraining forces; with the cathedral that gathers past in an ineffable today, to pacify the spirit in eternal full- many races into a single one for the real creation of a model ness, in ungaping death. of perfection and a total organic state, bringing the world to The meaning and purpose of a rational man-son’s labor its highest level through the unified will of the museum, col- is the summoning of a Cathedral, resurrecting the museum, lecting the fading light. and becoming an artist-astronomer-regulator who never Dividing the work of knowing the tenseness of bodies cleaves science from art or true religion, from reverence for into forms that occupy the daytime and the night, build- the fathers.7 ing under an unexpendable sentry, an instrument of rea- The Resurrecting Museum—a temple, an organ that person, observing the tension of solar energy in darkness and ceives the ongoing structure of the world, and at the same light; going, in the unified plan of a shared concern, toward time its downfall, its demise—draws the strength of an earthly the domestication of raging heavenly elements, defanging army into a heavenly one—an instrument of the museum- thunderstorms with the unification of science and art, the regulator’s actions (a meteoric and cosmic process). Resurrecting Museum—the artist—inflicts a secret stroke of Having come into sense, man unifies his spiritual forces, death, seizing the progress of forces. joining them in Brotherhood. Creating the implements and So it is not in somnolent dreams but actually in shared trying the actions of bodies’ tension in a single experience, labor that the son-man, having learned what forces are sub- a labor-knowledge, he establishes, with the first case of uni- ject to Brotherhood, unifies the arts in the matter of creating versal labor, the abolition of discord, storms, the thunder a living, heavenly architecture, establishing, like every true of creation, shapeless forces erupting into the material of artist, reality as the goal of his labor. a new architecture,8 uniting the living with the primordial, And so men, having become thinkers in earnest, stand constructing bodies out of flaming kernels,9 for the purpose before one another as the workers of divine mystery, prepar- of the man’s arts is the restoration in the authentic of history ing the way toward a meeting with the dead, resurrecting in perfection. them into the flames of life. Embodying the divine image of matter’s enlightenment. 7. This will be a transition from the simulated arts (the Ptolemaic The Resurrecting Museum establishes peace in the world, model of the universe) to actual art (the Copernican model). 8. Copernican: it holds the celestial bodies from falling. turning down the unrestricted forces of chaos and inex- 9. Atoms, electrons. haustible power, introducing consciousness into nature as

Museum I 178 as Common Task 179 On The Cathedral of the resurrecting museum Vasiliy Chekrygin a regulator of acts (of will), perishing in internecine conflict, unified force against the true enemy: the blind elements that and recreating flesh, pure, eternally bright, and immortal. bring death to man. The Resurrecting Museum’s goal, as an organ of the The point of an army is to rise up against the enemy, the muses, is a true circle dance, a genuine sundance (clockwise), enemy of a rational being in irrational nature. with the strength to take control of the motions of Earth and Uniting against oppressive forces, man created society, heavenly bodies alike, to return life to the dead. which today serves him as an instrument for the eradication of his own kind, the bearers of reason. High too is the purpose of his armaments—the defense Appeasement of the Elements: and protection of life. The Start of an Action Outside the Temple The son of man calls for the protection of life, for the use (Regulation of a Meteorological Process) of arms to give life to the hungry,11 mastering the course of a meteorological process, sending rain, calling forth thunder, “Astronomy will address itself to astroregulation, setting down a bucket to answer the poverty of lands and and the human race will become one of astronomer- nations, cultivating bread—the ash of fathers—for human regulators, which is its innate purpose. The tools man sustenance. has created for mutual destruction will become the To safeguard the harvest from the tyranny of blind forces, means of salvation from the consequences of the iniq- to feed the hungry on the world—this is man’s duty, replac- uity with which he plunders nature.” ing what is given with what is earned; demoting solar power —N. F. Fedorov (electricity) from the higher levels of the atmosphere, disarming thunder and storms, finding the key to their path. Man’s true enemy is not man, but blind force, bearing thun- So, bringing structure into phenomena, man rids himself der and storm, coldness in spring, hail and bitter cold, dis- of weakness and disease, revives and gathers his strength for ease, every weakness, and death to all that lives. the highest endeavor, resolving class contradictions: cities Great plagues and droughts bring death to many millions and villages, individuals and communities (states),12 fixing of children, men, the elderly, and women, blasting lands rich the exodus from chaos into cosmos, turning the course of with color into deserts. history from unconscious to conscious, rational. As the sign of a matter that ought to be public, hunger The first true concern for the future man of this new his- teaches us to unite into a unified army, a heavenly host,10 to tory is meteorology, the apparent labor of the Resurrecting set aside internal conflicts (an involuntary reflection of the Museum. cosmic war, unconscious of the life of nature), to turn as a 11. “Not for limitations on the supply of food imposed by the whim 10. “The army that has an ideal for itself, or, more precisely, has a of the harvest.” — N. F. Fedorov plan in heaven, will be made heavenly when it implements this plan 12. The regulation of meteorological processes represents a transi- on Earth.” — N. F. Fedorov tion to Copernican art.

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It is time for man to learn the wickedness of cities, disor- mastery of forces that bear bread,14 transforming the som- dering the course of the meteorological process, the evil of nolent village into an active new village—the Resurrecting groupings of factories and industrial plants, exhausting the Museum, struggling to regulate the meteorological pro- Earth’s supply of solar power, razing forests, poisoning and cess—hot, dry winds blowing from the east, and damp cur- drying up rivers, and in the process creating hunger, poison- rents bringing downpours from the west. ing the air with fetor and rot,13 producing empty things that Also, distributing moisture (from the equatorial ring augment the charm of sexual attraction. of thunderstorms to the aurora borealis), controlled by the Time for him to learn the wickedness of armies acting arrangement of Lemström devices in polar regions, held to in blindness to protect markets and the production of the correct altitudes by aerostats. simulacra, decay. “In outward nature, on planet Earth (and in the solar sys- For is it not wickedness, the treatment of the peasant, the tem) there is no prevailing and productive balance of power. factory slave, wickedness in the cities that divide man-sons Thunderstorms and auroras (borealis and polaris) point into slave and master (the slaves’ slave)? to the lack of any regulating force. Lightning rods, which It is time to learn the chaos of society and its force regulate electrical storms, and Lemström devices, which that acts in blindness—the army (slave of the master, the regulate auroras, are the early stages in the development of slaves’ slave). an apparatus, modeled on the nervous system, that will one By means of this shared matter of fathers—art—the day surely decide the very course of the Earth. All bodies are village rids itself of the oppression and violence of the city endowed with the ability to enter into a condition of tem- (neither reaper nor sower). pest: on the Sun, we see this take the form of sunspots, and Man has only one way out: to transfigure the village that on Earth in the form of humid air currents that flow away guards his fathers’ graves, having connected it to the city from the belts (i.e. from the currents) of thunder and still- (to knowledge). ness, encircling the entire Earth, accompanied by electri- Coming to his senses, the son is called by his teacher cal storms great and small. On these very currents, whose to the villages, to the work of liberating the land from the connection to underground phenomena, as well perhaps as yoke of blind forces; he is the new man of future history, and to cyclones and the gulf stream, is yet unknown, depends has transformed into a museum and school of resurrection all plant and animal life, that is, all harvest and hunger, the the cities that create instrumentalities, that occlude vision, breeding and diseases of livestock. Within the meteorologi- sound, and the instrumentalities of movement, inciting the cal process lies the force that brings famine, ulceration, and death. If the life of the sun consists of storms unceasing and 13. The man of the future will have no need of metals extracted from ubiquitous, though of unequal force, then the Earth itself, inside the Earth through hard labor: metals of meteoric and cosmic minus the reflections of solar lightning, produces thunder origin will replace them, drawn from the celestial expanse of the regulation of the attractive force of the Earth and processed in cities (as articles of workmanship). 14. A third militarism.

Museum I 182 as Common Task 183 On The Cathedral of the resurrecting museum Vasiliy Chekrygin and lightning, an unbroken ring of storms, interrupted in “Alas! You poor human race, how little you have the temperate zones and extending to the aurora borealis grasped in the procession of seven thousand years of in the cold regions of the globe. All life in the Universe is a the mystery and purpose of your existence on Earth, continuous thunderstorm of varying intensity, because the and how little you have progressed toward your force of the Universe remains an unregulated one. To study exalted destiny.” nature thus means seeking a means of stripping the power —Filaret of Moscow of thunder, converting it from one that destroys to one that recreates, resurrects. Of the destruction of the world, the wringing of cometary The Universe is a meteorological process, accompanied clouds, the showering down of stars, we call for the preven- by unceasing thunder and storms. If the force producing this tion: disarming the thunderstorm of the Universe with the thunder and these storms is itself a force of thunder, then its unity-force of the Resurrecting Museum-Temple, for salva- study will amount to a search for ways of taming this destruction lies in the unified case of the man who has reconciled tive force by regulating it, a search for ways of turning it from with his brother. a thundering, destructive force into one of re-creation. In the Salvation to the world in the man who lays down his absence of such treatment, this force, destroying everything, arms and his destructive power, salvation to the world will ultimately devour itself; the very Sun, and all suns, are in the man who turns his arms over to the power of the clouds of thunder that collapse with the dispensation of their Resurrecting Museum, the re-creating power of the unity final bolts. This force can be controlled only through the col- of the human race. lective knowledge and labor of all men.15 Time will pass, and the new man of rational history will seek the living world not in abstraction, in dream, but beholding the world through clear eyes, as it really is, lying The Transfiguration of the World before him suffering and unenlightened, awaiting the sense (Religion of the Cosmic Process) of the matter of the son. The son of man knows that he is called not to flatten the “In the Transfiguration, Christ was revealed, and two world’s ascent, but to assure that it rise up in unthinkable great figures were united: the organizer of relation purity, revealing the colors of the Earth, of all creation, in and the controller of nature, Moses and Elijah, who perfect new freedom and imperishable light. had been the right and left hands of the Resurrector.” loving what lives—the flower blooming in its fresh skin, —N. F. Fedorov the celestial sphere aglow with flickering, dying light— undertake the labor of preventing their decline and fall. Undertake it as elevated, intellectual labor, this loving all that lives, for are you not the resurrector, the son, curiously 15. N. F. Fedorov seeking the causes for the hostility of the blindly embattling

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Universe? Are you not the bringer of calm, the worker of the Earth from prime elements, a dance of abolition, of separa- Resurrecting Museum, the heavenly warrior? In the cathe- tion, of the change of birth and death, a great dance that grants dral, you are the resurrector-artist, having recourse to the immortality, abolishing the blind law of repression and death. highest powers of divine counsel, a living organ of intellect, Attracting solar forces, charging the Earth with forces of the brightest blossom of the Earth. attraction and repulsion, bringing the mood of a light sum- loving what lives, and in deep compassion for the dead mer and laying the way for meteoric flame-trails, immortal fathers awaiting their son’s intellectual labor, the great art- sons arise on nearby planets, dispersing the reason-key, the ist, having through mighty labor penetrated in his inquisitive structure that controls the celestial spheres’ courses, engulf- manner the chaos of the blind war of nature, of the ramify- ing the force of storms provoked by the sun on the planet- ing arteries of will, and having, by a grand choral harmony of spheres. In the flowing motions they are recreated by the forces, vanquished hunger and cured disease, must bring the magnificent dance, new suns ignite in the celestial scatter, forces of the Shining-Sun down to the Earth, arousing and renewing the heavens. releasing its tensions and influencing the celestial sphere of And so the sons avert the end of the Universe, transfigur- the Earth off the path of its orbit, to set it on a course into inter- ing the law of blind bodies’ decline18 into a law of love, into planetary space—this being the most authentic and greatest the force that restores and drives worlds. work of art, of secret dance, the beginning of the reconstruc- Oh, how mighty are my children, and brothers, and sis- tion of the human body and the Earth in the perfected form ters, liberated in unified labor, on a liberated Earth, danc- of the dance of the Resurrected Dead.16 Through the labors of ing the divine dance of the start of transfiguration; they are all sons, the man who has become the primary reason for his creating perfection, not in dream and not in life-devouring own existence creates immortality for himself in the unified abstraction, but in reality, with love for the living and the matter of an art-dance of floating freely in the sky. dead, redeeming imperfection with the force of the matter By controlling the course of the Earth, man—pilot of of love, which is to say, with art. the celestial caravel, celestial warrior of eternal peace, con- The sons and daughters of man listen in keen sympathy queror of the man-beast within himself—becomes a divine to the pulse and quiver of particles, of the swirl on hills and in artist, readying himself to gather and reunify the living arts— lowlands of the ashes of the dead and, as artists penetrating voices, movement, joyous color—into a single light, a single with sensation the hidden essence of coexistence, establish world, into a life. the relatedness of living harmonies and discover the unity Admiration drives my heart into a high, beautiful of the sonic force of resurrection and the vivid, numerical, dance, life-giving,17 reconceiving those who dance and the plastic one (Constructivism), having learned that the force of the arts brings resurrection and that true art is an enactment 16. The contemporary art of dance is an image of the dance of the Resurrected Dead, a shifting of support beams accomplished through exists in apparent dependence on two motions of the Earth: rotation the museum-reason. on its axis, and revolution around the Sun. 17. The cellular life of plants and animals (biological processes) 18. Binding a man to the mortal Earth.

Museum I 186 as Common Task 187 On The Cathedral of the resurrecting museum Vasiliy Chekrygin of the Eucharist outside the temple, the transformation of Cultivating bread with intellectual labor, a man liber- bread and wine into the body and blood of the father, that ated from the blindness of nature’s warring forces comes to art (as an enterprise) is a redemption, the Resurrection of the the father as to truth, bringing life into a connection death Dead Fathers. cannot shake. Dead are our teachers, beaten with rocks in blindness; The Earth is heavy with the dead, but a son begets a son in dead is my teacher, and my brothers and friends, and I shall darkness, and in darkness the sons live, creating phantoms that be dead too, and sustain a son with my body for a high con- look real, and in the blindness of abuse having forgotten the cern. Our bodies will be scattered over sacred ground that father, they die, destroyed by the unrestrained forces of death. swallows fathers, fills its womb with beauty. But the day will The son sleeps, creating the likeness of a perfect world, as come when our ashes quake in the dance of Resurrection, weak on the images he’s drunk as if they were wine, deceiving when every particle of our bodies blesses the light of reason, himself with a sheen of strength and peace, beneath which thirsting for redemption and rebirth, taking in the living lurks a terror of the truth of the world, slashed and mortal. music of choirs of son-resurrectors, venerating the fathers With word and dance glorifying marital conjunction, who gave them life. intoxication by wine, the flow of time, and the spring, a fleet- ing celebration of power of birth,19 the son with his eyes wide open does not see the damnation of the successors to the The Resurrection of the Dead Fathers imperfect rising up of life. (A Eucharist Outside the Temple) The new man, having emerged from the chaos of blind forces, is sober with the memory of the father and the inspira- The synthesis of the living arts is the resurrection of the dead. tion of the son as his form and breath, in the unity of which they live, having taken control of the motions of the celestial “Thine own of Thine own we offer unto Thee, in behalf spheres and the forces of new suns, kindled by them with of all and for all!” the discourse of reason, and having brought them into new —The Mystery of the Eucharist bodies, glittering like snow in daylight, having attained through hard labor the power of immortality, not imagining “Consumed, you will be resurrected as that which the oblivion of the dead, for the wise know that man, and the consumes.” Universe, and thought, and all mankind’s affairs are all but —Basil of Caesarea the likeness of resurrection, resurrection uncompleted. Having learned in wisdom that the concern of a man’s The dead fathers have gone into the Earth, their bodies in art is the recreation of father-causes, and having invested ash—food for the sons. the force of the arts into the labor of resurrection, in deep And after his death, a father supports and sustains his son, anticipating from his mind the highest concern. 19. Paganism, a tragic worldview.

Museum I 188 as Common Task 189 On The Cathedral of the resurrecting museum Vasiliy Chekrygin morality and love, in full knowledge to approach the human Having perfected life’s highest concern—the establish- race unified in will, feeling, and thought—the cathedral ment of a world of purity and unity—man stands self-created Resurrecting, in reverence to the miraculous wonder of life, in the image of Divine First Principles; radiant with joy and to the Eucharist performed outside the temple, the force of unwavering light, man-the-Resurrector is more than human, the animating arts of music, dance, and shape awakening the the appropriate appellation now being God-man, the master dead from their graves. of reason. The choirs of artist-sons will be heard over the oceans, Every twilight creation exults and rejoices, the trees scat- and the thunderbolts sent into the depths of the Earth will ter and a higher reason burns in the lower creatures, hav- make it quake, and water from the Earth will surge forth, ing become the equal of higher beasts in transfiguring love; bearing the ashes of the fathers. liberated from servitude, from life’s rigid circuit, these wise The souls and bodies of the living will be heard over the brothers are as the high Spirits, various manifestations of the music, over its heart-rending harmonies, and the perfected exalted Father. heavenly music of the God-man being born is one with the The beauty of the world radiates outward, and will not be image of the fathers,20 woven perfectly by the God-man as muted nor concealed: and the world will be a ringing music, rays of vital, redolent light. a living voice, freely penetrating the luminous spirit of the The creator-like force of celestial music rings out, like father-son unified in spirit. a secret essence of living, in tune with the stirring of the The son-father comes to know unanticipated joy and father’s dust particles, by the blessed will of his son the the immortal happiness of peace in eternity, beholding that father’s scattered ashes cycling skyward through a vortex of which is invisible, hearing that which is muted. uprisings, and the image of the world is fulfilled through the The roar of countless oceans raging in storm is drowned power of music, and the father shudders and returns to life in out by song in the renewed sky. fresh skin, luminous with color, his brow, resurrected, comes For the clamor, the oceans’ voices, stand before the into focus, and the dead arise, returned to the fullness of life, music of the animated spheres, in which light and sound true beauty, and inexhaustible, immortal force. are one, in which colors are a harmony enlacing and burning And the relation between son and father will be perfect, with light. for the son will be as a father to the father, and the father as a A new ear and new eye that rise to the task of discovering son to the son. the voices and light of the world renewed and the perfected And the mystery of man’s redemption and victory man’s new, God-given faculty of reason accommodate what over death will be perfected, his escape from imperfection does not fit into us, bound by slavery and oppressed by strife. through the power of the unified arts into the kingdom of In this way, the terrible and great mystery of the Eucharist permanence, immortality, and completeness. is enacted, converting the ashes of the fathers—the bread and wine that serve as nourishment to the man-son—into 20. A celestial iconostasis. the body and blood of the father.21

Museum I 190 as Common Task 191 On The Cathedral of the resurrecting museum Vasiliy Chekrygin

The living arts, desolated by blind force, are united in an The forces that have been revived and risen up will recoil immortal image, and death is defeated. from the Earth, soaring into the vastness of the Universe, and The celestial spheres are animated and inspired—the son’s animate the celestial spheres, knocking them from the orbits debt of wisdom—and the Universe is caught from its fall. set for them in accord with the torpid law of gravitation. In From the Earth, as from the throne of the Universe, a divine movement-dance, man remakes his flesh, and the comes the father being resurrected, and behind the father his redolent bodies of the Universe will burn with a new light, father, following the sequence of time (and time is defeated), the abode of rational spirits. and they arise into the heavens to conquer space and stand Taking control over the celestial worlds, here is man, in pure contemplation with the fathers’ fathers. like the Sun moving the stars, illuminating silent expanses of the Universe with the pulse of illuminated life, wielding blessed forces. Ascension and Construction Having become the endeavor of the God-man, the (Copernican Architecture) father-son—founder of heaven, architect of the Universe, dwelling place of wisdom—creates a single, eternal, living “Art is begun on the Earth and completed in the temple of worlds, without seeking supports, for it is the heavens.” perfected love-law that serves as his support. Having con- —N. F. Fedorov ceived the luminous creation of a reinvention alive with undiminished youth, the perfect mind gives permanent form to the enlightened flesh of the world, that it may live 21. In enacting the Eucharist as an authentic synthesis of the arts in eternity. rather than a simulated, technical synthesis of the simulations of art, mere theatrics, authentic action is not taken, and not mere simula- Mighty comets are ignited by the father-son and soar tion. Emerging onto the scene is not some dissembler in the guise through the sky, rich with sound, reverberating with the of a hero, but an authentic hero, an actor (in the sense that he is one sweetest of all music. who acts). Theatrics (the synthesis of simulations of art) give rise to simulated heroes and phenomena, and, being created out of a tragic Its play is a part of the structure of the Universe; the gath- worldview, portray the desolation of the world (the tragic death of the ering comets are sealed into force, as are mighty suns, like hero felled by fate, by blind forces). In other words, these theatrics flashes of brilliant color woven from logic (higher than flesh) stage the destruction of the universe, of its architecture, with the collapse of its primary support—man. and music. In the temple, as in any realization of the world that should Overcome is time by resurrection, by the sons who have be (any plan for Resurrection), the fallen hero—the supporter of the world, the deceased in the center of the temple—is resurrected risen up; overcome is space by their ascent and command through the totality of his hard work and prayer. over worlds. resurrection will be the organic synthesis of the living arts. It will And eternity shall be known by the son in the fullness of come in the resurrection of the father-cause. Aesthetics will incorporate ethics, the ideal will become real, what life, the depth of knowledge. was transcendent will be made immanent.

Museum I 192 as Common Task 193 On The Cathedral of the resurrecting museum Vasiliy Chekrygin

The falling world will be held up, and the world will exist My faculty of speech has been exhausted, and I, heeding in perfect love—the Secret of the Father, the son, and the the voices of wisdom, reverently bow my head and bless the spirit, in the duskless morning, the enduring spring.22 triumph of my spirit, ripping it into perfect love that knows living beauty gathered into force has harnessed and no fatigue, no death. burns with thousands of sparking rays, pouring the sweet- All my family—father and mother, brothers, sisters, the ness of life to spirit-sons made one with creation. wives and children of my brothers—I await your resurrection The Universe dancing in its circle.23 into our eternal coincidence, the revelation of the Word for The milky ways, ignited by the son out of cosmic dust, perfect Love. the stuff of celestial architecture, of the temple that moves in In that Love, our meeting is interpenetratory, giving form eternity, filled beyond holding with the voices of darkness of to an eternal glory, all-loving, the pulse of a life welling with the themes that have arisen, enfolding a victorious song to fragrant light. the sense-carpenter. We will live one inside the other, while celestial forces Embodying in glory the perfected arts as the Word. reveal the secret of their being and we at last can look upon Never hearing the unheard, never seeing the unseen. the Father face to face. The aspiration of my soul brings forth what weakly I can And the innermost cedars quiver in harmony, revealing say of eternity and the perfection of love and of light. and enlightening the masses of sons of who have risen up, Where in a man abides what he can say of perfection? giving form to the reverence of the Blessed Trinity. My ears knocked awake by the power of the all-pervading sands of the Word in glory. Can one even speak of eternity? Afterword If I had a polysyllabic intellect and a thousand mouths to sing every thought into a single, harmonious whole, still “Architecture, Construction, the Harmonization of then I could never address the highest of subjects, eternity. worlds—these result not from conscious knowledge, For man’s tongue is impoverished, bound up by time, man’s but only from the mastery of worlds.” word is weighed down, frail and fatal, igniting not life but its —N. F. Fedorov mere likeness. My eyes sparkle with joy for the hope of seeing an unex- The son who has forgotten his fathers will be tormented by tinguished gathering of worlds that swarm with life. melancholy in his laborious wanderings; he finds no place What turmoil it will be, to see indestructible, inspired under the Sun, seeking to establish his own existence through suns, to hear the noise of eternity’s flaming wheels. murder and in meaninglessness sharpening the scythe for his own death. He deludes himself with mirages, never seeing 22. Trinity Sunday. 23. A country dance, clockwise motion, religious processions in the them fade out, never laboring for them to erupt, knowing life city—all reflections of Copernican architecture. only through dream, but tumbling through reality.

Museum I 194 as Common Task 195 On The Cathedral of the resurrecting museum

He is terrified of death, yet remains consigned to it helplessly. The Church Ritual living in perplexity, he saps his spirit of strength, and as a Synthesis of the Arts soon enough despises his own life and the Father who gave it to him. He hates his brother and his friend. Having forgotten the father, he damns himself, his heart being as stone. No comfort to him in the plush colors of today—tomorrow is coming on like fate. The slave stirs with tasks into the new morning. He laughs out. Glances about. He is joyful, but does not trust his own joy. light, he moves like an apparition, burns straw, but in murders he is first—for he seeks his own strength, his own gravity. He loves novelty like a woman, is deceived, and seeks anew. A transferal from that which is depleted to that which is empty, altering its form—this is what we have chosen to call art. A sensible son, loving the fathers, knows the business of life: he is simple and gentle as a dove, seeks not happiness but labor, heeding the call to restore man and the crumbling Universe. Pure in his simplicity, he reconciles and unites enemies at a shared table, to create out of persons a resurrecting temple-museum for the societal task before him: to nourish the hungry by the force of arms turned to the good of life, and to transform the village that houses a graveyard to a village that resurrects fathers. For the wise know that the arts—the mystery of the Eucharist, the Resurrection of the Dead—are the true task at hand. And the wise as well pursue truth in the matters of life, to recreate in the unity of the human race a life renewed in the renewed heavens. Pavel Florensky

I 196 The Church Ritual Pavel Florensky

First published in 1918 contemporary aesthetics, a kind of contemporary Athens, Translated by Wendy Salmond for example, where the theoretical discussion of the problems of religious art would occur, not in isolation from the I would like to share with you some thoughts of a rather gen- actual realization of these artistic goals, but in the presence eral nature. Once ideas are taken out of the vital context that of the very aesthetic phenomenon that controls and nur- produced them, however, they are easily misinterpreted. tures such discourse. In the ensuing discussion it will per- Think of my remarks as “just in case” thoughts—speculation haps become apparent that a museum—to bring my idea to both theoretical and concrete on what may well be the single its conclusion—a museum that functions autonomously is most important living museum of Russian culture in general, false and essentially pernicious to art, because even though and of Russian art in particular. While on the other hand, we the subject matter of art is classified as an object, it is in no can only arrive at a systematic solution to the problems which sense merely an object. It is not an immobile, stagnant, dead historical reality has bequeathed to us by properly exposing mummy of artistic creation/activity. It should be understood their general principles—and most importantly, only after as an unquenchable, eternally beating flow of creativity itself, we have a reached consensus in defining the basic character- as the creator’s living, pulsating activity. Even though it is istics of cultural, as well as more specifically artistic, activity. removed from the artist in time and space, it remains insepa- It is absolutely essential that colleagues involved in the same rable from him. It still radiates and plays with the colors of project develop their practical work hand in hand while pay- life, it still flows with the excitement of the spirit. ing close attention to theoretical refinement and elaborating A work of art is a living entity and requires special condi- theoretical questions about art on site, at the very heart of tions in which to live and particularly in which to flourish. artistic production. It must be admitted, moreover, that in Detached from these concrete conditions of its existence, the area that concerns us—namely, religious art, conceived specifically its artistic existence, it dies, or at least enters a as the highest synthesis of heterogeneous artistic activities— state of anabiosis, where it ceases to be perceived, and at theoretical questions remain virtually untouched. If it were times even ceases to exist as a work of art. And yet the muse- permissible to leave our immediate tasks aside and allow um’s aim is precisely to isolate the piece of art, which it mis- our imagination to stray into the realm of possibilities—and represents as an object that can be removed or transported not particularly remote ones—I would have entertained an on a whim from place to place and installed anywhere, and idea about the need to create a network of scientific and ultimately to destroy it as a living entity (I am taking this educational institutions at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra—an idea to the extreme). Metaphorically speaking, the museum archetypal monument and a historically existing attempt substitutes a mere outline for the finished painting, and we to achieve the higher synthesis of arts—which has been the can count ourselves lucky if even that is not distorted. source of dreams for the new aesthetic for so long. What would we say of an ornithologist who, instead of I imagine the Lavra as a type of experimental center, observing birds wherever possible in their natural habitat, a laboratory for the study of fundamental problems in concerned himself exclusively with collecting beautiful

Museum I 198 as Common Task 199 The Church Ritual Pavel Florensky plumage? The natural scientists of our day have clearly under- not now, then in the future—because museum affairs are stood the importance of studying nature as much as possible clearly moving in the direction of concretization, of saturat- under concrete natural conditions. Wherever feasible, the ing the work of art’s environment with life and the plenitude actual museums of natural history are being transformed of life’s wholeness. In the writings of Pavel Muratov I find into zoological and botanical gardens equipped, as far as some pages that I am ready to include in a legislative codex possible, with natural living conditions, instead of cages, as on museum aesthetics. The author ofO brazy Italii (Images of far as this can be achieved. The famous zoological garden Italy) writes: in Hamburg comes to mind here. But for some reason this same concept, which is of infinitely greater importance for Perhaps it is not in the light of the museums at all the study of mankind’s spiritual activity, has hardly been put that one must seek the source of a genuine enthusi- into practice by the disciplines in question. A few museum asm for the ancients. Who would be prepared to claim rags or a shaman’s tambourine are essentially just that—rags that he/she truly appreciated Greece within the four and a tambourine—and have as little value for the study of walls of the British Museum and retained its image in shamanism as Napoleon’s spur for modern military history. his/her soul once he/she had gone out into the eter- The loftier the human activity and the more definitively it nally wet Strand, or down to the dreamy, romantic, involves an element of value, the more prominent does a smoky groves of Hyde Park, so typical of the North? functional method of comprehension and study become The genius loci ofL ondon is clearly alien to the genius and the more futile the homegrown collecting of rarities and of those places where the marbles of the Parthenon freaks. These ideas are as incontrovertible as they are rarely and of Demeter of Cnidus first saw the light of day; mentioned when the time comes to apply them. I realize that nor is it any more like the air on which these beings of I am trying your patience with these overly simple truths, but the ancient world sustained their invisible life, the air I feel compelled to do so in view of a far from rare inability or that each one of us breathes in the spacious courtyard unwillingness to grapple with them that is encountered all of the Museo delle Terme, despite its lack of first rate too frequently—that elementary artistic and archaeological objects … As he/she inspects the ancient reliefs here, predatoriness, that rabies museica, that seems prepared to the visitor can sometimes hear an overripe pear fall to carve off a piece of a painting, all for the sake of installing it the ground, or the paw-shaped leaves of a fig tree tap- in one particular building on one particular street, called a ping on the window as it sways in the wind. Among museum. Verily, lucus a non lucendo. the old cypress trees in the middle of the yard, a foun- But the Muses cannot be forced to wear flounces. In tain plays, and ivy entwines the sacrificial white bulls. the interests of culture a protest should be made against The abundance of fragments and sarcophagi that attempts to tear a few rays from the Sun of creativity, stick have been placed here are flooded with sunlight that a label on them, and put them under a bell glass. This pro- turns the travertine blue and transparent, the marble test, it must be hoped, will not be without repercussions—if warm and alive. Give me the splendid existence of

Museum I 200 as Common Task 201 The Church Ritual Pavel Florensky

these objects any day, rather than the perfection of our soul? What frightens me most about the activity of our a masterpiece carefully preserved in a stuffy room. Commission and all other commissions and societies alike, The scattered rose petals that have become lodged regardless of their country of origin, is the potential for in the folds of a woman’s dress, sculpted who knows transgressing against life, for sliding onto the oversimpli- when and by whom, are a far greater adornment than fied, easiest path of stifling and soul-destroying collecting. all the connoisseurs’ opinions and scholars’ argu- For isn’t that what happens when an aesthete or archaeolo- ments. These petals, these shadows cast by leaves and gist regards the signs of life in some organism, a functionally branches across the marble, these lizards scurrying unified whole, as self-sufficient, severed from the living spirit, among the fragments, are as it were a link between outside of their functional relationship to the whole. the ancient world and our own, the only way in which In the Inventory of the Lavra sacristy we are already our heart can come to know it and believe in its life. encountering attempts at such stifling. Thus, in discussing the famous chalice of reddish-yellow marble donated by Grand Further on, Muratov writes of a superb idea on the part of the Duke Vasiliy Vasilevich Temnyi, the compiler of the Inventory keepers of the National Museum to display part of its ancient has made this note: “And the marble weighs this many pounds collections out of doors in the sunlight: at so much per pound, a total of 3 rubles 50 kopeks.” Let’s not be deceived by the naive candor of this note: nomine mutato A museum is more destructive to antique sculp- de te fabula narratur. Even when it appears in a more complex ture than a picture gallery to the paintings of the and refined form, the formula “marble valued at 3 rubles 50 Renaissance … Sculpture needs light and shade, the kopeks” may be considered canonical for those who support expanse of the sky and the tonal contrast of vegetation, the abstract collecting of things that have no, or almost no, perhaps even spots of rain and the movement of life meaning outside the totality of specific conditions of life. In flowing past nearby. For this form of art the museum the words of Pavel Muratov, will always be a prison or a cemetery … A profound emotion grips the traveler in a quiet corner of the We can only dream that some day all the reliefs and Forum near the spring of Iuturna, where the Dioscuri statues that have been found in the Forum and on watered their horses. the Palatine will be returned here from the museums of Rome and Naples. Some day we will understand But, we ask ourselves, would the stones from this same that, for an ancient, an honorable dying at the hands spring be as precious if they were transplanted to the Berlin of time and nature is better than lethargic slumber Museum and arranged on shelves along the walls, however in a museum. well-dried those walls might be? Is it not the way life goes on around these stones, the func- Decentralizing the museums, bringing the museum out tional contemplation of them, that disquiets and ennobles into life and bringing life into the museum, creating a living

Museum I 202 as Common Task 203 The Church Ritual Pavel Florensky museum for the people that on a daily basis would educate the art object or distorts it, and in distorting or annihilating the masses that streamed about it (and not the collecting of style, in de-styling that work, he thereby deprives it of genu- rarities for art gourmets only); a thorough assimilation of ine artistic content. human creativity into life, for all the people, not for isolated let me repeat that a piece of art is artistic precisely by pockets of one or two specialists, who often have a weaker virtue of the completeness of the conditions essential for its understanding of the artistic whole—these are the slogans existence, on the basis of which and in which it was engen- of museum reform that should be set against what was worst dered. By removing a part of these conditions, by rejecting in the culture of the past, against what truly deserved the or replacing some of them, the piece of art is deprived of title “bourgeois.” its vital play, it is distorted and even made anti-artistic. The But let us return to our theoretical discussion. traits of heterogeneous styles introduced into a piece with In one of his lectures, Yurii Olsuf’ev defines style as the a specific style are often repulsive, unless a new creative result of amassing homogeneous artistic perceptions (I synthesis is effected. Aphrodite in a farthingale would be would add to this our own creative reactions) from a given as insupportable as a seventeenth-century marquise in an epoch. “Therefore,” he says, “the pledge of true artistic worth, airplane. But if the wholeness of a work of art expressed in that the art of that period is genuine, lies in the harmony this primitive form is generally acknowledged, the general between style and content.” In this way the vitality of art necessity and the scope of this precondition for artistic con- depends on the degree of unity between impressions and tent is by no means so clear to everyone. Of course, every- the means by which they are expressed. True art is a unity of one knows that the aesthetic phenomenon of a painting content and the means of expressing that content, but these or statue needs light, that music needs silence, and archi- means of expression can easily be understood simplistically, tecture space. But not everyone remembers with an equal by excising some single facet from the content-laden func- degree of clarity that these general conditions should have tion of embodiment. Then just one side of an organic unity, in addition several qualitative determinants and that these one side alone, is taken as something self-sufficient, exist- determinants in no way constitute a service beyond the call ing in seclusion from the other facets of embodiment, even of duty, or an act of charity on the viewer’s part. Rather, though it is really a fiction that has no reality outside of the they become a constitutive part of the actual organism of whole, just as paint scraped off a painting or the sounds of the work of art and, having been foreseen by its creator, an entire symphony played all together are not an aesthetic they form its continuation, although that too lies beyond reality. And if on the basis of this simplistic insensitivity the the bounds of what we call, for the sake of brevity and sim- aesthete attempts to sever the threads, or more accurately, plicity, the work of art proper. the bloodbearing arteries linking that facet of the work of art A painting, for example, should be illuminated by some under examination to those other facets which the aesthete specific sort of light, diffuse, white, sufficiently bright, fails to notice, then he destroys the unity between the con- uniform, and not colored or mottled, etc. Outside of this tent and the means of expression, he annihilates the style of required illumination it does not live as a work of art, i.e. as

Museum I 204 as Common Task 205 The Church Ritual Pavel Florensky an aesthetic phenomenon. If a picture was painted for white usually found in a church, located by chance in a church, but lighting, then illuminating it with red light means killing capable of being successfully transferred to an auditorium, the aesthetic phenomenon as such, for the frame, canvas, museum, salon, or who knows where else. I permit myself and paint are in no way the work of art. Similarly, placing a to label as shallowness this isolation of one of the aspects piece of architecture in a foggy space or listening to a piece of religious art from the whole organism of church ritual as of music in an auditorium with poor acoustics also means a synthesis of the arts, that artistic environment in which distorting or destroying the aesthetic phenomenon. alone the icon possesses its true artistic meaning and can But more than that, there are conditions for perceiv- be contemplated in its true artistic nature. Even the briefest ing works of art that are, so to speak, negative. One cannot, analysis of any one of the aspects of religious art will show for instance, listen to a symphony or look at a painting in that this aspect is connected to others—I am personally con- a setting filled with unbearably stinking gases. These nega- vinced, to them all, but for the moment it is enough to point tive conditions, if not kept within certain tolerable bounds, out just a few interdependent facets of religious art, selected burrow their way into the style of the work, annihilating the almost at random. unity of form and content, and thereby destroying the work let us take, for example, this same icon. Of course, the as such. For better or worse, the work of art is the center of way it is lit is by no means irrelevant and, of course, for the an entire cluster of conditions, which alone make possible icon’s artistic existence its illumination should be exactly its existence as something artistic; outside of its constitutive that under which it was painted. In this instance, the illu- conditions it simply does not exist as art. In the case of easel mination is quite unlike the dispersed light of the artist’s painting, we choose the frame and background; for a statue, studio or the museum gallery; rather it is the uneven and it is the drapery; for a building, the totality of color patches irregular flickering, one might almost say winking, light of and airy spaces; for music, the overall character of the impres- the icon lamp. Calculated to be seen in the play of a flick- sions simultaneously experienced with it. The more complex ering flame that moves with every breath of wind, making the conditions in which a particular work lives, the easier it is allowance ahead of time for the effects of colored reflections to distort its style, to make a wrong move that would imper- from the bundles of light passing through colored, some- ceptibly lead away from the plane of genuine artistry toward times faceted glass, the icon can be contemplated as such absence of style. only in the presence of this current, only in this flood of This general condition applies particularly to religious light, fragmenting, uneven, seeming to pulsate, rich in warm art. In the recent past, upholders of aesthetic standards felt prismatic rays—a light which all perceive as alive, warming justified in looking down on the Russian icon. Now the eyes the soul, emitting a warm fragrance. Painted under more of the aesthetes have been opened to this aspect of religious or less the same conditions, in a half-darkened cell with a art. But this first step, unfortunately, is so far only the first, narrow window, lit with several kinds of artificial lighting, and one frequently finds an aesthetic shallowness and insen- the icon comes to life only in corresponding conditions. sitivity that perceives the icon as an independent object Conversely, it grows numb and distorted in conditions

Museum I 206 as Common Task 207 The Church Ritual Pavel Florensky which, in abstract and general terms, might seem the most But let us go further, and move from the art of fire, an favorable for works of the brush—I am speaking of the indispensable component of the synthesis of church ritual, even, calm, cold, and strong lighting of the museum. And to the art of smoke, without which once again this synthesis many peculiarities of the icon which tease the sated gaze does not exist. Need we point out that the finest blue veil of modernity—the exaggeration of certain proportions, the of incense dissolved in the air brings to the contemplation accentuation of lines, the profusion of gold and gems, the of icons and frescoes a softening and deepening of aerial frame and the haloes, the pendants, the brocade and velvet perspective, such as the museum neither knows nor can veils sewn with pearls and precious stones—all this, seen in dream of. Need we recall that, through this constantly mov- conditions natural to the icon, exists not at all as piquant ing atmosphere, this materialized atmosphere, this atmo- exoticism, but as the essential, absolutely unremovable, one sphere visible to the gaze, like some very fine granularity, and only means of expressing the spiritual content of the absolutely new achievements in the art of air are introduced icon, i.e. as the unity of style and content, in other words—as into icons and frescoes? They are new, however, only for authentic artistry. Gold, which by the diffused light of day is secular art that is abstracted and isolated, not for religious barbaric, heavy, and devoid of content, comes to life in the art, whose creators took them into account ahead of time, flickering light of the icon lamp or candle, for it sparkles and consequently without them their works cannot help with myriad flashes in every direction, conveying a presen- but be distorted. timent of other, unworldly lights, filling a heavenly space. No one will deny that electric light kills color and destroys Gold, which is the conventional attribute of the celestial the balance of color masses. If I say that icons should not world and which in a museum is something contrived and be looked at in electric light, with its wealth of dark blue allegorical, in a church with flickering icon lamps and a mul- and violet rays, few people would argue with me. Everyone titude of burning candles is a living symbol, it is representa- knows that, like a burn, electric light also destroys psychic tion. In exactly the same way the icon’s primitivism, its at receptivity. This is an example of a negative condition for times bright, almost unbearably bright, coloring, its satura- the artistic content of religious art. But if there are negative tion and insistency, are most subtly calculated on the effects conditions, there are even more positive ones, which in their of church lighting. Here, in the church, all of this exaggera- totality define not only church ritual as something whole, tion is softened and conveys a power unattainable by ordi- but also each aspect of it as organically coordinated with nary methods of representation. In this church lighting we all the others. Style requires that the circle of conditions be can make out the faces of the saints, their countenances, in some degree complete, that the special world that is the i.e. heavenly aspects, living phenomena of another world, artistic whole be in some sense self-contained. Its infiltration proto-phenomena, “Urphiinomena” we would call them, by alien elements leads to the distortion of both the whole following Goethe’s example. In a church we stand face to and the separate parts that have their center and source of face with the platonic world of ideas, whereas in a museum equilibrium in the whole. Generally speaking, in a church we see not icons but merely caricatures of them. everything is interlinked: church architecture, for example,

Museum I 208 as Common Task 209 The Church Ritual Pavel Florensky takes into account even so apparently minor an effect as the vocal component of the liturgy be preserved, referring par- ribbons of bluish incense curling across the frescoes and ticularly to the distinctive local chants preserved by Lavra entwining the pillars of the dome, almost infinitely expand- tradition, then to be sure I would shake his hand. But I would ing the architectural spaces of the church with their move- find it difficult to refrain from bitterness in reproaching him: ment and interlacing, softening the dryness and stiffness of “Is it really all the same to you that the vaults of outstanding the lines and investing them with movement and life, as if architectural achievements are going to ruin, that frescoes melting them. are flaking off and that icons are being repainted or plun- But we have been talking so far only of a small part of dered?” Similarly, I could not but contrast to the lover of church ritual, and one that is comparatively very homoge- singing and also the connoisseur of the visual arts my own neous. Let us recall the plastic, rhythmic movements of the concern about the preservation of works of ancient church officiating priests, as when they swing the censer, the play poetry, which up to now has preserved the characteristics of and modulation of folds in the precious fabrics, the aroma, the ancient chanting manner of singing and ancient scan- the particular fiery waftings of the atmosphere, ionized by sion, and about the preservation of manuscripts from bygone thousands of burning flames. Let us further recall that the centuries, full of historical significance, which have brought synthesis of church ritual is not just confined to the sphere to perfection the composition of the book as a total object. I of the visual arts, but encompasses the art of singing and could not help reminding all these connoisseurs of the arts poetry, all kinds of poetry, church ritual being itself a musi- that have been forgotten or half-forgotten by the modern cal drama on the aesthetic plane. Here everything is subser- world, those arts that are even more auxiliary and yet are vient to a single goal, to the supreme effect of this musical absolutely essential to the organization of this ritual as an drama’s catharsis, and so everything here that is coordinated artistic whole: the art of fire, the art of smell, the art of smoke, to everything else does not exist if taken separately, or at the art of dress, and so forth, up to and including the utterly least it exists falsely. Therefore, leaving aside the mysticism unique Trinity holy bread [pmifora], with its mysterious and and metaphysics of the cult and focusing exclusively on the secret recipe, the distinctive choreography that emerges autonomous plane of art as such, I am nevertheless aston- in the measured movements of the priests as they come in ished when I happen to hear speeches about preserving a and out, in the converging and diverging of their counte- monument of high art such as the Lavra, in which attention is nances, in their circling around the throne and the church, limited to one single aspect while remaining anti-artistically and in the church processions. He who has tasted the charm and anti-culturally indifferent to another. of antiquity knows well how ancient all this is, how it lives If the lover of vocal music started pointing out to me that as an inheritance and the only direct branch of the ancient in church melodies, so closely linked to the ancient world, world have survived, particularly of the sacred tragedy of the we have high art, and perhaps even the highest vocal art, Hellenes. Even such details as the specific, light touching of comparable in the instrumental realm only with Bach; if in various surfaces, of holy objects made of various materials, the name of this cultural value he began demanding that the of the icons anointed and saturated with oil, fragrances, and

Museum I 210 as Common Task 211 The Church Ritual Pavel Florensky incense—and touching besides with the most sensitive parts idea of supporting and protecting such an institution? How of our body, the lips—become part of this total ritual, as a much more attentive, then, should the state be toward this special art, special artistic spheres, as for example the art of embryo and center of our own history, our own culture, both touch, the art of smell, and so on. In eliminating them we scholarly and artistic? would deprive ourselves of the fullness and completeness of For all that, I consider the idea of transferring use of the the artistic whole. Lavra from the monks to parochial societies to be thoroughly I will not discuss the occult element that is characteristic lacking in empathy and aesthetic sensitivity. Anyone who has of any work of art in general, and of church ritual in par- thoroughly investigated the incommensurability and quali- ticular. This would take us into a realm that is too complex. tative difference between the lifestyle, the psychology, and Nor can I talk here about the symbolism that is inevitably finally the liturgical style of monks—even bad monks—and present in any art, particularly the art of organic cultures. people who live outside the monastery—even though they be For us, even the external, we might say the superficial, con- extremely virtuous—cannot but agree with me that it would sideration of style as a totality of all means of expression is be a great breach of style to grant service in the Lavra to the enough to speak of the Lavra as an entire artistic and his- white priesthood. Even in terms of color, the patches of color torical monument that is unique anywhere in the world and in the churches or on the grounds of the Lavra, the substitu- that requires infinite attention and care. The Lavra, consid- tion of black figures, with their distinctive monastic gait, with ered in a cultural and artistic context, should, like a single any others, whether different in style or entirely lacking in entity, be a continuous “museum” without losing a single style, would immediately destroy the totality of the Lavra’s drop of the precious liquid of culture that has been gath- artistic impression and would transform it from a monument ered here with such style, in the very midst of the stylistic to life and creativity into a dead storehouse for more or less multiplicity of epochs, throughout the Moscow and Saint random objects. Petersburg periods of our history. As a monument and a I could understand a fanatical demand to destroy the center of high culture, the Lavra is infinitely necessary for Lavra and leave not a stone standing, made in the name of Russia, and in its entirety, what’s more, with its day-to-day the religion of socialism. But I absolutely refuse to under- existence, its very special life that has long since disap- stand a Kulturträger who, on the basis of nothing more than peared into the realm of the distant past. The whole dis- a fortuitous overabundance of specialists in the visual arts tinctive organization of this vanished life, this island of the in our day, fervently protects the icons, the frescoes, and the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries, should be protected walls themselves, and remains indifferent to other, no less by the state with at the very least no less care than the last valuable achievements of ancient art. But most importantly, bison were protected in the Belovezh Forest. If an institu- he doesn’t take into account the highest goal of the arts, their tion for Muslims or Lamas comparable to the Lavra came ultimate synthesis, so successfully and distinctively resolved within the state’s purview, even if it was alien to our cul- in the church ritual of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and sought ture and remote from our history, could the state resist the with such insatiable thirst by the late Skriabin.

Museum I 212 as Common Task 213 The Church Ritual

It is not to the arts but to Art that our age aspires, to the very core of Art as a primordial activity. And for our ages it On the Creation of a Pantheon is no secret, where not only the text but the entire artistic in the USSR: A Proposal embodiment of the Prefatory Action is concealed.

—Sergiev-Posad, October 24, 1918

Vladimir Bekhterev

I 214 On the Creation of a Pantheon Vladimir Bekhterev

First published in 1927 evrology, is making headway in understanding the anatomi- Translated by Bela Shayevich cal foundations of genius and talent—but for now, only on the basis of chanced-upon research materials. Barely any time has passed since Kustodiev died, and shortly It has long been established that genius has no direct before him, Vasnetsov—both of them great visual artists. It correlation with the weight of the brain, since the brains has not been so long since the passing of the poet Esenin, and of extraordinary individuals vary in weight. On the other before him, the poet Blok. Nor has much time passed since hand, the brains of extraordinary individuals demonstrate the death of the great political leader Dzerzhinsky, and before characteristic developments of small furrows and wrinkles him, the no less great military specialist Frunze. It was not in the left and right hemispheres, with a predominance in long after their passing that prominent scientists, the scholars the former. This and several other characteristics were dis- Svetlov and Kravkov, passed away, along with a huge number covered by myself while studying the brain of the brilliant of other talented specialists in all fields of study and cultural Mendeleev, which was made possible by the sober mindset activity. We have incurred all of these losses just in the past of his widow.1 several years; you could say that they happened right before While performing this research, I realized the necessity of our very eyes. We grieve the lost talents that lived among us, comparing Mendeleev’s brain (which is now in the anatomi- honoring the great strides their work made for the USSR, but cal museum of the State Institute for Medical Science) with at the same time, without even thinking twice, we bury their the brain of the famous composer and musician Rubinstein creative minds in the dirt, leaving them to be devoured by (which resides in the collection of the anatomical museum of worms. None of the loved ones of any of the deceased named the Academy for Military Medicine). I found that the latter’s above thought to preserve their brain—that precious organ brain had a highly developed auditory cortex in the temporal that makes creative activity possible—for posterity. lobe and the same was true of another brain belonging to a People of science with a closer relationship to the study wonderful singer and musician, which was also in the collec- of genius and talent grieve over the passing of great or even tion of the same museum. simply talented individuals along with everyone else mourn- A contemporaneous anatomical study performed abroad ing the irrevocable losses for our society. At the same time, demonstrated similar characteristics in the brain of the they can’t help but lament that when the bodies of great men famous composer Bach. In light of this, we may consider it are lowered into their graves, with them, posterity loses all an established fact that musical genius is, by all appearances, opportunities for studying the precious material that could, physically manifested in the particular development of the with meticulous study, reveal, in the physical form of the auditory cortex in the temporal lobe (and in the adjacent brain, in its furrows and wrinkles and the structure of its tis- Heschl’s gyri) of both hemispheres. sues, in the development of its nerve fibers and blood vessels and the dispatches of its endocrine glands, that mysterious 1. The study was published as a brochure in German titledGehirn sphinx called genius. The science of genius and talent, called d. Chemiker Mendeleeff.

Museum I 216 as Common Task 217 On the Creation of a Pantheon Vladimir Bekhterev

We also know that the brain of brilliant French orator allowing it to be preserved and analyzed by scientists? As an and politician Gambetti is relatively lightweight. It is charac- example, I will note that the brain of the famous Rubinstein terized by a particularly developed posterior inferior frontal was preserved for posthumous research and posterity because gyrus in the left hemisphere, known as Broca’s Area, which an autopsy was performed without his relatives’ knowledge. contains the speech center. Mendeleev’s brain was saved thanks to the efforts of Egorov, Thus, when it comes to musical and verbal talent, we a professor of physics and Mendeleev’s close friend, and the already know the external characteristics of these gifts as chemist’s widow’s enlightened position on autopsy. The brain they are found in the brain. Analogously, we can expect of L. N. Tolstoy was allowed to be devoured by worms as the that in visual artists, we will find a particularly developed consequence of the criminal attitudes toward the legacy of the visual cortex in the internal surface of the occipital lobe. great writer exhibited by his loved ones. I will mention that Furthermore, I found that in several cases, individuals with my request to perform an autopsy, expressed in a telegram athletic talents demonstrated correspondingly developed sent to Yasnaya Polyana addressed to Dr. Makovetsky, who frontal lobes, and other investigators speak to the fact that was inseparable from Tolstoy in the period leading up to the gourmands have very developed inferior frontal gyri in their latter’s death, was left unanswered. As a result, we are bereft frontal lobes (in the region of the cortex) which, according to of the opportunity to not only preserve a precious relic—the my own research and as confirmed by other authors, is where brain of the brilliant author of War and Peace—we are also the taste center is located. left unable to address the question of how the brain of a great It goes without saying that these are merely the prelimi- Russian writer compares to the brains of other great men. nary findings in the search for the physical locus of talent. It is very unfortunate that the precious brains of great The question demands careful, meticulous analysis and individuals die with them not only because of superstitious detailed investigation of the structures of the cerebral cortex attitudes toward autopsy, but also because their loved ones (the architectonics), the basal ganglia, and the blood vessels don’t realize how precious a relic the preserved brain of a of the brain, as well as the endocrine glands. talented cultural figure is for science and posterity, whether But how can we move forward with these investigations they be an artist or a scholar; and how honorable it is to have into one of the greatest questions of science when we dispose their brain preserved behind glass in a museum instead of of the brains of deceased great people along with their bodies, left in the ground to rot and decompose. lowering them into the dirt to rot and be devoured by worms? For all who wish to be further convinced, I will point to Would it not be more proper for science to have rights over the care and attention paid to Mendeleev’s brain, which I dis- the brains of great individuals instead of coming up against sected and then preserved in the anatomical museum of the the indifference and antagonism of the loved ones standing at State Institute for Medical Science. The brain sits in a place of a deceased genius’s graveside, concerned first and foremost honor in a glass case with a corresponding placard; it is avail- with burial rites and not at all worried about saving the brain able for study to all interested parties. An enlarged portrait of the great man as a precious relic for science and posterity, of Mendeleev hangs next to his brain.

Museum I 218 as Common Task 219 On the Creation of a Pantheon Vladimir Bekhterev

The autopsy was performed via the dissection of the hir- without saying that the brains of great figures kept in this sute part of the head; the incisions made were invisible after museum and pantheon should be accessible to all interested they were stitched shut and in no way detracted from the parties, displayed in small glass cases with corresponding appearance of the head of the deceased—not to speak of scientific illustrations, photographs of the cultural figures, the rest of his body. We are talking about superstitions that their signatures, and short descriptions of the characteris- stand in the way of studying the brains of great people that tics of their brains and their biographies with lists of their we must inarguably battle in the name of science. If our laws, accomplishments. The All-Soviet pantheon will serve as both like the laws of most places, toss these superstitions out the a scientifically valuable institution for the advancement of window when it comes to forensic analysis in cases of poten- the study of genius and talent and also a center for education, tially violent deaths or deaths without known cause, calling especially if it becomes a lecture hall. for a compulsory legal autopsy in these cases, why couldn’t In order to create such an institution there needs to be we allow that the autopsy of a great artist, prominent scien- a decree regarding the creation of a committee that would tist, or a no less important political or cultural figure should have the right to prescribe and perform autopsies and pre- also be compulsory for the purposes of advancing science serve the brains of distinguished figures in the fields of poli- and culture? tics, science, art, and society from all over the USSR, with the If this legal basis existed, I can only dream of the valu- aim of eventually creating a science museum and archive of able materials that would enter the collection of the museum the brains of these individuals. of the comparative anatomy of the nervous system, the only The initiative to create this committee, which should museum of its kind, at the State Reflexological Institute for include neurologists from all major Soviet cities, should the Study of the Brain in Leningrad. I can envision the great be led by the State Reflexology Institute for the Study of contributions to science made possible only by the study the Brain, which I am the director of, because this insti- of these brains by the right specialists. A true pantheon tute has all of the necessary conditions for the creation of could even be created, its scope covering the entire USSR. a pantheon. This pantheon would not bear any resemblance to the Paris It would be so fantastic if, by the tenth anniversary Pantheon, which merely contains the decomposed remains of the great October Revolution, this question could be of a handful of great people and has no scientific value. resolved and with this, the foundations for the future All- The pantheon that could be created in Soviet Russia Soviet pantheon could be laid. In our turbulent age of furi- would be a highly useful resource for scientific institutions ous labor directed toward building the USSR, people burn and also for cultural organizations; it would be open to all out quickly. Almost every month brings news of the death of interested parties. Our pantheon would be the collection of one or another prominent cultural figure, the decomposing the preserved brains of talented individuals from all fields, remains of whom are buried in the dirt. The time has come and would contain propaganda for a materialistic perspec- to say to everyone who is close to such individuals, “Let go tive on the development of creative undertaking. It goes of your silly superstitions about dissecting human corpses.”

Museum I 220 as Common Task 221 On the Creation of a Pantheon

We must tell everyone who stands at the graveside of talented figures that they should be aware that they are com- Materials on the mitting crimes against science and society when they allow Institute of Biography an acknowledged talent’s creative brain to be tossed into a grave, to be devoured by worms and putrefactive bacteria.

Nikolai Rybnikov

I 222 Materials on the Institute of Biography Nikolai Rybnikov

First published in 1920 that the first attempt at a scientific approach to biographi- “An Example of An Autobiography” first published in 1930 cal material was made. The new biographical method of Translated by Anastasia Skoybedo studying spiritual life is taking shape. For a psychologist, the systematic study of a large number of biographies will Biography, as one form of universal, human literature, was first of all help to understand the human individual as a relatively widespread among ancient peoples. Thus, Egyptian whole, because experimental study generally deals with tomb inscriptions are biographical in nature, listing accom- one separate side of a given individual. Still, based on those plishments of the deceased, his honors and awards, pha- fragmentary data which experimental psychology receives raoh’s favors, kind deeds, and good qualities. Classical by studying various sides of the psyche, it is powerless to antiquity, in turn, produced a whole slew of distinguished re-create the individual, because in the spiritual world, the biographers, such as Tacitus and Plutarch. The Middle Ages whole is not equal to the sum of its parts. “The aroma of indi- are particularly rich in biographies of various saints; these viduality” is lost during this artificial consolidation into one lives of saints were very popular reading in ancient Russia. whole of something that needs to be examined in a particu- Lives of saints gave way to biographies in the common sense lar context, against the backdrop of the integral experience of the word as one of the most important and engaging forms of a person as a whole. Furthermore, experienced study of of historic narrative. Choosing as its object a life that has a person deals with only one side of a given person, in his some common interest, biography describes this life, more so-called “dynamic state.” Biographical material gives us an or less satisfying the demands of historical science. opportunity to examine this person in his final, completed In this way, as far as form is concerned, a biography state, in his “static” state. begins to be subjected to demands presented by scientific methods. It is no longer confined to the simple enumeration * * of facts from the life of the person being described; it must * create a whole image of a given person, of his inner and spiritual sides. Since biography deals with human individuals, If the study of biography is of such essential importance, it can be of scientific interest and, from the point of view of then this study must be given an organized systematic char- content, can become an object of study for sciences that are acter. There needs to be an organization which would assume studying this individual. control as a collector, a systematician of biographical mate- It is true that a scientific approach to biography is only rial on a large scale. This type of organization is envisioned beginning to appear; there are initial, timid attempts to as a special Biographical Institute which will have to assume have a human life as an object of study. The complexity two important functions—firstly, the systematic, compre- and multifaceted nature of the object and his inner spiri- hensive scientific study of human biographies. In conjunc- tual side are frightening. It is from the area of psychology, tion, the institute must set a goal of preserving for future which already studies the spiritual world of an individual, generations the biographies of famous people from the past

Museum I 224 as Common Task 225 Materials on the Institute of Biography Nikolai Rybnikov and the present. To fulfill these two goals, the institute col- experience and knowledge of all people. In conjunction, lects various documents pertaining to the lives of figures in the institute must be an international registry office, where different fields (from the past as well as the present). These anyone who has distinguished himself in life in one way or documents could be biographies, autobiographies, diaries, another would be documented. The Biographical Institute, family archives, notes, memoirs, letters, obituaries, curricu- if it were successfully created, would be a worthy monument lum vitae, photographs, handwriting samples, phonograms, to eminent people of the past, to those who have made their creative objects, and so on. A comprehensive study of such “valiant, grateful journey.” Its creation would show that soci- materials will provide an opportunity to re-create the char- ety has begun to appreciate the realization of the necessity acter of people of the past, and preserve them for posterity. for a more careful, diligent attitude toward human individ- Most importantly, the scientific processing of a large amount uality, and would promote the idea that we are not people of collected biographical and autobiographical material of yesterday, that we have a past. The underestimation of would enrich a large number of disciplines, with very valu- this past, its influence on the present, is characteristic for able conclusions pertaining to human individuals. A disci- us Russians. “We are so positive,” wrote Pushkin, “that the pline that could benefit the most from such a type of study is past does not exist for us. We are on our knees before real the discipline that studies the spiritual world of a person, in chance, success, but not the charm of antiquity, gratefulness other words, psychology, both as a general field, and in the to the past, and respect for moral qualities in us.” The experi- numerous fields of special psychology: the study of charac- ence of our time compels us to diligently examine our past; ter, genetic psychology, ethnic psychology, applied psychol- we are only now beginning to discover our antiquity, our ogy, and the psychology of creativity, and so forth. Together Russian antiquity. That is why the past years are marked with with psychology, the study of a large number of people from a strong interest in memoirs, notes, chronicles, letters, etc., different periods, peoples, classes, positions can turn out to of any kind. All this abundant material can and must be stud- be of great value to history, economic science, pedagogy, the ied from the point of view of different disciplines, for which history of everyday life, culture, trade, technology, and the it can provide a lot of valuable observations, comparisons, history of sciences in general. In this field one could also find and so on. a considerable amount of instructive material for solving the Given that science is interested in the most typical things, problem of inheritance and genius in pathology. The work of it is no less important to bring to life and preserve the lives the institute could also be of practical importance: studying of common people, about whom, as Reskin remarks, “the lives of various figures in different fields can help to take their world has not thought and has not heard, but who are now life experience into account for future generations. The pres- performing most of its tasks and who could better teach us ervation of as large a number of biographies as possible will how to perform them.” aid in accumulating this life experience for the future. The In accordance with the aforementioned goals, the work institute should represent a graphic memory of humankind, of the institute should have a three-fold character: passing from generation to generation the accumulated life

Museum I 226 as Common Task 227 Materials on the Institute of Biography Nikolai Rybnikov

1. registrarial The psychological department will visually present the 2. scientific technology and methodology of the biographic study of spir- 3. educational and enlightening itual life (psychograms). The pedagogical department will visually present how The registration department keeps track of all those who familiar students of various countries are with the great people leave this world, and those who are just entering the field of of their motherland; it will also present the most important vision and who have distinguished themselves in some field. results of the study of childhood using the biographic method. The department creates a flexible biographic repertoire in The historical and literary department, and other depart- which every person is allotted a card, filled out according to ments in different fields that pertain in one way or another the model created by the institute. Much more detailed mate- to the study of human identity, will also visually present the rial is contained in the documentation repertoire, which col- most important results of studying biographies. lects various graphic expressions pertaining to the life and The institute must have its own library where, in a com- work of one or another person (newspaper clippings, speech prehensive and systematic way, the entirety of biographic stenographs, photographs, and so on). literature, both Russian and foreign, must be presented. The The scientific department of the institute has as its primary task of the institute should be recording and system- goal a systematic, comprehensive study of people’s biog- atizing all Russian biographical literature. As a result of work raphies from the point of view of disciplines that, in one in this direction, a systematic index of biographical literature way or another, pertain to human identity. The board of this should be published. In conjunction with this, the work on department should be composed of representatives from all collecting and studying “human documents” has begun. As these disciplines. this work progresses, the institute plans to publish its work The educational and enlightenment department has under the name The Library of the Biographical Institute.1 the goal of acquainting the masses with the most important results of the systematic study of biographies. This department organizes systematic lectures and exhibitions, and also An Example of an Autobiography2 a permanent museum which introduces in visual form the Nadezhina Anastasia main results and methods of this new field of encyclopedic knowledge. The museum must have the following depart- I remember myself from seven years old and find my child- ments: biographical and documentary, iconography, graph- hood not right. We lived in Poland, in Vilen district. Our ics, psychological, pedagogical, anthropological, historical and literary, and the department of heritage. 1. Please direct any questions or comments to the following The biographical and documentary department will pres- address: N. A. Rybnikov, 1 Meshchanskaya Ul, d.14, kv. 11, Moscow. 2. From Nikolai Rybnikov, Worker Autobiographies and Their Study ent the technology and methodology of collecting and stor- (Moscow: State Publishing House, 1930), 44–47. The orthography ing biographic material. and grammar of the original autobiography is preserved.

Museum I 228 as Common Task 229 Materials on the Institute of Biography Nikolai Rybnikov family was seven people: father, mother, and five children. it is very eerie in hut and it seems that bogeyman will climb I was eldest. Father was a worker for a landowner, made from behind a stove any minute. I imagined that he was five roubles a month. We had need in everything. I’ve had scary. From fright I hear noise, I am scared, I can’t stay in enough hunger and cold. I have not seen a child’s life. From hut, I’m afraid, I take the kids and go to the yard. It is cold smallest age I was oppressed by work. Dad and Mom left for there, it drizzles, it is dark. work, they left from five in morning and until evening. At We had a mound of earth behind house and under this this time I, left with four children, had to make some kind of mound there was pit, they took yellow sand from there for gruel, to feed children. At lunch I had to bring the small baby children, for their pies and pastries. This pit looked like a to the field, to Mother, for breast feeding. I take one child and cave, it was dry and warm there. I take children and put them all the rest run after me. The field is far, we are dead tired, all there and climb there myself. We settle, how warm were we, of us crying. I am crying because it is hard carry a child. The we snuggle, and we are warm. Mom return from work, finds rest are crying so that I carry them too. They sit and don’t go, us in yard, hungry and cold, and starts petting us and curse I start to hit them from anger, they cry even more. And then her fate and says, My dear children when will you grow up, I understand: let me carry them all a bit separately and they my God! Here God abandoned my mom, and hurt her. Two stop crying. I take one child, carry it a little, sit a little, then kids died, one after another. Mom is crying. The landowner’s other one. I take and carry them all one by one. When I carry wife comes and says: don’t cry, dear, that’s their fate. As long them all, I had positively no strength left. That’s how I lived as God gave them to live, they lived, and secondly, God, lov- my childhood. I remember, how not once and not twice, in ing you took the children to holy will. What will, when we fall, we fell asleep on the street, on pile of earth by our house, are barefoot, undressed, hungry and cold, and this will pun- waiting for mom to come home. Mom and dad came home ishes us. I was nine years old, dad was old, sick, and he did at dark. Our hut was big, wet, with low ceiling, with leak- not have any working power, he could not work. Landowner ing roof. When it rained, in our hut—wet, damp, puddles. ordered us to leave, since he takes up room for free—in his The hut was without floor, floor was from soil. Windows are spot there are enough healthy people. We had to leave. We small, it is dark in hut and eerie. And then they said that we left to the city. I started work at matchstick factory. Work have a bogeyman in our hut, and when mom and dad are not was hard: always in smoke, in dust and in heavy air, sulfur, there, he takes children and disappears with them. I never paraffin, and other compounds are all in my eyes, it was hard played with anything. I did not have time. I worked, and I to breathe: dust, windows and timber did not let me breathe, was really sorry for mom. I prayed to God, cried, and said, all these factory compounds lay on my child body; I worked Dear God! When you give us everything, when my mom not for six years and my wage was paid very low. To make 30 go to work, and stays with children! But God did not hear kopecks in a day you need to make 3,000 matchstick boxes, my prayer and did not see my tears. My works continued in they roped us into piecework so that each worker sat in his same way. I remember, it was fall and there was this drizzle, own spot without moving. And really we were as if chained mom was at work, picking potatoes in field, it became dark, to our table, without straightening our backs from morning

Museum I 230 as Common Task 231 Materials on the Institute of Biography to evening, without break. This was my childhood. Working at factory I get a lung disease and I quit. I started treatment, “THE REVOLUTION MEMORIAL got better and started work for upstairs, where I still saw no RESERVATION,” an excerpt from joy: during the day I made dinner, went to market, cleaned rooms, and in evening after supper, they made me wash or the novel Chevengur iron all night; I was the only servant, the family was twelve people, had to help all. I spent two years there and then got married. So, comrades, my wrong childhood served as proof to every peasant and worker. I will, in fact, prove to them in my proletariat language and hope that every worker, and pauper will understand me and will agree with me. In childhood I had lot of desire to learn, but I could not because of my hopeless state, then I very much envied bourgeois childhood and bourgies that they are so happy and live such good life, and our pauper worker died from cold and hunger, and work; worked day and night and died in work. Oh, comrades, what a wrong darkness it was! Our poor woker saw that his neighbor died suffering from such hardship. But, thank God, he died and will now rest in another world, they thought, that it is bad for pauper here, and the other world would be good. While for the rich it was good in this world and will be bad in another. Comrades, let’s not save kindness for other world, let us save it for everyone in this world. And I hope that life of pauper be better.

Andrey Platonov

I 232 THE REVOLUTION MEMORIAL RESERVATION Andrey Platonov

Written between 1926 and 1928 thinning it out. It seemed there was a manor house not far Although excerpts were printed in 1928 and 1929, the full novel from the road. was not published in Russian until 1988. At the end of the alley stood two low stone pillars. On one Translated by Robert and Elizabeth Chandler and hung a handwritten newspaper; on the other a tin signboard Olga Meerson with an inscription now half washed away by atmospheric precipitations: “Comrade Pashintsev’s Revolution Memorial The modest Great-Russian sky shone over the Soviet land Reservation in Honor of World Communism. Welcome to with as much habit and monotony as if the Soviets had Friends and Death to Enemies.” existed since time immemorial and the sky corresponded Some enemy hand had torn away half of the newspaper, to them perfectly. Within Dvanov there had already and what remained was repeatedly being bared by the wind. taken shape an immaculate conviction: that before the Dvanov caught hold of it and read it aloud and in full, so that Revolution, the sky and all other spaces had been differ- Kopyonkin could hear. ent, less dear. The newspaper was calledThe Good of the Poor, being like an end to the world lay a quiet, distant horizon the official organ of the Velikoye Mesto Village Soviet and where the sky touched the earth and man touched man. The the Executive District Revolutionary Committee for the mounted wanderers were riding into the remote depth of Maintenance of Security in the southeastern zone of the their motherland. Now and again the road wound round the Pososhansk Region. top of a ravine and an unhappy village could be seen in a far- All that remained in the newspaper was an article about the off hollow. Dvanov would feel pity for this unknown lonely “Tasks of the World Revolution” and half of a note that began, settlement and he would want to turn off toward it, so as to “Preserve Snow on Fields—Increase the Productivity of the start the happiness of mutual life there without delay, but Harvest of Labor.”1 Halfway through, the note lost track of its Kopyonkin would not agree to this. First of all, he would say, meaning: “Plough the Snow—and we shall have nothing to fear it was necessary to deal with Chornya Kalitva. After that, they from thousands of Kronstadts that have overshot the mark.” could return. What were these overshooting Kronstadts?2 All this trou- The day continued, dismal and unpeopled. The armed bled Dvanov and set him thinking. riders did not happen upon a single bandit. “They’re lying low!” exclaimed Kopyonkin—and felt 1. The first words of this exhortation are not as senseless as one inside him a heavy, oppressive force. “In the name of uni- might imagine. Rudimentary fences were, in fact often put up on fields so that the snow would drift against them instead of being blown versal security,” he went on, “we would have struck them away by the wind. This snow would then help to blanket winter crops hard. They’re hiding away in corners, the bastards, guz- against extremes of cold. —Trans. note zling beef.” 2. Kronstadt was an important Russian naval base near Petrograd. The sailors based there had long been firm supporters of the leading straight onto the road was an alley of birch Bolsheviks, but in March 1921 they rebelled. This rebellion was bru- trees. It had not yet been felled, but the peasants had been tally suppressed by the Red Army. —Trans. note

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“All writing is for the sake of fear, for oppression of the Etched into one of the columns was a white engraving— masses,” said Kopyonkin, not bothering with details. “The the name of the landowner, who was also the building’s archi- letters of the alphabet were also invented for the complica- tect, and his face in profile. Below the engraving, in relief, was tion of life. The literate man practices witchcraft with his a verse in Latin: mind, and then the man without letters works for him with his hands.” The universe is a running woman. Dvanov smiled. “Nonsense, comrade Kopyonkin. The Her legs make the Earth turn; Revolution is the ABC for the people.” Her body trembles in the ether; “Don’t misform me, comrade Dvanov. With us every- In her eyes are the beginnings of stars. thing is decided by the majority. And, since nearly everyone is illiterate, the day will come for the illiterate to decree that Dvanov sighed sadly amid the silence of feudalism and the literate should unlearn their letters—in the name of uni- examined the colonnade once again: six shapely legs of three versal equality. All the more so since getting a few people chaste women. Peace and hope entered into him, as they to unlearn their letters will be light work, a lot easier than always did at the sight of art, that distant necessity. teaching everybody from the very beginning. That would be His only regret was that these legs, so full of the tension the devil’s own job. You’ll teach, teach teach—and it will all of youth, were not a part of his life, but it was good that the be forgotten.” young woman carried by these legs had turned her life into “Let’s go and visit comrade Pashintsev,” said Dvanov charm, not into reproduction. She had been nourished by after some thought. “I have to send a written report to the life, but life for her had been only a raw material, not mean- provincial committee. I’ve been a long time now with no idea ing, and this raw material had been refashioned into some what’s going on there.” other thing, where what was living and without form was “The Revolution’s going on its way. What more’s there turned into something beautiful and without feeling. to know?” Kopyonkin also grew more serious before the columns; They rode for about a mile along the alley. Then, on a high he respected magnificence if it was beautiful and made no point, they caught sight of a solemn white manor house, now sense. If there was meaning and purpose in something mag- so deserted as to seem homeless. The columns before the nificent—as, for example, in a large machine—Kopyonkin main building, in the living form of precise women’s legs, saw it as an instrument for oppression of the masses and gravely supported a cross-beam on which rested only the sky. despised it with cruelty of soul. Standing before what was The building itself stood several yards back from this colon- senseless, like this colonnade, he felt pity for himself and nade, from these giants bowed down in motionless labour. hatred for tsarism. Kopyonkin considered it the fault of tsa- Kopyonkin did not understand the meaning of the isolated rism that he was not excited by these immense women’s legs, colonnade and saw it as a remnant of revolutionary account- and, but for Dvanov’s sad face, he would not have known that ing with private property. he too should be feeling sadness.

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“If only,” said Dvanov, “if only we too could build some- stamped up and down there, tormenting the ground into thing universal and remarkable, putting the everyday to nakedness. one side.” “Who can it be?” Kopyonkin asked in astonishment. “A “You won’t build anything like that in a day,” doubted wild and fierce man, no doubt about it. Any minute now he’ll Kopyonkin. “Until now the bourgeoisie was blocking off the attack us—be prepared, comrade Dvanov!” whole world from us. Soon we’ll be putting up pillars that are Somehow Kopyonkin now felt more cheerful. He felt still taller and more excellent, not shameful legs.” the same agitated delight that children know at night in a To the left, like graves in a country churchyard, lay the forest; their terror goes halves with a curiosity that is being remains of outbuildings and small houses. The columns were answered. standing guard over an empty, buried world. Noble, orna- “Comrade Pashintsev!” shouted Dvanov. “Anyone here?” mental trees held up their fine torsos over this level ruin. No one. And the grass, in the absence of wind, was silent. “But we’ll do better still,” said Dvanov, “and across the The day was fading. entire territory of the world, not only in nooks and cran- “Comrade Pashintsev!” nies.” Dvanov gestured at all and everything, but from the “Huh!” came a vast and distant sound, echoing from the depth inside him he heard “Watch out!” Something incor- earth’s damp entrails. ruptible, something that did not spare itself, was warning “Come out here, hermit fellow!” Kopyonkin commanded him from within. loudly. “Of course, we’ll build,” Kopyonkin confirmed out of his “Huh!” came the somber, resonant response from the own inspired hope. “That’s a slogan and fact on the ground. womb of the basement. Our cause is inexhaustible.” But there was no hint in this sound of either fear or any Kopyonkin then happened on some footprints, left by wish to come out. It sounded as if the respondent was lying huge human feet, and set his horse to follow them. on his back. “What on Earth has the inhabitant of this place got on Kopyonkin and Dvanov waited, then felt angered. his feet?” Kopyonkin kept wondering with surprise. And he “We’re telling you to come out here!” Kopyonkin called bared his saber: what if some giant guardian of the old order noisily. were to appear? The old landowners, after all, had had some “I don’t feel like it,” the unknown man replied slowly. “Go well-nourished stooges who could, without warning, give you to the central building. You’ll find there’s bread and moon- a clout that would snap your tendons. shine in the kitchen.” Kopyonkin was fond of tendons; he saw them as power Kopyonkin dismounted and struck the door loudly with cables and was afraid of tearing them. his saber. The horsemen rode up to a massive eternal door that led “Come out—or I’ll be throwing a grenade!” to the half-basement of the destroyed building. The inhu- The man said nothing, perhaps waiting with interest for man tracks went that way; it was apparent that the idol had the grenades and what would follow. But then he said, “Come

Museum I 238 as Common Task 239 THE REVOLUTION MEMORIAL RESERVATION Andrey Platonov on, you bastard—get on with it! I’ve got a whole store of them immediate understanding, but here before him a man had here already. The detonation will send you flying back up into appeared in full while preserving all of his mystery. your mother!” Through the gaping door stepped a short man, all And again he fell silent. Kopyonkin had no grenade. encased in a cuirass and an entire suit of armor, with a helmet “Get on with it, reptile!” the unknown man demanded and a heavy sword, wearing powerful metal boots and with from his own depths, with peace in his voice. “Let me check gaiters—each made of three connected bronze pipes—that my artillery. My bombs must have got damp and rusty. No crushed the grass to death. way will they explode, the devils.” The man’s face, and especially his chin and brow, was “So-o!” Kopyonkin uttered strangely. “Well, come out defended by the flaps of the helmet, while on top of every- then and receive a missive from comrade Trotsky.” thing lay a lowered visor. All this defended the knight against The man said nothing. He thought for a moment. any blows from an opponent. “How can he be a comrade to me if he takes command But the man himself was short and not especially over everyone? Commanders of the Revolution are no com- terrifying. rades of mine. Why not just throw your bomb? That’ll be “Where’s your grenade?” the apparition asked in a thin interesting!” hoarse voice. Only from a distance, reflected by things of Kopyonkin kicked free a brick that had sunk into the metal and in the emptiness of his dwelling, had his voice pos- earth, then hurled it against the door. The door let out an sessed resonance; left to itself, the sound was pitiful. iron howl and returned to its rest. “You swine!” exclaimed Kopyonkin, without anger but “The dumb blockhead!” determined Kopyonkin. “It’s a also without respect, watching the knight with interest. dud. The substance in it must have gone numb.” Dvanov laughed openly. He had understood at once “Mine are mute too,” gravely replied the unknown man. whose oversize outfit this man had appropriated for him- “You did pull the pin, did you? What make is it? Let me come self. But what made him laugh was the sight of a Red Army and look.” star, bolted onto the ancient helmet and secured with Then came a rhythmic sound of swaying metal; someone a nut. truly was approaching with an iron tread. Kopyonkin waited “So what’s making you scum so happy?” the knight with his saber sheathed, curiosity in him overcoming pru- asked coolly, still looking for the defective grenade. The dence. Dvanov remained on horseback. knight was unable to bend down. Constantly struggling By now the unknown man was rumbling close by, but he with the weight of his coat of mail, he could only part the did not speed up his gradual step, only with difficulty over- grass feebly with his sword. coming the weight of his own powers. “Don’t go looking for trouble, pest!” Kopyonkin said The door opened swiftly; it was not bolted. with seriousness, returning to his more standard feelings. Kopyonkin was silenced by the spectacle he saw. He “Show us where we can lie down for the night. Have you got took two steps back. He had been expecting horror or an some hay?”

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The knight’s dwelling was the half-basement of one of the “But anyway, just who are you?” Kopyonkin inquired manor’s outbuildings. There he had one large room, lit by the with irritated interest. half-black light of an oil lamp. In a far corner lay a mountain “A personal human being,” Pashintsev informed of armor and cold steel; in another, more central spot stood Kopyonkin. “I passed myself a resolution stating that every- a pyramid of hand grenades. There was also a table in the thing we once had here came to an end in 1919. Yet again it room, with a stool beside it. On the table stood a bottle of was armies, authorities, laws of all kinds. And as for the peo- some unknown liquid, or maybe poison. Glued to the bottle ple, it was ‘Fall into rank and obey! Starting next Monday!’ by means of moistened bread was a paper on which was writ- Well I say, to hell with all this.” ten, in indelible ink: Pashintsev concisely formulated the entire current moment with a single gesture. DEATH TO THE BOURGEOISIE! Dvanov stopped thinking and listened slowly to the man reasoning aloud. “Free me for the night!” asked the knight. “Do you remember 1918 and 1919?” Pashintsev asked Kopyonkin spent a long time unharnessing him from with tears of joy. Those days now lost forever called up fero- his immortal garb, giving much thought to its cleverest cious memories in him: in mid-story he was hammering his bits. Finally the knight fell apart and from the bronze husk fist against the table and threatening the entire milieu of his appeared an ordinary comrade Pashintsev—a brownish fel- basement. “Now nothing’s ever going to happening again,” low about thirty-seven years of age, lacking one intransigent Pashintsev said with hatred, wanting to convince Kopyonkin, eye, while the other remained still more attentive. who was blinking. “We’ve come to the end of everything. Law “Let’s all have a glass!” said Pashintsev. has got going again. Difference has come between people. It’s But vodka, even in the old days, had had no effect on as if some devil has been weighing man on scales. Take me, Kopyonkin. He chose consciously not to drink it, consider- for example—can you ever know just what breathes here?” ing it purposeless for one’s feelings. Pashintsev rapped himself on his low skull, where the brain Dvanov too did not understand drinking, and so must be compressed to make room for mind. “Yes, brother, Pashintsev drank alone. He took the bottle with the inscrip- there is room here for spaces of every kind. And so it is with tion “DEATH TO THE BOURGEOISIE!” and poured directly everyone else too. And people want to reign over me. Well, into his throat. what do you think? Is that a swindle or not?” “Vicious stuff!” he said, emptying the bottle. And he sat “It’s a swindle,” Kopyonkin agreed, with simplicity of soul. down, a benign look on his face. “So here we are,” Pashintsev concluded with satisfaction. “Good?” asked Kopyonkin. “And now I burn separately, away from the general bonfire.” “Beetroot liqueur,” Pashintsev explained. “There’s an Sensing that Kopyonkin was as much an orphan of the unmarried girl who makes it with her own clean hands. An terrestrial globe as he himself, Pashintsev begged him with immaculate drink, fragrant, a real dear.” heartfelt words to remain forever.

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“What more do you want?” said Pashintsev, forgetting “Read, read away,” Pashintsev encouraged him. “There himself in his joy at sensing a friendly human being. “Live are times you don’t say a word. You don’t say a word for so here. Eat and drink—I’ve marinated five barrels of apples long you can’t bear it. Then you start talking on the wall. and dried two sacks of tobacco. We’ll live among the trees as If I go a long time without seeing anyone, my mind goes friends, we’ll sing songs on the grass. People come to me in all cloudy.” their thousands—here in my commune every beggar rejoices. Dvanov read the verses on the wall: Where else can they find easy shelter? In the village the Soviets keep them under observation, the commissars are like watch- No bourgeoisie—but labor’s back again. dogs, the requisitioning committee searches even their bellies The yoke of labor bows the peasant’s neck. for grain—but officialdom daren’t show its face here.” Believe me, plodding peasant laborer— “They’re afraid of you,” deduced Kopyonkin. “You go Flowers in the fields have fatter lives than you. about all covered in iron. You sleep on a bomb.” Let all the soil now bear self-seeded fruit “They certainly are afraid,” Pashintsev agreed. “They While you yourself live full and merrily. made out like they wanted to be neighborly, to do an inven- Remember you have one, not twenty, lives tory of the domain, but I appeared before the commissar in To live—and so, with all our holy commune, full harness and brandished one of my bombs: Long live the Take hold of other strong and honest hands commune! And then there was the time they came round to And sing both loud and clear, so all can hear: requisition grain. I say to their commissar: ‘You can eat here Enough of poverty, enough of sorrow! and drink here, you son of a bitch—but if you take anything Time now to live and feast, to feast and live! more than you should, there’ll be nothing left of you but a Enough of poor and plodding earthly labor! nasty stink.’ The commissar drank a cup of moonshine and The Earth herself will feed us now for free! rode off: ‘Thank you, comrade Pashintsev!’ I gave him a handful of sunflower seeds and a prod in the back with that there Someone knocked on the door with an even, proprietorial iron poker and sent him on his way back to official regions.” knock. “And now?” asked Kopyonkin. “Huh?” answered Pashintsev. Having given out all the “Nothing. I live entirely without leadership—and the fumes of his moonshine, he had fallen silent. result is excellent. I declared this a Revolution Memorial “Maxim Stepanych!” came a voice from outside. “I need Reservation so the authorities wouldn’t disapprove, and I pre- a pole to make into a shaft. Let me look for one in the wood. serve the Revolution in its most intact and heroic category.” Otherwise I’ll be stuck here all winter—the old shaft snapped Dvanov glimpsed some charcoal inscription on the wall, when I was halfway back home.” traced by a trembling hand unused to writing. Holding “Out of the question,” retorted Pashintsev. “How long up an oil lamp, he read the wall annals of the Revolution must I go on teaching you? I’ve posted a decree on the barn Memorial Reservation. wall: the Earth is self-made and therefore belongs to no one.

Museum I 244 as Common Task 245 THE REVOLUTION MEMORIAL RESERVATION Andrey Platonov

If you’d taken without asking, then I’d have gladly allowed out of the white columns. It’s bound to come in handy one you.” way or another. ” Almost hoarse with joy, the man outside said, “Well then, “All right,” said the now-satisfied petitioner. “We can thank you! I won’t touch the pole now I’ve gone and asked tow it back with us easily enough. Then we can hew tiles for it. I’ll give myself something else as a gift.” from it.” Pashintsev said freely, “Never ask—that’s the psychology The petitioner went off to do a preliminary inspection— of slaves. Just give yourself gifts. You were born for free. It so as to make light work of carrying off the leg. wasn’t your own strength that gave birth to you—so live life As night began, Dvanov suggested to Pashintsev that, without keeping accounts!” instead of carting the whole estate to the village, he should “Certainly, Maxim Stepanych!” confirmed the petitioner move the village to the estate. outside the door, with absolute seriousness. “What you seize “It would be less labor,” said Dvanov. “And the estate is without license is what keeps you alive. If it weren’t for the high up—the land’s more productive.” estate, half our village would be dead by now. This is the fifth Pashintsev could not agree to this: “Come spring, the year we’ve been carting off goods—the Bolsheviks are fair tramps and vagabonds from all over the province gather and just! Thank you, Maxim Stepanych!” here. The very purest proletariat. Where would they all go? This angered Pashintsev: “There you go again—Thank No, I will not accept kulak domination here.” you! Don’t you go taking anything from here, you grey Dvanov saw that the peasants and the vagabonds would, devil!” indeed, not get on together. But rich earth was being wasted. “What’s got into you, Maxim Stepanych? Why did I shed The inhabitants of the Revolution Memorial Reservation blood for three years, in combat on the front line? My mate were not sowing anything themselves but just living off and I came with a cart and two horses to pick up an iron tub— the remains of an orchard and whatever was self-seeded by and now you forbid it!” nature; their cabbage soup, no doubt, was made from nettles “O fatherland, fatherland!” Pashintsev said to himself and goosefoot. and to Kopyonkin. Then he addressed the door again: “But “I know,” said Dvanov, hitting the nail on the head, to his didn’t you say you were after a shaft? And now you tell me own surprise. “You must swap the estate for the village. Give what you want is a tub!” the estate to the peasants and set up your memorial reser- The petitioner showed no surprise: “Who cares? As long vation in the village. It’ll make no difference to you—what’s as I take something! Sometimes all I take is a chicken—and important is not the place but the people. As it is, everyone’s then I see an iron axle lying about on the road. I can’t carry languishing in the gully—while you live alone on your hill.” it on my own, so the lazy bugger just goes on lying there. No Pashintsev looked at Dvanov with happy astonishment. wonder things are so out of hand everywhere.” “That’s brilliant! I’ll do just that. Tomorrow I’ll go and “If you’ve come with a cart and two horses,” Pashintsev mobilize the peasants.” said in conclusion, “then take a woman’s leg with you, from “Will they come?” asked Kopyonkin.

Museum I 246 as Common Task 247 THE REVOLUTION MEMORIAL RESERVATION

“They’ll all be here within a day and a night,” Pashintsev exclaimed with fierce conviction, his whole body stirred by The Astronomical Observatory impatience. “No,” he continued, with a change of mind. “I’ll at the Perm Regional Museum go to the village right now!”

V. I. Karmilov

I 248 The Astronomical Observatory V. I. Karmilov

First published in 1935 The deck is open on clear nights during the warm months Translated by Serge Levchin and staffed by our researchers and students from the local teachers college. Museums should deservedly play a significant role in Visitors are first brought into the auditorium, where with shaping the scientific worldview of the new man. The the aid of a slide projector they are familiarized with the sci- achievements of museums in explicating the history of the entific theory of the formation of the solar system. Emphasis development of our planet, as well as of our society, are well is put on the discrepancies between the scientific and reli- known. Yet there is one subject where the museum’s prin- gious explanations; numerous instances of religious attacks cipal explicatory tool—visual evidence—remains limited on science are rehearsed; the antisocial nature of all reli- to drawings and diagrams: the origin and formation of the gious beliefs is demonstrated, and their origins are revealed. solar system. At the same time, whoever has passed through Particular attention is paid to celestial bodies that are most an exhibition on the history of Earth’s development and readily observable that night (the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn). familiarized himself or herself with its scientific facts will This is the preliminary stage of our tour. Visitors are then naturally want to know: Where did the Earth come from? invited to go out onto the deck to view those celestial bodies What are the size, makeup, and environmental conditions that are especially well positioned for observation. of the Sun, the Moon, and the stars? In answering these fun- Cylinder attendants (principally students) explain to damental questions, the museum is obliged to shift from its the visitors what they are seeing. The more complex ques- standard of “object-based” evidence and content itself with tions arising from these observations are resolved back in illustrations (topographical maps, the nebular hypothesis the auditorium by the director of the facility. of Kant-Laplace, and so forth). In twenty-eight working evenings the deck was attended One way for museums to strengthen the role of direct by a total of 1,088 visitors. So much for the operational observation in this field is by building their own astronomi- aspect of the astronomical deck. cal deck. In this brief note we would like to share our experi- We are aware of similar astronomical decks that have ences in organizing and operating such a facility at the Perm recently opened at the Sverdlovsk Museum and in Solikamsk. Regional Museum. Supposing that the trend may well extend to other museums The astronomical deck at the Perm Museum dates back across the Soviet Union, we have compiled a list of instru- to 1923. Its initial setup in the converted bell tower of a ments and visual aids requisite for a deck’s operations: defunct church required only minimal effort. We simply put down sturdy flooring and fencing, ran electrical cables, 1. Astronomical cylinder. This can be found in any and turned one of the landings into an auditorium capable school that is well supplied with scientific instru- of accommodating up to forty people. Two student-grade ments. However, we must advocate for the speedy astronomical cylinders [telescopes] were used for observing production of low-magnification astronomical cylin- the night sky. ders by domestic optics manufacturers.

Museum I 250 as Common Task 251 The Astronomical Deck

2. Projection lantern [projector] with a selection of astronomical transparencies (obtainable from the II Diafoto Factory, Moscow, 40 Kalyaevskaya Street).

3. Celestial globe.

4. Drawings and diagrams (sufficiently large for group viewing), depicting: (a) The relative sizes of the Sun and the planets. (b) The Copernican system. (c) Earth’s movement around the Sun and the seasons. (d) Phases of the Moon. (e) Lunar and solar eclipses. (f) How distances to celestial bodies are calculated (parallax shift). (g) The lunar surface. (h) The solar surface (sunspots, flares, protuberances). (i) The surface of Mars. (j) A map of the night sky (focusing on the Milky Way, nebulae, and star clusters). (k) Spiral nebulae. (l) The Kant-Laplace hypothesis. (m) Planet The Museum formation according to Jeans. (n) The Milky Way. of Avant-Gardism It is highly desirable to have an exhibition of popular books on various aspects of astronomy.

I 252 The Museum of Art, an excerpt from the novel Red Star

Aleksandr Bogdanov The Museum of Art Aleksandr Bogdanov

First published in 1908 century. Throughout, one could sense the presence of that Translated by Charles Rougle living inner wholeness that people call “genius.” Obviously, these were the best works from all periods. “I must say I never even imagined that you might have spe- In order fully to understand the beauty of another cial museums for works of art,” I said to Enno on our way to world, one must be intimately acquainted with life there, the museum. “I thought that sculpture and picture galler- and in order to convey an idea of that beauty to others one ies were peculiar to capitalism, with its ostentatious luxury must be an organic part of that life. For that reason I cannot and crass ambition to hoard treasures. I assumed that in a possibly describe what I saw, but will limit myself to hints socialist order art would be found disseminated throughout and fragmentary references to that which impressed me society so as to enrich life everywhere.” most strongly. “Quite correct,” replied Enno. “Most of our works of art The basic motif of sculpture on both Earth and Mars are intended for the public buildings in which we decide mat- is the marvelous human body. Most of the physical differ- ters of common interest, study and do research, and spend ences between us and them are not very great. If we disre- our leisure time. We adorn our factories and plants much gard the considerable differences in the size of their eyes, less often. Powerful machines and their precise movements and thus also to an extent the shape of their skulls, these are aesthetically pleasing to us in and of themselves, and distinctions are not greater than those between the various there are very few works of art which would fully harmonize races on Earth. I am not well versed in anatomy and cannot with them without somehow weakening or dissipating their give any accurate explanation of the divergencies, but I will impact. Least decorated of all are our homes, in which most note that my eye easily became accustomed to them and of us spend very little time. As for our art museums, they are that they struck me almost immediately as original rather scientific research institutes, schools at which we study the than ugly. development of art or, more precisely, the development of I noticed that men and women are more alike in build mankind through artistic activity.” than is the case among most races on Earth. The women The museum was located on a little island, in the middle have relatively broad shoulders, while the narrow pelvis of a lake, connected to the shore by a narrow bridge. The and a certain tendency to plumpness in the men make their building itself, a rectangular structure surrounded by a gar- muscles less prominent and tend to neutralize the physical den full of fountains and beds of blue, white, black, and green differences between the sexes. This, however, is mainly true flowers, was lavishly adorned outside and flooded with light of the most recent epoch, the era of free human evolution, inside. It contained none of that jumbled accumulation of for in the statues dating from as late as the capitalist period, statues and paintings that clutters the major museums of the distinctions are much more obvious. It is evidently the Earth. Several hundred pictures depicted the evolution of the enslavement of women in the home and the feverish struggle plastic arts from the first primitive works of the prehistori- for survival on the part of the men which ultimately account cal period to the technically perfect creations of the previous for the physical discrepancies between them.

the Museum II 256 of Avant-Gardism 257 The Museum of Art Aleksandr Bogdanov

I was constantly conscious—now clearly, now more beauty of the Middle Ages and Renaissance reflected the vaguely—that I was contemplating forms from an alien unquenchable thirst for mystical or romantic love, then the world, and this awareness somehow rendered my impres- ideal of this other world in advance of our own was Love sions strange and almost unreal. Even the beautiful female incarnate—pure, radiant, all—triumphant Love, serenely bodies depicted by the statues and paintings evoked in me and proudly aware of itself. Like the most ancient Martian an obscure sensation that was quite unlike the admiring aes- works of art, the most modern ones were characterized by thetic attraction I was accustomed to feeling. It resembled extreme simplicity and thematic unity. Their heroes were instead the vague premonitions that troubled me long ago complex human beings with a rich and harmonious variety as I crossed the border between childhood and adolescence. of experiences. The works chose to portray those moments of The statues from the early periods were of a single color, as the subject’s existence when all of life was concentrated in a on Earth, whereas the later ones were natural. This did not single emotion or aspiration. Favorite contemporary themes surprise me. I have always thought that deviations from real- included the ecstasy of creative thought, the ecstasy of love, ity cannot be a necessary element of art; they are even anti- and ecstatic delight in nature. Such themes provided a pro- aesthetic when they impoverish the viewer’s reception of the found insight into the soul of a great people who had learned work. This is the case with uniformly colored sculpture, as the to live life in its fullness and intensity and to accept death concentrated idealization that constitutes the essence of art consciously and with dignity. is lessened rather than heightened by such a lack of realism. The painting and sculpture section took up half the Like our antique sculpture, the statues and pictures of the museum, while the other half was devoted entirely to archi- ancient periods were infused with a majestic tranquility, a tecture. By architecture the Martians mean not only buildings serene harmony, an absence of tension. In the intermediate, and great works of engineering but also the artistic designing transitional epochs, elements of a different order begin to of furniture, tools, machines, and all other useful objects and appear: impulses, passions, an agitated drive which is some- materials. The immense significance of this art in their lives times mellowed in the form of erotic or religious fantasies but may be judged by the particular care and thoroughness with which sometimes bursts forth under the pressure of the enor- which this collection was arranged. In the form of pictures, mous strain generated by an imbalance between spiritual drawings, models, and especially stereograms viewed in large and corporeal forces. In the socialist epoch the fundamental steroscopes which reproduced reality in the smallest detail, nature of art changed once again into harmonious move- the exhibition contained examples of all representative types ment, a tranquil and confident manifestation of strength, of architecture, from the most primitive cave dwellings, with action free from morbid exertion, aspiration free from agita- their crudely embellished utensils, to luxurious apartment tion, vigorous activity imbued with an awareness of its well- buildings, decorated within by the best artists, to giant fac- proportioned unity and invincible rationality. tories, with their awesomely beautiful machines, to great If the ideal of feminine beauty expressed the infinite canals, with their granite embankments and suspension potential of love in the ancient art of Earth, and if the ideal bridges. A special section was devoted to the landscaping of

the Museum II 258 of Avant-Gardism 259 The Museum of Art Aleksandr Bogdanov gardens, fields, and parks. Although I was unaccustomed to I could not fully appreciate the inherent beauty of the vegetation of the planet, I was often pleased by the com- poetry in a language that was still foreign to me, but the binations of colors and forms that had been created by the idea in Enno’s verses was lucid, the rhythm was flowing, collective genius of this large-eyed human race. and the rhyme rich and sonorous. This suggested a new train As on Earth, in the works of earlier periods elegance was of thought. often achieved at the expense of comfort, and embellish- “Ah,” I said, “so your poetry still uses strict meter and ments impaired durability and interfered with the utility of rhyme?” objects. I detected nothing of the sort in the art of the con- “Of course,” said Enno, slightly surprised. “Do you mean temporary period, either in the furniture, the implements, that you find it ugly?” or the buildings and other structures. I asked Enno whether “Not at all,” I explained. “It’s just that it is commonly modem architecture permitted deviations from functional thought among us that such form was generated by the perfection for the sake of beauty. tastes of the ruling classes of our society, and that it reflects “Never,” he replied. “That would be false beauty, artificial- their fastidiousness and predilection for conventions ity rather than art.” which restrict the freedom of artistic expression. Whence In presocialist times the Martians erected monuments the conclusion that the poetry of the future, the poetry to their great people. Now they dedicate them only to impor- of the socialist epoch, should abandon and forget such tant events, such as the first attempt to reach Earth—which inhibiting rules. “ ended in the death of the explorers—the eradication of a fatal “Nothing could be further from the truth,” Enno retorted epidemic, or the discovery of the process of decomposing vigorously. “Regular rhythmicality seems beautiful to us not and synthesizing chemical elements. There were also monu- at all because of any liking for conventions, but because it is ments on stereograms in the section devoted to graves and in profound harmony with the rhythmical regularity of our temples (in the past the Martians had also had religion). processes of life and thought. As for rhyme, which resolves One of the most recent works in commemoration of a great a series of dissimilarities in uniform final chords, it is inti- individual was dedicated to the engineer Menni had told mately related to that vital bond between people which me about. The artist had succeeded in capturing the spiri- crowns their inherent diversity with the unity of the delights tual power of a man who had led an army of labor to victory of love, the unity that comes from a rational goal in work, and over nature and proudly repudiated the cowardly judgment the unity of feeling in a work of art. Without rhythm there is morality had passed on his actions. When I paused in invol- no artistic form at all. If there is no rhythm of sounds, it is all untary reflection before this panoramic monument, Enno the more essential that there be a rhythm of images or ideas. quietly recited some verses which expressed the essence of And if rhyme really is of feudal provenance, then the same the spiritual tragedy of the hero. may be said of many other good and beautiful things.” “Who wrote that?” I asked. “But does not rhyme in fact restrict and obstruct the “I did,” replied Enno. “I wrote it for Menni.” expression of the poetic idea?”

the Museum II 260 of Avant-Gardism 261 The Museum of Art Aleksandr Bogdanov

“Well, what if it does? Such constraints, after all, arise alternative of shortening the life span of present and com- from the goal which the artist has freely chosen to set him- ing generations, but at this very moment the struggle has self. They not only obstruct but also perfect the expression of become particularly acute.” the poetic idea, and that is their only raison d’être. The more “I could never have imagined that such dangers were pos- complicated the goal, the more difficult the path leading to sible, given the power of your technology and science. You it, and, consequently, the more obstacles there are on the said that such things have already happened?” path. If you want to build a beautiful building, just think how “Only seventy years ago, when our coal reserves were many rules of technology and harmony are going to deter- exhausted and the transition to hydroelectric power was still mine, that is, ‘restrict’ your world. You are free to choose far from complete, we were forced to destroy a considerable your goal, and that is the one and only human freedom. portion of our beloved forests in order to give us time to rede- Once you have chosen it, however, you have also selected sign our machines. This disfigured the planet and worsened the means to attain it.” our climate for decades. Then, when we had recovered from We went out into the garden to rest for a moment after all that crisis, about twenty years ago it was discovered that our the new impressions of the day. It was evening already, a clear deposits of iron ore were nearly depleted. Intense research was and mild spring evening. The flowers were beginning to furl begun on hard aluminum alloys, and a huge portion of our up their blossoms and leaves for the night. All the plants on available technical resources was diverted to obtaining alumi- Mars share this feature, for it becomes very cold there after num from the soil. Now our statisticians reckon that unless sunset. I resumed our conversation. we succeed in developing synthetic proteins from inorganic “Tell me, what sort of literature is most popular here?” matter, in thirty years we will be faced with a food shortage.” “The drama, especially tragedy, and nature poetry,” “What of other planets?” I objected. “Surely you can find replied Enno. something there to replenish the shortage. “ “What are the themes of your tragedy? Where in your “Where? Venus is obviously still inaccessible. Earth? happy, peaceful existence is there any material for it?” Earth is inhabited, and it is otherwise uncertain how much “Happy? Peaceful? Where did you get that impression? we would be able to exploit her resources. Each trip there True, peace reigns among men, but there cannot be peace requires enormous energy, and according to what Menni told with the natural elements. Even a victory over such a foe me recently about his latest research project, the Martian can pose a new threat. During the most recent period of our reserves of the radioactive substances necessary for such history we have intensified the exploitation of the planet voyages are very modest. No, there are considerable difficul- tenfold, our population is growing, and our needs are ties everywhere, and the tighter our humanity closes ranks increasing even faster. The danger of exhausting our natu- to conquer nature, the tighter the elements close theirs to ral resources and energy has repeatedly confronted various avenge the victory.” branches of our industry. Thus far we have overcome it with- “But wouldn’t a simple reduction of the birth rate suffice out having to resort to what we regard to be the repugnant to rectify the situation?”

the Museum II 262 of Avant-Gardism 263 The Museum of Art Aleksandr Bogdanov

“Check the birth rate? Why, that would be tantamount idea of the whole and the happiness and suffering implied to capitulating to the elements. It would mean denying the by the notion. I have seen your world, and I would not be unlimited growth of life and would inevitably imply bringing able to tolerate a fraction of the insanity in which your fellow it to a halt in the very near future. We can triumph as long as creatures live. For that reason I would not presume to decide we are on the offensive: but if we do not permit our army to which of us is closer to tranquil happiness: the more perfectly grow, we will be besieged on all sides by the elements, and ordered and harmonious life is, the more painful are its inevi- that will in tum weaken faith in our collective strength, in table dissonances … ” our great common life. The meaning of each individual life “But tell me now, Enno, aren’t you happy? You have will vanish together with that faith, because the whole lives in your youth, your science, your poetry, and doubtless you each and every one of us, in each tiny cell of the great organ- have love. What possible experience of yours has been so ism, and each of us lives through the whole. Curbing the severe as to make you speak so passionately about the trag- birth rate is the last thing we would resort to, and if it should edy of life?” happen in spite of us, it will herald the beginning of the end.” “How very nicely you put it,” Enno said with a strange “Very well then, I understand that the tragedy of the laugh. “You do not know that at one time jolly old Enno had whole always exists for you, at least as a potential danger. So made up his mind to die. And if Menni had been but a single far, however, man has won, and the collective has been able to day later in sending him an invitation to travel to Earth, I am shield the individual from this tragedy. Even if the situation afraid your good-natured companion would not be sitting should become really dangerous, the gigantic exertions and here talking to you today. Just now, however, I cannot explain suffering caused by the intense struggle will be distributed all of this to you. You will see for yourself later that if there is so evenly among countless individuals that such hardships any happiness among us, then it is not the tranquil bliss you will not seriously disturb their tranquil happiness. It seems were talking about.” to me that you have all you need to ensure such happiness.” I hesitated to pursue this line of questioning any fur- “Tranquil happiness! But how can the individual help ther. We got up and returned to the museum. I was no lon- being acutely and profoundly aware of the shocks to the life ger able to examine the exhibits systematically, however, of the whole in which his beginning and end are immersed? for my attention strayed and I found it difficult to organize Consider also that there are contradictions arising from the my thoughts. In the sculpture section I stopped in front of a simple fact that the individual is so limited in comparison to statue depicting a beautiful young boy. His face reminded me the whole; he is powerless fully to fuse with that whole and of Netti, but I was struck most deeply of all by the skill with can neither entirely dissolve himself in it nor embrace it with which the artist had managed to infuse incipient genius into his consciousness. If such contradictions are beyond your the undeveloped body, the incomplete features, and the anx- understanding, it is because in your world they are eclipsed ious, inquisitive gaze of the child. I stood motionless before by others which are more direct and obvious. The struggle the statue for a long while, my mind blank to everything else. between classes, groups, and individuals precludes both the Enno’s voice brought me out of my reverie.

the Museum II 264 of Avant-Gardism 265 The Museum of Art

“This is you,” he said, pointing at the boy. “This is your world. It will be a marvelous world, but it is still in its infancy. On the Museum Look at the hazy dreams and disturbing images troubling his mind. He is half asleep, but some day he will awaken. I feel it, I sincerely believe in it!” The joyous sensation these words evoked in me was mixed with a strange regret: why was it not Netti who said that!

Kazimir Malevich

II 266 On The Museum Kazimir Malevich

First published in 1919 time and laughable for those who float in the vortex of winds Translated by Xenia Glowacki-Prus and beyond the clouds in the blue lampshade of the sky. Arnold McMillin Our wisdom hastens and strives toward the uncharted abysses of space, seeking a shelter for the night in its gulfs. The center of political life has moved to Russia. The flexible body of the propeller with difficulty tears Here has been formed the breast against which the entire itself from the old Earth’s embraces, and the weight of our power of the old-established states smashes itself. grandmothers’ and grandfathers’ luggage weighs down the Hence goes forth and shines in all corners of the Earth shoulders of its wings. the new comprehension of the essence of things, and hither Do we need Rubens or the Cheops Pyramid? Is a to the center representatives of old culture crawl out of their depraved Venus necessary to the pilot in the heights of our cracks and come with their worn-out old teeth to gnaw them- new comprehension? selves a piece from the hem of the new coat. Do we need old copies of clay towns, supported on the A similar center must be formed for art and creativity. crutches of Greek columns? Here is the rotating creative axis and race, and it is here Do we need the confirmatory signature of the dead old that a new contemporary culture must arise, with no room woman of Greco-Roman architecture, in order to turn con- for alms from the old one. temporary metals and concretes into squat almshouses? Hitherto to the new pole of life and excitement all innova- Do we need temples to Christ, when life has long since left tors must surely stream in order to take part in creation on a the droning of vaults and candle soot, and when the church world scale. dome is insignificant by comparison with any depot with mil- The innovators in contemporary life must create a new lions of ferro-concrete beams? epoch—such that not one rib of it will touch the old one. Does he who will break through the blue lampshade and We must recognize “short duration” as being the sharp remain hidden forever on the eternally new path, does he distinction between our epoch and the past—the moment of need the wisdom of our contemporary life? creative impetus, the speedy displacement in forms; there is Is the Roman pope’s cap necessary to a two-six-four no stagnation—only tempestuous movement. engine racing like lightning over the globe and trying to take As a result, treasures do not exist in our epoch and noth- off from its back? ing is created on the foundation of an age-old fortress. Do we need the wardrobe of braids from the clothes of The stronger the hope, the more hopeless the position ancient times, when new tailors sew contemporary clothes of our will, which in conjunction with time strives to destroy from metals? what reason has for years kept in chains. Do we need the wax tapers of the past when on my head We still cannot overcome the Egyptian pyramids. The I wear electric lamps and telescopes? baggage of antiquity sticks out in every one like a splinter Contemporary life needs nothing other than what belongs of old wisdom, and our anxiety to preserve it is a waste of to it; and only that which grows on its shoulders belongs to it.

the Museum II 268 of Avant-Gardism 269 On The Museum Kazimir Malevich

Art, both great and wise, representing the episodes and If we take tractors or motor cars to the backward villages, faces of the wisest now lies buried by contemporary life. and set up corresponding schools, then teaching about carts Our contemporary life needs only living and life-giving will hardly be necessary. energy, it needs flying iron beams and colored signals along If with contemporary techniques we can in the space of the new path. three weeks set up and equip a three-story house, then we It is essential that creative work be built on these founda- will hardly need to use the old form of building. tions, burning the path behind it. The villages will prefer to go for ready-made houses rather Enough of crawling about the corridors of time past, than into the forest or the wood. enough squandering time in drawing up lists of its pos- Accordingly, it is essential that what is living is insepara- sessions, enough pawning the graveyards of Vagankovo, bly linked with life and with a museum of this sort of art. enough singing requiems—none of this will rise again. A living form of life, when it becomes worn out, reincarnates life knows what it is doing, and if it is striving to destroy, itself in another; or else its worn out part is replaced by a one must not interfere, since by hindering we are blocking living one. the path to a new conception of the life that is born within us. We could not preserve the old structure of Moscow, Contemporary life has invented crematoria for the dead, but under a glass cap; they drew sketches but life did not wish each dead man is more alive than a weakly painted portrait. things to be that way and continues to build more and more In burning a corpse we obtain one gram of powder: accord- new skyscrapers, and will continue to build until the roof ingly, thousands of graveyards could be accommodated on joins up with the Moon. one chemist’s shelf. What are Godunov’s hut or Marfa’s chambers, by We can make a concession to the conservatives by offer- comparison? ing that they burn all past epochs, since they are dead, and One could feel more sorry about a screw breaking off set up one pharmacy. than about the destruction of St. Basil’s Cathedral. The aim will be the same, even if people will examine the Is it worth worrying about what is dead? powder from Rubens and all his art—a mass of ideas arise in In our contemporary life there are people who are alive people, and are often more alive than actual representation and there are conservatives. Two opposite poles: but although (and take up less room). in nature unlike poles attract, this is not a law for us. Our contemporary life should have as its slogan: “all that The living must break up this friendship and do what is we have made is made for the crematorium.” best for our creative life; they must be as merciless as time The setting up of a contemporary museum is a collection and life itself. of contemporaries’ projects and nothing more; only those life has torn life and what they were not conserving projects which can be adapted to the skeleton of life, or which from the hands of the museum keepers. We can collect it will lead to the skeleton of new forms of it, can be preserved whilst it is alive and link it directly to life, without giving it for a time. to be conserved.

the Museum II 270 of Avant-Gardism 271 On The Museum Kazimir Malevich

What do we need with the Baranovs’ manufactory when from its axes will come forth artists of living forms rather we have Textile, which swallows up, like a crematorium, all than dead representations of objectivity. the services and qualities of the old manufactories? let the conservatives go to the provinces with their dead And I am not sure that this generation will lament the baggage—the depraved cupids of the former debauched old manufactory. houses of Rubens and the Greeks. The path of the arts’ section lies through volume and We will bring I-beams, electricity, and the lights of colors. color, through the material and the nonmaterial, and both combinations will compose the life of form. In the street and in the house, in oneself and on oneself— this is where the living comes from, and where our living museum lies. I see no point in setting up sarcophagi of treasure or Meccas for worship. What we need is creativity and the factory to produce the parts to carry it over the world as rails. Any hoarding of old things brings harm. I am convinced that if the Russian style had been done away with in good time, instead of the almshouse of Kazan station that has been put up, there would have arisen a truly contemporary structure. The conservatives worry about what is old, and are not averse to adapting some old rag to contemporary life, or, in other words, to adapt the back of today to what is alien. We must not allow our backs to be platforms for the old days. Our job is to always move toward what is new, not to live in museums. Our path lies in space, and not in the suitcase of what has been outlived. And if we do not have collections it will be easier to fly away with the whirlwind of life. Our job is not to photograph remains—that is what photographs are for. Instead of collecting all sorts of old stuff we must form laboratories of a worldwide creative building apparatus, and

the Museum II 272 of Avant-Gardism 273 The Museum Newspaper: Suggestions for Regional Museums and Community Centers

V. K arpov The Museum Newspaper V. K arpov

First published in 1931 * * Translated by Jane Bugaeva *

The pedagogical role of museums as visual schools is par- The “Museum Newspaper” must meet these three criteria: amount and evident—which is why museums hold their prominent place in our cultural development. Old-fashioned 1. succinctly and clearly depict the most significant museums, like cabinets of curiosities or collections of rari- moments of each day; ties, have become obsolete. Today’s museums must edu- 2. be exceptionally adaptable, not cumbersome, and cate. They must take the form of a book—a picture book that completely dynamic; and tangibly illustrates the scientific and technological achieve- 3. not be just a newspaper on the wall. ments in various fields. They must fully depict the life and development of our entire republic or, in the case of regional First and foremost, if possible, the Museum Newspaper museums, that of the corresponding region. Undeniably, this should not be text-heavy. Rather, it should consist predomi- picture book must be ideologically relevant and profoundly nantly of images, with the text only serving to clarify each touch upon the issues of our time. A museum’s collection display. In addition, it is imperative that all photos and dia- must not be frozen in time, it must be continuously replen- grams be supplemented with physical exhibits. We must not ished with and transformed by the newest materials. Yet forget that physical exhibits, even those that appear to be constantly restructuring a museum’s entire, cumbersome mostly decorative, attract attention. They compel audiences collection to be concurrent with each passing day presents to notice the accompanying text, photos, and diagrams that some technical difficulties. As impossible as it would be to serve to emphasize the physical exhibit itself. reprint a book on a daily basis, so too, is the daily reimagin- Any museum can easily create such exhibits and will find ing of a museum’s collection. a multitude of materials already present in their collections Nevertheless, it is absolutely necessary for museums to to use as illustrations. Similar Museum Newspaper exhibitions reflect precisely that: each passing day—with its demands can be realized in community centers. However, because and significant moments—and to properly shed light on these centers have limited material resources at their dis- these moments, bringing them to the attention of the masses. posal, their exhibits will consist almost entirely of images. For this reason, in addition to the museum’s role as a picture book, it must also be able to perform the role of a newspaper. In order for this to occur, I think that it is necessary for museums to have special Museum Newspaper exhibitions, whose images and displays change daily—dynamically depicting each day in real time.

the Museum II 276 of Avant-Gardism 277 Avalanche Exhibitions: The Experience of the Leningrad Organization of Worker-Artists

Leonid Chetyrkin Avalanche Exhibitions

First published in 1933 Translated by Jane Bugaeva On the Question of Museums: Record of the Discussion of Problems Amateur art groups were by no means the only type of art production organized by the proletariat masses. In the year 1931, and Objectives of Fine Art Museums at Leningrad’s enterprises featured some quite unusual amateur the Art and Industry Board art exhibitions—the so-called Avalanche Exhibitions. These included hand-drawn wall posters, placards relating to various industrial departments, caricatures, galleries of outstanding employees, as well as drawings and paintings by worker-artists. The exhibitions traveled from factory to factory, plant to plant, and along the way were replenished with new artwork from local worker-artists, thus constantly growing and expanding. These so-called Avalanche Exhibitions became striking examples of propaganda, using fine arts as a means of highlight- ing the main goals of socialist construction. Simultaneously, these exhibitions introduced new groups of industry workers to the fine arts. The so-calledA valanche Exhibitions model was devised by the Leningrad Organization of Worker Artists. In 1931, the organization grew to 630 members. Out of them, 95 percent were factory workers and about 50 percent were members of the Communist Party and the Komsomol [Union of Communist Youth]. Factions of the Leningrad Organization of Worker Artists were present at individual plants and factories. These factions were tied to their plant’s press—both in terms of organization and artistic production—and were a part of their plant’s organization of worker correspondents. Each faction’s educational work was geared toward the realization of the state’s financial and industrial plan and carrying out the current tasks of the socialist construction. However, neither the methodologies nor the long-term goals of the Leningrad Organization of Worker Artists were sufficiently developed, and to this day, the Moscow Department of impact of this organization is not well known. Museum Affairs

II 280 On the Question of Museums Moscow Department of Museum Affairs

First published in 1919 artistic artifacts will be useful and necessary to the creative Translated by Bela Shayevich work of the proletariat. But the proletariat, armed with the accumulated knowledge and experience of humanity, must During the January 16th meeting of the collegium on artis- regard the artistic past as an accomplished achievment, as tic affairs and art production, the question of the objectives a road already traveled, and that is why the proletariat will and organization of art museums was discussed. The State create museums not for the purpose of bowing down to past Commissar on Museums and the Preservation of Artistic masters or otherwise propagandizing this past. In order to Monuments and Antiquity G. S. Yatmanov gave a lengthy meet these demands that stand before existing museums, a speech. Comrade Yatmanov reported on nearly a year of new breed of state museums must be created that would, in the work of the Museum Department, indicating the diffi- their scope and conception, serve these ends. culties in this field, including the shortage of museum personnel with a socialist worldview, which stands in the way of The Department proposes two kinds of new museums: museum reform. Having illuminated the state of museums today, the 1. Central museums that strive after strictly scholarly speaker came to the conclusion that there were many short- aims as well as function for artistic purposes. This comings in contemporary museology. The spirit of artistic kind of museum must be created in collaboration revolution must usher an entirely new life into the morti- with specialized scholarly and educational art institu- fied mausoleums that are our museums. The restructured tions. These museums should include well-equipped: art museums must be taken out of the hands of professional (a) laboratories for studying artworks; these labora- museum workers and handed over to artists. Professional tories should include (b) special storage facilities for museum workers have created fetishes of the artistic arti- artistic artifacts; as well as archives that can guaran- facts of the past; these must be disposed of, which can only tee objects’ preservation and also be easily accessible happen with the transfer of the control over museums to for researchers; (c) be equipped with large auditori- artists. Throwing the art of the past off the pedestal that it ums for holding lectures on art history and finally, has heretofore stood on is all the more necessary because (d) the collection on display must be a living thing, it will create the possibility of eliminating its influence on constantly changing in pursuit of exclusively artistic new proletarian art and definitively liberate new, young art goals. The galleries must always be filled with exam- from the eternal burden of “the art of the past” looming ples of new artistic achievement. over it. Therefore, past artistic achievements should neither serve as models nor materials for creating proletarian art. 2. regional, gubernia, and uyezd museums that func- The art of the past must be put in its proper place where it tion as exhibition spaces in places where there is may serve its rightful function of being a primary historical large-scale artisan production. These museums source, and nothing more. In this sense, the preservation of must be centers uniting all artistic production in

the Museum II 282 of Avant-Gardism 283 On the Question of Museums Moscow Department of Museum Affairs

an oblast’ or gubernia, and must facilitate artistic Finally, the third type are state art museums of a his- mass production in the given area. These museums torical bent, that is, museums whose purpose is to present must house complete and, when possible, exhaus- strictly scholarly or at least highly systematically developed tive collections demonstrating objects and related materials as visual aids for studying the history of art. This materials of a given sector of manufacturing, for kind of museum would be under the jurisdiction of special- educational purposes. They must also have perma- ists and cannot have claim to artistic influence. nent exhibitions of new art. Networks of such muse- Museums of the first as well as of the second kind expand ums will further the development of the people’s art their collections by acquiring artworks through special in our country. committees, on the one hand, and choosing from already acquired works collected in stores and storage spaces, on To conclude his speech, the lecturer indicated a series the other, with the right to the first choice of works going of measures already implemented by the Department of to the second kind of museums, as they are the ones tasked Museum Affairs such as, for instance, the museum’s initia- with the complex and serious duty of presenting artistic cul- tive on production art, classes and lectures on art history, ture to the public. and other efforts. In his conclusion, the speaker pointed to the necessity of After Yatmanov, Comrade Punin spoke. all museums adjusting how works are displayed, and making Comrade Punin believes that it is essential to distinguish their collections more fluid. Collections in art museums are between three types of museums according to the nature of archives that can be freely used by anyone. Works should be their collections. The first kind would be like warehouses, arranged and rearranged continuously; the ideal museum stores, storage spaces for paintings where contemporary would have all the works on moveable panels; the tendency artworks are sent immediately after being shown at exhibi- toward immobile iconostasis must be rooted out. tions. There, these works are stored for a set period of time, The third speaker was the architect Ilin. at the end of which, at the decree of special museum com- Comrade Ilin pointed to a number of defects in contem- mittees, they would be transferred to either state art or art porary museum culture. He proposed provisional efforts to historical museums. This is the first type of museum: the ease the burden on the scope of museums’ work; Comrade museum of viewing. Ilin proposed the destruction of museum galleries and mak- The second type are state museums for visual culture, ing them stricter in terms of their collections of artworks. which is defined as the culture of artistic medium, form, Comrade Ilin also pointed to the necessity of greater mobility color, method, and so on. Museums of this type are meant in museum collections. to address purely artistic ends: to create opportunities for A long and lively exchange of opinions followed these familiarization with the development and methods of art. speeches. In response to Comrade Yatmanov’s report on the The speaker called for the active participation of artists and activities of the Museum Department, Comrade Shterenberg artistic societies in the work of this kind of museum. stated that despite the allocated time and resources, almost

the Museum II 284 of Avant-Gardism 285 On the Question of Museums Moscow Department of Museum Affairs nothing had been done in the field of museum construc- specific works of art. Museums must be organized such that tion. The problem was not the legal statutes on museums, the paintings can be used like the books of a public library.” but the actual state of museum affairs. The state of our Comrade Brik was countered by Comrades Shterenberg museums could not be considered satisfactory; the existing and Punin, who said that for an artist, each painting will kind of museums are clearly outdated; there has yet to be always be a unique work of art. Punin also strongly criticized a solid program for museum reform. Even when it came to Comrade Yatmanov’s speech saying that the speaker, despite issues that clearly affected artists, the Moscow Department his revolutionary phraseology, was deeply conservative when of Museum Affairs did not wish to have anything to do with it came to museum reform. In attempting to renew and revive the Department of Visual Art. At the same time, only the museum life, Comrade Yatmanov sought to resurrect the old Department of Visual Art could provide a new program art. We don’t need to renew the museums, we need to finish for museum development. Although none of the speeches killing them off and make them strictly the storehouses for heard, except perhaps some statements form Comrade Ilin, visual aids for the study of the history of art. The main force contained concrete proposals that could be set against the behind the crisis in museology was the combination of the museological programs developed over the past decades, the two sides of all artistic activity: the art historical and the cre- Department had already considered and approved the proj- ative. If these were separated out, and examples of so-called ect for a museum of painting and visual culture. It follows visual culture were sent to special museums, we would be that if we proceeded with the project of this museum without left with collections of high art-historical value that would delay, we could counter the museum administrators’ general be incapable of directly influencing contemporary artistic program with our specific program. production. This is the only task of museology today. Comrade Brik said that he was not satisfied with any of Comrade Yatmanov countered with a response to the propositions presented in these speeches. He wanted to Comrades Shterenberg and Punin, saying that if the know why Comrade Yatmanov, being the State Commissar Department of Museum Affairs hadn’t accomplished much, of all museum affairs, had yet to make his good intentions a especially in terms of reforming the museums, it is because reality. From his speech one could conclude that the problem the Department had been focusing on collecting and safe- was the lack of communication between the Department of guarding artistic artifacts and antiques. He said that the deci- Museum Affairs and the Department of Visual Art. But who sion to reorganize the museums should only be made after was to blame for this? Anyway, the time for conversations thoroughly discussing this question at a conference orga- had passed; it was time to really get to work. Comrade Punin nized especially for this purpose. In this sense, the support proposed the creation of a new organization, the probation- and participation of the Department of Visual Art would be ary museum. Again, we’re facing another selection process. warmly welcomed, especially in connection with the upcom- “For me,” Comrade Brik said, “there’s no question that these ing conference. If the main points of the speech were accept- so-called ‘unique works’ are examples of a totally bourgeois, able to the collegium, it would be good to come to a decision individualistic ideology. We must destroy the deification of on the form that this support should take.

the Museum II 286 of Avant-Gardism 287 On the Question of Museums

Comrade Shterenberg said that there’s no cooperation and support to speak of for the conference; first of all, The Museum and because the speech did not contain sufficiently concrete Proletarian Culture: propositions; secondly, because there is no one to support, seeing as the Department of Museum Affairs did not have Speech at the Meeting a coherent line; instead, there’s just a permanent conflict. of the First All-Russian Museum There could only be support insofar as the Department Commission would be willing to take on the specific collaborative project of creating a new kind of museum of visual culture with the Department of Visual Art. In light of this, Comrade Shterenberg voiced a proposition to create such a museum together with the Department of Museum Affairs. The proposition was approved unanimously.

Osip Brik

II 288 The Museum and Proletarian Culture Osip Brik

First published in 1919 growing the collection is not the purview of the museum, but Translated by Alexandra Tatarsky should be decided by the state. There is talk here of the muse- (with Matvei Yankelevich) um’s initiative, about a loan for purchasing—these are old habits. Under the new state system, the problem of alloca- The proletarian revolution has brought all issues to the fore. tion is dealt with in accordance with centralization, to which I am going to talk about cultural issues related to museum museums must adapt, since they cannot conduct their own activities. The main issue is that of a unified state fund. housekeeping within the larger state economy. Simple rule by decree will never change anything. Moscow Turning to the question of the cultural role of museums, thinks it can deal with this issue rationally. It declares every- the orator notes that there is often talk of popularization, thing to be nonexistent, and combines it all into one mass. of the need to convince people that the museum has good However, one must not assume that all institutional forma- things. The people understand this themselves; we need not tions are the same. The value of any collection is determined add cultural-educational work to the museum’s responsi- by the organizing principle laid down at its starting point. bilities. Let the museums concern themselves with scientific It is necessary to ascertain what each collection presents work; this will not alienate the proletariat. It is evident that itself as, and the extent to which its organizing idea has a there is no struggle between museum and artist, but this is right to exist. Announcing the principle of a unified fund, we not a bad thing. [The painter] Repin said that what’s good place on each museum curator the obligation to prove that about the academy is that there’s always someone to argue his collection should be preserved. A special agency should with. Artistic work flows beyond the walls of the museum, but investigate individual collections and decide whether they the old canons are alive in the museum. If you go along with should be dissolved or preserved. Objects might have to be the Muscovites who say that past and present are acceptable, carried out of palaces, vestries, and churches. We will never this is aestheticism. We are convinced that contemporary art tackle the issue if we do not lay down other criteria besides should dominate, but people must be prepared for it; they those of the everyday (if the palace is unthinkable without must start with the alphabet, but not with Adam. You cannot its objects, then it is unthinkable without its sovereign). No assume that The Wanderers (Peredvizhniki) are less sophis- collections of everyday artifacts can be eligible for preserva- ticated than the Impressionists. You must not think that by tion. As regards private collections, they must be considered gaining insight into one movement, you can understand in terms of their scientific character. How to determine the another. The museum can play a negative role in terms of pre- genuine scientific worth of a collection? A collection has sci- paring the masses for the comprehension of contemporary entific worth to the extent that the scientific principles by art. It is the exhibit that educates, and not the museum, which which it was assembled are still valid. Pseudoscientific col- is only the place of scholarship. From museums people form lections should not exist. Thus, the unified state fund must false aesthetic views, and therefore see no need to rebuild the be decreed as a founding principle, and every individual col- museums. Museums are needed for the purposes of demon- lection must prove its right to preservation. The question of stration; people tour factories but one would not rebuild the

the Museum II 290 of Avant-Gardism 291 The Museum and Proletarian Culture factory in order to make the techniques of production or the work process more easily apprehended by visitors. All educa- On the Results of tional responsibilities should be transferred to the creators the Museum Conference of contemporary art; museums should remain for research purposes. Initially, museums of different kinds should be preserved—as many kinds as there are approaches. In the end, a unified science of art and culture will be found and we will have a scientific institution where cultural issues are studied by one specific method. Thus, control over all education and aesthetic impact must be transferred to the artists, while the museum will be a scientific institution created to further the study of art and culture. Theses: (a) the proletarian revolution demands a radical reorganization of all forms of cultural life and cannot be limited to piecemeal reforms or simple popularizing of existing foundations; (b) two main issues in museum affairs are still waiting to be addressed: the unification of all museum valuables into a single state fund and the question of the cultural role of museums; (c) the unified state fund should be decreed as a principle; no casual, everyday, amateur, and other such collections can claim immunity; scientific collections can be preserved according to the viability of their organizational idea; (d) the work of cultural enlightenment and artistic instruction should be removed from museum jurisdiction and entirely handed over to the creators of contemporary art; it is not the museum that educates but the gallery exhibition and this guarantees the unimpeded development of art; (e) the museum must become a scholarly institution, building a unified study of art.

Nikolai Punin

II 292 On the Results of the museum conference Nikolai Punin

First published in 1919 exceedingly adult, for the very reason that they have inter- Translated by Alexandra Tatarksy nalized an economic theory that surpasses all the economic (with Matvei Yankelevich) “sciences” of the bourgeoisie. The proletarian is not a rioter and not a usurper of power, and he will come to demonstrate The question of the educational role of museums was rather his cultural superiority; there is nothing to teach him for it is minutely unpacked at the close of the February 18th museum he who shall teach. That being said, if in actuality the “com- conference, but the papers given on this topic were as feeble mon masses” are uneducated and crude, well, after all, they and timid as the discussions. Childish prattle. are the “common masses.” First and foremost, the question was raised in the most The masses are always the masses, and there is still a ridiculous manner. Neither museum workers nor scholars ways to go before they get out from under their own eco- could turn away from the widespread fallacy that the masses nomic oppression and rise to at least an average level of cul- (they went on at all times about the masses, and not the pro- ture, but it is for this reason, first and foremost, that we must letariat—and this is already significant) cannot at present overcome this economic oppression. Change the material become collaborators in the great work of the arts and sci- conditions of existence, but don’t concern yourself with that ences, but need first to acquaint themselves with the arts bourgeois utopian philanthropy à la Saint-Simon or Ruskin. and sciences through the purgatory of workshops and dilet- That’s number two. And third of all, it is entirely unproven tantism. In this vein, much was said at the conference about that the advanced part of the proletariat (not the masses) is model exhibitions at museums, explanatory lectures, and so not in a state to be able to perceive the latest achievements on. What nonsense! of science and art. Of course if we demand from them a his- In the first place, this kind of chatter is no longer justi- tory of art starting with Adam or a point-by-point inventory fied historically. We know this from the Ruskin Museum in of all the errors of science, starting with Chaldean astron- Sheffield and other folk museums of Western Europe, which omy, or medieval botany, then we might not get very far. showed that the common masses are just as likely to yawn, But I am convinced that to the intelligent and, more impor- or even to sleep, in this kind of specialized museum as in the tantly, interested worker, it is entirely unnecessary to know larger, authentically scientific museums. Rafael in order to understand contemporary artistic work Secondly, the very thought of constructing a special- or Linnaean systems in order to grasp contemporary math- ized museum and isolating the business of public education ematics. What’s more, science and especially art should always flows from the following entirely unproven notions finally stop serving the consumer; they should become a which fall apart under the slightest scrutiny: the people are part of the general creative process and should serve the pro- children, and we the scientists, the bourgeoisie, are adults; ducer—in fact, they have already begun to do so. The time thus it follows that we ought to teach them, if it so hap- has long since passed to throw away any judgments about pens that they want to be taught. Wrong. The masses, espe- what’s yours and what’s ours. Already rotten, even dead, is cially the proletariat, are not children, but rather they are the notion that science and art are here, in the temple, and

the Museum II 294 of Avant-Gardism 295 On the Results of the museum conference Nikolai Punin out there is a drove of swine with crumbs from the master’s In a similar way, we should examine the contemporary brunch. We don’t want more masters, be they scientists or museum. This would not only be correct from the perspec- artists. Incidentally, the scientists and artists themselves no tive of science and the museums themselves, but would also longer lay claim to mastery. be consistent with the viewpoint of communist culture, The desire to propagate quasi-science and art at any which recognizes a professional and scientifically organized cost, by way of popularization and any other means, came authenticity at the foundation of all human enterprise. into conflict with those aspirations and views which on this occasion were found among the more serious and competent part of the conference. The best scientists in Petersburg have always pointed out the professional character of science and its self-sustaining economic value. Any kind of demagogic slogans, whatever philanthropic motives they may come from, were not met sympathetically. And this is understandable, since we were dealing here with scientists and their long-standing heroic tradition. However, the fact that some members of communist culture did not share the same opinion was a surprise. For some of them, the popularity level of this or that museum is very nearly the reason for its existence. Without a doubt, the cultural intensity of this or that country may be measured by the amount of museum attendees but it doesn’t follow from this that artificial popularization guarantees the growth of culture. Indeed, this would mean deceit and self-deception—using decorations to cover up an internal emptiness. This is exactly the behavior of any bourgeoisie, past and future, for what is the bourgeoisie in terms of culture if not a total decoration? There’s no reason for us to follow in its footsteps. The contemporary museum is a scholarly institute. To produce contemporary European museums from any kind of kunstkammer or cabinet of curiosities is to produce the modern state directly out of the feudal order. Once, museums were cabinets of curiosities but they long ago acquired a different character—that of a supporting scholarly apparatus.

the Museum II 296 of Avant-Gardism 297 On the Museum Bureau

Aleksandr Rodchenko On The Museum Bureau Aleksandr Rodchenko

Written in 1920 –21 The Department of Visual Art’s principles of museum Translated by Jamey Gambrell building are based on a scientific, professional-material approach to art. The Museum Bureau is implementing the assignments of the The new museum building is based on the principle of a Department of Visual Art in the area of building museums museum showing the stages of development of artistic form, and collecting artistic works in the center and the regions. and not on the creation of a museum of a historical nature, which has evolved in its particularly static forms under the The concept of “artistic works” includes: capitalist system. The historic museum of the past is an ARCHIVE; it is Painting and its divisions according to materials—oil, a museum that preserves works, and not a museum as a tempera, pastel, and watercolor. cultural factor. Sculpture and spatial forms. It is built for serving the ethnographer, the specialist, and All types of graphic work: etchings, engravings, and the amateur. lithographs. According to its purpose, even the building technology of Drawings. old historical museums differs sharply from the principles of the new museum technology. The Department of Visual Art is pursuing the following goals In a historical museum, the selection of works occurs by in museum building: chance; the criteria are the subjectively aesthetic recognition of each individual master’s history, without any analysis of 1. To serve the State Art Studios with factual material, his goals and achievements. i.e. an educational goal, by organizing collections The overloading of museum walls with works of one and under the aegis of the Studios according to the prin- the same master is not taken into account, since the final ciples of the Museum of Painting Culture. task of the historical museum is the desire to take every- 2. Cultural-educational work, which is implemented thing without considered evaluation and differentiation by adding to already existing museums or organiza- among works. tions in the regions; where there are none, according The new museum is being built, above all, of works, and to the principle of the history of the development of not of artists. artistic form. The product of production stands in first place. The selection criteria are the presence of movement or the paint- Both of these types of building are equally necessary, the erly achievement of the work, on the one hand, and skill on first as it will facilitate the development of cultural producers the other. capable of absorbing and understanding artistic production The first of these criteria might be termed the issue of of all types and tendencies. inventiveness.

the Museum II 300 of Avant-Gardism 301 On The Museum Bureau Aleksandr Rodchenko

It is the dynamic principle that moves art ahead, that pre- Hence the gaps and jumps on the wall that do not allow vents it from decomposing and stagnating, which cultivates [one to follow] the developmental path of art’s methods. feeble imitations. Maintaining the character of an ARCHIVE quite precisely, The concepts of inviolable DOGMAS and classical the historical museum created the habit of carpeting the entire CANONS are exploded by this issue, and the existence of wall from top to bottom with paintings. Even the physiological ETERNAL BEAUTY in art is killed. impossibility of seeing the artwork wasn’t reckoned with. Everything lives in time and space, and so does the work Those works that were considered secondary ended up of art. Dying off, it clears the path and becomes the soil for high or in the darkest areas of the space. the next achievements. Economy of space was given priority. The possibility The new museum, as a creative principle, is being built of of seeing the work was dependent on the utilization of the LIVlNG works that do not yet possess the quality of “histori- space’s walls. cal treasures” (in the narrow sense of the word). The gap between paintings was reduced to a minimum— The second issue—the issue of skill—places the work of works were hung right up next to one another as far as the art on a scientifically professional level. similarity of their size permitted. It limits that bacchanalia of groundless evaluations The most cultured attitude toward installation went no based on subjective taste, which makes the work kin to a further than DECORATlON of the walls with works, that is, spiritual delicacy, thereby developing a refined connoisseur- the paintings served to fill the walls in accordance with the ship in the consumer, who demands only the satisfaction of general decor of the space. his desires. Here the symmetrical distribution of paintings on the wall, The museum, as an organized form of art’s exposure, i.e. with proximity determined by size, was taken for a system. its promulgation, should be constructed according to the The new museum building cannot approach installa- development of artistic form and skill. tion so superficially, flouting the primary task—TO SHOW We have dealt with the system of selection for the old and the painting. new museum, but one other important technical issue of Above all, the space and the wall are seen as a technical museum building remains—the INSTALLATION of the works. means to show the picture. In museums truest to the historical method, the installa- Given this approach to the question [of installation], the tion, no less than the selection, of the paintings emphasizes question of economy in utilizing a given wall no longer arises. the museum’s characteristic profile—that of an ARCHIVE. The carpet approach to covering the wall is undoubtedly Starting with the principle of individually evaluating the rejected. master, the installation of works was resolved very simply— The wall does not play a self-contained role, and the work the most recognized artist was placed in the most advanta- doesn’t adjust to the wall; the work becomes an active agent. geous location, while the proximity of another artist was The common principle of installation should correspond defined by historical logic. to the stages of artistic form’s development and artistic

the Museum II 302 of Avant-Gardism 303 On The Museum Bureau Aleksandr Rodchenko methods, and not be based on the chronological order in Organizational principles: to present as fully as possible which a given work was painted. the stages of development in artistic form, beginning with During the installation, the value of a given stage in art is Realism up to the latest achievements in art, without over- taken into consideration, along with the quality and skill of burdening the museum by repeating artists and individual the given work, not the status of the given master. stages in an artist’s work. The work is hung on the wall with the interval necessary Furthermore, local conditions were taken into consider- to allow each work to be seen on its own. ation, i.e. the presence of State [Art] Studios and the signifi- In determining the height of the installation required cance of a given place, and likewise independent initiative for a given work, the eye level of the viewer and the nature from the localities. of the work are strictly taken into account, that is, its During the 1919–20 period, the Museum Bureau greater or lesser decorativeness or the diminutive size of organized thirty museums in the following towns: Yelets, the picture. Vitebsk, Samara, Astrakhan, Slobodskoy, Penza, Simbirsk, The proximity of authors as well as works should corre- Petrograd, Smolensk, Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh, Kazan, spond to the stages of development of artistic form, exclud- Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Shuia, Ekaterinburg, Kosmodemiansk, ing any intuitive, taste-based approach in the combining of Moscow, Lugansk, Bakhmut, Kostroma, Tula, Ufa, Kishtym, works on the wall. Tsaritsyn, Barnaul, Tobolsk, and Perm. In placing [the picture] on the wall, the calmest and most A total of 1,211 works have been distributed to the above- neutral position will be sought for the picture, without sub- mentioned museums, in the following types of art: jecting it to any special tasks of wall placement. Painting—952 Sculpture and spatial forms—29 Report on the Factual Activites Prints and drawings—230 of the Museum Bureau The average number of works per newly organized museum The Museum Bureau was organized in 1918. In the first is between thirty and forty-five, not including drawings. months of its existence, its activity consisted of developing At the present time, the Museum Bureau has sixteen theoretical questions of museum building and acquisition requests from localities to organize museums, of which six through materials purchased for the organization of muse- are feasible. ums. Then it undertook the organization of an experimental Between 1918 and 1920 the acquisition staff of the Museum of Painting Culture in Moscow, which at present is Museum Bureau acquired 1,907 works, which break down located at 14 Volkhonka St., Apt. 10. into the following types of art: local museums began to be organized beginning in August 1919.

the Museum II 304 of Avant-Gardism 305 On The Museum Bureau

Paintings—1,415 Sculptures and spatial forms—65 The Museum of Painting Drawings—305 Culture at Rozhdestvenka Prints—122 Street, 11 The indicated works were acquired from 384 painters and printmakers, and twenty-nine sculptors. The paintings acquired represent the following art movements:

rightist—210 artists centrist—236 artists leftist—twenty-five artists

Sculptors:

rightist—ten artists centrist—twelve artists leftist—seven artists

November 29, 1920. Rodchenko

From Museums and Places of Interest in Moscow

II 306 The Museum of Painting Culture From Museums and Places of Interest

First published in 1926 decorative object, Still Life with Fruit, which stops the viewer Translated by Bela Shayevich in his tracks with the originality of its composition. The artist simplifies and partially deforms the object. Even more The central purpose of the museum is to demonstrate the volume can be found in the paintings of Konchalovsky and chief preoccupations of new Russian painting. With this Kuprin, the latter distinguishing himself with the restraint theoretical foundation, all exhibited materials can be of his color palette. In his spatial constructions (through divided into two groups—volumetric and planar works—all the alternation of volumes), which are taken from Cezanne, of which illustrate the different manners in which artists Konchalovsky does not reject vibrant colors, often creating posed questions and solved problems. The nature of this paintings out of contrasting color relationships (Self-Portrait division means that the same artists sometimes fall into and Landscape). His Portrait of Yakulov is stylized, painted in both categories (Mashkov, Malevich, Popova). Thus, we are restrained tones. It’s important to note that all of these art- not in the least obligated to observe a logical progression ists are interested in purely formal tasks that allow them to in the further development of our collection because each simplify and transform objects. category can exist in relative isolation from the other. In this way, while Suprematism (see room F) is the logical consequence of Cubism (see room C), it has no points of intersec- Room B tion with the two-dimensional artists group. The museum is distinguished by its intent to resemble a laboratory. Here, Konchalovsky, Rozhdestvensky, Falk, Osmerkin, and artifacts are not self-sufficient; they are seen as illustrations Lentulov provide examples of another interpretation of for the tasks set out by the museum. The museum also has reality, with different technical and formal methods. They an analytic painting bureau, whose work is exhibited in the not only transform the object by emphasizing its most char- permanent collection. acteristic features; they deform it completely. The object is simplified, losing its individual characteristics. The artists demonstrate its main forms, representing volume with Room A geometricized planes. Through the shifts in the planes, the viewer is able to see the composition sequentially, that is, in The presentation of major contemporary collectives begins time. Paintings that do this include Rozhdestvensky’s Urban with the Jack of Diamonds group, who are very influenced Landscape, as well as Lentulov’s Psychological Portrait. The by French art. Mashkov, influenced by Matisse, reinterprets vibrant color palette and rich transitions in Rozhdestvensky the French painter’s principles. Despite the ornateness of his and Lentulov’s works speak of their liberated approach to paintings, the richness of their colors, and clarity of the color representing objects using methods not yet seen in the works relationships, two-dimensionality is not characteristic of of French Cubists. It bears mentioning Konchalovsky’s Still Mashkov’s art. His Two Women has volume, as does his most Life, in which we also see shifted planes. Osmerkin’s Portrait

the Museum II 308 of Avant-Gardism 309 The Museum of Painting Culture From Museums and Places of Interest of a Woman is unique in its compositional tasks and dis- (excluding the Nonobjectivists) we will see a tendency tinguished by the interplay of warm and cold tones with a toward ornamentality. dynamically resolved background. We should also touch on The works of Pavel Kuznetsov, which maintain a single Falk’s monumental portraits, including Portrait of a Woman color scheme (blue and green tones), are distinguished by in Red, whose conception is reminiscent of Cezanne’s Portrait the sparseness of their composition and the unity of the of a Lady in Blue, but marked with greater dynamism. rhythm of movement. Their pictorial simplicity represents a stylized version of reality. We find another manner of styliza- tion in the work of Goncharova. In her Bathing the Horses, we Room C see much simplification, only the most important forms set off by lines, but with this typical scene from folk life, the art- Further development of the principles put forth by the artists ist is also borrowing from folk art (the lubok). The forms are above can be found in Malevich’s Harvesters and Popova’s simple and convincing, the relationships are vivid and clear. Portrait of a Woman, where the object is deformed, simplified, but has not lost its organic unity. The latter is completely lost in the works of Rozanova, Popova, Ekster, and Malevich Room E in his “Cubism.” The object is broken down into geometric planes and the juxtaposition of these planes creates the spa- The works of Goncharova,L arionov, Shevchenko, and Tatlin tial construction of the composition. The artist leaves the exhibit a liberated sense of perception in how the artists world of reality behind; his task is shaped by purely formal reconfigure impressions of the world. Each has a dramati- pursuits. In order to broadly demonstrate spatial relation- cally expressed individuality. Thus Larionov’s Chansonette ships, the artist introduces a graphic element—for Popova, and The Soldier are distinguished by their marked crudeness it’s letters or cut-outs from a newspaper in Ekster’s work, the of form and dull colors. His painting is similar to poster art latter also doing this for texture. These artists are close to the in its simplicity and the certitude of its effect. We will also Cubist group whose main principles (spatial constructions note Tatlin’s Fishmonger, a painting with a light-brown color through the juxtaposition of geometric planes and lines) palette. The artist does not create deep space; following from were first advanced by Picasso and Braque in France. the composition, he freely places the objects over the surface of the canvas.

Room D Room F The next three rooms contain artists from the so-called “planar group.” This term is provisional, because the works of In this room, we find the representatives of radical leftist Shevchenko and Goncharova are not planar. In this group movements. Shternberg’s works demonstrate a particular

the Museum II 310 of Avant-Gardism 311 The Museum of Painting Culture interest in the material, which he characterizes with emphatic realism. The introduction of foreign materials is related to III the artist’s interest in textures. We note his Still Life with a Pastry and Still Life with a Glass. We find a total rupture with realistic representation in the works of the Suprematists: Malevich, Rozanova, Klyun, and Rodchenko. These artists draw the logical conclusion from the principles laid out in their Cubist works (see Room C). If in those paintings the artists’ spatial explorations concerned the object translated into geometric planes, here they reject objectivity entirely and operate using solely line, color, and planes. Their paintings are experimental studies of color, the surface of the canvas, and the construction of space through the juxtaposition of geometric planes of varying colors. The main task is studying the movement of planes and their interrelations. Alongside the purely rational quests of the Suprematists, The Materialistic Museum Kandinsky’s non-objective paintings appeal to the emotional side of the viewer, forcing him to sympathize with the artist’s feelings. The expressiveness in Kandinsky’s paintings is achieved through the tension of the color combinations and the dynamism of his line. Each color is intended to inspire a particular feeling in the viewer, which mutates in accordance with the effect of variously shaped and interrelated dabs of paint.

II 312 Lenin’s Attitude Toward Museums

Nadezhda Krupskaya Lenin's Attitude Toward Museums Nadezhda Krupskaya

First published in 1931 greatest of care and deliberation. And Ilyich became trans- Translated by Ian Dreiblatt fixed by it. Every detail fascinated him utterly. The exhibition became, for him, a piece of the living struggle. Vladimir Ilyich was no lover of museums. Granted, those There is another conversation with Ilyich that I remem- museums we had occasion to visit abroad were primarily of ber. A question had arisen concerning the construction in historical interest, selected according to a spirit quite for- factories of polytechnic exhibitions. This was the enterprise eign to historical materialism and devoid of vibrant Marxist of a certain Latvian tour guide. He had even attempted to thought. We were unable to visit technical museums, for construct such an exhibition in a factory in Kolomna. I at example, or those reflecting the history of manufacture and the time was completely consumed with the work of envi- the like. Ilyich would immediately grow tired of casting indif- sioning an exhibition of factory museums, contemplated ferent glances upon innumerable suits of heraldic armor. in connection with the propaganda around production of In London once, he and I went to the Kensington which Ilyich so approved. The plan was this: to display in an Museum, and I remember how he was pleased by a particular exhibition the work of the factory, to show what departments vitrine displaying the parallel development of embryos in an it housed, what was done in each department, and how the egg, a monkey embryo alongside a human one. He enjoyed product changed as it moved from department to depart- as well an exhibit displaying the skulls of a monkey, a prehis- ment. In this way we would have provided a complete picture toric man, and a modern one. Ilyich belonged to a genera- of the working of the factory. It would be necessary too to tion educated when the teaching of biology was prohibited in show the sources of raw materials, those places where they elementary and secondary schools, a generation immersed were extracted for delivery to the factory. Thereafter, it would in the writings of Pisarev that took in all the revolutionary likewise be necessary to show where the factory’s equipment developments in biology, in evolutionary theory. It was a mat- was fabricated, where and how manufactured goods flowed. ter by which he could not but have been fascinated. When I It was a time when Ilyich was reiterating with special vigor visited the Museum of Natural History at Sverdlov University the need to broaden the political outlook of the proletar- organized by Comrade Zavadovsky and his team, I thought ian masses. It was shortly after the Eighth Party Congress, how Ilyich would have welcomed the construction of such when Ilyich was particularly troubled over the question of a museums on kolkhozes and in houses of socialist culture. unified economic plan, thinking through how he might pull He would as well have welcomed the construction of the proletarian masses into working over it, and he wanted museums of revolution. In Paris once an exhibition of the propaganda around production to be expanded in order to revolution of 1848 was mounted. The exhibition was a para- develop the mental outlook of workers. I remember with gon of modesty, arranged in two modest rooms. As I recall, what close attention Ilyich listened to what I had to say about it was not discussed in the papers; when we visited, there polytechnic museums in factories. were but two workers attending to it. There were no exhibi- That is the little I can recall of how Lenin regarded tion guides. Yet the exhibition had been mounted with the museum work.

The Materialistic III 316 Museum 317 Dialectical Materialism and the Construction of the Museum

Ivan Luppol Dialectical Materialism Ivan Luppol

First published in 1931 I think we should start by stating the fact that at present Translated by Natasha Randall and none of the experiences thus far in the construction of muse- Niko Japaridze ums can be endorsed as well-defined and fully acceptable in methodological terms. We have no one to whom we can give Comrades! My introductory report initiates a series of the patent for consistent Marxism in museum affairs. Such reports, united by one theme: the method of dialectical mate- canonization, such dogmatization would now be very dan- rialism and the construction of the museum. If the theme gerous. I would like it if all co-rapporteurs would respect this of dialectical materialism, as applied to the construction of point, because though we all try to apply the most consistent Soviet museums, does not seem novel in terms of recogniz- method of dialectical materialism to one type of museum ing its relevance and great significance, the problem of the or another, we still have an ultimate goal that has not been actual application of the method of dialectical materialism to achieved. Undoubtedly, we have some differences on certain museum building as a whole is undoubtedly a new challenge, issues. In order to avoid these differences in the future, we despite all of our conversations on this topic for the last two should discuss them in full detail here, at our first museum or three years. There is no doubt that this problem is difficult, congress. We must leave here with a clear idea. We must and indeed more difficult than many of us think. After all, the come to terms and exhaust all of our doubts and questions matter is not one of words. Words on the subject of applying like comrades. the method of dialectical materialism to museum work have First of all, we must categorically emphasize that there is been uttered, and perhaps rather a lot of them. The point is, not and cannot be any discrepancy between, on the one hand, of course, to rebuild the very foundations of Soviet museums, Comrade Epstein’s opening speech, with its sharp political based on the correct understanding and application of the content, and the political greetings that were uttered here, method of dialectical materialism. and on the other, the content of those reports that we shall On the other hand, while not denying the fact that this be hearing forthwith. It would be quite wrong to present any task is both new and difficult, we must recognize that only by matter, after the political nature of the greetings and opening solving this problem can we successfully move forward in the speech given by Comrade Epstein, by moving on to something construction of museums. If we do not yet possess a perfect philosophical or methodological. For us, there is not and can- method of dialectical materialism in its application to muse- not be any discrepancy between politics and our theory, our ums, in any case, we do already have the method itself, and methodology. We affirm the unity of our politics, as conducted the question therefore is how one can apply it to this rather by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and our theory, complex area of our work. our methodology, with which the party has been armed for its To this end, we have made, no doubt, only the first steps, historic “actions.” It would be extremely dangerous to allow and would like to acknowledge the First All-Russian Museum any discrepancy between the two sides of a single matter. Congress discussion of this problem as a significant mile- A few years ago, it’s true, in another region, such voices stone on our path and the path of museum building. were heard in relation to some individual workers or groups

The Materialistic III 320 Museum 321 Dialectical Materialism Ivan Luppol of workers: “They accepted Soviet construction, but they as a class, and in the process of completing collectivization were still neutral toward socialist construction.” This for- we create new socialist relations of production. mulation is absolutely wrong, because Soviet construction This decisive offensive by the socialist sector provokes, is socialist construction. Equally, we must not think that one quite naturally, a furious resistance from the once-ruling can put a museum into the service of socialist construction classes. Because of this, there is an extraordinary intensifi- while remaining neutral toward the requirement of creat- cation of the class struggle. The remnants of the bourgeoisie ing a Marxist museum, because the Soviet museum is, or and the adjacent circles of the bourgeois technical intelli- at least should be, a Marxist-Leninist museum. We shall gentsia have realized that the question of “who will overtake accept only one philosophy: philosophy in the service of whom?” has been placed in sharp focus and posed for the revolution. We understand dialectical materialism as the last time. Therefore, the current forms of class resistance and only scientific method, which is the basis of all the processes new forms of class struggle are obvious, and are only possible of our revolution, of socialist construction, including its in the era of the dictatorship of the proletariat. museum component. On the contrary, it is impossible to If, immediately after October 1917, we experienced sabo- accept the slogan of the founding of a Marxist museum and tage from some quarters of the technical intelligentsia, then, to be neutral toward socialist construction. This, in the best of course, it characterized a certain worldview, a kind of theo- case, would be “academic Marxism.” Academic Marxism, retical attitude of those circles of the technical intelligentsia to put it simply, is a sort of gibberish to us. For us, there is that believed that they were the salt of the Earth and that if no “academic Marxism.” For us, there is only Marxism in they had refused to work, the workers would not have been revolutionary action. able to cope with the challenges facing the state. Sabotage is We live and act in the era of proletarian revolution. We represented undoubtedly in the shape of the class struggle have already entered the period of socialist reconstruction of of the bourgeoisie and its intelligentsia, a shape that is gener- the entire national economy. We are conducting the industrially unthinkable in the bourgeois state, in a capitalist society. alization of the nation, but for us the process of the industri- Now a new kind of class resistance and class struggle is mani- alization of the nation is not just a simple technical process. festing itself: sabotage, with all its evolution from “the small The process of the industrialization of the nation for us is at craftsman” to the systematic, to intervention, to the espio- the same time the process of uprooting the roots of capital- nage services of the imperialist states. This is undoubtedly ism, a process that creates new socialist relations of produc- one of the last and most peculiar forms of the class struggle tion—those that characterize a qualitatively different social of the bourgeoisie, a form, flowing out of our greatest suc- formation, which is already socialist. We are carrying out the cesses on the front of socialist construction, conceivable only collectivization of agriculture, but the process of the collec- on this stretch of our victorious path. tivization of agriculture is not only a technical process, it is But while this form of bourgeois class struggle is new, the an equally profound sociopolitical process. With complete content is old: a desire to return to political and economic collectivization as our foundation, we eliminate the kulaks domination at the hands of the deposed exploiting class, and

The Materialistic III 322 Museum 323 Dialectical Materialism Ivan Luppol to destroy the dictatorship of the proletariat. After all, the revolutionary transformation of society. We are guided by Soviet Union is not just a thorn in the side of capitalists, but dialectical materialism on a large scale and a small scale, also a bright shining beacon for all working people, and a in socialist construction as a whole, and in the building of socialist fatherland, an eternal threat to capitalist society. museums in particular. Based on this method, we will recon- Hence our policy objectives are clearly within the bounds struct museums “externally,” in the sense of their network, in of one common task—the task of building a socialist society the sense of types of museums, and “internally,” in the sense in the shortest historical period possible. This task of the over- of the exhibiting of material that characterizes and identifies all construction of a socialist society in the shortest historical a particular museum. period synthesizes a whole series of slogans that have been Of course, one may ask, is it necessary to reconstruct alto- paraded before us in recent years, and which have already gether, to break down our old museums? Maybe they will been partially implemented and are being partially imple- gradually grow into socialism, gradually become socialist mented: the slogan “to catch up and overtake” advanced capi- museums because everything around them is moving toward talist countries in technical and economical terms, the slogan socialism? This peculiar use of the familiar theory of “grow- about the industrialization of the country, the slogan about ing into socialism” is completely unacceptable to us. To hope the Five-Year Plan in four years, and so forth. for a spontaneous kind of “socialist rebirth” of our muse- All these political problems can be resolved only under ums—and this applies not only to the museum, but also to certain conditions: only with a general mobilization of a number of other senior-level academic institutions—is not resources and efforts to perform the substance of these prob- necessary. Such a view would be opportunistic. We should lems; only with a single direction of effort by all organiza- not only contribute to the transformation of a museum into tions, institutions, including cultural institutions, including another kind of museum; we need to remake our museums, museums; and only with a certain ideological orientation. transform them from the old museums into new museums This ideological setting can only be Marxism-Leninism, and built on the principles of dialectical materialism. the only revolutionary method can be dialectical material- Whether we want to or not, we will certainly participate ism. This method is forged by the development of a revolu- in the class struggle that goes on in our museums, against the tionary workers’ movement, and under such a banner, under backdrop of all of the political events. We have both reaction- such an emblem, this method can form, evolve, and develop ary attempts to return old museums to obsolete ways, and Marxism further. This method was victorious in the days of the well-known conservative trends that seek to continue, the October Revolution, and now it is the nervous system of preserve, academicize museums into the form in which many the entire socialist edifice. of them exist today. We have both active and passive resis- Dialectical materialism represents at the same time both tance in the reorganization of our museums. Therefore, we the acceptance of explanations about natural and social cannot avoid an active restructuring and perhaps even a sur- phenomena and also guidelines for action, guidelines for gical operation in this creative work. And all this work should the subordination of nature to man, and guidelines for the be performed on the basis of dialectical materialism.

The Materialistic III 324 Museum 325 Dialectical Materialism Ivan Luppol

I do not flatter myself by thinking that in this opening idealistic or vulgar materialist), the dialectical unity of report I can, in any detailed way, present a solution to this material reality. problem. I think that now we only need to agree on the cor- Material objects are interconnected in certain respects, rect underpinning, on the foundation, on the guidelines, and and this relationship between material objects is material, on certain starting points in the reworking of our museums. but it is not objective. Take the production relationship in a There is but one reality, and this reality is material. capitalist society between capitalists and workers. This is a Dialectical materialism represents a thoroughly consistent material relationship, but it is impossible to grasp directly, in monistic concept. But the monism of dialectical materialism any visual representation. We cannot perceive this relation- is not vulgar. It is not a metaphysical, one-sided materialism. ship without theory, without analysis. Reality is material, but it may not always be perceptible, tan- The differences between material objects in various gible, or visible to the eye. material relations bring great difficulties to the work of our We distinguish between being and thought, just as we museums. After all, our museums are collections of mate- distinguish between the objects of ideas and our ideas about rial objects, things, and yet we have to show not only these these objects. But to confine ourselves to the observation objects, not only these things, but also the relationships that we distinguish between being and thought, between between these objects and things. But these relations are abstraction and thought, would be extremely inadequate, very complex, just as the relationships between those objects because depending on how you resolve the problem of the that we refer to as human beings. relationship between being and thought, the result can Movement is characteristic of material reality, and it is be totally different perspectival positioning. If we say that in this motion, in this universal category of material real- being is thought, we have a clearly expressed classical ide- ity, that we find the clue to all the variety of phenomena we alism. This would be the point of view of the identification see. Various forms and motions of matter cause different of being with thought, and, moreover, the identification types, different categories, different complexes of phenom- under the symbol and under the leadership of thought— ena. They cause different sets of phenomena: physical- this would be idealism. If we say that thought is being, we chemical, biological, social. This is also a difficulty in the will have undoubtedly a materialistic point of view; how- work of museums. ever, in such a case we obtain a one-sided vulgar metaphysi- If we want to build a museum in accordance with the pro- cal position that entirely discards the distinction between visions of dialectical materialism, the museum, as a collec- being and thought. Meanwhile, in fact, being is not thought tion of items, must at the same time show the movement of and thought is not being, but at the same time thought is these items, and all the sets of their phenomena. Of course, not some other independent substance, because a subject it would be a screaming vulgarization to think that if we thinks in the particular form of its movement, at a particular make our individual exhibitions move themselves, we will stage of its development. Thus, we affirm the unity of being reveal them as a specific category of motion characteristic and thought (rather than seeing them as identical, whether of material existence. The discussion here is not about the

The Materialistic III 326 Museum 327 Dialectical Materialism Ivan Luppol mechanical movement of individual exhibitions, but about to know reality. After all, within the same social reality, in the motion of the historic, which is undoubtedly much more the process of coming to know it, we use analysis, although difficult to reveal in museum exhibitions. we are mindful of the fact that in reality all of these different So, it is the relationship between material objects and aspects of social formation exist within a concrete unity. various forms of material motion that we should establish We distinguish between the economy—the forces of as the foundation of museum building. This last statement production and industrial relations—as basis, as a certain offers an idea of, firstly, how to construct the “external,” that foundation for society; we distinguish between the political is, the network of museums, and also how to build the “inter- superstructure and a number of ideological superstructures, nal,” that is, the structure of each individual museum. such as religion, art, and so forth. Therefore, we do not sin Turning to the problem of the network of museums in against the objective materialistic point of view if we say that terms of a possible plan, we encounter the general question various types of museums accord with the different aspects, of the classification of museums. If material reality is one, and elements, regions, and sectors of reality, ever mindful that if this unity is a tangible unity, if all objects and phenomena in reality all these aspects exist in a fused form, in a specific are related, fused together, can we build separate branches unity. Therefore, the comprehensive museum will be only of museums, with each branch involved in the identification one of the possible variants, one of the types of museums. In of only certain aspects of reality, in isolation from other, adja- practical terms, we are building, for example, regional muse- cent aspects? The first task of science—the first but not the ums as comprehensive museums. ultimate—is to come to know objects, to reflect on them, and The problem of the system, the problem of the classifica- to show items accordingly in the use of the museum. If this tion of museums, is not an idle question. If anyone thinks is the first task of the museum, then should there be various otherwise, he or she should think that the problem of the types of museums, or should there be only one, so to speak, classification of the sciences, the problem of the classification single, general, comprehensive museum? I think any dogma- of branches of knowledge, is also an idle question. We know, tism here, any rigid decree-making, would be dangerous— however, that for hundreds of thousands of years, people as it would be evidence of a metaphysical point of view. have considered this latter problem. Famous subjective clas- The answer to this general question should be as follows: in sifications of the sciences rest upon pseudoscientific notions addition to comprehensive museums, separate museums— of the faculties of the soul. Suffice it to recall the classification museums dedicated to individual branches of material of Francis Bacon, who derived it from three faculties of the reality—can, must, and should have the right to exist. mind, dogmatically postulated thus: firstly, the imagination, Material reality is one, but in its depths, we distinguish, and from it, the arts; secondly, memory, and from it, history; as I have already said, physical-chemical phenomena, bio- and thirdly, reason, and from it, philosophy. However, fur- logical phenomena, and social phenomena arising due to the ther theoretical developments rejected this subjective, ide- various forms of motion of a single material. And we have to alistic point of view on the question of the classification of distinguish between these groups of phenomena if we want the sciences. Also, there was a moment in history when there

The Materialistic III 328 Museum 329 Dialectical Materialism Ivan Luppol was an objective attempt to construct a system of sciences, an historical museums, science museums. These are the main objective-formal system—for example, Comte’s postulation groups, followed by a whole series of sub-units. However, if of the simple to the complex and the general to the particu- you think about it, it is easy to see that we have here a pseu- lar, or in Spencer, from the abstract to the concrete. doscientific, pseudo-materialistic foundation for the build- There are some analogous formal taxonomies in muse- ing of a museum system. In practice, it turns out that it is ums, for example, in the old divisions (which in some cases a very minor refurbishing of the subjective classification of persist to this day) between scientific, educational, and polit- Bacon, which dates back to the early seventeenth century. A ical museums. A scientific museum, you see, is not an instruc- museum of art, the arts—this refers to mental capacity, which tive museum, but a museum just for scientists; political and at that time was called a cultural objection; the museum of educational museums are just that—museums without sci- history, history itself, is something that, at the time, belonged ence, for the masses, like the old tea temperance societies. to memory. For history, it is alleged, especially needs mem- In order to approach this question correctly, we must ory; the science museum is what before, in the seventeenth start from the object itself. This will be the only scientific, century, referred to reasoning, because in science we must materialistic position to take. And here a question arises, reason. Such is the last word of the bourgeois classification over which we must pause, because some of our comrades in of the museum in the West. museums follow the path of least resistance. Is a materialistic We have the same thing when the classification of muse- point of view needed to resolve the problem of classifying ums is delivered not according to its content but according to museums? Everyone agrees that it is. Fine. But what is col- its form. We, in Moscow, undertook a project not so long ago lected in a museum? Things. So let’s classify the museum, to divide art museums according to form: sculpture, paint- let’s build a system of museums, a museum network, starting, drawing. Thus, a single area of the fine arts was artificially ing from the object, from the material substance that is col- torn. In implementing such a system, we would have a kind lected in museums. Such is often our understanding, and of “materialism” not from the word “matter” but from the also the understanding of the West, when it comes to the word “material,” that is, it is not materialism, but thing-ism requirement of constructing a museum network according or technolog-ism in the classification of art museums. It goes to content. And what is the result? Allow me briefly to tell you without saying that in this example I’m referring to art/ideo- about one such attempt in America (as printed in one lead- logical museums, rather than art/industrial museums. In the ing European magazine dedicated to the museum business) latter, a division of material is necessary—for example, the relating to 1929, about the experience of classification and former Stieglitz Museum in Leningrad, with its focus on tex- types of museums. tiles, ceramics, wood, and metal. From the aforementioned The requirement is put forward of the necessity of the it is clear that the problem of the classification of museums classification of museums according to their content. In is not an idle theoretical question, but a question that is also such a general formulation, this seems materialist and practical, because if we accept a certain system, we will need it may be accepted. Hence, this system: art museums, to implement it practically.

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So, I repeat, in orienting itself, it would seem, with the the sense of the geographical-political or the geographical material element, i.e. with those exhibits that are in its col- distribution of them, but in terms of the basis for separate lection, a museum thinks that it is expressing a materialistic types of museums. This methodological underpinning, of point of view. In fact, this doesn’t result in dialectical materi- course, requires further elaboration and development. alism but in a vulgar materialist point of view. You must not A single dialectical materialist point of view must pen- orient yourself using the subjective faculties of the mind or etrate all the inner content of the museum. There must be some other formal designations, but rather using the object specified starting points and supporting principles only in itself, from the object that is perceived and recognized by order to determine certain limits beyond which would mean knowledge, and then revealed in the specific language of a departure from dialectical materialism. First, an initial, the museum. Therefore, the classification of museums can decisive, crushing blow should be directed toward idealism, only be based on the same point of view from which we pro- which veils itself within the museum, and sometimes appears ceed with the classification of the sciences and the objects in the form of dualism and dualistic eclecticism. We can say of reality or, in more abstract terms, according to the forms that in its pure form we no longer have such museums, but of matter in motion. still the danger of dualism and the throwback of idealism is With these underlying principles, if only marked as extremely strong, and I do not know if you can say that we are an outline, we will have a group of natural science muse- freed from the remnants of all of these “virtues” and qualities ums, but if we take the separate sciences, then we will have in our museums. The material of the museum cannot give a group of special museums, such as ones for mechanics, any guarantees in this regard. physics, chemistry, and biology, and these museums will A technical museum may be equipped nicely and located speak in their own museum language about the physi- in a new, special building with some wonderful exhibitions, cal form of the motion of matter, the chemical form of the but the ideological orientation may be wrong and unac- motion of matter, the biological form, and so on. Then we ceptable. Let me give an example or two. In Leipzig, in the will have a group of technical and economic museums that summer of 1930, though it was not in the museum but at an will display the forces of production and industrial relations exhibition of the fur and hunting industries, the latest tech- of society, economy, and economic construction; next, a nical achievements were shown, and they were extremely group of sociohistorical museums where we should include interesting, valuable museum exhibitions that we urgently ethnology and identify problems of social formations in all needed. And right there, in the German Pavilion, on an entire their aspects, the history of forms of class struggle, the his- wall, hung a gigantic panel, artistically hung and some- tory of the revolutionary movement, and so on. Next we will how dominating all the other exhibits; on this panel were confront the group of “superstructure” museums, where depicted Adam and Eve, whom an angel, on the orders of we include art, the antireligious, the superstructure-com- God, if I am not mistaken, expels from paradise. Under the prehensive types. Such is a general underpinning of start- picture, an inscription corresponding to the scene: “The Lord ing points for building the museum network, but not in God made Adam and Eve fur garments and clothed them”

The Materialistic III 332 Museum 333 Dialectical Materialism Ivan Luppol

(Bible, Genesis, Ch. 1, 21).1 It is clear that, as it were, this I will not say, of course, that in our museums we often exhibition in a technical respect was amazingly executed, encounter such installations in such an obvious form. But I but no matter how beautiful the individual exhibits, all of its think that each museum worker, digging in his memory, can “philosophy,” its whole methodological and ideological atti- recall a few examples that follow along the same lines. tude, its orientation to the Christian religion, the Bible, and I turn to the question of what practical methods we need from the Bible deducing the origin and role of fur garments, to build a museum on the basis of dialectical materialism. was worth nothing to us and is, for us, totally unacceptable. I am sure that every museum worker can recall examples In the same year in Dresden, at an exhibition of hygiene of a time when, with such a purpose, the center of gravity in the recently opened new building of the Museum of tended toward labeling. It was believed that nothing else Hygiene, a lot of extraordinarily winning and interestingly was as important as the Marxist explanation in the form of a arranged exhibits were presented. Along with this, in the label—this was everything or almost everything. I agree that first introductory hall hung a poster (or rather, a mural on the editing of labels, the text of the inscriptions, should be the wall) in which a hypothesis of the universe was given. approached very carefully and cautiously. More consistent First of all, a quote, again from the Book of Genesis, was Marxist formulations need, of course, to be provided. But given, expressing the Bible’s account of the creation of we must bear in mind that, although labeling is a necessary the world. Then Aristotle was represented, and finally, the element of our museums and must be organically linked with Kant-Laplace hypothesis of the origin of the world was the exhibition, not just externally attached to it, it is all the given. Here, they seem to say, all these are equal, so choose same a secondary museum resource, and not the specific as you like. And there, on the same wall, was a poster—in language of the museum. Therefore, to seek refuge from a the bourgeois state, as you see, they do not shrink from failed anti-materialist exhibition in “decent” Marxist label- extensive exhibition, forcibly giving a solution to the riddle ing would be completely wrong. of life. Unfortunately, I have no records with which to bring One could say that the great task lies with the museum you the text literally, but it went something like this: there guide. We now introduce a new workforce for that purpose. are two points of view, the “mechanistic,” that is, in the Needless to say, the guide should give the Marxist interpre- current context, an overall materialistic point of view, and tation of everything that is available in the museum. Again, the vitalistic point of view—choose what you want: both it is undoubtedly true that a bad guide can ruin a good are equally valid. At best, we have here a revival of what exhibition, but we must bear in mind that a good guide can was, in a sense, progressive in the Middle Ages: a revival do little with a poor exhibition. It will disturb him, but he of the doctrine of double truth, which now can be called a cannot change it. The guide, of course, is not an outsider to reactionary doctrine. our museum. There is no doubt that he must be organically linked to it. Still, even a very lively story from a guide—this 1. An inexact quotation and inexact reference. In the original: “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of is not museum-specific language, and when we talk about a skins, and clothed them” (Gen: 3:21). —Ed. note [1931] Marxist exhibition in a museum, the presence of a wonderful

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Marxist guide does not eliminate the problem of the con- worldview, so to speak, a historical and political concept. struction of a relevant exhibition. The same is true for bro- How is this done? I said that the museum conjures particular chures, leaflets, and so forth. visual representations, and I also said that this is not bad, For the museum, the most significant part is the exhi- because visual representations are bright and direct; indeed, bition, as it is its language, its specificum. The exhibition they are brighter than abstract concepts. Such representa- cannot be dissolved in descriptions and explanatory text, tions are more widely accessible to our as yet underqualified which, although necessary, cannot veil and cover the fail- masses. However, the matter is not just one of visual repre- ings of the exhibition. Just as if 60–70 percent of a film was sentation. Here you can make a certain analogy between the taken up only by names, descriptions, and explanatory text, artistic and the photographic portrait. Photography, maybe, we undoubtedly would have said that such a composition of can be extremely accurate in transmitting all the details of its film does not attain its goal and target, and that because of object, but at the same time it will be, so to speak, an exterior this, it is not worthy of making an unnecessary cinematic portrait, it will be the transfer of some external marks and the fuss over it. smallest details. If we have a truly artistic portrait made—we can talk about a single-subject portrait or a group portrait— * * then we see the transfer, so to speak, of interior moments of * essence. We see how an artistic portrait, while not reproducing in minute detail, penetrates deeper, in a sense, and gives I did not speak without some irony when I said that the more toward the understanding of its object. museum was a collection of things. In fact, the museum should show relationships through things. Of course, the museum * * ostensibly, at first sight, is a collection of things arranged in a * certain order. However, our goal is that the museum should not even be a system of things, a system in the true classical I have said that we may have museums of different types and sense of the word, that is, made up of many parts of a whole. various branches, but they should all be dialectical material- The museum should rather provide a certain system of ideas, ist museums. and here again lies the difficulty for the museum. The task of subsequent reports includes giving concrete A museum conjures particular visual representations, act- expression to this general position. As an example, we can ing on our external physical senses. This is inevitable and this say that the sociohistorical museum should reveal the whole is not bad. In this, if you will, there is merit and the positive arsenal of categories of historical materialism, and not in aspect of the museum as an educational and cultural insti- their abstract isolation, but in their concrete unity. They tution. But with such visual representations, the museum should identify socioeconomic formations and their produc- should conjure also a particular formation of concepts. tive forces in their technical aspects, as well as referring to It should inspire a particular understanding, a particular the most revolutionary productive force—the human—and

The Materialistic III 336 Museum 337 Dialectical Materialism Ivan Luppol indeed, man is not abstract but concrete. Likewise museums our museum be built so that the visitor speaks against when should identify industrial relations, that is, the relationships different forms and aspects of capitalist society are demon- among classes: they must show the class struggle, its forms, strated, and for when certain aspects and processes of social- including those forms of class struggle such as the proletar- ist construction are shown in the museum. ian revolution; the changes of some forms of class struggle In delivering their specific media of visual representation into other forms; and history, understood as the history of that are more powerful and accessible than abstract concepts the struggle of classes. These same categories in a particular and abstract language, museums should bring us close to the museum’s language should be presented not only in socio- action, should summon in us the will of the toiling masses on historical museums, but also in technical, economic, art, and the basis of dialectical materialism, on the basis of the theory antireligious museums. Such a specificity of separate types of of revolutionary communism. Our theory—it is not dogma, museums corresponds to the separate aspects of reality that but a guide to action, a guide to revolutionary action. The Marxism does not deny. requirement that the museum on the basis of knowledge not We should not be limited to giving an explanation of the only reveals and shows, but also brings us close to the action, patterns of natural and social phenomena in the material organizing a person’s will to revolutionary action—these and media of a museum, and to helping to comprehend cer- are the challenges facing us, and they require the method of tain aspects of reality. Though the primary task of science is dialectical materialism. A museum constructed in this way to know, and the primary task of the museum is fundamen- will thus give workers a new additional jolt in their struggle tally to show, the business of knowing and displaying are not against capitalism, for communist society, and, at the same, exclusive. Just like science, the museum has a second task, in the museum, built in such a way, in its own specific form, is unity with the primary, composed of, so to speak, the soul of itself included in this fight for communist society. the museum. Dialectical materialism teaches partisanship, teaches on the basis of knowing how to determine, from a revolutionary point of view, everything that is for or against this or that phenomenon. And museums should, with all their exhibitions, not only objectively reflect the exchange of phenomena or that same class struggle, but they must at the same time guide visitors to an evaluation. This requirement is part of the arsenal of dialectical materialism. The museum visitor should be “political” if he looks at the exhibition carefully, “political” in the sense in which Lenin spoke about it philosophically, that is, he must speak either for it or against. With regard to social phenomena, for example, it is necessary that

The Materialistic III 338 Museum 339 Marxist Exhibition Methods for Natural Science Museums

Boris Zavadovsky Marxist Exhibition Methods Boris Zavadovsky

First published in 1931 The inner content of prerevolutionary museums was char- Translated by Anastasiya Osipova acterized by:

A 1) The mechanical mix of a cabinet of curiosities with an attempt at the formal and sys- 1. Marxism is a monistic worldview that encompasses tematic collection of disparate items treated all aspects and phenomena of the world around us. as “things in themselves,” severed from their It is within its goals, therefore, to consider the entire inner relation with other similar museum sum of facts and conclusions of the natural sciences items and the context in which they were and technology. The revolutionary transformation found naturally. and socialist reconstruction of the Land of Soviets, 2) Combining the tactics of the dogmatic asser- reflective of the revolutionary praxis of Marxist tion of certain ideas (which the exhibition theory, inevitably demands a reconsideration and in question takes as its conscious or uncon- reevaluation of the entire structure and organiza- scious foundation) with the “democratic tional principles of the museums of our Union. liberalism” that allows interpretation of displayed facts in a materialist, as well as ideal- 2. A key point in the transformation of the entire ist, sense. inner structure of natural science museums is the 3) Abstracting displayed items from their his- reorganization of rigidly outdated prerevolution- torical context, class, and social content, as ary museum exhibitions (which have not been well as from the productive relations that completely eradicated from the majority of Soviet made them and which they reflect. museums) according to Marxist methods of exhibi- 4) The appearance of political neutrality that tion. These methods will allow us to restore a con- conceals the clear class-character of such nection between museums and contemporary life, exhibitions and the service that they ren- and will grant the museum its proper place as an der to bourgeois capitalist society. This is active weapon of militant Marxism on the field of expressed in (a) a prevailing naked empiri- theoretical struggle, as well as in the praxis of social- cism and formulaic technical presentation of ist construction. industrial themes, and in careful avoidance of general topics and problems of the natu- 3. These are the main traits that characterize the meta- ral sciences as something that clearly rein- physical profile and the structure of a prerevolution- forces a revolutionary materialist worldview ary museum: of the working masses; (b) the rather crafty use of the “language of things,” displayed in

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a museum to inspire subservient, militaris- reveals the workings of the universal laws of tic, and chauvinistic feelings in its visitors. nature. The principles and responsibilities of the thematic placement of museum materi- Prerevolutionary museum exhibiting methods were charac- als develop in correspondence with this. terized by: 2) The unambiguous reflection and assertion of a consistent dialectical-material worldview 1) The stagnancy of the exhibition, expressed that is founded in the natural sciences and in the lifelessness and immobility of each that corresponds to an understanding of the separate object, as well as in the sanctity of objectively existing world. the object’s placement, calibrated for noth- 3) To counter the analytical dissection of a phe- ing “less than eternity.” nomenon into separate parts and spheres 2) Solipsistic aristocratism, the self-isolation that correspond to the formal separation of of the museum exhibition from the viewer, sciences into discrete disciplines (anatomy, unwillingness to make exhibitions under- zoology, botany, and so on), we need a com- standable to the mass visitor. plex, cross-disciplinary, and synthetic grasp 3) lack of coordination between the museum of any given subject. and other parallel educational approaches 4) Contrary to the static historicism of prerevo- and methods (publications, lectures, guided lutionary museums, all the efforts of which tours). were directed toward the past and saw mon- 4) The monotone systematic continuity of the umentalizing this past as their main goal, placement of material, meant to reflect the Marxist exhibition demands true histori- lifeless and immobile character of nature, as cism in its scientific dialectical understand- understood by a museum worker. ing. For a Marxist exhibition, the history of an object is a necessary condition for under- 4. Against all this Marxist exhibition principles require: standing its present and for predicting its future development. Out of this develops an 1) The unity and coherence of the museum understanding of a museum not as an archi- exhibition’s content, doing away with the val collection of antiques, but as a living and isolation of objects from each other. The vibrant organism that is connected in mul- items in Marxist museums are not to be tiple ways with contemporary everyday life approached as metaphysical “things in and that is oriented toward the future. Such themselves.” Rather, they are significant a museum guides its visitors toward new to the extent that their individual content struggles and victories, instead of doggedly

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following the tail of history, trying to monu- 8) As part of destroying old museum traditions, mentalize its conquests. we demand maximal use of all available 5) Contrary to the static character of a prerev- technologies and materials brought from olutionary museum, we demand dynamism outside the museum, necessary for render- via the following means: ing exhibitions more effective and enhanc- (1) Disrupting the dead peace of the ing their educational and pedagogical effect. museum, this “temple of science,” (Some possible auxiliary methods include: by introducing live things (plants organizing reading rooms inside a museum; and animals), which would allow using posters, photographs, drawings, mod- us to study the laws of nature in els, and other visual media.) their dynamism, in the very process 9) Against monotonous systematic display, we of living. propose to implement a principle of inter- (2) Maximal flexibility of the thematic rupted continuity by breaking the single design of a museum, which would unified ideological and thematic direction allow us to rearrange its exhibition of a museum into a series of sections, each space in response to changes in the of which would have its own clearly defined tempo of life and the demands of theme or subtheme. The subdividing of the socialist construction, as well as of major themes must reflect the logical struc- the task of deepening the dialecti- ture of a phenomenon, to emphasize the cru- cal understanding of our surround- cial problems of the natural sciences and, at ing reality. the same time, to ensure maximal tactical 6) Against the old museum’s dogmatism and flexibility in the use of museum materials by scholasticism we propose exhibiting not only individual visitors and by tour groups. empirical facts and scientific achievements, 10) Museum exhibition must reveal the prin- but also the methods by which these facts cipal dialectical laws behind the process of were uncovered. We ask to make it the muse- development: the law of the unity of oppo- um’s responsibility to fully reveal the meth- sites, negation of the negation, and the ods and technologies of scientific research. transformation of quantity into quality. 7) To counter self-centered artistocratism, we 11) To overcome the distance of the museum will provide thorough and detailed explana- from the praxis of real life, we demand its tory accompanying texts that will be written politicization by all available means: bring- in clear language and be understandable to ing museum display methods out onto the a mass audience. street and into workplaces, introducing

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into museum practice the entire experience 1. We require that all museums observe the principle of work initiatives that were born in the of the unity of theory and praxis in the organization struggle for socialist construction (methods of the exhibition space. Their task is not only to give of shock-labor, social competition, and so sufficient explanation of the theoretical foundations on; inclusion of current tasks and statistics behind displayed phenomena, but also to address about the completion of the labor plan in a how they are used practically in the socialist recon- museum exhibition). struction of our country and in the exploitation of its 12) Finally, to counter the apolitical and neutral productive forces. appearance of prerevolutionary museums, we demand the clear articulation of the class 2. However, such principles of the unity of form and orientation of the meaning and content of content in the museum, and of the rational organiza- exhibited subjects, understanding that the tion of its thematic sections, require that we distin- nature of class and the role of science are guish between two main types of museums: (a) those among the most powerful weapons of the focused on broader theoretical questions and that proletariat in its struggle for liberation from address the subject of the practical and industrial use capitalism, as well as from the rule of nature of natural resources only tangentially and insofar as over man. they help to illustrate the theory; and (b) museums of 13) The presence of any of the above listed ele- a primarily industrial orientation, which, neverthe- ments alone is of course insufficient for any less, address theoretical foundations behind this or given exhibition to be considered a Marxist that particular technical problem. The first type of one. What is needed is a combination of at museum is almost without precedent in the history least several of them while observing the unity of prerevolutionary museums, both here and abroad. of dynamic form and class content as well as This is not surprising, since the capitalist order was the general orientation of the museum. not at all interested in broadening and deepening the scientific and materialistic education of the masses. While developing museums and museum sections B of this type, it is necessary to clearly identify and give special attention to the issues that may serve as As part of the reorganization of natural science museums keys for understanding dialectical principles. This according to Marxist exhibition methods, museum workers should be done despite the difficulties that may arise and planners face an obligation to include the exhibition when translating such principles into the format elements that most fully and vividly concretize main dialec- of museum display. Among these crucial issues we tical postulates. count the following:

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1) The history of the natural sciences and their interaction with the development of produc- Permanent Collections tive resources, as well as class relations at of Fine Art Museums: Joint Report different stages of human society’s development. (To be represented in the Communist Academy Museum of Natural History.); 2) The structure of matter and the principal laws of physics and chemistry (not presented anywhere); 3) The history and structure of the universe (cosmos) (some promise of addressing this topic is given by the organization of planetariums); 4) The dynamics and history of the Earth’s core; its connection to and interaction with the development of life on Earth; 5) The origins of life. Addressing this subject should involve a dialectical analysis of the characteristics of life as a special form of the movement of matter. This includes the presentation of the correspondence between living and dead matter and an analysis of the lowest limit of life separating it from the nonorganic nature. (This is not offered anywhere, but included in the program of the State Biological Museum.)

Aleksey Fedorov-Davydov

III 350 Permanent Collections of Fine Art Museums Aleksey Fedorov-Davydov

First published in 1931 revealing the psyche of different social classes in pictorial Translated by Anastasia Skoybedo form. The visuality of art is what drastically distinguishes it from other human ideologies. I think that, in his foreword, Comrade Luppol very rightly Of course, this does not mean that visual thinking is a focused his attention on permanent collections, and on special kind of thinking, as related to other types of think- methods of presenting information, because the question ing, and of course the theses that were read at the previous of exhibition is really the fundamental question in terms of meeting about “chemical thinking” force us to make this cor- museum building. In it, as if in a focal point, the whole of rection. We would have assumed incorrect positions, which museum work is gathered, and its gathering work is the start- some other art historians assume, like Pereverzev, who main- ing point for any politico-enlightenment work of museums, tains that visual thinking even happens in an individual art- and essentially, it is by the permanent collection of a museum ist regardless of philosophy, politics, or religious life. We say that we can judge the worldview of the museum and what it that the field of ideology is uniform, but the forms, methods, plans to tell the masses that visit it. practice, methods of understanding of classes, their class All here already agree with the idea that museums show position, and methods of self-affirmation and agitation of not objects, but processes, and that the classification of this class can be completely different, and we need to find out a museum, the specificity of a museum, is defined not by the qualitative identity of art as a kind of human activity and objects that are collected in this museum, but by those pro- visual thinking that the import of class ideology expresses cesses, those objects—which are not always material in the in its own ways. The particularities of this process and the sense of palpable—that this museum reveals. That’s why, demonstration of it is the main purpose of fine art museums. when speaking about the permanent collection of a fine art This is easiest to understand when you compare them to museum, I have to occupy your time a little bit with a dis- museums of a different kind, especially natural history and cussion of the specificity of art. I will try to be succinct and historical museums. Art expresses and reflects reality, and speak concretely. its subjectivity of text is at the same time the objectivity of The theses of Comrade Milonov and Comrade Luppol recording facts, which is what needs to be shown in museums correctly state that one and the same thing or object can and of the revolution by means of art. It is, first and foremost, art must be shown in different museums.L uppol is absolutely as a document, as a portrait of reality, for art, as an emotional right in saying that artistic material, the material of fine art, irritant, is the strongest method of influence, and magnifies must be used by all museums. We need to find out how any that revolutionary charge which the observer receives from kind of material can be used in a fine art museum. nonartistic material in this museum. In a historical museum, What is art? By art we understand a defined, specific kind since only the full scope of a historical process should be of socially necessary human activity, which has its own speci- shown there—i.e. not only a socioeconomic or sociopolitical ficity as a defined area of human life, and this specificity is process, but also a socio-ideological process—and since for based on those functions which it fulfills—on functions of a full picture and full understanding of the historical process

The Materialistic III 352 Museum 353 Permanent Collections of Fine Art Museums Aleksey Fedorov-Davydov it is necessary to understand all of its aspects and influences Therefore, it is completely clear that the tasks that stand and the reverse influence of the superstructure on the base, before art museums are twofold. The long-term and constant then this artistic superstructure needs to be present in this task is the task of the proletariat’s mastering of art as a class museum. However, there is a colossal difference between dis- weapon, the task of the proletariat mastering the whole of playing art in a historical museum and displaying it in a fine the former culture. This is a long-term task that needs to be art museum: In a historical museum, the display of art, along completed by art museums in their general construction. In with other ideologies, must demonstrate what is common in addition, there is a task that is not purely artistic but rather these different forms, qualities, and methods of demonstrat- sociopolitical, where art needs to be used in temporary exhi- ing one and the same thing. In an art museum, we need to bitions and expositions as a powerful emotional weapon. If reveal art in such a specificity as to show what differentiates we are building a fine art museum according to the speci- this ideology from other ideologies, i.e. to show the forms of ficity of art as a social process, as a special kind of socially this process, to show not only how art reflects life, but how it necessary human practice, as a special form of demonstrat- reveals class content, to show its special, specific nature, its ing class ideology, then in our permanent collection we need methodology of organizing its own material, be it real mate- to assume the main category that exists in science and art. rial (stone, tree, and so on) or the material of human psychic This category is the understanding of style, style as unifica- experience. This task—to show the specificity of art, to show tion, as the process of the unification of form and substance, how the artistic process happens, in what ways and with the unification of organizational principles of creative work what methods this class, in this stage of its development, of one or another class at various stages of its development. demonstrates in specific forms, its own ideas of class—is dic- Here, it is not only class struggle that is reflected in art. Art, tated by those tasks that stand before the fine art museum in in its process, is one way of demonstrating this class struggle. general. This task consists first and foremost in teaching the Art is not just a mirror, is not just a reflection. In art, ide- proletariat to use art as its class weapon; and in order for the ology finds its development, which exists in various other proletariat to know how to use art as its class weapon in the forms. So the problem lies not only in understanding how modern era, it is necessary for it to know what the weapon this or that style in its context, in its forms, depended on was and how it was used by other classes that came before it. various socioeconomic conditions, but the problem lies in Then, by way of mastering the whole former artistic culture, understanding these socioeconomic conditions, this politi- the fine art museum must help the proletariat to facilitate the cal struggle of one or another epoch, as a specific artistic birth of proletariat amateur and professional art. And finally, process; to understand class struggle, happening within art taking into account the huge emotional power of art’s influ- itself as a struggle of artistic ideologies, if we want to show ence, we need to put forth a goal, a common goal for our time, it as a struggle, as a change, as a dialectic transformation of a common goal of constructing socialism and class struggle one style into another, in constant flux and collision, in con- in our country, i.e. the goal of influencing by means of art, as stant transformation into its own opposite, it is completely the most effective means, in an emotional sense. clear that it would be absurd for us to think that separate

The Materialistic III 354 Museum 355 Permanent Collections of Fine Art Museums Aleksey Fedorov-Davydov museums can be built based on different types of art—muse- but rather from those socioeconomic shifts that happened ums of architecture, sculpture, painting, furniture, ceramics, during the time when he was active, from which it is clear that and so forth. the artist’s identity is also subjected to this principle of sty- We have to show the development of class-based visual listic display. We need to juxtapose this with socioeconomic thinking. That is why the feature of complexity, i.e. the amal- processes and economic struggle, but we can understand gamation of such different types of special arts, is for us a this life as a particular life of art within its specific stylis- deliberate postulate. The principle of division by nationality tic character, and that is why we need to show not only the and the principle of identity should be subordinated to the change in class relations, not only how it is refracted in the principle of showing the struggle of styles within a particular subject matter, theme, and treatment of this theme, but we class struggle during various stages of the economic devel- need to show the dialectic shift of art as a particular socioeco- opment of society. It is completely clear that socioeconomic nomic process, and as one of the forms of human labor—in formations and class struggle happen under concrete histori- other words, we need to provide the dialectic for the shift in cal circumstances, and one or another historical formation the actual kinds of art. We know that in feudal society, which or class struggle happens differently, depending on concrete has closed farmstead at its core, when exchange is not yet historical circumstances: we have one kind of capitalism in fully developed, we have different systems of art, which are Russia and a completely different kind in England. It would synthetic in their nature, where art is monumental, where be absurd to blur governmental and national differences, but architecture is the leading art form, where painting exists they should not obscure common characteristics of equal only as wall decoration, where there is no independent sculp- economic stages, and even if there is a big difference between ture, where sculpture is part of the whole art complex—let’s the art of French and Russian capitalism, the two have more say Egypt, ancient Greece, Europe from the eleventh to the in common than, say, the art of Russian capitalism and the twelfth centuries, and so on. The further the process of trade art of Russian feudalism. We cannot deny identity, but we and financial relations develops, the more elements of capi- should abandon the old principle of grouping paintings by talism appear, and the more and more heterogeneous and painter, as it is in the hall of Rembrandt and so on. It is ludi- differentiated art becomes. Painting stands out indepen- crous to think that a painter painting for forty or fifty years dently first, then sculpture stands out, which at first exists in reflects the ideology of only one class group during those the shape of monuments in squares. The forms of art become years. This practically never happens and it is barely present smaller: giant frescoes disappear, and small easel paintings in societies that are just emerging from feudalism, when the appear, etchings acquire more importance. Here, by showing speed of life was completely different, and afterward the art- the general process of art development, we have to show this ist, in his evolution, goes through many different styles. change in forms of human labor, forms of art, the change in Of course, we are not supposed to discover this in a types of art, to show if it was synthetic and monumental or painter’s biography, as it would be rather absurd, being a if it was isolated and differentiated, and served the needs of Marxist, to talk about discovering something in a biography, a bourgeois individual and his living room. In this way, as

The Materialistic III 356 Museum 357 Permanent Collections of Fine Art Museums Aleksey Fedorov-Davydov our base, we have the complex permanent collection, and sense of the words, for a painting does not have anything then we arrange it according to artistic styles. By complex material or utilitarian. Its essence is not in what it has (weight we mean, first of all, the general complex of art, and in no and length, that it is painted with paint …). That’s not the way a complex of art and not art. We have to draw attention issue. The essence is purely dialectic—it is the essence of the to this because such kinks have been quite common. One artistic. That is why by “a complex” we mean the complex of such kink is the attempt to unify art and to dilute it, to show objects of art. The main purpose of this complex is to show so-called ideological art, i.e. painting and sculpture, and to whether this art was monumental or differentiated, what combine it with furniture and architecture, in order to, in this type of art was the leading type for a given era; a compari- way, reconstruct the former picture of this art. For example, son with the industry of that era would even better show the if you have a rococo-period painting, which very frequently unity of style and the creative artistic difference—was it art hung in an alcove, then you would need to build an alcove for this given class at this or that stage in its development? and hang this rococo painting there. This transformation of This is the principal understanding of a complex. art museums into interiors would have been a grave mistake, Moving toward a technical understanding of it, we need because these interiors don’t even show a real way of life. If to introduce additional auxiliary materials. First of all, this someone thinks that from the halls of Peterhof Palace you additional material is so-called secondary art. If we can show can learn about everyday life of the seventeenth century, the class struggle of styles, then it is absurd to think that then this notion does not correspond with reality, because someone like Rembrandt was the only exponent of seven- only the grand side of life is shown there. Generally, the study teenth-century culture, that all French art is only Poussin, of everyday life can be called a science in its own right. This and that Russian fine art culture of the capitalist period is manner of displaying art would have erased the organizing only Vereschagin, Surikov, Vasnetsov, Benois, and so on. This power of art, would have erased its class content. Even more is the art of the ruling class, and the only reason that exclu- so, it would have been wrong to deny the necessity of show- sively aristocratic and bourgeois art was on display in muse- ing art separately from the process of materialistic culture. ums is that museums were an organ of the ruling class. We Another kink is the urge to dilute art in other objects of need to show the bourgeoisie along with the aristocracy dur- culture. This shows a lack of understanding of the difference ing the time of feudalism; peasant art in the era of capitalism, between materialistic and utilitarian objects and what ideo- during the era of city capitalism; the way in which the city logical processes are happening within objects. Even though influenced the village, showing some paintings of Benois or art is an object which can be touched with your hands, which Vasnetsov; and along with them the primitive pictures, which costs a particular amount of money and has a particular went to the village; and the art of the city bourgeoisie—only weight, which is made from a particular material—i.e. even this gives the real picture of the state of art. This art, which though art has all of the characteristics of an object—it is does not represent the full picture, only serves a small por- only an object in quotes, because the meaning of this object, tion of the population, and along with showing the accom- the content of it, is not material and utilitarian in the general plishments of the ruling classes, there is great barbarity in

The Materialistic III 358 Museum 359 Permanent Collections of Fine Art Museums Aleksey Fedorov-Davydov the sense that it was used as a method for exploiting other being introduced there. Next, we will introduce, and already classes and so on. Therefore, the display of the class dialectic have been introducing, tables that display the economics of and the interpretation of styles show art of different classes. the time. Then, we envisionétiquetage as freestanding, on I invite all comrades who are interested in this question particular monuments. to visit our State Tretyakov Gallery, where we show how the Finally, another type of étiquetage, the most difficult, grand art of the nineteenth century was turned into pathetic which has to overcome the most obstacles, especially aes- primitive painting in the backwater, how peasant art was thetic ones: this is slogan étiquetage. It is important to provide vanishing, and how these famous weavings, towels, archan- a visual image, to immediately provide a strong impression— gel embroidery, and so on were greatly influenced by aristo- in other words, when you are showing the imperial and aris- cratic art. Using the art of various classes we can show the tocratic portraits of the eighteenth century, you need to also processes of the struggle between styles and the dialectic of provide political slogans for these things, for a visitor often art in its actuality. does not like to read in museums. He comes to see, not to However, this is not enough: other non-art material read. Therefore, you need to make him look. Here, Comrade should be introduced into the complex—not physical mate- Milonov rightly talked about a museum slogan. The creation rial, but rather étiquetage. (It would be possible, but difficult, of this museum slogan is possible not only in historical muse- to introduce physical material, considering our constrained ums, zoological museums, technical museums, and so on, museum spaces. Étiquetage, however, has to be introduced but is possible in art museums. For this you need once and into an art museum.) I need to say that people who have the for all to abandon the beauty of hanging paintings and you worst opinion of étiquetage are art historians and museum need to know how to unite the general composition; you workers, who are more or less aesthetes. At a time when need to build walls in such a way that the slogan material workers of the zoological museum are not preoccupied with does not appear as just étiquetage, but is a unifying bridge beauty, we think about beauty more than about science. between different things, so that paintings plus slogans, writ- That’s why very many of our museum workers fetishize all art ings, and posters make up the unified composition of a wall. monuments, treating them with adoration; they are afraid Then you will not have to be afraid of all of thisétiquetage . of anything that can disrupt the quietness and beauty of the Finally, I would like to finish with one point. This is the museum hall. question of the so-called introductory hall, a question that We envision étiquetage, firstly, in the shape of tables, dia- has still not died out in our art museum. It needs to be said grams, and even geographical maps, which absolutely need that the introductory hall was born as a subconscious desire to be introduced into museums. I think that if you were to to give Marxism one room in a museum, so that it would not ask an average visitor to the Museum of Fine Arts, where we get in the way of other work. They thought in this way: we will have Assyrian monuments, “Where do you think Assyria provide a room for it, put quotes from Lenin there, as well as was located?” he would probably suggest five different parts socioeconomic tables, the class struggle, and geographical of the world. Therefore, it is very good that those maps are maps, and whatever else—we will even put a live elephant

The Materialistic III 360 Museum 361 Permanent Collections of Fine Art Museums there, but we do not want it in a museum. No matter how we tried to change or reconstruct this introductory hall, every- An Experiment in Marxist thing remained the same. Exhibition-Making at If we want to show class struggle and to trace it through the whole collection of the museum, we will no longer need the State Tretyakov Gallery the introductory hall. However, art museums need halls of a different order. We can show the history of art in museums, but in conjunction with this we need to show the theory of art. We need to teach the viewer to discern what art forms are—space, color, air, and so on, with which esteemed museum workers in their general mass are as unfamiliar as I am unfamiliar with sociological things. We need to teach the analysis of artistic forms and, on the other hand, provide it with Marxist theoretical sociology. For this we need to build one kind of exhibition in one hall, one that constantly changes, for example, showing how the human body can be expressed in pictorial representation, how you can show its size, and further, how, by using concrete physical material, you can provide the framework for a Marxist sociology of art. This is the problem of showing with real objects. As far as the room is concerned, we need to create what our museums are still not providing—consultation and information for people who want to study art in more depth.

Natalya Kovalenskaya

III 362 An Experiment in Marxist Exhibition-making Natalya Kovalenskaya

First published in 1931 about a year, the physical implementation happened in a Translated by Anastasiya Osipova month and a half, because the exhibition was planned for a museum convention. The State Tretyakov Gallery, together with the rest of the The main principles behind the organization of this Soviet museums, faces the task of reorganizing its opera- show were those approved by an artistic section of the tions according to the principles of dialectical materialism. museum conference after the discussion of Aleksey Fedorov- A radical transformation of the exhibition space is required Davydov’s presentation.1 to abolish the old system, founded on the principle of pure Our first task was to select materials. It was absolutely aestheticism. The new museum should reveal the class clear that our collections alone were insufficient, since up nature of art and its significance as a mighty weapon of until then the Gallery displayed only the art of the ruling class war. Such exhibitions will cultivate a Marxist world- classes and was focused almost exclusively on easel painting. view and help the proletariat learn how to employ art in its First of all we had to juxtapose the art of the ruling struggle. Finally, the new museum will have immediate sig- classes with the art of the oppressed (within the temporal nificance as propaganda, since it will reveal all historically scope of our exhibition, that meant the art of peasants). It is formed class contradictions, reflected one way or another only possible to fully understand the ideological character of in an exhibition. the art of the landowners when the entire system of exploita- Since the new exhibition methods had not yet been fully tion that produced it is exposed. Within an art museum we discovered, in 1929–30 we arranged an experimental show can show the effects of oppression in the sphere of art. It is in order to facilitate their study and further development. precisely exploitation that caused the extreme backward- On December 8, 1930 the State Tretyakov Gallery opened ness of peasant art of the eighteenth and early nineteenth an exhibition of Russian art from the period of the decay of centuries, as well as its strong bond with feudal or even pre- feudalism (the end of the eighteenth century and the begin- feudal culture. The exhibition showed just such conserva- ning of the nineteenth) that was organized according to the tism in peasant art. Marxist methodology of display. The experience of this show At the same time, it was necessary to show the shift will be taken into consideration during the upcoming gen- toward realism and nascent social satire, which began to eral reorganization of the Gallery. develop within peasant art as its ties to the cities, commerce, Among the central goals of the exhibition was developing and crafts of the regional centers began to grow. (Such methods of selection, grouping, and interpretation of mate- changes can be seen in toys, weaving instruments, and primi- rial. The task of external decoration, which was immensely tive popular prints [lubok].) more difficult in this case as compared to a regular museum exhibition, was only partially outlined; its full realization 1. A. Fedorov-Davydov is directing the current reorganization of the State Tretyakov Gallery. TheE xperimental Complex Marxist Exhibition was hindered by the lack of necessary funding and time: was directed by N. Kovalevskaya with the participation of Z. Zonov, M. although the scientific planning of the exhibition lasted Kolpachka, and S. Velikanov.

The Materialistic III 364 Museum 365 An Experiment in Marxist Exhibition-making Natalya Kovalenskaya

The question of the influence of the art of the ruling class Museum of History, the main trove of such art, did not show on the art of peasants—our third important issue—could not sufficient generosity to the State Tretyakov Gallery, lending be properly addressed in the show for the lack of materials us only two merchant portraits. We were obliged to build supplied by the History Museum. Until the mid-nineteenth our exhibition with materials offered by the Crafts Museum, century, the merchant class was progressively suppressed whose collection was created in a very specialized way (cos- by the aristocracy. For this reason its eighteenth- and early tumes) and thus is not sufficiently thorough. nineteenth-century art never gained the status of “big” The situation is much better with the primitive popular and “real,” and thus deserving of the viewer’s attention. At prints (lubok), an art form in which we see the emergence of the same time, establishing the roots of bourgeois art is of social satire and bourgeois protest against aristocracy. These high importance. In particular, it is absolutely necessary to materials were received from the Museum of Fine Arts. emphasize the difference between merchants and industrial We must once again admit that even the art of the rul- traders. This distinction is very often omitted, which results ing classes had not been sufficiently represented in the State in the crude vulgarization and the forgetting of the positions Tretyakov Gallery until recently. Established during the capi- stated by Marx on this subject in the third volume of Capital. talist epoch, it is only natural that the Gallery’s collections The art of the merchant class is represented in our exhi- contain primarily easel painting, which was the dominant bition by several portraits. We must stress that selection of art form of capitalism. Decorative and architectural art of these artworks was not based on the class affiliation of the the precapitalist period, art that rejected all studio forms, people depicted in them—after all, not every portrait of a was not represented. It is clear that to display an eighteenth- merchant belongs to merchant art—but solely on its style, century painting, taken off the wall and torn away from the understood as an expression of class ideology and class inter- sculptural context that usually surrounded it, seems to be an ests. We must acknowledge that most merchant portraits act of violence toward its artistic essence. Moreover, to sug- possess a coherent style, the specificity of which cannot be gest that painting was the sole art form of a period, when it explained by a mere lack of artistic skill. Rather, the emer- did not truly play a leading role, means to directly misrepre- gence of this style should be understood as an expression of sent the real state of art. It is impossible to understand style the psychology, ideology, and the deep-seated conservatism as an expression of class ideology through such an artificial of the merchants. And its roots may be traced to feudalism dissection of the material. However, if we do display a paint- with its icons and early primitive portraiture. ing in a museum, and not in a palace for which it was made, Unfortunately, we must admit that the exhibition only we should still explain what place it used to occupy there hinted at the existence of this style. We did not have the within a broader decorative ensemble. Only completely means to fully represent its development or, for that matter, revealing the boundless sway of decorative imagination the development of the art of the industrial merchants up to allows us to fully understand the hedonistic ideology born the mid-nineteenth century. This section of the exhibition out of the parasitic existence of the slaver class that gained had to be built entirely with “borrowed” material, and the such prominence at the height of their rule. On the other

The Materialistic III 366 Museum 367 An Experiment in Marxist Exhibition-making Natalya Kovalenskaya hand, the exhibiting of the décor would uncover a precapi- significant to show how different the functions of etching talistic system of artistic production as well: the absence of a were in different periods: ranging from utilitarian scientific market, created by capitalism, with work done “on commis- illustrations of the bourgeoisie during the time of Peter the sion,” and for a very specific architectural setting. Great, to court propaganda in the eighteenth century, and To fulfill these tasks, we must first of all show our visitors finally, to bourgeois satirizing of feudalism in the mid-nine- the palace architecture, its interior and exterior decoration. teenth century. This was not done in our exhibition in a satisfactory manner, Only by showing multiple types of art can we really once again for lack of money and space. We could show only establish which of them was prevalent at any given stage of few photographs and two models, one of which was rather societal development. So, the wall dedicated to rococo in poorly made. Certainly, this section needs to acquire signifi- hall number two was dominated by painting and decorative cantly more models, drafts, plans, etchings, and so forth. To carving—this corresponded to the period’s focus on the pic- recreate a real palace interior in its entirety is neither pos- turesque and the decorative. The classical section contained sible for the Gallery, nor is it one of its aims. predominantly sculpture, since it was the principal art form What is absolutely necessary, however, is to display of this style. Finally, in the late nineteenth-century section, samples of decorative arts—first of all, of furniture, the art graphic arts were given the main focus, as it was this art form most closely related to architecture. Our exhibition contains that first initiated the critique of the ruling classes. examples of rococo and classicism, the two most contrasting In addition to broadening the selection of artworks, our styles, representing two deeply divergent stages in the devel- exhibition also strove to include many nonartistic materi- opment of Russian aristocracy. als to clarify the social foundations of art. The usual phrases To fully expose the pleasure-centered character of about this or that artwork expressing bourgeois ideology by rococo, we displayed ceramic miniatures that make the now have become learned clichés and tell our viewers noth- decorative orientation of this style very clear. Bronze ing about what meaning stands behind the name of this or objects, coins, and medals, on the other hand, express that class, let alone about the political conjuncture within the strictness of classicism, a style that developed in the which this class acted. For such formulaic phrases to gain real period when class energy was directed toward reinforcing meaning, it is necessary to present right here in the museum, the “dictatorship of slave-owners.” It goes without saying in direct proximity to art, everything that can be borrowed that these auxiliary art forms were treated precisely as art; from life in order to concretize abstract social categories— the purpose of the exhibition had nothing in common with although one must be aware that if this expansion of scope wanting to show the everyday—this remains the preroga- is done in too radical a manner, the center of gravity will shift tive of history museums. from art as an ideological superstructure to the base. In order The inclusion of graphic arts seems especially important. to prevent this, exhibitions should present by way of histori- They are most closely related to painting, yet are more flex- cal evidence only documents and citations—nothing too ible and more responsive to all social changes. It is extremely “material,” bulky and distracting.

The Materialistic III 368 Museum 369 An Experiment in Marxist Exhibition-making Natalya Kovalenskaya

Documentary materials were displayed in our exhibition and eliminate the automatic parallelism between art as a in the following ways: the economy was presented primarily superstructure and art as a social basis, which is retained through diagrams and maps; the characterization of classes, even in “Marxist” interpretations in instances when the out- through quotations from contemporaries and excerpts of line is not filled with any particular content. governmental decrees and publications, which were particu- At the same time, documentary material allows us to larly revealing for their class ideology interests. For example, expose with the utmost clarity the exploitative nature of the exhibition showed the struggle of early nineteen-century landowner art and to counter its “indulgent” splendor, its conservative landowners to preserve serfdom, a struggle that mendacious idealization of peasant life, with the picture of found its expression in the paintings of Venetsianov. Finally, true conditions the peasants were in—to counter peasant much attention was given to various articles that contained portrayals by Venetsianov, filled with beauty and spiritual the central ideals that each given class held about art at the clarity, with real documents on the serf trade or permission specific moment of their development. It was often the case slips for “exemplary whippings” (from the Museum of the that people living through a specific historical period formu- Revolution). lated their class attitude toward art no less critically than any Finally, we employed samples from literature and poetry Marxist. (For instance, testaments from eighteenth-century as the last type of supplementary material to provide stylistic writers tell us that “masters used the labor of artists to render counterpoints to the artworks. For example, Lomonosov’s ode their rule pleasant to the subjugated; wishing to make people was displayed side by side with folk art of the mid-eighteenth bear their burden patiently, they offered pleasant distracting century, and passages from Pushkin and Ryleev next to the celebrations that would attract all their attention.”) Romantic style of the early nineteenth century, and so on. Citations of this sort allow vivid illustration of the signifi- Such were the novel materials included in the exhibition. cance of art in class struggle, which functions in a dual role, With the new tasks placed before museums, the principles of as both propaganda directed to sway the lower classes and as display and presentation must change accordingly. an educational tool for a ruling class to maintain its morale Instead of grouping artworks by their authors, we and promote the qualities most needed at the moment. For decided to organize them according to their style, the latter instance, art offered the aristocracy a feeling of class superi- understood as an expression of a particular class ideology. ority during the apex of its rule in the mid-eighteenth cen- This form of presentation allowed us to show the dialecti- tury, the self-discipline needed for the preservation of the cal development of styles. In the cases where, in the span dictatorship of landowners in the period of its decline, and of an individual artist’s life, he or she created works of dif- finally real class consciousness during their transformation ferent styles, they were divided accordingly. For instance, into the bourgeoisie in the second quarter of the nineteenth most of Levitsky’s paintings express the ideology of the century. Such citations allow us to uncover the class orienta- court and aristocracy (his portrait of Catherine the Great tion within art itself. By these means we establish the nature as Felicia); however, among them we find a small group of of art as a unity between ideological and social processes, paintings which betray an entirely different ideological

The Materialistic III 370 Museum 371 An Experiment in Marxist Exhibition-making Natalya Kovalenskaya orientation—that of the middle aristocracy, which, toward By uniting the artworks expressive of the same class the end of the eighteenth century, began to adopt the quali- ideology at the same stage of development and juxtaposing ties of the bourgeoisie (e.g. a portrait of a priest, of the them with the art of other classes, we built our exhibition Bakunin family, and so on). Various Marxist art historians around a set of oppositions. Next to the art of exploitative offer different theoretical explanations for this phenomenon. landowners we displayed the art of exploited peasants. However, the fact remains: to display together such disparate Impressions from the contradictions made apparent by works appears to us impossible. this placement were reinforced by supplementary materi- When grouped according to their style, works which als about the nature of serfdom. shared similar artistic content, as a rule, ended up being A tremendous gap separated peasants as a class from the placed together. This was true not only for paintings, but also landowners. Since their struggle against the latter very rarely for all types of art shown in the exhibition. The fears of many assumed the form of open rebellion (such as the Pugachev art historians that different art forms would “fight” with uprising), it is very rare that we find in their art traces of each other turned out to be unfounded. Common stylistic interaction with the art of the ruling class. The art of peas- language wonderfully united them in life into an aesthetic ants developed almost entirely autonomously from the art ensemble for which they were produced. In this way, a mirror of their masters. That’s why, despite placing the two strains in the style of Rastrelli, with its opulent, decoratively archi- of art together in the same hall, we almost did not empha- tectural frame, placed next to Torelli’s Triumph of Catherine size the connection of peasant art to that of the landowners’. strikingly emphasizes the decorative meaning of the paint- On the contrary, the middle strata of the aristocracy that, in ing, while a classicist sculpture emphasizes the austere linear 1770–80, began to cultivate its own art forms (dominated dimensionality of the latter in painting. Of course, it is harder by sentimentalism) did so in close interaction with the art of to combine painting with prints and drawings, which is why the ruling class. It was, therefore, displayed as a subcategory the latter are displayed in separate display vitrines. of the art of the most dominant class. We must admit though The greatest difficulties are posed by the task of display- that we did not find all the solutions to the problem of dis- ing artworks and texts together (inscriptions, additional playing art from different classes together. We managed to documentary materials, explanatory plaques). Large inscrip- avoid making the mistake of insisting on a mechanical paral- tions, necessary for orienting an unprepared visitor who lel between the development of the class of serf-owners and comes to an exhibition without a tour guide, were placed the increasingly bourgeois aristocracy. But, unfortunately, on top of a frieze. Grey lettering on a white background fit we failed to clearly present all the stages of development of well with the rest of the space and did not distract from the the latter. In the mid-eighteenth century, the bourgeois aris- paintings. Lengthy textual explanations were attached to tocracy was aligned with rococo, and in the early nineteenth, movable plaques to avoid crowding the artworks. Only the with classicism. It would have been better to display the most essential explanatory information was printed on the development of the two social groups on opposing walls in walls themselves. the same hall. With the lack of physical space in our gallery,

The Materialistic III 372 Museum 373 An Experiment in Marxist Exhibition-making Natalya Kovalenskaya such a maneuver was impossible. However, a large exhibi- Our experience of a Marxist exhibition prompted a series tion space would not resolve all these problems, for then one of other objections among museum workers. One of the com- would have to display the simultaneous and interdependent mon criticisms was that when displayed according to our development not only of two but of several classes and sub- methods, art lost its emotional meaning and became a mere groups. Finding a solution to this challenging problem will “illustration” of history. This objection has a double mean- require long and persistent work. ing. It is dictated in part by fear that the focus would shift There is no need to deny that an exhibition based on from art to the “base” and that art would be seen merely as classes and their styles presents many difficulties. In this a direct reflection of the socioeconomic process. To this we manner, the necessity of displaying one or another work of reply that the base was invoked only to the extent to which art in a particular group and therefore in a particular spot on it helped to understand the meaning of a given artwork. If the wall often contradicts the decorative requirements. It is at times one may have felt that citations printed on the walls very hard to hang paintings in a way that would satisfy the “crowded” and distracted from the artworks, this shortcom- main objective of the class-based exhibition and at the same ing was solely due to a lack of space, and would not be an time not unnecessarily and harshly violate the museum and issue in a larger museum where the ratio of text to images aesthetic rules. will be more proportionate. However, there is yet another For instance, the need to display “high” art of the ruling dimension to this question. Indeed, what can be said for the classes side by side with the “low” art of the peasants contra- emotional impact of art that belongs to the classes hostile to dicts many of the rules of museum aesthetics. ours? Art of course has to have some kind of emotional effect The latter should be displayed with the utmost courage, in order to be understood, but is it really fair to expose our for it is impossible to demonstrate the whole depth of differ- visitors to the poisonous, infectious influence of the hedonis- ence between arts of different classes in any other way. Here tic and sensual art of the eighteenth century? It is clear that we must add one correction though. Despite their apparent we must unmask its serfdom character. And if its immediate “backwardness,” neither peasant nor merchant art should affective power is lessened as the result, than we can only wel- be regarded as merely lacking talent (which is what is really come such an outcome. Only a critical attitude to our cultural meant by “low quality”); they just represent a separate style. heritage allows us to use it now. Therefore, one cannot talk about “low quality” in the com- The final objection to the exhibition was that it came off mon sense of the word; rather, one has to talk about different as too difficult and too inaccessible to a mass audience. We “aspects” of the philosophical meaning of the word. must admit that some serious work to popularize these shows Matters stand differently with copies, reproductions, is still needed to make Marxist exhibitions maximally leg- and photographs, which in the absence of originals we ible to broad swathes of visitors. It must be stressed, though, occasionally have to resort to. The presence of these objects that an exhibition like ours was necessarily more difficult of low artistic value is really unfortunate, although, at and demanding than the usual presentation of art accord- times, necessary. ing to artists, which does not require an understanding of

The Materialistic III 374 Museum 375 An Experiment in Marxist Exhibition-making artistic process as a whole. The new mode of exhibition must reveal the ideological meaning of art, and this is a very dif- Everyday Life of the ficult and philosophical task. But, of course, such exhibi- Working Class from 1900 to tions must also be popular. In essence we face two different goals: to make our exhibitions more scientific, and also more 1930 Exhibition: History and popular. Naturally, this is very challenging. It is necessary Everyday Life Department of the State to note, however, that each exhibition must be multifaceted Russian Museum and engaging for the least prepared as well as to the most sophisticated visitor who strives for a deeper familiarity with art. The trick is to satisfy the latter category while at the same time offering essential educational information to our first- time visitors. We are already installing explanatory plaques and accompanying texts with this purpose in mind, but it is clear that we will have to keep searching for more solutions. Inventing new display methods, which will help to entrench in our visitors the far-reaching goals of the Marxist understanding of art, requires our most serious efforts.

Valentin Kholtsov

III 376 Everyday Life of the Working Class Valentin Kholtsov

First published in 1931 The exhibition Everyday Life of the Working Class from Translated by Anastasia Skoybedo 1900 to 1930 is only a small sketch, a short outline of a larger upcoming exhibition of the department. In this larger exhi- The History and Everyday Life Department at the State bition, the everyday life of the working class will naturally Russian Museum, which appeared after the revolution (its occupy a more prominent place, while the current exhibition foundation goes back to 1918), set out to create an exhibi- only explores a part of it, namely, on the one hand, the era of tion in which the whole historical process of the eighteenth, imperialism in Russia (from the end of the nineteenth cen- nineteenth, and twentieth centuries would be reflected; in tury until the October Revolution), and, on the other hand, other words, of both prerevolutionary Russia and the Soviet current Soviet everyday life. Neither part of the exhibition, Republic, up until the present moment, and in which the in its current state as described above, aspires to present everyday life of all classes during this time—landowners, the full picture; this is especially true of the part on Soviet bourgeoisie, peasantry, and the working class—would be everyday life, in which the organizers, while constructing the represented in their interaction and struggle. The enormity exhibition, were consciously striving to show only shots of and difficulty of this problem is apparent, and completely the new life introduced into workers’ lives by the October new paths should be laid while resolving this problem, with- Revolution. As far as the era of imperialism is concerned, the out the option of relying on the experience of either prerevo- choice of this particular period is driven by the special inter- lutionary museums, or the achievements of contemporary est we have in that era, where class contradictions reached European museums, because the setting of such a goal is, their highest point, which finally led to the social revolution. clearly, only possible in our times and in our country. That’s Material on the life of the Leningrad proletariat forms the why the History and Everyday Life Department approached basis for the exhibition; the everyday life of provincial work- the task very carefully and, so to speak, in stages, first fin- ers is represented to a lesser extent, even though the exhibi- ishing the smaller and then, gradually, bigger and bigger tion presents workers from the Urals, Petrozavodsk, Siberia, exhibition complexes, which pertained to one or another the Donbass, and other regions. Despite the small scope, col- side of the problem, and which should have culminated in lecting and studying the material required a lot of effort and the general picture described above. Among the large num- hard work by a number of members of the department. ber of temporary and permanent exhibitions which were Material based on the everyday life of workers from the curated by the History and Everyday Life Department, two era of imperialism is concentrated in the first two halls, in the are the most important and to a certain extent summarize passages between the halls, and in a small anteroom; Soviet the work of the department; these are the currently open life is located in the last, large hall. exhibitions Everyday Life of Merchants from the Eighteenth Two walls in the first hall are occupied by a general to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, and the exhibition introduction to the depiction of workers’ life before the dedicated to the everyday life of the working class, which is Revolution. Here, in diagrams, photographs, and draw- the main topic of this report. ings, there is a lot of information on economics, politics, and

The Materialistic III 378 Museum 379 Everyday Life of the Working Class Valentin Kholtsov the revolutionary movement of the epoch. These materi- The everyday life of a textile worker at the factory has a als show land shortages among the peasantry as the main different character. Mechanization is apparent here as well, reason behind their attraction to the factory; demonstrate and the exhibition shows us a number of developed and com- the concentration of Russian industry at the beginning of plicated machines, but in addition to this, this way of yarn the twentieth century and the development of strikes and processing is characterized by extreme refinement, which the revolutionary movement; reveal the main points of this limits the participation of the worker in the process to just movement from 1900 to 1903; depict the Revolution of 1905 one habitual movement. This work does not require special and discuss the main reasons for its failure; illustrate the Era qualification, or even physical strength, which may explain of Reaction (1907–11); and finally show the incipient new the widespread use of female labor at textile factories and proletariat in 1912–14 and shed light on the underlying rea- the low pay, which the visitor can see displayed in the table sons for the First World War as the only way to resolve the of daily wages. The rest of the material further elaborates on escalating conflicts in capitalist society. working conditions at the textile factories of that time (the This ends the introduction. The next topic of the exhibi- system of fines, deductions from pay for goods taken by work- tion, information on which is located in the same hall, is the ers, practically nonexistent labor protection, and so forth). everyday life of the worker at the factory. As the most strik- In the second hall, we move from workers’ labor life to ing example, two large but drastically different proletariat their domestic life, which is represented by two interiors that groups are selected—steelworkers and textile workers. portray a room occupied by a textile worker, and a room in The everyday life of steelworkers is predominately char- an apartment of a steel worker. The objects for these interiors acterized by the idea of the high level of technical produc- were collected by the History and Everyday Life Department tion at metallurgic factories of the given period. Here we see while surveying workers’ living quarters. However, due to photographs showing overhead cranes, steam hammers, and the fact that these surveys were carried out after the revolu- steam presses, and diagrams that show the increasing power tion, the survey takers had to examine each object while also output of engines, the increasing rates of production, and incorporating workers’ memories, documents, and so on, in so forth. Under these conditions, a worker must have spe- order to be sure that the collected material really character- cial qualification, sometimes of a very high order, and this ized the everyday life of workers before the revolution. fact determines his pay, which influences the aspects of his The textile worker’s interior is a room shared with other daily life that we will encounter in the next hall. No matter tenants, since the low wages of textile workers did not allow how mechanized the production is, there are still moments for renting a separate room. We see that there are different when a live workforce is required. One such industry is cast- types of life in every corner, depending on the salary of the ing. A mannequin in the exhibition portrays a foundry man tenant. Directly opposite us is a bed, which is occupied by in work clothes, protecting him from fire (glasses, mittens, two working girls who have just arrived from the village. apron, and so on), holding a pouring ladle in his hand, into All of their possessions consist of a small trunk and a dress which hot metal is being poured. that hangs on the wall. To the left we see the next level of

The Materialistic III 380 Museum 381 Everyday Life of the Working Class Valentin Kholtsov prosperity: there, a woman worker occupies a whole bed, of the interior, to the left and to the right, is information on and she has a table. Finally, further to the left we see a work- the living conditions of low- and high-level workers. The living family consisting of a husband, a wife, and a child. They ing conditions of the former are naturally worse than those have a window, a dish cabinet, and what was called a “booth,” of a mid-level worker, however, they are better than those of a bed with curtains which provides a semblance of private textile workers. As far as the high-level worker is concerned, space. This relative prosperity, however, is only seemingly here we see plush furniture, a gramophone, a sideboard, and so: among the graphic and visual material exhibited on the other luxury items. wall there is a table that shows the budget of a textile worker. In this hall we also pass material on the everyday life From it we can see that only single and childless workers of rope makers, which demonstrates the highly primitive could make ends meet, if just barely, while the birth of a child nature of this production in the prerevolutionary period, due immediately caused a deficit. to which the labor conditions for the workers were harsh and let’s walk over to the interior of the steelworker, which the wages were extremely low. represents the room of a mid-level laborer. We need to note let’s turn to the exhibition on the everyday life of gold that first and foremost we have a separate room here; the diggers, with which this hall ends. Workers in the gold only people who shared rooms were domestic workers who industry of this period are a very particular group of the had just arrived from the village. The figure of the steelwork- proletariat: on the one hand, the gold trade widely used er’s wife shows that only the husband works here, while the highly developed machinery that needed specially quali- wife stays at home and keeps house. She sometimes works fied labor, along with primitive forms of production; and outside the home to help her husband, but she does not stay on the other hand, the specific labor conditions of gold dig- away from the family for long: she either works part time, or gers define the same forms of everyday life that are charac- has a sewing machine, the presence of which in our interior terized by the absence of basic comfort. These conditions shows a certain degree of prosperity. It is further indicated by include the fact that gold mines are located far from city the presence of such things as a dresser, a mirror, a samovar, centers, and for months they are cut off from the rest of the and an alarm clock. We can see that the living conditions of world, and result in the dependency of the mine workers on a steelworker are drastically different from those of a textile the tyranny of the businessmen. worker. However, we should not exaggerate this prosperity: Material presented at the exhibition illustrates the afore- in the steelworker’s room there is only one bed—children mentioned. Here we predominantly see photographs and still do not have a separate bed, and they have to sleep on separate objects that relate to both primitive and developed so-called pridelki, that is, two boards attached to the back machines. Further, we see materials on the everyday life of of their parents’ bed. Sometimes the children sleep on the gold diggers, in this case photographs showing gold dig- trunk or on the floor. gers in full attire for a long journey to their work site; show- We have pointed out that the exhibited interior shows ing their means of transportation across wild and deserted the living conditions of a mid-level worker. On the front wall land (predominantly by water, on rafts or boats); and finally,

The Materialistic III 382 Museum 383 Everyday Life of the Working Class Valentin Kholtsov showing us their living quarters. Images depict several types of the war, which resulted in the complete impoverishment of gold digger huts. The most common is the one that is built of the country and a drastic worsening of conditions for the in our exhibition. It is a log house built on bare ground, with- working masses. out a floor, and with flat boards instead of a roof. Inside the The small anteroom is dedicated to the period from hut there is a black stove that looks like a pile of stones, the February to October of 1917. Here, a number of photographs smoke from which escapes through an opening in the ceiling. and drawings depict the February Revolution; the creation of Bunk beds along the walls and a board attached to the wall to the Provisional Government and the Union of Workers’ and make a table are the only other furniture in the room. During Soldiers’ Deputies; the arrival of V. I. Lenin and the begin- harsh Siberian winters, this construction would of course be ning of preparations for the proletariat revolution, carried weak protection from the cold, and when the stone stove was out under the slogan “All power to the Soviets”; the imperial- fired, the whole hut would fill with smoke. However, some- ist politics of Kerensky and the first major demonstration in times (and especially at large gold mines) workers settled not Leningrad against the Provisional Government on July 3–5; in huts but in barracks, which were a bit more comfortable. its suppression and bourgeois reaction; Bolsheviks work- However, stuffy air, overcrowded conditions, and a lack of the ing underground; the military revolt under the leadership simplest comforts were the rule there. of Kornilov; and finally the agony and the toppling of the In the hut there are clothes, utensils, and other things Provisional Government. used by gold mine workers. Two big panels here depict the storming of the Winter The passage between the halls is occupied by material on Palace, and V. I. Lenin delivering a speech in front of the the imperialist war. Smolny Institute. The conditions of the war are illustrated here by a freight This ends the historical part of the exhibition. car with two militiamen who are being sent to the theater of The last hall, dedicated to Soviet everyday life, portrays war, and also by a booth and the figure of a telephone opera- only the life of today, and, as was mentioned above, not thor- tor (the use of a skilled worker at the front), and a trench and oughly, but as a first attempt to reveal the new life brought a tent with a soldier standing next to it wearing a gas mask about by the October Revolution. and a protective suit. The first part of the hall shows material on the new social- The display board shows an official depiction of the ist industry, which served as the real basis for reconstructing war, useful to the ruling class of that time, who tried to stir life. Here, power plants are presented as the basis of our pro- up patriotic feelings in the soldiers by all possible means; duction; in addition, there are models and photographs of we see primitive patriotic pictures, matching literature, new plants, which are of interest for their improved technol- Georgian crosses, and so on. The opposite display board ogy, their new appearance, and their technical and hygienic shows the real face of war: colossal numbers of killed and advances, which are aimed at improving working conditions wounded, refugees, destroyed buildings, and so on. Finally, for laborers. Also, in this part we have presented everyday life the third board familiarizes us with economic consequences at the new factories, the defining factor of which is the fact

The Materialistic III 384 Museum 385 Everyday Life of the Working Class Valentin Kholtsov that the worker now owns the plant. From here several facts spare any expenses. In conjunction, there is material on the emerge: workers participate in managing the plant through fight against the old way of life (alcoholism, religion, and so the plant “triangle”; workers are promoted to management on) and the external enemy—world capitalism—which has from the shop floor; they attend production meetings, and not abandoned its desire to bring our country back to the old so on. Because of this there are also completely different con- bourgeois way of life; related to this are pre-conscription and ditions compared to past labor: a transition to a seven-hour reserve military training, the greater inclusion of workers in workday, an increase in wages, labor protections, medical the army and its leadership, and so on. assistance, sanatoriums and health centers for workers, and Finally, we see material that depicts the growth of the level protections for working mothers and children. Finally, there of activity and amateur activities of the working class, which is material (photographic, diagrammatic, and physical) on manifests itself in the form of volunteer societies, worker cor- social competition, shock work, worker inventions, and so on. respondents, the participation of workers in purges carried The second part of the hall is dedicated to the commu- out in Soviet institutions, patronage, and so forth. The theme nal and private life of a Soviet Union worker. The material of “assisting the new village,” which points to the leading role pertaining to this shows the defining role a worker has in of the proletariat in the task of the socialist reconstruction the government, in the Party, and in unions. Further, we see of agriculture, is particularly important. Material pertaining material on the assistance the worker provides to his govern- to this topic primarily stresses the whole technical base— ment (industrialization loans, donations to the industrial- namely, the production of agricultural machinery—without ization fund, to the collectivization fund, and so forth). The which the socialist reconstruction of the village cannot suc- same idea is reflected in the material on cooperative con- ceed, and the general participation of workers in the process struction—which gradually develops a new way of life—and of collectivization (worker brigades sent to collective farms, on housing construction: here we see the exteriors of new preparatory courses for workers in the village, and so on). houses and the interiors of new dwellings with abundant The exhibition ends with an electrical map of the Five- light, air, and so on. We see elements of the new way of life Year Plan, which demonstrates the Soviet Union’s grand in old houses as well, starting with a radio, a library, and red industrialization plan and reveals the specific characteris- corners in the Society for Renting and Living Cooperation tics of this “great works plan”: the close connection between (SRLC), and ending with social work and the greater inclu- factories and feeding centers, the development of new types sion of workers in the managing of the SRLCs. of production that barely existed or did not exist at all in pre- The reconstruction of life based on the new socialist prin- revolutionary Russia, the creation of numerous engineering ciples puts forth the creation of the “new man” as its main plants, the construction of several power plants—all this goal, an active fighter and builder of socialism. This idea is positions the new worker government on the same level as reflected in a theme dedicated to the new ways of child rear- the leading capitalist governments and turns the country of ing and education, club and excursion work, and also physi- the Soviets from agriculturally industrial into industrially cal education, for which the worker government does not agricultural. The powerful industrial development that will

The Materialistic III 386 Museum 387 Everyday Life of the Working Class occur as a result of accomplishing the Five-Year Plan will serve as a mighty factor in the task of creating completely On A Museum new living conditions for the working class. of INDUSTRY AND ART The exhibition does not, of course, exhaust all the material on the everyday life of the working class that has been and still is being collected by the History and Everyday Life Department, which organizes special expeditions for this purpose. All this material will merge into the main collection of the department, which was mentioned at the beginning of this note and which will present the everyday life of the proletariat as not disjointed from the everyday life of other classes, but rather in their cooperation and struggle.

David Arkin

III 388 On a Museum of INDUSTRY AND ART David Arkin

First published in 1931 It must be said that the preference for traditional art, Translated by Bela Shayevich more often than not, results in the incorporation of non- easel types of art (for example, posters and photo-collage) My brief report is mainly concerned with the branch of cul- into productivism. I stress that I do not consider these to be ture and the aspect of museum work that is currently one of industrial art, as they are of the type where aesthetic content the least developed and, I would say, one of the least defined is fully identical to the original goal. The poster does not have in its boundaries, both in terms of public perception and the a utilitarian significance in everyday life. It’s a different story principles of the discipline. I am talking about that which we when it comes to a table or a chair, where the thing itself is used to call industrial art, and what we now call productiv- right up against its own utility; it is not easy to come to the ism, a genre whose significance for all artistic culture in the ideological interpretation of a chair. epoch of reconstruction is incontestable, but which nonethe- Our goal is to specifically demonstrate how to stress, to less continues to remain in the shadows of our artistic edifice reveal, to show the ideological content of material forms that not only in the practical sense, but also in terms of a theoreti- have specific, utilitarian functions in everyday life. It is the cal analysis of the related issues. era of reconstruction that presents the problem of everyday I would first of all like to briefly touch upon the frame- objects with ever-increasing urgency. To address this emerg- work of the problem of productivism from which the ing problem, holding to the position of the dualism of the museum work in this field should stem. applied, or the duality of art and mass production, would be We know that in the common “table of ranks,” this kind a needless vacillation between technology and art. of art takes practically the last place. Until recently, “pure” We must approach the art of material objects and dem- art was at the top, followed by “impure,” applied art. The term onstrate the dialectic connection between machinery and “applied” itself is proof of a certain kind of spiritual poverty. the ideological content of material form. The assessment of It’s commonly accepted that today, a new conception has what we consider to be artistic production and its aesthetic come into currency that stands in contradiction to the tradi- and ideological nature is precisely what the study of artistic tional conception of “applied.” production is. I believe that it does not make sense to have to prove the If studying the artistic and manufacturing technology position that should be one of the foundational postulates of any age must have its necessary volume, then studying of Marxist aesthetics, that is, that the complex of everyday the relationships to objects—which are form, in turn, under objects should not be a merely technical category. The tan- the influence of relations of production—characterizes gible object not only has certain essential characteristics; objects’ role in the given societal formation. Analyzing rela- it also carries a signification on the social and ideological tionships to the realm of everyday objects allows us to envi- planes. Moreover, the object is not limited by its technical sion the entire history of artistic production as the history of potential in its functionality as a utilitarian thing; it also has struggle and shows us the development of the class struggle an ideological functionality. underpinning this development. From the point of view

The Materialistic III 390 Museum 391 On a Museum of INDUSTRY AND ART David Arkin of such important general assumptions, we need to admit the opinion that in both of these realms museum research that we have not seriously approached productivism in our should be thoroughly constructed and reconstructed. museum work. In building the edifice of our artistic culture, As one of its principal tasks, museum-directed research we have not yet gotten through the inventory of objects left should strive to have an impact on the artistic quality of behind from the previous era. The historical study of indus- mass-manufactured everyday objects, the construction of trial art started and ended with handicrafts. It did not fol- new homes, new workers’ clubs, and new public buildings low the development of mass production that we’ve seen in of every stripe, and it should exert this influence specifically recent years. The artistic portrayal of industrial art stopped on their design. with manual labor. It is as though it was forgotten that in Stemming from the foundational principle—that is, our the course of the past few years, the chief artistic supplier refusal to see an object as a purely technical form and the has been plant and factory manufacturing, responsible for insistence on our ability to see the ideological content in the design of everyday life for the various classes of society. everyday objects—we reach further and discover the dialec- How and where the artistic forms of mass-produced objects tic connection between the technological side of mass pro- were created, what aesthetic factors went into their design, duction and the artistic, that is, the ideological content in the the path of their contemporary production—none of these form of any given object. questions interest either economic or artistic scholarship. If we follow the first line of argument from the ones I have At the same time, today, anyone can see the relevance specified above—in other words, the argument about influ- of this problem—the problem of reevaluating the material encing production—then the proposal will be the following. inventory. This is being presented as an artistic problem. We First and foremost, manufacturing that creates everyday see not only the appearance of obsolete forms and complex objects and not the tools of production should find in muse- forms connected with old influences, with the moribund sys- ums a center that would aid in, and sometimes even direct, tems of gentility, landowner nobility, the merchant class, and production in terms of guiding the design approach. other such obsolete forms, which were reflected in works of What would this entail? First of all, in the manufactur- art. Alongside these virtually dead forms we must also look ing sectors where the artistic design of the product is one at a number of objects from our own era that develop and of the most important elements of its quality (for instance, reflect our reality. in glassware and china production; woodworking, including It is manifestly clear that in light of these issues, the furniture-making; printing; sewing; textiles; and so on), the research activity of art museums should proceed on two museum needs to become the center of artistic quality con- fronts. First of all, toward the end of influencing mass man- trol in the full sense of the word, and, moreover, needs to have ufacturing, production, and new design; secondly, toward influence over the design of these objects. Museums would a different kind of influence: an impact on everyday life fight the vestiges of traditional models and blueprints that itself, consumption, and shaping the aspects of everyday have been collected at our factories where the artistic direc- life that constitute contemporary material culture. I am of tion is remarkably weak and in sharp contradiction with the

The Materialistic III 392 Museum 393 On a Museum of INDUSTRY AND ART David Arkin demands of modernity. Museums must demonstrate to the 1850s, since the introduction of concrete. In all related sec- manufacturing sector, to everyone who works in manufac- tors we see utter chaos, a yawning chasm in this broad sphere turing, how ill-suited the drawings and blueprints collected of everyday design, but I am not, dear comrades, saying that in the archives of every possible china plant and every other we need to create special architectural museums. This initia- kind of plant are for contemporary everyday use. tive may be proposed by construction organizations. We can We must organize an exhibition of unsuitable materials only address this upon reconstructing museums as modular and create expert-manned bureaus for questions related to complexes. We need materials on contemporary architec- the consumption of everyday objects in the corresponding ture, up to and including the issues under discussion today sectors. I believe that within this schema of the creation of (in general, I believe that the concept of “the past” is itself corresponding museums for every field, we must acknowl- from the past; the past is regarded as everything that’s five edge that sector-specific museums must be maintained in or six decades before the present day and onward; in reality, a controlled number for sectors where artistic design plays we should consider the province of the museum to be all of a main role. I am referring to sectors such as glassware and time up to the very last hour). china production, everyday tableware, and the analogous It seems to me that even the questions of the construc- sector of furniture production. Manufacturers should main- tion of new cities and villages, the design of workers’ hous- tain museums of everyday life so that their artifacts can ing, municipal complexes (parks and so on), should all find figure in the complex exhibitions of other museums. I will their place in the museum. The museum should fight for the add that in these sector-specific museums, the collections creation of corresponding organizations addressing the should be organized not solely to display discrete objects, needs of the complex of the mass-manufacturing of everyday as it would thus be impossible to discover anything coher- objects. Maximal attention should be devoted to developing ent in terms of a technical category; an isolated object does approaches in individual sectors in order to render them as not contain the full complex of related issues in and of itself. capable of addressing public needs as possible when it comes For instance, furniture should be displayed as an element of to constructing workers’ housing, workers’ clubs, public the class-specific design of a dwelling, and a building with cafeterias, villages, green cities, and so on. These museums the corresponding auxiliary design elements. Only then should exhibit not only the best projects and blueprints but can museums play an integral role in the reconstruction of also all relevant designs and historical materials, displayed everyday life. for informational and education purposes. Turning to the influence that the museum can have over Thus, the museums will strike out against the archaic everyday life, on the design of the everyday, I must say that elements in today’s production complex, which releases an in this realm, we see great gaps. The first major gap is that unbelievable quantity of disgusting things into the mass vast realms of design, such as, for instance, architecture, are market, vestiges of bourgeois culture, tchotchkes that litter entirely missing from our museums. I speak of the architec- the living space and that also have a tangible effect not only ture that directly affects all of modernity, beginning with the on manufacturing, but also on the organizations charged

The Materialistic III 394 Museum 395 On a Museum of INDUSTRY AND ART David Arkin with constructing the new way of life, that is, on the housing * * construction cooperative, the unions, and so on. *

* * All of this demands accepting the basic premise of fostering * close relationships between our art museums—especially their scholarly and research cells—and the organs of manu- Some of our museums, especially the Museum of Handicraft facturing and a number of other artistic organizations. and the Museum of Oriental Cultures in Moscow, have Here I put forth the idea that the People’s Commissariat already had a significant impact on enterprises manufactur- for Education, which is in charge of museums, should come ing artistic objects: they are already doing what I am pro- to a general agreement with the Supreme Council of the posing should be done in all sectors, namely, presenting National Economy to use museums for the needs of domes- manufacturers with models. They are providing manufac- tic construction. This agreement would not free individual turers with specific instructions. Still, there is a lot of iner- museums from having to propose independent initiatives to tia in this field and, I would say, aloofness. This is not only strengthen ties with manufacturers and from making their related to the work of the museums; it’s also due to the rela- own contracts with various enterprises. Museums must take tive stodginess on the part of craftsmen and this realm of all necessary measures to attract workers from a given sector our artistic production overall. The production of art objects to museum work. These connections between museums on in our country is, for the most part, for export. Ideas such as the one hand, and research and scholarly production insti- the foreign market always demanding originality from the tutes on the other, are especially crucial seeing as many of the Russian craftsman are too deeply entrenched and we forget materials that will come out of art museums will need to go that the products of this so-called originality more often than through the corresponding technical processing performed not disgust us, and that the foreign market is actually sick of at the research and scholarly institutes of a given sector of them, too—take, for instance the outmoded grace cups that manufacturing before being put into production. were once in style and, similarly, carved objects. These are all of the major tasks presented in brief, but New things are needed from the original craftsmen of the which first of all demand that museums turn their atten- Soviet Union, but our artistic organs that deal with handi- tion and efforts toward the sector of artistic production that craft are too-little concerned with this fact; the same goes remains underrepresented as museum material, and under- for our museum workers. They’ve attempted to protect the researched in terms of how it should be handled. Today, all craftsman from industry. Exhibitions play a huge role in work with our industrial art legacy is based on outdated artistic production; meanwhile, many of the relevant orga- applied art practices, on the materials of handicraft labor, the nizations consider them to practically be acts of violence labor of handmade objects, and completely excludes indus- against the integrity of handicraft. trial art from its sphere of interest, as though it doesn’t exist, simply because it was born of mass production.

The Materialistic III 396 Museum 397 On a Museum of INDUSTRY AND ART

We must have a clear conception of each complex feature of everyday design and remind all museums of the existing A Museum Exhibition materials, insisting that museums not only be filled with or a Theatrical Performance? these artifacts, but also influence their design in manufacturing and in everyday life.

N. a. Shneerson

III 398 A Museum Exhibition or a Theatrical Performance? N. a. Shneerson

First published in 1932 especially by the State Historical Museum, were recognized Translated by Margarita Shalina by reputable institutions as not meeting the requirements of Marxism-Leninism, and were therefore closed. Art museums Soviet museums are working intensely on new types of can’t boast any particular achievements either: they have not museum exhibition, striving to build a museum upon the yet resolved the problem of building Marxist exhibitions, foundation of Marxism-Leninism, while providing a vivid even though several experimental exhibitions are worthy of narrative of our past and present day in order to rally the serious attention and study. working masses into action in the fight for socialism. The situation is even worse in provincial museums, which By abandoning the academic display of objects, it are only just now embarking on the process of re-exhibition. becomes apparent that the museum value of particular The only exception consists of a few dozen museums (out of objects was determined relative to their antiquity, and not to 250) that are working on the task of building local history their class. The museums have set this difficult task for them- museums according to Marxist principles. In general, the selves: to use examples of material culture as documentary situation is rather unsatisfactory: cabinets of curiosities are monuments that provide a vast opportunity to visually show far from being abolished. that “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles,” that we will only achieve a class-free soci- * * ety as a result of a fierce class struggle. *

* * The absolute political significance of this national problem is * so apparent at this stage of socialist construction that there is no need to explain to the reader why we must devote special We strongly believe that in present-day RSFSR, there is no attention and apply rigorous standards to its new portrayals museum that does not participate, in one way or another, in in our museums. the study of the national economy and the productive forces Two such shows are drawing the attention of museum of its corner of the world, does not represent the construction workers: the Central Museum of Ethnography’s Peoples of of socialism in its halls, does not organize both permanent the Urals and the Volga Region, and the Moscow Regional and mobile exhibitions based on contemporary political and Museum’s Socialist Construction and Ethnic Minorities of the economic issues, and so on. Moscow Region. We have achieved remarkable success in this sphere of museum activity, in museums of all types. However, we have not yet made any significant strides in the sphere of re- exhibition in either central or provincial museums. Several exhibits organized by museums of history and everyday life,

The Materialistic III 400 Museum 401 A Museum Collection N. a. Shneerson

* * needed. The main condition is a detailed reworking of the * structure of a museum’s entire layout and every individual topic. It is completely normal that the greater the scope and In order to properly assess these exhibitions, we must define the depth of the main topic of an exhibition, the more difficult the fundamental political message of the museums that have it is to organize the study and the collection of all the material set for themselves the goal of depicting the past and the pres- that is vital for a museum to acquire. ent of the peoples of the USSR. The fundamental goal of such a museum must be to * * show the nature of the Party’s nationalist policies and of * Soviet power in its exhibitions, to reveal the substance of a culture that is “national in form and socialist in content,” It goes without saying that by making a conscious deci- and to sharply contrast it with all that is politically oppression to refrain from simply foraging for objects that might sive not only in the tsarist autocracy, but also in the entire be interesting to include in the exhibition, from automati- capitalist world. cally using the ethnographic collection passed on to us as How can these colossal challenges be reflected in the an inheritance, we are essentially bringing to light the ques- museum exhibition? How can we show the creative endeav- tion of establishing a new museum; moreover, it can be said ors of the working people of all nationalities, inhabitants of in advance that a significant portion of the property previ- the USSR, creators of a new, bright world of genuine broth- ously accumulated by the museum will remain behind the erhood and equality? How can we show that all nationali- scenes of our exhibition. After all, in refusing to chase after ties are working toward this great construct in which they “interesting” objects, we must expose class relations with emerge as participants with equal rights, and that all dis- the assistance of objects in the broad sense of the word— plays of either great-power chauvinism or regional national- we must show the social nature of the depicted era, its base ism are met with a determined rebuff from the sides of both and its superstructure. The experience of many museums the Party and the Soviet state, that all we have gained we has already sufficiently demonstrated that while establish- have secured for ourselves as a result of a fierce class strug- ing such goals, the museums cannot find relevant artifacts gle in national regions? within their archives. This is an inheritance of the past! The Museum of Ethnography has only just begun working on meeting these challenges in the last few years. In order * * for these new endeavors to achieve the desired results, for the * museum exhibition to provide a vivid portrayal of the national policies of the SCP (Soviet-Unified Communist Party [of First, we are faced with the fact that in resolving the issue Bolsheviks]) in contrast to the politics of the czarist govern- of museum exhibition, an extreme dumbing-down has ment, an enormous amount of creative effort is undoubtedly occurred by way of presenting an assortment of flashy

The Materialistic III 402 Museum 403 A Museum Collection N. a. Shneerson exhibits instead of those that are relevant in terms of social conditions on the everyday lives of the peoples of the Ural relations and class struggles, which can only come about and the Volga Region, and so on. as a result of performing research. Next is the transition in However, elucidating relations by means of objects, we museum methods of display toward the bookish: there are must, with the help of museum labels, and most importantly posters hanging on the walls (and—the latest fad in museum illustrated material, provide the supplemental material that technique—from the ceilings), quotations from Marxist will help the visitor to master our exhibition in the light of classics, photographs, and other related materials. By using a dialectical-materialistic worldview. In the same way, while these “exhibiting” methods, they supplant the real nature portraying some key elements of class struggle we have to of museum work, forgetting that the museum operates with resort to using original documents, the exhibiting of which objects, which are its main, prevalent exhibits, while every- without explanatory text will not achieve the desired goal. thing else is only secondary, explanatory, and is necessary An original document attracts the visitor’s attention, but the only as far as the various types of labels and illustrations aid visitor won’t read it if he’s already familiar with that distant in a gradual understanding of the foundation of the exhibition era. Moreover, he’ll rarely read it in its entirety—while it is based on physical materials. Refusal to make physical objects vital for us that he becomes familiar with the basic meaning the foundation of the exhibition is a refusal to build the museum. demonstrated by the document. Here is where the museum A visitor does not go to the museum to read quotations label comes to the rescue—better yet if it is accompanied by from books hung on walls, but in order to find in a museum an illustration, an artistic rendering that depicts the content what he can’t find in books and what is needed to round out of the document. his knowledge: he goes to see tangible monuments of the No less important is the question of aesthetic arrange- past, the most varied scientific exhibitions that an informed ment in the exhibition, especially in regard to the depiction exhibition has to offer, machinery, and so on. Our goal is for of everyday life. the exhibition to help him gain a type of knowledge that In order to avoid mistakes in building the exhibition, would give him a solid foundation for a dialectical-material- we must first conduct a study of the scene to be depicted istic worldview, one that would equip him for the enduring from a Marxist point of view, and then acquire a selection revolutionary struggle for the work of socialism. of assorted, timely materials to be exhibited based on this It goes without saying that it is much easier to adorn the foundation. It is not for the artist to decide what is displayed, walls with hundreds of posters on class struggle than it is for but for the researcher, while questions about the arrange- a museum to portray at least one historic moment of class ment must be decided collectively. Moreover, the last word struggle in such a way that the visitor would clearly under- belongs to the researcher, who must demand from the artist stand, for instance, that in the hands of the ruling classes, a kind of arrangement where exhibits are not overshadowed religion was and remains an instrument of oppression of by the aesthetic arrangement, but exactly the opposite—the the working masses; or using the materials from the natural aesthetic arrangement must help the visitor to better under- history department to show the influence of geographical stand the museum exhibit.

The Materialistic III 404 Museum 405 A Museum Collection N. a. Shneerson

We must present this demand even more strongly when class struggle in the past is extremely weak, while we don’t a museum devotes wall space to displays in which the role see it at all in the Soviet period; it does not show cultural con- of the artist is of major significance. The experiences of struction among the people of the Urals and the Volga region the Museum of Ethnography and the Moscow Regional at all, which, it is known, had a colossal role in the national Museum have vividly demonstrated that a museum that politics of the SCP(b); it is extremely naive in its depiction yields the managing role in the exhibition to the artist invari- of the industrial strength of the Urals and the Volga regions ably devolves into spectacular methods of display, where with their Soviet powerhouses; finally, though the Volga itself the deciding factor is the external effect rather than a well was of great significance in tsarist colonial politics, which in founded, scientifically based demonstration of class rela- turn had a strong impact on the everyday life and economics tions. We must consider the rejection of the latter as a refusal of the people of the Volga region—in an exhibit dedicated to to build a Marxist museum, which should use various exhib- the people of the Volga region—there is no Volga! iting methods, but regardless of the form of the exhibition, None of these significant gaps are accidental. They have its content should be justified by information received as a appeared as a result of the fact that the museum, having set result of studying the exhibited event. As far as the arrange- a goal for itself of depicting the lives of peoples of a vast terri- ment is concerned, we must exclude anything that is arbi- tory, extremely diverse in its economic and national makeup, trary: every detail, every stroke must be precisely justified having not done research and, as a result, having not acquired regardless of whether they satisfy the artist. through analysis the materials vital for the exhibition, the What is allowed and understood in a theatrical set- museum picks and chooses from what it happens to find in ting cannot be tolerated in a scientific one, which is what a its old reserves, uses already available printed materials from museum is; there can be no artificiality: objects missing from various researchers on other peoples of the Ural and the one era substituted with objects from another cannot occupy Volga regions, and to the weakest possible extent uses this space of equal value in the museum exhibition, whether the material in its own short-run exhibitions. These inadequate conversation pertains to dioramas on the natural sciences or materials are too weak to allow for the possibility of laying a everyday life. sound foundation for building the exhibition; without these Using these founding principles to analyze the current necessary items, the museum tries to fill the gaping hole exhibition organized by the Museum of Ethnography, titled with labels, posters, and diagrams hung on walls and even, People of the Urals and the Volga Region, we have to mention sometimes, from the ceiling. At the same time, all this graphic a slew of gross mistakes that are of essential significance. material cannot convey to the visitor a visual understanding We know that its exhibitions are not complete—the direc- of class struggle in its various manifestations, which is rather tors of the museum have warned us about this—however, if complex—especially in the national regions—and which is we were just talking about a few missing exhibits then this often disguised as a form of protecting the interests of “the warning would have a mitigating effect. But the sad fact is whole nation,” while in its class content it is directed purely at that it is missing its fundamental material—its depiction of protecting the proprietary interests of the propertied classes.

The Materialistic III 406 Museum 407 A Museum Collection N. a. Shneerson

No matter how artistically arranged the dioramas may of serious objections. For example, there is a scene depict- be, their museum value will be determined first and fore- ing, according to author’s intent, the parasitic role of monks. most based on their scientific relevance, which means that How is this moment conveyed? Two monks with icons in the entire arrangement of the diorama cannot be the arbi- their hands walk into a peasant hut and beg for alms. And trary product of a museum worker’s unfettered creative that’s it. The monks are crudely portrayed; the scale is in com- endeavors, but must be a realistic depiction of that true class plete discord with the setting (with a low ceiling). The first struggle which occupied a place in the past and occupies a question is: Why has this particular moment been chosen? place in the present. In order to provide such a depiction, Is the depiction of begging for alms really the most striking both that past and this present must be studied. It can’t be expression of the parasitic nature of clerics, of their exploit- achieved by way of accidental, haphazard collecting, or by ative role in regard to the working people representative of selecting flashy artifacts chosen at the personal discretion of all nationalities? Drunkenness, depravity in the “houses of the museum worker, but exclusively as a result of scientific the holy,” faithful servility to the monarchy, ruthless exploi- research, which lays the foundation for the entire exhibi- tation of peasants and workers—would the depiction of this tion, which brings to light the driving force of today’s soci- “everyday life” of church officials, in real surroundings, be ety, with all of its interconnectedness and facilitation. Only less vivid and convincing? Especially if these dioramas are under these conditions will the museum know what must be surrounded by genuine documents proving how beneath the included at the forefront of the exhibition, what needs to be mask of godliness and sermons on “Christ’s” teachings lies at the center of visitor’s attention, and what concrete task hidden parasitism, depravity, and service to the exploiters?! should be given to the artist, while directing his work along An incompetent and incorrect use of dioramas in a path that is in full accordance with the entire exhibition. museum exhibitions can undeservedly discredit this rela- In this regard things are essentially no better at the tively appropriate technique of depicting various scenes of Moscow Regional Museum. Take for instance the composi- the past and present. tion of the exhibit Socialist Construction. Here the dominant In order to prevent museums from transforming from the role of the artist over the whole exhibition is particularly former cabinets of curiosities into theatrical set design, we apparent: the arrangement overshadows the exhibits, partic- must decisively speak out against any sort of simplification ularly the graphics. And can you really call a section where 95 and primitivism, and just as decisively we must demand from percent of the exhibits are captions, photographs, posters, museums that dioramas of domestic arts are scientifically slogans, and so on a “museum”? Museum exhibits are sup- based. This is why we are of the opinion that the artist must posed to stand out from precisely this kind of a background, perform the tasks that the researcher gives him. The creative for the exhibits themselves are intended to show the socialist impulse of the museum artist must be directed toward a bet- construction of nationalities populating the Moscow region. ter realization of these tasks, which are strictly defined by the Switching over to dioramas exhibited by the Central present, and by information received as a result of research Museum for Ethnography, their very content raises a series into one or another event.

The Materialistic III 408 Museum 409 A Museum Collection

If these conditions were observed by the Museum of Ethnography and the Moscow Regional Museum, if the On the Question of researcher directed the artist in these museums, we would the Principles of Exhibition: not be eyewitnesses pointing out the significant gaps in recently opened and ongoing exhibitions. Central Park of Culture and Leisure Exhibitions

I. M. Zykov

III 410 On the question of the principles of exhibition I. M. Zykov

First published in 1932 were extremely extensive, stretching across a combined dis- Translated by Leo Shtutin tance of two kilometers. The Park deserves praise for the very fact of organizing Of all types of exhibitions, it is the technical-industrial exhibitions, and for the genuinely effective strategy of stag- and socioeconomic varieties that correspond most closely ing them outdoors along a walkway, with exhibits and view- and directly to the propaganda of socialist construction. ers in immediate proximity. Yet the 1931 exhibitions, though Exhibitions of this kind are becoming powerful instruments broad in extent, fell short. Just like some of the Park’s other of agitation, and are acquiring considerable scope. They have undertakings, they suffered from inferior quality, despite become indispensable components of political campaigns, their engagement with pressing questions, their broad congresses, and reporting days. Alongside stationary, site- scope, and their externally lavish presentation. specific exhibitions, the necessity of organizingperedvizhkas , or mobile exhibitions, has arisen. * * The idiosyncrasies of new forms of labor necessitate * particular exhibitional principles conforming to the specificity of the material and the concrete conditions of its The plethora of meaning-distorting errors, the unbalanced expression, whatever they may be. Currently implemented arrangement of the exhibits, the lack of explanatory captions methods cannot yet be deemed sufficiently refined. In and labels—all this amounted to a major deficiency in its own consequence of growing demand, events are being staged right. But the limitations of the exhibition did not stop there. before methods can be verified. Theory is lagging behind The problem stemmed from the exhibition’s very character. practice, and the quantity of exhibitions trumps their gen- It’s a revealing fact that neither the comments book nor eral quality. the questionnaires—of which, incidentally, too few were col- We begin our tour of exhibitions with an overview of lected in comparison with the immense foot traffic at the those that took place in 1931 at the Central Park of Culture exhibition—featured remarks concerning errors identified and Leisure in Moscow. by visitors, even though spotting most of them required no The Park’s exhibitional endeavors have attained a broad specialized knowledge but merely a good dollop of common scope. It enjoys conditions propitious for this purpose: con- sense, the inconsistencies being an affront to the eye. Which venient grounds, suitable premises, sixty thousand viewers augurs ill: the viewer failed to notice the errors, and therefore a day, and, finally, considerable financial assistance from also failed to absorb the content of the exhibition. organizations and bodies with an interest in putting on exhi- TheFoundations exhibition, its seventy areas encompass- bitions. The three major exhibitions of 1931—Giants of the ing every major branch of manufacturing, was arranged Five-Year Plan, Laying the Foundations of a Socialist Economy, outdoors along a central walkway, with visitors inevitably and Socialist Construction in the Moscow Oblast—delved into traversing its entire length, at a distance of a few meters themes relevant to the pressing questions of modernity and from the exhibits. Foot traffic ran into the millions. Yet a

The Materialistic III 412 Museum 413 On the question of the principles of exhibition I. M. Zykov considerable percentage of visitors simply walked past, their profoundly tiresome sequence of measly numbers that pro- apprehension of the exhibition passive in nature. It was only vided absolutely no insight into the various branches of the in a handful of the most interesting areas that these “pass- national economy, then Giants of the Five-Year Plan was all ersby” became spectators. construction-themed decorativeness. Granted, the task of Day after day, without fail, you could observe groups presenting and visualizing new construction developments of spectators gathering at the exhibition zones dedicated isn’t an easy one—since it’s impossible to incorporate actual to non-ferrous metallurgy, ore minerals, and (to a some- components of the building work directly into the exhibi- what lesser extent) crude oil, rubber, and peat. These were tion space, it becomes necessary to resort to schematism constructed along different lines. The reason they enjoyed and image—but this difficulty does not excuse the exhibi- so much attention is this: the non-ferrous metallurgy, ore tion’s weaknesses. minerals, crude oil, and peat zones of the exhibition were The park’s exhibitions were flawed not only in the sense set up by the exhibitors themselves, with its other areas put of being riddled with minor errors and misrepresentations, together by the Park’s administration. but by dint of their very nature or character. Despite their The non-ferrous metallurgy zone comprised a true exhibi- colossal scale and externally lavish execution, they were too tion—in other words, a vivid display of objects underpinned lightweight and dry in terms of content, providing insuffi- by an elucidation of their nature. The zone offered a more cient insight into the objects on display, failing to penetrate comprehensive assessment of its branch of manufacture into the significance of the phenomena in question, and deal- than did other zones, and provided the viewer with a host of ing not so much in facts as in a decorativeness of execution fresh insights—something other zones failed to achieve. bogged down in the potholes of formalistic excess. The information offered in other areas of the exhibition was scant, exclusively numerical, and of a scope inferior to * * what might be gleaned from newspapers. The zones focus- * ing on aspects of the national economy each featured two or three statistics and a few uncaptioned, nonsensically The reasons for the inferior quality of the Park’s exhibitions ordered photographs. stem from a fundamental distortion of the methods of putting on exhibitions, as well as from the implementation of tech- * * niques alien and principally incongruous with the specificity of * exhibitions serving as instruments of political enlightenment. In part, these reasons stem from an unsound legacy. The The Giants of the Five-Year Plan and Socialist Construction Park’s exhibitions have their roots in the advertising displays in the Moscow Oblast exhibitions featured fewer reality- of the ad agency Dvigatel’ (Engine). Exhibitions as conceived distorting errors, but were by no means better in terms by the Park’s exhibition administrator are tantamount to of their general level. If the Foundations exhibition was a advertising and must be constructed according to principles

The Materialistic III 414 Museum 415 On the question of the principles of exhibition I. M. Zykov tested in practice and conforming to the advertising meth- long gone is the era when every sphere of human endeavor, ods of 1907, complemented by all the newest achievements eager to differentiate itself from related spheres, strove to of the bourgeois system of Western Europe. acquire its own particular focus, its own method, its own “Exhibitions = advertisements.” This equation has two idiom and its intrinsic laws of development. corollaries: an idiosyncratic means of putting on exhibi- Afforded a leading role by the Park’s idiosyncratic system tions and an idiosyncratic system of exhibit arrangement. of putting on exhibitions, all the artists cut down on content Exhibition practice comes to be regarded as a commercial in the most ruthless fashion. endeavor whose primary concern is the maximization of profit. The cart is put before the horse and the entire exhibi- * * tion process is muddled. * If the exhibition organizer serves merely to receive and execute orders from advertisers, then, of course, concerns The artists’ reworking of content invariably led to a funda- about content and its execution may be absent; the exhi- mental metamorphosis in the character of the exhibition, bition administration may consist of agents whose role is to the substitution of facts for images, schematism, and to attract exhibitors and artists of all ranks and abilities. decorativeness. Their opposition to a naturalistic display of Although, under present-day conditions, the Park’s endeav- objects gave the exhibitions the character of a wall newspa- ors are being steered away from the sphere of advertising, its per, wherein text became the primary, and in some cases the attitude to exhibitions and the system for organizing them only, conduit for content. Exhibitions ceased to be vivid dis- have remained the same, as has its administration. The fun- plays of facts. Depending on the professional inclinations of damental element of the administration is absent—those the artist, they became either posters or decorative construc- working on content and those working on the arrangement tions, with content reduced to a minimum in both cases. of exhibits. The emasculation of content exists in correlation with the principle of equating the notion of “exhibition” with those * * of “propaganda” and “advertising.” * According to this principle, political agitation differs from all other advertising only in terms of its content rather Conscious distortion consists of the introduction of pro- than its principles, meaning that the techniques of Western fessional artistic tendencies, the emasculation of content, advertising—reliant on tricks, effects, and the imperative and the displacement of the appropriate ratio between fact form of the expression of the content—are perfectly appli- and image. cable here, too. Exhibition content must be reduced to brief Fine art is a domain of particularly steadfast traditions. splinters of factual information without any elucidation of At the same time, in no other domain is tradition as inimical their meaning, as the exhibition must allegedly be of an agi- to the objectives of the present day as in that of fine art. Not tational rather than educational or informative character

The Materialistic III 416 Museum 417 On the question of the principles of exhibition I. M. Zykov

(“educational” and “informative” being employed as syn- measures, viewers may be interested in the industrial process onymous with “objective,” and antithetical to “agitational” as a whole. Agitation that fails to elucidate the concepts it is or slanted). Objective insight is professed to be superfluous, based on will never fulfill its goals. If the viewer is informed inimical, and capable of destroying the agitational effect. that blooming mills and cracking plants are under construc- The fallaciousness and ignorance of this position is obvi- tion in the USSR, he’ll want to know what these are, what ous, as are its origins in the practice of bourgeois advertis- they’re for, and how they work. ing. No less obvious is its inapplicability with regard to the There is a profound and fundamental distinction to be propaganda of socialist construction. The aspectual presen- made between agitation and bourgeois advertising: the tation of material by no means precludes familiarity with focus of agitation is not the same, and neither are its aims; its content. the set of conditions in which it takes place is different, as, Incidentally, the mechanical transposition of the prin- indeed, are the people it targets. The techniques of bourgeois ciples of bourgeois advertising—a tendency not limited to advertising, developed in the ultra-individualistic conditions the Culture Park—renders exhibitions lightweight, reduc- of a Spenglerian Europe, a Europe of dead ends and crisis, ing them to a series of stumpy, fragmentary notices, embel- serve predominantly to exert pressure on the emotions, to lished by light effects and others, too. If we are informed that shift them beyond the domain of conscious control. The psy- Magnitogorsk1 is the world’s biggest metallurgical plant, and chotechnics of advertising are predicated in no small part on told no more about it, this information is, of course, princi- Freudian psychoanalysis. Its purpose is to blind and deafen, pally identical to a poster featuring “Katyk’s world-beating to liberate desire from the control of the intellect. cigarette papers.” Under the conditions of our culture, wherein man is being Experience shows that the effectiveness of brief informa- liberated from the anarchy of his fragmented emotional com- tional snippets where no attempt has been made to penetrate plexes and disjointed appetites, and is acquiring an integral into the meaning of things or to offer the viewer novel insights unity of intellect and organizing will, advertising of this kind is slim to nil: Who nowadays is unaware of Magnitogorsk’s is unnecessary and ineffective. The popularity of our program existence? Repeated exposure to long-known facts quickly of socialist construction can be based only on a deep under- grows tiresome and is capable of eliciting altogether undesir- standing thereof. This program can be based only on a clear able emotions. awareness of the goal. The program’s realization requires the In the park, economy and technology are kept apart. triumph of the intellectual faculty over biological appetites. Anything remotely technological is dispatched directly to Exhibitions focused on the problems and prospects of the science and technology village. The exhibitions, mean- our country’s industrialization must impart knowledge, and while, are pure economy. Yet, alongside abstract statistical lots of it. The more knowledge is imparted, the more the viewer’s interest is piqued. The most convincing way to exhibit 1. Magnitogorsk is an industrial city in the province of Chelyabinsk. the program of our development cannot be limited to brief —Trans. note informational snippets and bare statistical tables—it must

The Materialistic III 418 Museum 419 On the question of the principles of exhibition I. M. Zykov offer a more or less complete set of insights into the indus- When organizing museum exhibits—especially in art trial process as a whole, including its technological aspects. and historico-cultural museums—it is necessary to proceed The viewer knows that “during the epoch of reconstruction, from the self-sufficient concretism of individual objects technology determines everything.” The viewer is hungry for to an elucidation of their meaning and to an unveiling of technological knowledge. their interrelationships. At the same time, it is necessary to As regards the form in which exhibition material is pre- overcome the vestiges of the recent immanentism of facts, sented, “showing” must, by definition, take precedence to combat the vestiges of the era of cultural disintegration, over “telling.” Inappropriate organization frequently when the study of art, striving to put time out of joint, did results in exhibitions being reduced to mere description not even want to be a history of art, and strove to limit itself and bare abstraction. to a scrutiny of individual monuments, unwilling to know when objects were produced, what conditions spawned their * * production, and what social shifts they epitomized. The most * consistent expression of time being “out of joint” was the call to remove captions in museums (Fritz Burger). Exhibitions dealing with questions of current affairs must, Today, the focus of our attention has naturally shifted of course, have a different fate. They must not become wall from individual monuments to the unveiling of their mean- newspapers. Concrete, viewable facts are most convincing and interdependence. Our gaze is directed at the monu- ing. They constitute a condition for intensive apprehension ment, beyond the monument, and between monuments. A and must form the keystone of the exhibitional complex. new element in the exhibitional system is therefore perfectly It goes without saying that the role of concrete facts in the appropriate, even indispensable—text as the condensation exhibitional orchestra must not be limited to their exter- of conclusions abstracted from the exhibitional corpus. nal shells—it must shed light on all its prerequisites and If, in a museum context, the monument represents the corollaries.2 An exhibition is, by its nature, a subvariety of given quantity and its meaning represents the unknown, a museum, typified by a strong centrality of purpose and a the reverse is true when conceptualizing an exhibition on singularity of theme. current affairs: the task here is to find concrete incarnations The process of organizing a political exhibition is anti- of ideas, problems, and goals directly perceivable by us. thetical to the work being done in museums—made up as Frequently these ideas are still in the process of being real- they are of monuments of the past—and to the changes in ized and reified. The task of putting on an exhibition on cur- which the task of reconstructing the system of museum exhi- rent affairs means finding the visual material necessary for a bition consists. The given and the unknown stand in inverse complete and convincing perception of the ideas that repre- relation here. sent the object of agitation. Museum exhibition proceeds by way of abstraction, exhibitions by way of concretization. The 2. This sentence is circular in the original —Trans. note shortcomings of museum exhibition manifest themselves

The Materialistic III 420 Museum 421 On the question of the principles of exhibition in the hegemony of isolated self-sufficient objects; those of political exhibitions, conversely, in an abstract presentation Plates of material and an excess of text. Battle must be waged on two fronts.

* * *

An exhibition must offer a well-orchestrated, sequentially unfurling corpus of insights into the object under scrutiny. The abstraction of isolated aspects of the object’s nature is permissible only to a certain extent. The exhibition must penetrate as deeply as possible into the character of the object—the deeper it penetrates, the greater the interest elicited in the viewer. It is futile to pin one’s hopes on brevity and superficial popularization. It is imperative that each and every notion invoked in the exhibition is properly eluci- dated. “Showing” must take precedence over “telling.” Text is indispensable in the form of labeling, captioning, and commentary, but it is scarcely capable of being the exhibition’s central focus, and external effects and tricks are of little help for it in this impossible role. Facts have the right to hegemonic status in the expositional system. Images may merely stand in for facts when there are lacunas in the chain of facts. The reverse is absolutely unacceptable. Decorativeness and schematism must not enter into conflict with facts and must not drown out their voice.

III 422 I The Museum as Common Task

View of TheF irst World Exhibition of Interplanetary Spacecrafts and Mechanisms, 1927, Moscow. Vasiliy Chekrygin, Participation of Science in the Act of Resurrection, 1921. Graphite pencil and charcoal on paper, 38,6 x 29,7 cm, private collection. The illustration originally appeared in Vasiliy View of The First World Exhibition of Interplanetary Spacecrafts and Chekrygin’s manuscript “On the Cathedral of the Resurrecting Mechanisms, 1927 Moscow. Museum,” 1921. III The Materialistic Museum

View of Art of the Industrial Bourgeoisie,1931. State Tretyakov Gallery, The Art of the Most Prominent Serf-Owners: Court Nobility in the Mid- Moscow. The exhibition was curated by Aleksey Fedorov-Davydov. Eighteenth Century, from Natalya Kovalenskaya’s text “An Experiment The caption “Bourgeois art in the blind alley of formalism and self- in Marxist Exhibition-Making at the Tretyakov State Gallery,” Soviet negation” appears on the wall. Museum no. 1, (1931). View of the textile industry workers’ room with “corner dwellers” in the exhibition Everyday Life of the Working Class from 1900 to 1930. State Russian Peasant art from the early nineteenth century displayed at the Museum, Leningrad. This image originally accompanied Valentin Kholtsov’s Tretyakov State Gallery in Natalya Kovalenskaya’s text “An text “Everyday Life of the Working Class from 1900 to 1930 Exhibition: History Experiment in Marxist Exhibition-Making at the Tretyakov State and Everyday Life Department of the State Russian Museum” in Soviet Museum Gallery,” Soviet Museum no. 1 (1931). no. 3, (1931). A model of a boxcar with militia being sent to the frontline displayed View of the exhibit Socialist Construction displayed within the show in the exhibition Everyday Life of the Working Class from 1900 to 1930. Everyday Life of the Working Class from 1900 to 1930. State Russian State Russian Museum, Leningrad. This image originally accompa- Museum, Leningrad. This image originally accompanied Valentin nied Valentin Kholtsov’s text “Everyday Life of the Working Class from Kholtsov’s text “Everyday Life of the Working Class from 1900 to 1900 to 1930 Exhibition: History and Everyday Life Department of the 1930 Exhibition: History and Everyday Life Department of the State State Russian Museum” in Soviet Museum no. 3, (1931). Russian Museum” in Soviet Museum no. 3, (1931). IV The Museum Outside of the Museum

From left to right: “Agitprop-truck on the go; Agitprop-truck functioning as a radio, library, and an information point; Agitprop-truck functioning as an outdoor cinema; Agitprop-truck adapted to present an exhibition; Agitprop-truck transformed into a stage; Agitprop- “Young Naturalists Protect Medicinal Plants against Aphids,” as refer- truck serving as a library,” from M. S. Ilkovsky’s text “Bringing the enced in P. N. Khrapov’s text “Museum in the Street,” Soviet Museum Agitprop-truck to the Service of Cultural Construction,” Soviet no. 4 (1931). Museum no. 3, (1932). V Museum of the History of the Revolution

A display features A.I. Ulyanov’s social millieu circa 1887 in the View of Mobile Laboratory Hut, from I. F. Sheremet’s text “The Mobile Museum of the Revolution of the USSR, from Nikolai Druzhinin’s Model of the Instructive Laboratory Hut and Its Operation,” Soviet text, “Class Struggle as an Exhibit at the Museums of the Revolution,” Museum no. 5, (1935). Soviet Museum no. 1, (1931). Views of displays labeled “The Decembrists Were the First Division View of “The People’s Will Organization (Narodnaya Volya) Dynamite in the Bourgeois Revolution” and “Nikolai’s Monarchy! Political Workshop”display, Leningrad Museum of the Revolution, Leningrad. Apparatus,” originally published in Vera Leykina’s text “A New Photograph originally published in Vera Leykina’s text “A New Exhibition at the Leningrad Museum of the Revolution,” Soviet Exhibition at the Leningrad Museum of the Revolution,” Soviet Museum no. 6, (1931). Museum no. 6, (1931). IV

The Museum Outside of the Museum

View of a display titled “The Serf Order Was Based in the Forced Labor Exploitation of the Peasant by the Aristocrat and Landowner,” Leningrad Museum of the Revolution, Leningrad, originally published Vera Leykina’s text “A New Exhibition at the Leningrad Museum of the Revolution,” Soviet Museum no. 6, (1931). Museums in Industrial Enterprises

K. I. Vorobyov Museums in industrial enterprises K. i. Vorobyov

First published in 1931 (kraevedenie)2 in the spring of 1930 and a competition Translated by Caroline Rees in association with the VSNKh (Supreme Soviet of the National Economy) was announced for the best work on I would like to make it absolutely clear that what I have in factories and industrial plants. The need to harness the mind here does not involve natural history museums in country’s creative energies in order to build up the national industrial plants, or indeed “mini-Hermitages.” I intend economy was highlighted at the 16th Party Congress, with to discuss museums in plants like Krasny Putilovets, a particular emphasis on Soviet industrialization and the Krasny Gvozdilshik, Krasnoye Sormovo, Dnieprostroi, collectivization of agriculture. Magnitogorsk, Svirstroy, and the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, What is, then, so striking about this current direction? i.e. museums associated with the giants of socialist construc- Unfortunately, the study of industrial enterprises is going tion that are emerging in ever-increasing numbers on our ahead in spite of the announcement of the competition Soviet soil.1 and a plethora of instructions issued by the VSNKh and the The question of studying industrial enterprises was Central Bureau for the Study of Local-lore (TsBK) that are raised at the Fourth All-Russian Conference on Local-lore quite out of step with the desired tempo for socialist construction. Although work involving the study of industrial 1. The Putilov Company was founded in 1848 and produced rolling plants is being undertaken by the TsBK, most people are stock for the railways; then, in 1917, after the revolution, the plant was unaware of this research and, for the moment, we are unable renamed Krasny Putilovets and was responsible for manufacturing to gauge its current scale, the direction it has taken, and the first Soviet tractors. Krasny Gvozdilshik was built on the site of an old steel-rolling fac- where it is heading. tory on Vasilievsky Island, Saint Petersburg. The water tower, which The main reason behind the delayed study of indus- was built between 1930 and 1931, is regarded as a landmark of constructivist architecture. trial plants is that the workforce itself—that fundamental The Nizhny Novgorod Machine Factory, founded in 1849, was one research body that should have been included from the very of Russia’s oldest shipbuilding companies. After the Civil War (1918– outset—has not been involved. To date, there have been no 1920), the Krasnoye Sormovo plant became one of the Soviet Union’s most progressive and distinguished shipbuilding yards. large-scale projects in industrial organizations; nor has there Dnieprostroi (the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station), was designed been any campaign emphasizing the necessity for this study. during the 1920s as part of the Soviet drive toward industrialization. I do not mean the individual initiatives that might have been Work on it began in 1927 and it was producing electricity by the end of 1932. conducted in a whole range of central and provincial cities Magnitogorsk is an industrial city in the province of Chelyabinsk. It became a steel-producing center and was crucial to Stalin’s Five-Year Plan during the 1930s. It went on to play an important part in the pro- 2. Kraevedenie is variously translated as “local-lore,” “local studies,” duction of machinery used during the Second World War. or sometimes simply transliterated as “kraevedenie.” The conservation Construction on the Lower Svir Hydroelectric Station in the societies came under attack for their opposition to the new Soviet province of Leningrad began in 1927 and it opened in 1933. The construction programs, but there was no overt rejection of conserva- settlement, which was economically dependent on the hydroelectric tion issues per se at the Fourth All-Russian Conference on Local-lore. station, was known as Svirstroy. —Trans. note —Trans. note

The museum outside IV 444 of the museum 445 Museums in industrial enterprises K. i. Vorobyov since, as these initiatives are not representative of a mass Now if we take as our example a plant from the period of phenomenon, they do not constitute proof that this work is economic collapse in which lighters were manufactured for actually in progress. the private market and a plant where work is in step with the Due consideration must of course be given to the creation required socialist tempo, then the difference is necessarily of factory museums at the same time as the study of local-lore so huge that the representation of this timespan, although and research projects. The giant socialist construction pro- insignificant in the grander scheme of things, is of colossal gram now under way in our country is absolutely new and we importance for educational policy makers. must, therefore, assemble all the material relating to it—doc- A museum in an industrial enterprise has before it a very uments, in fact, of colossal historical importance. Indeed, if precise set of goals. These include the necessary support we take one of the new construction projects—Dnieprostroi, for the development of the plant as well as the struggle to for instance—the way it is portrayed depends on the manner implement an industrial and financial plan Promfinplan( ), to in which it develops, taking into account its domestic, social, adhere to the socialist tempo required for production, to col- economic, and technical sides. Material relating to it is cur- lectivize the daily routine, and to register the shortcomings rently being preserved in archives and assembled, not as a and achievements in terms of factory production as well as detailed, specific kind of body of information, but in order the day-to-day running and socioeconomic conditions rep- to preserve material that has emerged during its creation. resentative of the plant in both the past and the present. Additionally, this is at a time when we are well aware that The first goal involves the factory museum as a point of there is a wealth of sociopolitical factors involved in the work reference for scientific research and the study of local-lore currently being undertaken in our industrial enterprises, in a given plant and as a repository for material of particular defining the difference between our factories, our system, value concerning different sides of life in that plant. In my and their Western European counterparts. opinion, the organization of local-lore sections and muse- I will take the political label that a pioneer sticks on the ums in industrial enterprises will force the TsBK out from machine tool of an absentee worker as an extreme, though its current state of impasse. Without a point of reference for perhaps rather trifling, example. We do not pay much atten- local-lore in industrial enterprises, there can be no discus- tion to it now, but perhaps the process of labeling the tool sion concerning the large-scale involvement of the workforce and its exact wording would appear in a different light in a in matters relating to it. If you wish to interest that work- film. In many years that label will be a document of great force in local-lore through the study of the flora and fauna of political importance because it epitomizes the new social a given area, you will automatically fail. But if you encourage conditions in force in a given plant at a given time, or indeed the workforce to study the factory where it is currently living those in practice in a young pioneers’ organization. This is and working, it will clearly react more swiftly and purpose- only a trifle, but there is an unlimited supply of information fully than if it were studying a branch of botany. We must to be gleaned from minutiae as well as from material of more also bear in mind that, since the creation of these museums large-scale import. is important not only for a particular plant, the foundations

The museum outside IV 446 of the museum 447 Museums in industrial enterprises K. i. Vorobyov will also be laid for the development of large-scale museums before or after the October Revolution might be answered, it of technology and economics to act as repositories for all is also the place where groups of incoming workers would be manner of material. able to familiarize themselves with the workings of the plant So, who will manage this task? Special research groups of which they are the masters. Of course, this would not be will only capture life in a plant during a given period—let a museum’s only function. Its principal task is to help socio- us say from June to August—but we would need to ensure a political organizations resolve questions concerning the continual collection so that the museum, a small study-group process of familiarization of these new teams of workers. We in fact, would therefore be able to justify its existence as part know very well that in large industrial plants and new con- of an industrial enterprise. It would act as a continual source struction sites, the familiarization of workers, newly arrived of propaganda promoting the industrial and financial plan from the country, is of critical importance. (Promfinplan), the Five-Year Plan, and the socialist recon- you are only too aware that there are a vast number of struction of each particular factory. Its visual representation outside visitors to a factory, including workers from other would be of considerable use for the plant’s sociopolitical industrial enterprises, collective farmers, students, and tour- organizations. ists. They become acquainted with a plant and what it pro- Training campaigns are indeed being conducted in the duces, but fail to see the dynamics behind its development factories. Let us suppose that a ten-day civil defense train- and inner workings because the guide in charge of conducting campaign is conducted and then put on one side, or a ing the visit has scarcely enough time to conduct a lightning campaign to eradicate any potential hold-ups is carried out museum tour, paying attention only to the technical side and and also put on one side. These campaigns are conducted failing to elaborate on the history of a particular department by sociopolitical organizations at the factory, but there is or factory shop. In a museum, these issues are represented in no continual, detailed visual repository available to anyone a nutshell. who wishes to familiarize himself with the matter in hand. The character of the work undertaken by these muse- This is precisely the responsibility of factory museums and ums is not limited to the foregoing: there is a whole range all the material relating to the different campaigns should be of other areas in which their importance is enormous. In housed there, including of course other main issues facing organizational terms, this was solved by a resolution made the museum itself. by the Fourth All-Russian Conference on Local-lore as fol- The museum would, thenceforth, introduce new teams lows: “Museums come under the jurisdiction of the local- of workers fresh from the country and collective farms (kolk- lore section of the cultural branch under the aegis of the hoz) to life in a factory. As there is a significant percentage factory committee.” I believe that their place has now been of workers of peasant origin in these plants—workers as yet correctly defined, but in my view, in addition to the major- unfamiliar with factory life—it is only natural that, since a ity of workers from the factory floor, we need to interest museum is somewhere where questions surrounding the engineering and technical personnel, students, the school economic and political development of a given factory either affiliated with a given enterprise, and students studying

The museum outside IV 448 of the museum 449 Museums in industrial enterprises K. i. Vorobyov at the technical college for the associated discipline in the 3. The role of the factory within the general economic museum’s work. system and district. Here, we should bear in mind Community work undertaken by students at a plant can the supply of raw materials, distribution points, and be divided into two groups: work at the plant in the true recruitment of labor. sense of the word and work undertaken for the local-lore section involved in studying a particular factory or plant. 4. The factory in practice: the Five-Year Plan, the Five- Students at the factory school should be involved in this Year Plan achieved in four years, the industrial and work because, with a view to permanent work in the future, financial plan (Promfinplan), the counter-industrial they will undoubtedly be more closely involved with pro- and financial plan (vstrechnyi promfinplan), and the duction than anyone for whom a detailed knowledge of socialist methods of working to include socialist com- the material associated with the factory to which they are petition, shock work, and production (the question attached is impossible. of export is included here). This material is constantly What, then, is the fundamental difference between a fac- changing, being added to, and developing. Numerous tory museum and a museum of technology and economics? diagrams would be included in this section. The latter is devoted to the technology behind production, whereas in the former, this is not paramount. It is, in fact, 5. Enemies of socialist construction and the battle paramount, but only generally speaking, with additional against them, sabotage, sacerdotalism, sectarian- areas being interpreted in relation to the factory to which a ism, illiteracy, drunkenness, and the struggle against particular museum is affiliated. Neither should its goals be absentees and anti-Semites. These issues would not the same as a museum of technology and economics. receive attention in an ordinary museum. A museum of technology and economics would feature sabo- In my opinion, this is what a factory museum should be and, tage generally and sabotage by the Industrial Party in its essential form, it should include: (Prompartiya).3 Individual cases of sabotage might also feature in the museum affiliated with a particu- 1. The economic and political history of the factory up lar enterprise. until the October Revolution. 6. The day-to-day routine of the workforce. This is 2. The economic and political history of the factory an unsatisfactory area as we are on the periphery after the October Revolution. Here, the October Revolution is perceived as a line of demarcation. We 3. The Prompartiya, or Industrial Party, Show Trial took place would also need to refer to the civil war, the famine, between November 25 and December 7, 1930. A number of prominent engineers and economists were accused of forming the party in and the periods of recovery and reconstruction. order to wreck Soviet industry and transport and, ultimately, over- throw the government. —Trans. note

The museum outside IV 450 of the museum 451 Museums in industrial enterprises

between the old and the new. There is a wealth of matters relating to the socialist way of life, which is The Experience of Developing receiving scarcely any attention. Individual attempts Mobile Exhibitions to summarize it are currently under way, however, and the City Museum in Leningrad is taking steps in that direction, but again of a general nature. Displays would play a key role here. There could be diagrams and cuttings on view as well as miniature models of rooms, communal flats, and hostels.

7. Finally, ideas for the development of a factory should be included as well as any campaign work—the shock brigades’ ten-day period of civil-defense training and the battle against illiteracy, and so forth.

This is, in brief, how I imagine the organization of factory museums in industrial enterprises.

Yuri Samarin

IV 452 the experience of developing mobile exhibitions Yuri Samarin

First published in 1931 to have more in number, without really thinking about the Translated by Anastasia Skoybedo existing connections between one object and another. The state of other museums (including national, regional, The task of mass enlightenment work is the most perti- and district museums) is different. These museums, which nent and exciting task for a museum worker today. How to were founded only after the October Revolution, in practice approach the organization of this mass work? How to switch could not yet select objects that were necessary for an orderly over to the rail of enlightenment work, renouncing stewing and thematic installation. Here we see another extreme, but in one’s own juices of admiration and amateurishness, so unfortunately, the results in the first and in the second case are typical of philanthropists and collectors? We need, once and equally unsatisfactory. Therefore we have to assert in earnest for all, to put the following principle points at the center of that despite the fact that there is a wide network of museums the museum’s attention: each museum must actively realize within the Soviet Union, despite the massive and intensive the slogan of our day, namely, that science and art are the work that is being done in some of them to bring them closer property of all working people. to their viewers, museums, to speak generally speaking, Every museum must reorganize its work in such a way as remain unpopular among all levels of the working class in the to turn itself from a repository of objects, collected together city, and especially in the village. Museums are generally vis- by the select few for their contemplation and admiration, ited by students. The percentage of working-class visitors is into a weapon of science and political enlightenment, a comparatively low. The peasant masses are unfamiliar with mouthpiece of militant materialism that broadcasts theory museums, and take up the last position in statistics of museum to the masses through the language of vividly shown objects visits. This sad fact is apparent not only in central museums, and through the language of art. but also in museums in smaller towns and more remote loca- For the majority of our museums—the collections of tions. Meanwhile, the plan for the cultural restructuring of our which have been accumulated over the course of decades, entire country dictates the necessity and urgency of including and sometimes centuries—this question is especially diffi- museums in the first ranks of forces moving culture into the cult. In our larger museums there are sometimes such heaps masses. The work must be reorganized in such a way that all of heterogeneous material, collected without any scientific museums, without exception, become cultural centers, closely system, that one cannot immediately understand them or connected in their work with production groups, schools, col- begin to orient oneself in them. It is sometimes especially dif- lective farms, clubs, and so forth. We need to reach a point ficult to create an orderly system for restructuring a museum where this connection would not have an accidental, sporadic in order to reveal separate themes. Frequently, one encoun- character of visits and “nice gestures,” which are good while ters such facts: there is a great deal of material, and at the they are happening but soon get forgotten. We need to reach a same time, the most important and valuable material is lack- point where this connection is organic in character and where ing. This happens because previous collectors did not have a the museum becomes a connecting center, a niche for every scientific method and often gathered exhibits only in order working person who lives in a given area.

The museum outside IV 454 of the museum 455 the experience of developing mobile exhibitions Yuri Samarin

Every museum practitioner knows that it is not always such a place of cultural recreation, undoubtedly will be a easy to entice a visitor into a museum, who goes there driven convenient conduit for scientific knowledge and an agitat- not by mere curiosity but rather with a realization that he ing factor for attracting a conscious and interested visitor to is going to a museum to increase his knowledge, to learn. a museum. In its content, the mobile exhibition must answer This kind of visitor, whether an industrial worker, peasant, pertinent sociopolitical questions to a much greater extent or collective farm worker, will not only learn what is inter- than the internal collection of a museum. esting to him when he comes to a museum, but will also In conjunction, an exhibition organized outside the teach a museum worker himself—will help him with practi- walls of a museum should strive not to be thematically dis- cal instructions and advice. Creating such a core group of jointed from the actual museum and its main goals and patrons attached to every museum is a very important and principles. Very successful and desirable exhibitions would vital task. But the most efficient and the most convenient be those that represent some kind of social conclusion or way to actualize this connection between a museum and the report from the museum, or from some department of the masses is organizing mobile exhibitions. museum, on the work performed in a given field, presented If a worker or a peasant occupied with their daily work in a popular manner. neither has time to attend a museum, nor has yet acquired While preparing the exhibition for any particular group the habit of going to museums, the museum has to come to of people (peasantry, craftsmen, a particular group of work- them. A museum has to call to them and provoke in them a ers) a particular theme can be selected, one that is closest to desire to develop their cultural standing. We need to admit this category of laborers, so that they get a substantial benefit that workers and peasants have been attending museums from visiting the exhibition (for example, an exhibition on rarely up until now because our museums, for the most the development of agricultural tools for the peasantry, an part, could not assume a position necessary to satisfy visitor exhibition on the history of spinning and weaving for textile demands. In this direction, museums should not fall behind workers, and so on). While leaving it to the museum worker other cultural organizations, and a mobile exhibit should to select the theme of a planned mobile exhibition, we would become one of the most impactful and central areas of con- only summarize some industrial sectors to which mobile temporary museum work. However, bare words and appeals exhibitions can be dedicated. These sectors would be: (a) are going to help here less than the language of objects that agriculture (in any of its various fields); (b) artisanal indus- are successfully and consciously selected. try; (c) questions related to various technical and indus- Mobile exhibitions must hit the road to factories and trial advances, medicine, and generally, to various areas of factory clubs, cultural parks, and reading huts in collective applied knowledge. It ought to be noted that a very represen- farms, to schools and other similar places that workers are tative and convenient method for the agitation factor, which accustomed to visiting without considerable strain of will or should always predominate, is the juxtaposition of the old desire to see something or hear something. A mobile exhi- and the new. Such a concurrent contrasting display is more bition, accompanied by an accessible discussion, set up in lively and is the best way to increase a viewer’s interest in new

The museum outside IV 456 of the museum 457 the experience of developing mobile exhibitions Yuri Samarin scientific and technological achievements, and to provoke and diagrams. Abundance and overloading the exhibition the desire to learn how to use them; revealing and explaining will only spoil it and will turn visitors away. It is necessary to various “nonscientific” ways of working would force them to have a very clear and precise selection, choosing only what is abandon them faster. necessary for the main idea demanded by the exhibition. In relation to social and historical sciences—setting edu- While in the process of developing the plan and orga- cational tasks as their main goal—mobile exhibitions must nizing the actual exhibition, the cooperation of specialists try, in popular form, to acquaint the viewer with the history from different scientific fields (for example, a historian, an of labor processes, socioeconomic formations, class struggle, economist, an ethnographer, and a industrial worker) is very and so on. In relation to the natural sciences, mobile exhibi- important. Moreover—and we underscore this—the coop- tions must open the viewer’s eyes to the surrounding nature, eration between a theoretician and a practitioner in the field in accordance with the principles of a materialistic world- is very important. With this collective work, a theoretician— view that are to be imprinted upon his mind. It is imperative a historian, for example—reveals the connection that vari- (especially for national and ethnographic museums) that ous stages of production have to socioeconomic formations; mobile exhibits respond to the main problems of political speaking about the tasks of the current moment, he points and economic life in the area—problems of national emanci- out the dialectic development of various phenomena, pro- pation, separate agricultural problems, problems connected gressive and viable many years ago and completely useless with the Five-Year Plan for that area. If at all possible, it is under contemporary conditions. A specialist in practical highly desirable to time mobile exhibitions according to vari- knowledge popularizes the results of scientific advances and ous dates of local historical-revolutionary significance. For provides concrete conclusions and ways in which they can example, an exhibit dedicated to the labor and everyday life be used. of a woman on March 8, antireligious exhibitions during Mobile exhibitions pertaining to one particular scientific antireligious and anti-Easter campaigns, and so on. area should not, if possible, be limited to it; on the contrary, In addition, mobile exhibitions must relate to general they must try to show some generalizing and complimenting problems of the day, such as: the fulfillment of the industrial- facts from other areas of knowledge. financial plan, the struggle for skilled workers, socialist com- large numbers of people should be incorporated into petitions, agitation, government lending, and so on. exhibition planning, those for whom the exhibition is Moving on to the question of how to build a mobile exhibi- intended as well as, for example, workers for exhibitions tion, we need to point out that when developing a plan for the going to the village, and peasants and collective farm work- exhibition, one should select a clear and well-defined theme. ers for exhibitions intended for the cities. The experience of organizing mobile exhibitions shows that We envision the exhibits within the mobile exhibition as diverting into different subthemes and complicating the exhi- follows: firstly, real objects taken from museum collections; bition is impractical and unnecessary. It is also completely secondly, models and replicas if real objects are not meant unnecessary to agglomerate a lot of objects, illustrations, for travel or are the only one of their kind at the museum.

The museum outside IV 458 of the museum 459 the experience of developing mobile exhibitions Yuri Samarin

When introducing models, one should try to make them clichéd types of diagrams and cartograms—cubes, circles, resemble the original as closely as possible and make them curves, and so on; instead, replace them with vivid markers, to the same scale, so that there is not a false impression. for example, coal (show a piece of coal or its replica), grain The next and very important part of the exhibition (show a pile of grain), and so forth. should be illustration material, in the form of photographs, A diagram should be interesting and accessible not only drawings, paintings, and posters. Keeping in mind a clear to the person who is leading the excursion; it needs to be and strict selection, it is necessary to choose only what is composed and executed so vividly and satisfactorily that most relevant to the theme, providing photographs that are every independent visitor stops at it. A diagram must not maybe bigger, and if possible, of standard size, trying to be an appendix to the theme of the exhibition, but must avoid photographs that are hard to understand, and if pos- predominantly form a composite and necessary part of sible, trying to show in photographs what cannot be shown the whole plan. If it is possible in local conditions, it is very in the exhibits (the process of work, living conditions, and desirable to use light effects in the exhibition, in the form so on). Schematic drawings and plans should be kept to a of glowing diagrams, slides, geographic maps, and so on. minimum, because they are badly and reluctantly accepted The exhibition would only benefit if some aspects presented by visitors who are not used to museums. What makes any could illustrate the exhibited theme and its various indepen- exhibit livelier (even one that is not specifically dedicated to dent episodes, for example, a replica of a tractor including the problems of art) is the addition of artistically rendered people and the whole everyday environment. A replica must sketches of paintings by famous masters or their reproduc- replace and reproduce what cannot be shown in reality. If it is tions. These materials, being vivid and bright, decorate the not possible to make a good artistic replica, then you should exhibit very well and draw attention to it. It is possible to abandon the idea rather than providing something that is use both artistically agitating material and separate post- not artistic and does not represent real life. ers but again, in moderate quantities, not overloading the Explanatory labeling is of great importance at the mobile main composition. exhibition and in every museum exhibition. First of all, the Material that is very useful to almost any exhibition, but organizers of the exhibition must create a general introduc- at the same time very complicated to present, is statistical tory label, where, in a clear, intelligible form, the content of material: diagrammatic and cartographic. Following the the exhibition must be provided—its purpose, and those same principal that only what is most necessary should be conclusions that it is trying to make. This introductory label presented, every museum worker building an exhibition should be accessible to everyone who visits the exhibition must make a trial exhibition, checking the impression cre- and must, at the same time, serve as a list of main theses, on ated by it on various groups of visitors. Only then should which a discussion about the exhibition can be based. he or she begin to create any diagrams or cartograms. We If there are separate sections of the exhibition, they would like to point out, by way of practice-based advice, should also be furnished with similar labels. A very brief that it is necessary to try to deviate as much as possible from text label must accompany every object and illustration—the

The museum outside IV 460 of the museum 461 the experience of developing mobile exhibitions Yuri Samarin more concise, the better. At the end of the exhibition there During discussions, if possible under local conditions, it needs to be a small, general, summarized conclusion. is sometimes very appropriate to accompany these discus- Our experience in organizing mobile exhibitions sug- sions with film screenings or slide shows that are themati- gests that labels are further animated by the inclusion of cally connected to the exhibition and that can supplement it. elements of oral folklore and written literary work. To dem- Photographs and other types of illustrative materials onstrate the theme, a small number of proverbs, riddles, must be as standardized as possible, or combined into one sayings, songs, and poems presented in an abridged format. or several common groups of the same size and with the This material, which reveals the theme more fully, can some- same mounting or frames. Diagrams and cartograms must times serve as auxiliary material for revealing social, class, not bring discord into the uniform artistic composition, and and other important topics that are sometimes not fully must be as unified as possible. If it is not possible to provide shown in the exhibitions themselves. labels that are professionally printed, then they should be It is necessary to provide a small number of slogans for written on durable material (cardboard, tin, ply board), in each exhibition (but under no circumstances overloading it clear and relatively large handwriting, with titles and sec- with them). Slogans must address political problems that tion titles emphasized by a different font or a bigger size. appear in connection to the exhibition; moreover, it is good Labels typed on a typewriter should be excluded, as they fade to provide a source from which this or that slogan is taken, if quickly and disappear. it is taken from a written work, newspaper, appeal, and so on. As it is meant to be transferred from place to place, the Undoubtedly, the ideal method of showing the exhibi- whole mobile exhibition must be constructed in such a tion is when the person who is very familiar with it guides the way that it is easy to take it apart and put it back together exhibition from beginning to end and can lead discussions in a short period of time. In this case, labels and other flat when it is being shown. If this is not possible, it is neces- materials can be permanently attached during setup—and sary to accompany the exhibition with detailed instructions this would be useful later, because it would help anyone on how to show it—in other words, to make the exhibition to quickly orient himself during the process of hanging talk for itself, to include the plan of the exhibits’ locations, the exhibits. It is highly desirable that an exhibition that to mark the route of guided tours with arrows, to attach a has been at a given place for a long time is not forgotten list of popular literature on the topic of the exhibit (and for afterward by local organizations and visitors; therefore, it the most important books to provide hard copies of). It is is desirable to have a small brochure, even one that is typed necessary to include a notebook for recording impressions on a typewriter or a hectograph, so that it can be distributed and instructions that would arise during the visit. From our as a reminder of the exhibition. experience we can assert that this kind of notebook con- While organizing a mobile exhibition, organizers must tains extremely valuable material, which can teach a great always connect their enlightenment work to some extent deal. It is also possible to create a small questionnaire for the with the general popularizing work of the museum. And viewers, with separate questions connected to the exhibit. while showing the exhibition, they must try to promote

The museum outside IV 462 of the museum 463 the experience of developing mobile exhibitions Yuri Samarin their museum with the goal of increasing attendance and 1. creating a pool of regular patrons from the working and “False Agriculture” peasant classes. To further demonstrate and practically assist museum 1. Ceremonial cookies that are baked and eaten, or buried workers in constructing mobile exhibitions, we provide in the ground during planting, with the magical purpose here a general description of typical exhibitions, which were of increasing crop yields: “a plow,” “a harrow,” “mold- organized by the East Slavic Department of the State Central ing,” “a sickle,” “a lark,” “a cross and a tail bone” Ethnographic Museum in 1930. (cookie replicas). Proverbs and popular sayings connected with them. * * * 2. Primitive agricultural tools, with which the previously discussed rituals were carried out. Models of a plow, False and Scientific Agriculture a harrow, a sickle, a scythe, with photographs of the labor process. The purpose of the exhibition is to demonstrate the connection between religious beliefs and backward forms of agri- 3. Objects related to spring rituals connected with agricul- culture; the main task of the exhibition is to demonstrate tural works: (a) photographs of the cooking process of the connection between production and ideology and to traditional “fried eggs,” which were fried during the reveal the class essence of religious beliefs. The antireligious female spring holiday of “Margoski”; (b) photographs importance of the exhibition is based on comparing ele- of a ritual female “Turnip” game; (c) a wreath of birch ments of agricultural magic, or “false agriculture,” with new, branches, which was used to tell fortunes during the scientific methods of agriculture. The organizing principle days of green branches, the so-called Trinity Day. of the exhibition: for greater contrast, all material pertaining to the old way of life is exhibited against a dark-gray back- 4. Objects related to summer rituals. A cuckoo coffin, ground; material pertaining to the new way of life, against a pertaining to the ritual titled “The Cuckoo Funeral,” red background. performed in the days of so-called Peter’s Lent. This An introductory label on the topic of “Agricultural Cults,” ritual is connected to the myth of a dying and resur- which introduces the exhibition’s theme and enhances the rected god of vegetation. viewer’s comprehension. 5. Objects related to autumnal preharvest rituals. Photographs showing the ritual of “weaving the beard,” performed in the final moments of the harvest, which has as its basis a sacrifice to the god of

The museum outside IV 464 of the museum 465 the experience of developing mobile exhibitions Yuri Samarin

vegetation and a transfer of vegetative power to 2. the Earth for future harvests. A bunch of ears—the Scientific Agriculture “flower,” which was blessed in church, and the grains from which were used during winter sowing. The rit- In contrast to the previous section of the exhibition, here is ual cookie known as “Ilyinskaya snake,” which was a collection of photographs, slides, and slogans that char- eaten as protection against magic. acterize the new life of the village and illuminate scientific methods of agriculture, such as harvest feasts, the startup of 6. “Holy” patrons of the land. The icons of Christian the first tractor, the operation of the first reading hut, various “saints” who acted as patrons of agriculture for moments in the mechanized cultivation of land (a tractor, common people are demonstrated in the exhibi- a combine, an electric plow), a communal cattle barnyard, tion, and their pre-Christian origin is revealed. an incubator, improved cattle breeds, and so on. A diagram “Saint Nicholas”—the patron saint of agriculture that compares harvest yields from one hectare using “God’s and the “Savior from all Troubles”(one icon). “Saint help” and old, manual tools for cultivating land; and using all George”—the saint of farming and cattle breeding the latest advances in science and technology. This section, (one icon). “The Virgin Mary”—“the grower of bread” equipped with various slogans corresponding to political (one icon). momentum, provides a stark contrast to the first section and makes it “agitational” in the sense that it demonstrates old 7. The cult of cattle breeding and magic. Ritual cookies forms of agriculture, based on “false agriculture,” while at the that are baked and given to cattle to increase the size same time propagandizing new rational, scientific methods of the offspring: “horses,” “cows,” “pigs.” “Saint” of agriculture in a socialist village. Vlasius—cattle protector (an icon). “Saint” Modest, “Medost” in folklore —the protector of cattle rearing and beekeeping (icon). “Saint” Flor and Lavr—pro- tectors of horses (icon). A clay smoking pipe, used to smoke cows during calving. A clay pitcher, in which holy water was brought to the fields for blessing the cattle during the first grazing in the spring. A photograph depicting the ritual of “plowing the village” during mass cattle epidemics. “Chicken god”—a stone with a hole, which was hung in a chicken coop and was considered to be the protector of chickens.

The museum outside IV 466 of the museum 467 Museum in the Street

P. N. Khrapov Museum in the Street P. N. Khrapov

First published in 1931 The experience of having working mobile museums and Translated by Anastasia Skoybedo museums in public passageways has fully justified itself; a visitor, upon entering such open museums, sometimes end- It has been ten years since the first harbingers—display cases ing up there by chance, draws knowledge on various topics in the street. Now we have whole park districts for recreation that interest him, widening his intellectual ken and then, and leisure, certain parts of which are being turned into after increasing his curiosity, goes into closed scientific-edu- museums. The idea of bringing the museum out to the street cational museums, where he satisfies his cultural-political is becoming a reality. But these are just cases—singular cases inquiries. And finally, we have two years of experience in on our cultural front. And, unfortunately, we have to con- organizing a biological corner on the square of the Miusskaya clude that these projects still maintain “old traditions”—they Public Garden in Moscow—this is the first step in the realiza- are just as expensive and inaccessible to large demograph- tion of the idea to “take the museum into the street.”1 ics, they still exhibit (if it is a museum on a “closed” street) The Miusskaya Public Garden, after a three-year-long with a large degree of academism and mute objects which negotiation with Moscow Communal Services, became part are incomprehensible to individual visitors. We need muse- of the Kliment Timiryazev Biomuseum, and it was here that ums in the street that literally correspond to the meaning of the initiative on organizing a biological corner of a museum this word—where visitors, while resting, can gain knowledge started; after further negotiations with the department of of various topics of science and technology, industry and municipal improvement of the Krasnopresnensky Council, agriculture, without spending a cent and without having to we provided management, while the department provided resort to assistance from a specialist-guide, rather only rely- everything else—tools, workers, seeds, planting material, ing on short, smartly composed labels. and so forth. Needless to say, a museum could be the best propagan- The whole production plan was composed of several dist of scientific-historical knowledge, of science and technol- sequences or steps, contingent upon material capabilities and ogy; and a museum in the street represents the most efficient the financial support on which the museum could depend. method of mass cultural enlightenment for the general The first step or phase of our work—the minimum pro- public. Is our society, and are our cultural budgets, ready to gram—amounted to us asking the department of municipal adequately meet the idea—museums in the street, museums improvement to leave the park to us without any changes in without fences? We can answer confidently and strongly: the layout of its lawns, taking upon ourselves the manage- yes, we are ready. We already have experience in organizing ment of the work that was being done by the department of museums, mobile exhibitions on health education (National Commissary on Health), and antireligious and agricultural 1. Biological corners were green spaces organized by the nearby displays (Kliment Timiryazev Biomuseum). We also have Kliment Timiryazev Biomuseum to demonstrate mostly to school students the growth process of the most valuable technological medicinal made several attempts to bring the museum out to our inner herbs and seed cultures; and also to demonstrate a technique of arti- public alleyways (Kliment Timiryazev Biomuseum). ficial pollination and plant vaccination. —Ed. note

The museum outside IV 470 of the museum 471 Museum in the Street P. N. Khrapov municipal improvements in the park, without any additional technical cultures at the Chemical Department of Moscow expenses. We wanted to give the green spaces of the park, State University, (b) 2nd Chemical and Pharmaceutical which are generally planted with regular grass, a character University, (c) the experimental forestry project of Losino- of scientific-educational illustrations, revealing a number of Pogonniy Island, (d) the corporation for the processing of common biological themes through plants, paving the way edible fats, and (e) the agricultural laboratory of the news- for the practice of agriculture. paper The Poor (the latter for the direct participation in the In the second phase of our production we envisioned the work on the park); and also a number of other organizations creation of a pool in one of the central parts of the garden, and consulting foundations. These connections with the which would allow us to show the water and swamp fauna by aforementioned organizations provided us with seeds and means of populating the pool with common freshwater ani- seedlings, and also with consultation; this assistance was mals, and in this way to introduce into the biological corner given readily and for free. both elements of zoological themes and methods of combat- The second stage of the organizational work, and the ing the larvae of malarial mosquitos. most important one, which would guarantee the success of In the third phase of our work, we intended to put caged the whole enterprise, was the creation of a group of “friends of enclosures in different parts of the garden. Additionally, the garden”—daily assistants to perform the work to be car- we thought it rational to select the dwellers of these cages ried out in the space. The best people for this job were young based on practical themes, like “friends and enemies of agri- naturalists from district schools. With this purpose, the culture,” an insectarium for the biological study of human Biomuseum, at one of the assemblies of teachers-natural sci- enemies, revealing ways to combat them. entists of the Krasnopresnensky district, presented a report And finally, if it were possible to construct, in one part of on the proposed work in the garden, the projected plan for the garden, big glass cases, then the museum could commit further development of the idea of bringing the museum into to creating periodic exhibitions of its collections on various the street, and the role that students could play in this. topics in them, or, to put it differently, to becoming a museum As to be expected, the teachers of the district unani- in the street. mously accepted the idea of a collective use of the garden for Exclusively working with museum employees was not cultural purposes. part of the museum’s plan, and contradicted the principal Soon, after two or three assembly meetings of teachers- goals of the whole museum. Therefore, it was necessary to natural scientists of the Kransopresnenskiy district and one firstly include in this work various scientific and research meeting with a representative of the students (who later organizations, which are connected in their daily activities formed the main nucleus of young naturalists), an active with a number of themes that we were projecting on the group of workers was organized, responsible for the realiza- garden. Through negotiation we were able to find the sup- tion of the minimum program. port and willingness to participate in the work on the park One of the main jobs in the garden was a working from the following agencies: (a) the nursery of medicinal and Sunday dedicated to cleaning up the park for the planting

The museum outside IV 472 of the museum 473 Museum in the Street P. N. Khrapov campaign—the fence needed to be repaired, garbage work they carried out; they knew what was required of them. needed to be removed, paths needed to be cleared, and so It was a different case with visitors to the public garden: the on. For this purpose, it was necessary to combine this active regulars—aunts, mothers, and children—were ignorant; group of students with a larger body of students from the they were surprised by everything that was going on. As they whole district. observed, outsiders asked work leaders why this was neces- This was done relatively easily: each teacher-natural sci- sary and why Moscow Communal Services wasn’t doing the entist promised to provide ten to fifteen people from the work. The students, not fully understanding our goals, were school, and if possible, even more. confused by these questions. We had to react accordingly to On the eve of the working Sunday there was a meeting of such ignorance from visitors. Two students, who were the the central student group—representatives from the twenty most active, organized an ad hoc rally in the public gardens, district schools—in the building of the Biomuseum, where where they quickly and clearly informed the visitors of the students were given a more detailed overview of the upcom- present work being done and the prospective development ing goals. At the meeting, the seriousness of the upcoming of the plan for the biological corner on the grounds of the work was strongly stressed and the Biomuseum’s demands Miusskaya Public Garden. Rallies, similar to this one, have of the active group were discussed, along with the prospects been repeatedly organized by students with children in the for the growth of the biological corner in the garden. Then garden, in order to prevent looting and damage to the plants the student participants in the working Sunday were divided in the future. into groups. One person from the active group was made The next step of our work in the garden was a sowing responsible for the organized conduct of the work and the campaign. Here, as to be expected, there were skeptics and inventory count: fifty shovels, twenty rakes, pliers, hammers, detractors: “Planting cabbage, tomatoes, and other things saws, and wheelbarrows. Every person from the active group will spoil the whole garden,” some people said—representa- knew, according to the list, the tools that he was responsible tives of the “higher circle,” the aesthetes. Other “sensible” for during this working Sunday. individuals feared that the edible plants would be stolen and, A whole army of students showed up for the working as a result, the whole garden would be damaged. To coun- Sunday. teract this we needed to intensify with ever more energy During this memorable working Sunday, many of the stu- our everyday work among the population—the visitors of dents held a shovel or a rake for the first time in their lives; for the garden—and to display a number of warning labels; we them it was a celebration of labor, a time to put theoretical put most hope in the latter. Labels appeared in the garden studies of agriculture from school to use. Here they felt their three days after we began work, and they contained warn- power as the creators of future life. By one o’clock, more than ings like: “Don’t walk on the grass,” “Children, respect your half the garden was cleaned up completely. comrades’ labor,” and so on. Additionally, there were several All participants in the working Sunday clearly under- large labels, which pointed out who organized the work, who stood the goal set before them, and the importance of the handled it, and what was being done in the garden.

The museum outside IV 474 of the museum 475 Museum in the Street P. N. Khrapov

Every theme of our plan had its caretaker in the form demanded ongoing learning and preparation from the one of two or three responsible persons from each school. We doing the explaining, requiring him to keep his knowledge received seeds and planting material for free from various on the given topic current. For visitor questions outside the organizations that were interested in our work, and also docent’s purview, a protocol was created to guide them to the from the department of municipal improvements, which appropriate organization for more comprehensive answers. has always been very helpful to us in this respect. In order for a school and its students, responsible for We were provided with working power for tillage and a given theme, to get acquainted with the content of their for the daily care of the plants: the department of munici- theme in a timely manner, they were provided a list of litera- pal improvements provided us with one qualified worker—a ture, including addresses of organizations where they could gardener-horticulturalist—for the duration of the vegetation get full information on the theme. The majority of literature period and, depending on the need, provided the workforce on various themes in our plan can be found in the library of for seasonal agricultural work. the Biomuseum. The work of schools and their representatives consisted in executing the main tasks at hand for each theme and in We have carried out our minimum program as follows: keeping a diary. The person in charge needed to createétiqu - etage, manage all the information, work to communicate with 1. Using over one hundred plants—medicinal and departments and specialists to buy seeds and seedlings, plant technical—we illustrated the meaning of their culti- and sow under the direction of people competent in this field, vation in the USSR and the importance of each plant and perform the collection and registration of crops. for export. In addition, the responsibilities of those in charge of a theme included protecting the plants by creating and dis- 2. In one big area of the garden, we demonstrated crop playing warning labels for them in a timely manner, carry- rotation, with the grain areas of various crops, in ing out daily cultural educational work with residents of order to acquaint the city population with those mea- the district, and organizing activities for children in order sures that are the basis of the contemporary goal for to make these young regulars true friends of the garden. developing agriculture. One to three days before any plant-based work that exhibited clear educational value, those in charge of themes had 3. A forest school was organized, where technology for to create short, colorful labels that would show the time of maintaining and developing forests in the USSR was the proposed work in order to always keep visitors informed demonstrated. In the same vein, willow and poplar about the work being done in the garden. Caretakers of the plantations were erected to demonstrate a method themes, in addition to the étiquetage of course, had to be pre- for battling deforestation and dune sand, as well as pared to provide visitors with explanations for any questions fortifying ravines. they might have in connection with the theme; this work

The museum outside IV 476 of the museum 477 Museum in the Street P. N. Khrapov

At the forest school, using a variety of tree types (ash, maple, 4. Experiments in hybridization: there were more than pine, fir, and so forth), various ways of managing forests ten types of poppy, petunia, and peas. were taught, along with transplanting techniques, seeding in plots, and the difference between annual, biennial, and 5. Experiments in grafting on grass plants. We sowed: triennial plants. In the future we envision starting work on flowering tobacco, potatoes, and tomatoes. Students grafting forest trees, acclimatizing various plants, and plant- from the second category school are working on ing a Japanese miniature park-grove in a special glass display grafting and hybridization. case (this last project will be carried out by one of the garden regulars—a worker, an amateur gardener). Initially, before working in the public garden, students had a short practicum on hybridization and grafting in the In the same area, we plan to display, in a glass case, various Biomuseum’s greenhouses. It is hard to imagine the excite- instances of wood technology from 1931: ment of the students when they managed, by means of grafting, to get tobacco and potatoes on a tomato, tomatoes and 1. “Melliferous plants.” There are various plants dis- potatoes on tobacco, and tomatoes on potatoes. All works on played with large quantities of nectar and, addi- this theme were carried out in the evenings, in view of garden tionally, two beehives, one of them behind glass for visitors. In these cases, a crowd of curious people surrounded scientific work with bees. This is the realization of a the students; the majority of them asked with interest, “Will portion of the third part of our project, the prospec- something come from this?” And the answer was the assur- tive development of a biological corner in the garden. ance, “Yes, of course.” The answers were assured because the students already had results from grafting greenhouse 2. “Experiments in bacterial and mineral fertilization.” plants, and now they had faith in the success of their work We conduct these experiments predominantly on in the garden. technical plants. At the same time, we display sev- It is hard to say who was awaiting the grafting results eral experiments on seed stimulation. These works more, the visitors or the workers; apparently they were all are carried out by the agricultural laboratory of the interested. After a week, the bag cap was removed from the newspaper The Poor. place of grafting, and a label with the words “grafting” and an arrow to the place of grafting was installed. 3. “The weeds of the field and the garden, and the means Every day, caps were removed, and there were more of combating them.” We displayed twenty-four plots than twenty or forty successful grafts; it needs to be men- with various weeds, and had one general label, and tioned that they all avoided being damaged or stolen until individual labels based on the number of weeds. the end of the vegetation period. Frequently, you could see a visiting worker explaining the “magic” of grafting to his acquaintances.

The museum outside IV 478 of the museum 479 Museum in the Street

In conclusion, the two-year experience was rather successful; for some themes there were instances of going Bringing the Agitprop-Truck beyond the plan—various goals of the second project of to the Service of our program for the future have been completed. The main accomplishments of the first year: (a) skeptical doubts Cultural Construction about this project’s success have been destroyed; (b) residents of the district are prepared to accept a new, until now unheard-of movement in Moscow—“take the museum into the street”—even more; it has become a laboratory. So, in this first attempt at creating a museum in the street, the Biomuseumcan can finally and boldly claim: we are not alone. Now we are being helped by the district, a gardening trust, and the district department of municipal improvement, and they help us in such a way that beginning in 1931, we can provide payment for two or three specialists in agricultural gardening and a zoologist for organizing bio- corners in various districts of Moscow—bio-corners realizing the third phase of our work on museums in the street.

M. S. Ilkovsky

IV 480 bringing the agitprop-truck M. S. Ilkovsky

First published in 1932 of the country, wherever there are roads, and to support the Translated by Alexandra Fleming thousands of troops of our cultural army as battle intensifies on the front lines of culture, against those fiercest ene- Not such a long time has passed since the emergence of the mies of socialism: illiteracy and cultural ignorance. first agitprop-vans, charged with the responsibility of deliv- This support could be channeled through hundreds ering cultural propaganda to remote, distant regions—espe- of agitprop-trucks, which can quickly arm our cultural cially those cut off from cities—where cultural centers or soldiers—teachers, museum workers, cultural-educational clubs, reading huts, and so forth, either did not exist at all, or administrators—with every refinement of technical knowl- existed in only their most rudimentary forms. edge. The trucks will be able to travel quickly from place to Indeed, it should be noted that the time has not yet come place, offering support along the way to clubs, houses of for us to consign to history the attempts of many organiza- culture, communal farm support institutions, reading huts, tions to put cultural work on wheels and thus triumph over schools, and museums, and also engaging directly with work- those huge expanses that lie between important cultural ers as they work, be it in the field, the forest, or lumber mills. centers and our state farms, collective farms (sovkhozes and With the agitprop-truck and all of its equipment, the kolkhozes), and villages. Such efforts have continued into cultural brigade is also able to organize a team of cultural our age, and have led to the appearance of agitprop-vans, activists from workers and collective farmers (kolkhozniks). agitprop-train wagons, and even agitprop-trucks—but, fee- It will also be entirely possible for it to provide exhibitions on bly equipped, and transporting mobile works in only an a variety of subjects—and to provide other forms of cultural ad-hoc manner, these have been unable to carry out any con- facilities—for village meetings, industrial and collective farm sistent, widespread, mobile cultural-educational work. Yet conferences, regional congresses, and more. it should not go unnoticed that the desired results of these These are the objectives that should stand before the new mobile endeavors have been achieved—even surpassed— agitprop-truck, and our trucks, technically well equipped, and that there are agitprop-vans nowadays. These must now will meet them with ease. make way for powerful, high-speed, fully equipped agitprop- The truck can be fitted with auxiliary technical equip- trucks. The pace of cultural revolution demands this. ment (film and image projectors, photography equipment, Modern agitprop-trucks can bring culture to the masses, a radio, a gramophone, an electricity generator, and a whole swiftly covering those vast expanses that extend across one host of other appliances), and should be manned by a sixth of the globe’s surface, encompassing numerous facto- well-trained cultural brigade of three, each assigned strict ries, industrial plants, collective farms, tractor stations, coal responsibilities for their hours of work and travel. Such mines, metal ore mines, and sawmills—amongst others. It an enterprise could with confidence be termed a “mobile is at these points that it is not always possible to provide cultural complex,” and, because of its speed of movement, cultural facilities. And this is where the agitprop-truck must its technical enhancements—which enable displays on the play its part. We need it to access the most remote corners exterior of the vehicle—and the clear, well-planned work of

The museum outside IV 482 of the museum 483 bringing the agitprop-truck M. S. Ilkovsky the brigade itself, this cultural complex can travel swiftly instrument himself. One of the crew must know how to use from place to place, thereby achieving a wide reach, while the camera and record each individual event, and they must offering services to numerous workers and collective farm- also know how to edit a photomontage, to make it accessible ers, and extending support to local cultural institutions—all for the viewer. in a short space of time. The truck’s electricity generator is of great importance. A How should the agitprop-truck be constructed? Above dynamo is located within the truck’s body, driven by a small, all, the truck should serve as a well-equipped base, fitted five horsepower engine. Under no circumstance is it recom- with all the latest technology, such as radio, film, and pho- mended to use the car’s motor to set the dynamo in motion, tography equipment, and so forth; it should make possible as this will lead to an inefficient use of both the powerful the use of photography, to instantaneously capture the dif- motor, and of fuel. A small, five horsepower kerosene engine ferent forms of work going on in fields, tractor stations, and set up alongside the dynamo is the most economical means repair shops, and breakthroughs in the fulfillment of an of driving the latter, with a discharge pipe for exhaust gases enterprise’s industrial-financial plan; it should also enable directed down under the floor, itself thoroughly insulated the swift organization of illuminated photographic displays, with asbestos or klingerit. exhibiting such photographs as vivid local material. In the The agitprop-truck in its entirety consists of a one-and-a- agitprop-truck there will also be a gramophone, musical half metric ton cab and chassis, of the Ford or AMO brand. A instruments (a bayan, a piano accordion, balalaikas, gui- body with double walls and a double floor will be mounted tars, dombras, bugles, and so forth), an exhibition of posters, onto the chassis. The upper floor (approximately 2 meters) mobile charts, and various plans, and collections of diaposi- can be pulled out in order to serve as a platform for enter- tives on different themes (on glass and film, or for projection tainment. The lower floor (approximately 76 cm) is fixed; the on a collapsible cinema screen). dynamo and kerosene engine are secured to it. The body’s The cultural brigade would align their work closely with rear doors open outwards from the center; two radio masts the united cultural plan, and make efficient use of all aux- (made of small metal tubes) are installed on the body’s roof iliary equipment available on the agitprop-truck. One per- and held up by collapsible supports secured at their base by son must be a skilled driver, projectionist, radio technician, sockets and bolts; these masts are raised to a vertical posi- and electrician; the second will read reports, lectures, and tion during broadcasts, and a wire dipole antenna is sus- discussions, answer inquiries and provide consultations, pended between the mast tips. When the truck is in motion and oversee the reading hut and other larger-scale opera- the antenna is lowered, and the masts are stowed on the roof tions; the third will lead cultural activities: in each location and held in place with appropriate strapping. he will nominate entertainers and performers from within The truck during a working session: the radio masts are the team of cultural activists, gather local material for perfor- lifted, the radio antenna is suspended between the masts, mance, develop this material with the performers, and orga- while at the rear of the truck’s body, two windows are opened; nize musical groups. He must also be able to play a musical one opens outward, supported on both sides by straps or

The museum outside IV 484 of the museum 485 bringing the agitprop-truck M. S. Ilkovsky small metal plates, and serves as a shelf where a loudspeaker inner side walls of the body are used to display two-dimen- for radio or gramophone broadcasts can be set up; the second sional materials (posters, diagrams, and other pictorial art). hatch opens inward and serves as a window for inquiries and On the rear side of the body, a collapsible book display case consultations. The side walls of the body open outward; the is assembled, where literature illustrating the themes of the upper half opens upward and is supported from underneath exhibition is presented. by two braces, whereas the bottom half is connected to the The agitprop-truck’s stage (fig. 5): the rear doors are wall of the body by hooks along its long edge. However, it also opened on both sides, the floor is moved out of the rear and attached to rotatable brackets and can therefore be moved, supported by special scaffolding. The door opening into the meaning it can be unfastened and fixed at either a higher or body is concealed by special curtains on either side. lower level, depending on the nature of the work being car- The work of the agitprop-truck in conjunction with the local ried out by the agitprop-truck. In fig. 2, the agitprop-truck reading hut (fig. 6): reading huts without electric lighting is depicted during a radio or gramophone broadcast, where can source electricity from the agitprop-truck. The radio set, inquiries are being dealt with and consultations are being film, and image projectors can be transported inside, and the given; in the same image, the reading area has been opened truck itself can now serve as an auxiliary base, supplying all out, enabling easy access to reading materials. auxiliary accessories to the reading hut or club, based on the The agitprop-truck’s work in the fields (fig. 3): in the eve- planned structure of each event at a given establishment. ning, the agitprop-truck gives cinema screenings in the These new trucks must be brought to the service of cul- fields; here, a film projector (the GOZ portable projector) tural construction, as they will play an enormous role in has been set up on the open rear window, and a collapsible the realization of economic and political campaigns, and cinema screen has been set up at a specific distance from the could also carry out the work of mobile museums, becom- truck; in such an arrangement a motion picture can be dis- ing mobile centers of mass culture, through which the deci- played, the open space making it possible to put on a large- sions of party conventions and the decrees of the Central scale cinema screening. Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Exhibition at the agitprop-truck (fig. 4): the radio masts can be brought swiftly to each and every worker, collective are raised to their vertical position. A cloth banner hangs farmer, and individual farmer, and through which all ques- between them, with slogans on both sides. The side walls are tions regarding social construction can be illuminated. both open, with the upper halves lifted and held by supports on the roof of the truck’s body, serving as a surface that can be used to display the name of the exhibition, slogans, and other materials. The lower side walls are supported by braces, and are fixed to the floor of the body by hooks, thereby serving as shelving for three-dimensional materials (models, constructions, prototypes, molds, and more). The rear doors and

The museum outside IV 486 of the museum 487 The Mobile Model of the Instructive Laboratory Hut and its Operation

I. F. Sheremet The Mobile Model I. F. Sheremet

First published in 1935 All of this required the construction of a new and Translated by Anastasiya Osipova improved type of car trunk. As a result, we built a special trunk designed by the director of the Museum of Agriculture, The Ukrainian Museum of Agriculture in Kiev has extensive T. P. Shirokosharov. experience in constructing and equipping special load-trucks The main goals and requirements of a mobile instruc- (one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half tons) for the transporta- tive laboratory hut dictated the following program for its tion of agricultural exhibitions. Since 1929, the Museum equipment: of Agriculture has brought its mobile exhibitions to almost 5,000 collective farms (kolkhoz) in the Kiev, Vinnytsia, and Introductory part. On a board in front of the car Chernigov regions of the Ukrainian SSR. there is to be an artistic rendering of the process of Each year our experience brought new changes in the radically restructuring a village (old and new vil- construction of the car trunk to increase the square foot- lages compared) according to the speech given by age of the exhibition. In order to help the collective farms in Comrade Stalin at the 17th Congress of the Bolshevik the organization of laboratory huts, and also in improving Communist Party; the process of the reconstruction their operation, it was decided to equip a special car trunk of agriculture presented in a historical perspective. to house a model of a laboratory for a collective farm. The task was to install demonstrative lab equipment according Instructors and leaders of the laboratory huts. An artis- to the list approved by the People’s Land Committee so that tic montage with a portrait of Comrade Postyshev in it would be possible to conduct all the necessary chemical the foreground and the lead organizers of the labora- tests right there in the car. Among the goals of organizing tory huts along with citations from the early speeches the work of a mobile instructive laboratory hut was to dem- of P. P. Postyshev. onstrate to the collective farm workers how and with what to equip the kolkhoz laboratory hut. Experience of organizing and equipping the best model Our task was to educate the collective farm workers on laboratory huts of the Ukrainian SSR (a photo of the how to handle and use the laboratory equipment and how external and inner organization, a model of the inner to conduct scientific tests to study the soils, fertilizers, para- arrangement, programs and work plans, activities of sites and plant diseases, grain quality and its by-products. In special sections, and so on). the area of livestock farming these tests will permit the study of the amelioration of stock, improving the quality of their General Farming corner: (a) soil and fertilizers sam- food stock and expanding its range. In addition, we must ples; (b) map of soils; (c) devices for the taking of teach kolkhoz workers how to use chemical equipment and samples and determining the quality of fertilizers, reagents, and how to conduct chemical tests in the labora- and so forth. tory hut, and so forth.

The museum outside IV 490 of the museum 491 The Mobile Model I. F. Sheremet

Agricultural technology and grain laboratory corner: Laboratory of prophylactic zoo-hygiene: (a) collections (a) herbarium samples and grains of standard agri- of livestock diseases and methods of fighting them cultural cultures; (b) devices for the analysis of the (infectious and skin diseases, parasites, and so on); sprouting of grain; (c) schemes for crop rotation; (d) (b) disease prevention (keeping the animals clean, agricultural machines and their use for specific farm- taking care of their skin, quality feeding and rations, ing tasks. and so on).

Principal pests and plant diseases corner: (a) collec- Chemical agrarian laboratory: (a) a complete set of tions of pests and diseases; (b) main ways to fight lab equipment recommended by the People’s Land them; (c) devices and apparatuses for the study of Commissariat of the Ukrainian SSR (scales, drying pests and diseases of agrarian cultures. cabinet, primus stove, vials, reagents, and so on); (b) all instruments and reagents for soil analysis (fertil- Meteorological station: (a) main devices; (b) methods izers, poisons, milk, and so on). and technology of observations. Equipment for mass tours/events: (a) a projection lamp Fruit and vegetable production corner: (a) reproduc- with transparencies; (b) film projector; (c) equip- tions of the standard strains of fruit and vegetables; ment and instruments for excursions. For this activ- (b) seeds of fruit and vegetable cultures; (c) tools and ity a special brigade must be formed that will include: equipment for garden and agrarian work. (a) a brigadier (also an agrochemist); (b) an agronomist manager of mass entertainment; (c) a chauffeur- A fodder corner: (a) samples and the main character- mechanic (to drive the car, run the film projection istics of different types of fodder; (b) study of the fod- booth, and so forth). der with the goal of its rational use (liming, protein enrichment, ensilage, damping, and so forth); (c) During each trip to a collective farm, the work of the brigade models for the preparation of fodder. consists of the following:

Animal-farming corner: (a) bas-reliefs of the planned Presenting the theory behind the general questions breeds; (b) schema of the various ways of improving of the social reorganization of agriculture and the local livestock with low productivity (i.e. crossbreed- tasks of the laboratory huts. Lecture—one hour. ing) (c) schema for the studying of different rations for large cattle, swine, and work horses. Chemistry at the service of socialist agriculture. Lecture—one hour; practical lab workshop—five hours.

The museum outside IV 492 of the museum 493 The Mobile Model I. F. Sheremet

Field-crop cultivation. Lecture—two hours; lab work- the initiator of the organization of laboratory huts, shop—four hours. P. P. Postyshev.

Animal husbandry. Lecture—two hours; lab work- We have hundreds of responses like this one, and all of them shop—four hours. emphasize that the work of the laboratory huts is of great practical help. In total: nine lecture hours, thirteen hours of practical lab Two such mobile units are already working in collec- workshops, demonstrations via slide transparencies, and a tive farms in the Vinnytsia and Chernigov regions of the film projection at the end of each work day. Ukrainian SSR. Before the end of the year we will increase Often we have had to arrange seminars for the active their number to ten. lab hut working groups from three to five collective farms It is necessary to implement the experience of mobile all in the same place. In a majority of cases we had to travel laboratories into all regions of our Soviet Union. Equipping from one collective farm to another according to a previously a single car-truck costs 8,000 rubles; the installation of lab developed and planned program. equipment and visual materials costs 5,000 rubles; staff sal- Of special interest is the method of practical demonstra- aries (two agronomists and a chauffeur), car maintenance, tion of the chemical equipment and the analysis of milk, poi- gas, and lubrication costs 3,000 rubles a month. sons, fertilizers, and so forth. Many collective farm workers For consultation about setting up a mobile laboratory left positive reviews of the mobile instructive laboratory hut. unit, programming, and work methodology, please contact: For example, an activist farmer from the Red October collec- Kiev, Paris Commune Street (formerly, Mikhailovskaya) 10, tive farm of the Semypolky village in the Kiev region writes: Ukrainian Museum of Agriculture.

I am still a young farmer, but the management of our collective farm has sent me to attend a seminar held at a mobile instructive laboratory hut. Until then I had no idea what a laboratory hut was and what its tasks were, but the agronomist brigade of the mobile laboratory hut gave me an excellent introduction to its goals and the work methods necessary to increase our harvest levels through the study of our farms, fertilizers, soils, and pests. Such seminars should be held more often, because many of us are new to our business and it is hard for us to manage without a specialist. My fiery greetings to

The museum outside IV 494 of the museum 495 V

Museum of the History of the Revolution Marxism-Leninism in Exhibitions in the Museums of Revolution

ANDREY Shestakov marxism-leninism in exhibitions ANDREY Shestakov

First published in 1931 logical notions, but these remain rather difficult to grasp for Translated by Anastasiya Osipova an average museum visitor. This is because our typical visitor is still relatively poorly developed culturally, and lacks the My presentation is titled “Marxism and Leninism in necessary elements in his consciousness for understanding Exhibitions in the Museums of Revolution.” I would like logical notions and forming associative connections, which to make a transition from general statements, which you make these concepts easier for comprehension. heard in several previous presentations, to concrete prob- That is why while organizing its exhibitions, a museum of lems concerning the application of the theory of dialectical revolution must use the most accessible language—the lan- materialism and Leninism in the exhibition practice of the guage of images. We must present logical structures about museums of revolution. These museums are born out of the the complex set of relations behind social conflicts by con- October Revolution and do not exist anywhere else in the joining them with visual materials, by accompanying them world. Therefore, in constructing our historical revolution- with visually formed impressions, and by amalgamating ary museums there is no past experience to rely on besides rational thinking with thinking through images. our own. When we started to build the museums of revolu- We are resolving this question by selecting and gather- tion we faced a series of general questions, among which the ing materials which belong to the sphere of art. We are using most important one was about the goals of these museums. sculpture, painting, graphic arts, representations of different It was absolutely clear that museums of revolution must be concepts in formal artistic achievement, colorful stains and primarily political establishments, carrying out the work of other artistic means, which can help us present logical notions political enlightenment. Such museums must not only edu- in such a fashion that they would form a unified stream of cate people about social relations, but also give them an emo- consciousness for each visitor. The amplification of emotional charge. tional and artistic impact is the current task of the museums Museums of revolution face the task of creating exhibi- of revolution. Trying to have museums of revolution organize tions, which, on the one hand, will promote an understand- their exhibitions in a strictly logical and informative manner, ing of social relations, and on the other, will have a strong and only afterward adding material for visual thinking, is emotional impact. wrong. Recently, Narkompros (The Commissariat of People’s Our main suggestions for the organizational principles Enlightenment) raised the question of gathering all the most of the museums of revolution emerge from these premises. valuable artworks and relocating them from the museums But first of all, we must clarify our position regarding the of revolution to specialized art museums. We think that this emotional influence that we would like these exhibitions approach is principally and practically misguided. Artworks to have on our visitors. This problem of communicating an within the museums of revolution play as important a role in emotional charge is specific to the museums of revolution. reawakening consciousness as the rest of the elements of our With labels, accompanying texts, and citations from Marx exhibitions that provide material for logical concepts: labels, and Lenin, we are providing material for the formation of signs, proclamations, and various material relics. Sovnarkom

Museum of the history V 500 of the revolution 501 marxism-leninism in exhibitions ANDREY Shestakov

(Minor People’s Commissariat) also assumed our point of I am now moving onto the question regarding the con- view, and declared that requisitioning valuables from the tent and thematic scope required for the museums of revo- museums of revolution was wrong, and that increasing the lution. I find the position expressed in Comrade Luppol’s use of art in the museums of revolution was necessary. We presentation to be entirely correct—all museums must be must speak about this now, for our local museums of revolu- founded on the principles of materialist dialectics, and this tion are quite poor in art objects. Meanwhile, the museum problematic must be especially emphasized in the museums of revolution, which will combine the logical presentation of of revolution. The dialectical development of the historical concepts with images, will be endowed with a tremendous process must be shown in the museums of revolution most power of emotional influence and of organizing conscious- vividly and thoroughly. Starting from this foundation, we ness in a specific social direction. The exhibition forms, which must invent a special form for the exhibition. It is particularly we are striving to assert, are the ones that are most under- important to reveal the dialectics of the revolutionary move- standable and comprehensible for the mass audience of our ment, to stress the example of the culminating moments of museums. And this museum language that I am discussing revolutionary events and the inherent contradictions in the here is most useful for agitation and propaganda in the inter- development of social phenomena, to bring attention to the est of political aims and goals, which we place before the dialectics of these processes. We cannot build our exhibition museums of revolution. From this follows the practical sug- without approaching the history of revolutionary movement gestion to necessarily engage in the work of the museums of dialectically. We already have some experience in this area, revolution not only scientists, but also artists. Artists must which makes this quite feasible. Our task is made relatively not be hired as simple decorators, but must be placed among easy, since Marxism and Leninism have already conquered the integral staff members of our museums. They should nec- a sufficient place in the history of revolutions. However, our essarily be involved in the construction of the museums of achievements in the theoretical field often run into difficult revolution and in the task of political enlightenment. Their obstacles when it comes to practical implementation. We labor must be closely coordinated with that of the rest of own a very scarce collection of physical materials for our museum staff. The preparation of exhibitions, all aspects of museum exhibitions, many details of revolutionary events their operations, must be coordinated with the work of sci- are insufficiently mined, we lack statistical data, and so forth. entists in order to form a coherent and unified, unbreakable Our exhibition work is made difficult by the insufficient work whole. Until now we have not at all organized the training of done in the stated directions by Marxist historians. artists to work in the museums. None of the sectors that man- I will now move on to the question of the thematics of the age public enlightenment have focused their attention on this exhibitions at the museums of revolution. They must, first of task. I find it necessary to emphasize this side of our work, all, represent the revolutionary struggle of class society in a to, perhaps, make practical conclusions about implementing given country or in several states. some changes within the educational programs and introduc- When one approaches this task practically it becomes ing special training courses within art institutes. obvious how much is still left unclear. We are still

Museum of the history V 502 of the revolution 503 marxism-leninism in exhibitions ANDREY Shestakov constructing the exhibitions of our museums exclusively Including materials relevant to these themes should offer on the materials pertaining to old tsarist Russia, while not a complex impression of the bourgeois revolutions in the working with materials that lie beyond the borders of that West as well as in Russia. Russia. I set forth a proposal for the museums of revolution Now, passing on to the subject of proletarian revolu- to portray our revolutionary movement in tandem with the tions. I think that here we have to present, even if only in revolutionary movement in Western Europe and in the East, a general outline, the Paris Commune and the October and so on. That is why in the future the museums of revolu- Revolution in Russia. These thematic exhibitions are tion should acquire materials not only from our country, but extremely important, for through them we may formu- also from abroad. late a perspective on the international revolution—a point We must address the revolutionary movement in of view which has not been tied together until now and Western Europe and America, as well as in the Eastern coun- which we offer only through a thematic representation tries, and so on, in order to gain an impression of a complex of the October Revolution, and even that in a rather one- historical process. dimensional manner. We must also reconsider the system of periodization, as Our museums of revolution should also affirm revolu- the moments required to illuminate the revolutionary process tionary achievements in the USSR and represent contempo- cannot be found, and provided solely, on the materials from a rary revolutionary movements in the East and in the West. single country or a small group of neighboring countries. These issues lead us to the current political tasks and sharply The following themes must become a red thread drawn set before the visitor questions about the goals and the role through all museums of revolution—provincial as well as of the Communist International, about the worldwide rev- central ones. The first one is that of revolutionary peasant olution, about our own position. These questions will pro- uprisings in the feudal societies of Russia and the West. vide a political focus that is for the most part lacking in our Usually, whenever we present peasant wars, we focus solely museums, especially in the provinces. Our shortcoming with on Razin or Pugachev’s uprisings and treat them as discon- regard to this must be promptly fixed. nected from the revolutionary process in the feudal society at With regard to use of local materials in local museums large; we isolate the viewer’s attention from similar phenom- of revolution, we must state that they should certainly be ena that have taken place in Western Europe. We narrow our most prominently displayed. However, this does not mean viewer’s worldview instead of broadening it. that these items should be set separately and be taken out of Our second topic should be bourgeois revolutions in the broader process. I think that such local material adds to Russia and the West. Right now, European bourgeois revo- the general exhibition and attracts visitors’ attention to the lutions are almost entirely excluded from our exhibitions. specifics of local daily life, relating them to general processes, For instance, our Central Museum of Revolution lacks a which we want our visitors to understand. thorough representation of either the German or French The question regarding the installation of this or that revolution. exhibition must be formulated in such a way that we should

Museum of the history V 504 of the revolution 505 marxism-leninism in exhibitions ANDREY Shestakov carefully select the most important and the most interest- Within our Museum of the Revolution of the USSR we ing items. Our approach to the exhibition materials may be have one such iconographic exhibition in the popular move- called a “crawling empiricism” (polzuchim empirizmom). ments section. A view that many different kinds of materials must be dis- It is necessary to shrink it and offer only the minimally played is popular among us. I find that this chasing after necessary number of portraits. quantity could cause us to fail to meet the tasks set by the Then a series of principles of historical materialism exhibition. It is necessary to select only the most important would be advanced as special problems to be represented and valuable material in order to teach the observer how to in the museums of revolution. Such problems as the transi- understand not only revolutionary processes, but also the tion of the bourgeois-democratic revolution into a socialist very mechanics of these processes, and how to be able to one, the problem of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the make the necessary conclusions. problem of base and superstructure, and so forth—all this It is necessary to get museum workers to pay special can be presented in a museum, and this task must be thor- attention to this task. In constructing the museums of revo- oughly resolved. lution we face the challenge of refracting the theory of revo- In addition, the goals of museum exhibitions must be lutions through the lens of historical materialism. tightly bound to the present-day political struggle. However, If we show productive relations and class war through this does not mean that exhibitions of the museums of the lens of historical materialism, our presentation of the revolution, saturated with the principles of Marxism and development of productive forces, then these instances Leninism, must necessarily be linked to contemporary must be absolutely clear and legible to the exhibition visitor. issues with each and every piece. This must be done in accor- Historical-materialist postulates about contradictions in the dance with expedience and opportunity. Some contempo- development of productive forces and productive relations rary problems may be included as addenda to the already must be axiomatic for the representation of the revolution- existing exhibitions. ary process. In general, we should not regard the museum of revolu- In our contemporary exhibitions, the elements of the tion as a place where all exhibitions should remain permanent development of productive forces and productive relations and unchanged for a very long time. The museums of revolu- are often overshadowed by iconography. We must fight tion should be organized so that all exhibits remain flexible against this. Until now, portraiture—a depiction of one or to a certain degree, so that there is always a chance to replace another revolutionary or theoretician of revolutionary strug- corresponding materials with new, more relevant ones. gle—was placed in the foreground of the museums of revolu- Such goals often get forgotten, and for this reason exhi- tions, but this does not provide the desired effect. We need to bitions get outdated and lose touch with life. As an exam- select the iconographic elements more thoroughly, in order ple we can mention the theme of Party history, which is to display only those portraits that solve the tasks that we set extremely important today. This history calls for entirely before them on their own. new ways of addressing the current times, and museums

Museum of the history V 506 of the revolution 507 marxism-leninism in exhibitions of revolution must discover how to instantly present and emphasize these themes. Museums of the Revolution In general, exhibits within the museums of revolution must be presented exclusively in a class light. They must be easily understandable to the masses, mobile, and relevant, and they must perform the tasks and functions that characterize the work of political enlightenment today. Museums have to solve all of the same questions that stand before the Party and the working class. There can be no objective and loving contemplation of things, paintings, and so on, in the museums of revolution. Everything has to be built according to specific class requirements, taking into consideration concrete problems and aiming to assist the proletariat in its task of building socialism. The museums of revolution must help the masses to comprehend the construction of socialism, class warfare, and their own place in history. All exhibitions at the museums of revolution must be dedicated to these tasks.

[Applause.]

Nikolai Druzhinin

V 508 museums of the revolution nikolai druzhinin

First published in 1931 museum-objects in a strictly scientific sequence and Translated by Maria Tananyan Goldverg according to a particular political point of view. The collection at the Parisian Carnavalet Museum undoubtedly There are over one hundred museum collections of a histori- surpasses our museums in the wealth of their historical cal and revolutionary nature in the Soviet Union today. They and revolutionary relics, but they lack those distinctive differ among themselves not only in their size and method, particularities that distinguish the exhibits that make up but also in the core composition of their material. Some the construction of our museum collections. The task of museums roll out a general picture of our revolutionary any Soviet museum is not only to mirror the past and the movement for their viewers (such as the revolutionary muse- real, but also to effectively bear upon the transformation ums of Moscow and Leningrad); others prefer to emphasize of life by focusing the attention of its viewer on the current the characteristics of localized events (such as local heritage tasks of modernity. The Soviet museum, in its particular sites of a provincial or regional scope). There exist some sur- way, educates the masses in the name of a systematic and viving installations of living revolutionary history (The Peter robust construction of socialism. Museums of a historical and Paul Fortress in Leningrad, the underground Bolshevik and revolutionary nature achieve this goal with the help printing press in Moscow). There are purely commemora- of specific materials and idiosyncratic methods of exhi- tive museums, dedicated to some or other revolutionary bition; in contrast to museums of popular culture or art, figure (the museums of V. I. Lenin, P. A. Kropotkin, N. G. they put before themselves the task of laying bare for the Chernyshevsky). There are specialized museums showing masses the natural course of revolutionary history in a prisons, labor camps, and places of exile. And finally, there visual and strictly systematic form. are museums that strive to show the origin and evolution To further flesh out this general evaluation, we must of Western revolutions (the Museum of the Institute of equally contrast two incorrect points of view: on the one Marx and Engels). hand, there is the tendency to limit the task of the his- Historical and revolutionary museums have won torical and revolutionary museum and reduce it to that themselves a lasting place in the general system of of a museum of revolutionary life. Adherents of this belief museum construction. They command an incomparable point out the paucity and fragmentation of historical and edge over every other museum’s collection: they speak to revolutionary materials. They say that any surviving rem- museumgoers in the concrete and accessible “language of nants of the struggle don’t afford us the opportunity to things”—the direct remnants of real life. In this material- expose the ideology of opposing movements and retrace ity lies their most compelling strength, the source of their the successive stages of the revolutionary process. On the interest, and their greatest affect. But the historical and other hand, some museologists formulate the tasks of the revolutionary museum (like any other museum) must not historical and revolutionary museum too broadly and be just a chaotic assemblage of “rarities,” but an orderly assert that the object of its investigative and expository and complete whole—one that provides a selection of labor is the occurrence of class struggle. The error in these

Museum of the history V 510 of the revolution 511 museums of the revolution nikolai druzhinin two beliefs becomes apparent in light of the last ten years’ them the especial attention of the museumgoer. Such spe- worth of experience and contemporary theories of muse- cialization is not dictated by the rules of museum “logic,” but ology. Depictions of revolutionary life don’t hold any abso- by the foremost aims of our political moment. We live and lute meaning for us. We search them for answers to deeper struggle in a revolutionary era. To prove the natural neces- and more important issues—those of social antagonisms. sity of struggle and lay bare its captivating, creative pathos But the portrayal of class struggle is not the task of historic- is the primary, pressing concern of political enlightenment. revolutionary museums alone: today, exhibitions showing The museum can achieve this goal through the powerful collections of artifacts from everyday life, art, and technology means of the visual image, which is why the idea of the his- are built according to its principle. However, this doesn’t pre- torical and revolutionary museum is inextricably tied to our clude each category of social-science museum from possess- victories in February and October: museums of this nature ing its own distinguishing properties. The particularity of the emerged not merely as monuments to the triumphs of the historical and revolutionary museum lies first and foremost revolution, and not merely as instruments of the revolution’s in the object of its exhibition: as distinguished from muse- ideological impregnation in society, but also as vehicles of ums of lifestyle and culture (more precisely, sociohistorical) the revolutionary ideology’s ultimate evolution. The period museums, the historical and revolutionary museum exposes of reconstruction brought with it significant new ambi- not just the history of socioeconomic systems, but the his- tions. It forced historic-revolutionary museums to step out tory of the transitions between these systems—those periods from the incipient frames of the historical past and sharpen of escalated struggle for new sociopolitical forms. The his- their focus on the critical, contemporary issues: the October torical and revolutionary museum’s object of examination Revolution and the Russian Civil War found in themselves and exhibition isn’t class struggle as a whole—it permeates the natural continuation of the class antagonisms endured the entire history of mankind—but class struggle at its most during the preceding era of “peace.” lucid and intensive, at the moment of its conscious destruc- In showing the history of the revolutionary movement, tion of an outmoded sociopolitical order. the museum cannot be limited by a chronological depiction Museums that investigate the natural evolution of our of facts: this sort of historical narrative would contradict revolution face three fundamental issues: (a) the struggle both the principles of historical materialism and the goals against feudalism (that is, the struggle against its surviving of political enlightenment. The museumgoer must grasp for autocratic political superstructure and the oppression of the himself the facts of the revolutionary process in addition serf), (b) the struggle against capitalism (beginning with its to the endogenous correlation between individual, factual origins and ending with the Russian Civil War, 1917–21), elements. This is why the arrangement of historical and and finally, and (c) the struggle over the construction of a revolutionary materials must be subordinated to two guid- new socialist society (in periods of reconstruction and rep- ing principles: the revolutionary movement must be shown aration). In other words, the historical and revolutionary as a dialectical process, one that passes through particular museum mirrors the fraught academic fields and focuses on stages and is characterized by the struggle of antagonistic

Museum of the history V 512 of the revolution 513 museums of the revolution nikolai druzhinin contradictions; on the other hand, the arrangement of these especially, printed—relics were exterminated by sovereign materials must reveal the causality of each bygone stage, not authorities. That is why surviving, original artifacts from the only in the relations produced during each stage’s respec- revolutionary struggle are so few and far between. The most tive era, but in the reverse effects of the political superstruc- valuable of those that do exist are physical relics: remnants tures and ideological trends of the present. That said, the of the armed struggle (like weapons, bombs, and so on), the architect of the historical and revolutionary museum must symbols of agitation (banners, medals, political gifts, grave- fight against a mechanistic point of view. In revealing the side offerings), objects of a revolutionary life (weapons tech- spontaneous movements of the awakening masses, it is nec- nology, apartment furnishings, goods manufactured by state essary to stress the organizing significance of revolutionary prisoners, and others), and lastly, the personal belongings of ideologies and the creative role of a conscious enterprise. individual revolutionaries. But these three-dimensional, cor- The struggle against feudal holdovers and the capitalist sys- poreal museum-objects are evidently desultory fragments, tem was waged chiefly by the proletariat, and the main, lead- accidentally spared and incapable of offering a complete ing place was held by the Party. That is why the history of picture of the developments represented at an exhibition. the Party must be granted especial attention. The history of Much prized are handwritten documents (draft proclama- the revolutionary past must be shot through by the political tions, meeting resolutions, assembly protocols, military assessment of our time: the past must cling to the present, edicts, dispatches, handwritten letters and diaries, and so revealing the origin of contemporary goals and helping to on), but they are rare and subject to special protective cus- shed light on the issues of the modern age. Such are the spe- tody, which cannot always be reconciled with the conditions cific goals of the historical and revolutionary museum. In of a public exhibition. Printed publications (leaflets, books, showing the masses the natural evolution of the revolution- brochures, broadsides, and so on) emerge as characteristic ary process, the museum is obliged to equip the conscious- memorials of their era, but they are uniform in appearance ness of the masses with the will for independent and active and difficult for the mass audience to perceive. No less uni- participation in the ongoing struggle. form in their appearance are historical, revolutionary photo- What means does the historical and revolutionary graphs; they tend to document individual figures rather than museum possess for the resolution of this important task? events. Works of art (like paintings, sculptures, and others) It must be admitted that its possibilities for exhibition are are a great deal more vivid and affective, but such exhibi- significantly poorer than those of an art or sociohistorical tion items—assuming they are genuinely artifacts of their museum. Revolutionary events occurred quickly and often era—reflect less the objective events, and more subjective never managed to manifest themselves into steadfast, mate- perceptions and estimations. The facts of the matter appear rial forms. Clandestine efforts were carried out under con- transformed in them under the influence of private sympa- ditions of strict conspiracy, and many revolutionary objects thies and the creative inspiration of the artist. underwent deliberate destruction at the hands of the revo- But for all the variety and diversity of its original artifacts, lutionaries themselves. More often than not, priceless—and the historic-revolutionary museum cannot construct from

Museum of the history V 514 of the revolution 515 museums of the revolution nikolai druzhinin them a full and complete exhibition. In the reconstruction genuine artifacts of the revolutionary past. Its essential to say of the natural historical process there will remain inevitable this, even more vehemently, about auxiliary museum aids: gaps—broken elements that can’t be fixed by the exhibi- they are due not a primary but a secondary position in the tion’s goals. On the basis of that fact, outmoded museolo- museum exhibit. By their number and by the reception of gists propose to capitulate before the arising hardships: to their design, they must not upstage the exhibit’s principal abandon the vast ambitions of the historical and revolution- and authentic historical and revolutionary material. ary museum and limit the museum to displaying the appear- The proper construction of a system of placards acquires ances of revolutionary life. particular significance in a historical and revolutionary But the museum experience and principles of Soviet museum. A verbal explanation must not only reveal the museology propose another solution for the given situa- essence of the exhibited object, but also offer a political tion. Without abandoning a vigorous search for historical evaluation of the corresponding historical event. Often, the and revolutionary relics, they suggest that it’s necessary for historical and revolutionary artifact cannot on its own hint at historical and revolutionary museums to bridge any lacunae the scientific and political inference essential to the museum that appear with specially prepared reproductions: to exhibit visitor. In order to manage the reception of the masses, it’s copies of artworks housed in other Soviet museums, to dis- necessary to provide a concise yet emphatic annotation play photographic prints of rare archival material, and finally that will instill in the visitor one or another interpretation. to order models of physical monuments—striving to approxi- Quotations and slogans, in addition to the brief labels iden- mate the original as closely as possible. That being said, these tifying artifacts, are essential tools of a historical and revo- reproductions will also prove to be in short supply. To more lutionary collection. Of course, here too, it’s necessary to soundly connect disparate exhibition elements and demon- observe a sense of moderation so that the visual and corpo- strably show the causality of events, the wide use of auxiliary real language of the museum isn’t drowned out by uniform aids is essential. With the help of graphic materials (dia- and tiresome texts. grams, maps, and charts), the architects of the historical and The deficiency of original materials and the unavoid- revolutionary museum will contrive to shed light on the era’s able abundance of texts are the historical and revolutionary means of production, and provide essential explanations for museum’s inescapable shortcomings. There’s no doubt that defining events. Works of art—assuming they are themselves they dampen the interest of the mass audience and hamper not original artifacts from the revolutionary era, but after- the ambitions of the historical and revolutionary museum. the-fact illustrations of events long past—will acquire the To offset the effects of this element, it’s necessary to direct same auxiliary value, as will setting arrangements (manikins, persistent attention to arranging museum artifacts artisti- dummies, replicas), which will help to more clearly and viv- cally. An expressive and vivid method of exhibition becomes idly present reality as it was. Nevertheless, it’s necessary to the historical and revolutionary museum’s most impor- remember that reproductions and copies are unavoidable tant reserve, one that is necessary to exercise broadly and surrogates for missing originals: they must not overshadow skillfully. The artist and the art historian must come to the

Museum of the history V 516 of the revolution 517 museums of the revolution nikolai druzhinin assistance of the research fellow. By selecting appropriate (a) the revolutionary collapse of feudalism, (b) the revolu- paints, they will strengthen lines and forms and render the tionary dissolution of capitalism, and (c) the revolutionary impressions of the designed exhibit more profound. The struggle over the construction of socialism. Every one of viewer, intrigued and captivated by the exhibit’s artistic these categories can be further broken down, correspond- configuration, will be better and faster able to dive into the ing to distinct periods in which each respective movement contents of the material on display. The experience of a par- occurs. In the ambit of the first category are the following: ticular background will serve as the psychological founda- (a) peasant uprisings against feudalism in the seventeenth tion for the intellect’s autonomous work. The fewer original and eighteenth centuries, (b) the patrician movement of the revolutionary artifacts there are and the more textual and Decemberists—the earliest manifestation of the emerging photographic material on display, the more important and capitalist system, (c) the petit-bourgeois populist movement pressing the problem of artistic design. reflecting the ideology of the oppressed peasant class, (d) the The ambitions of the historical and revolutionary rise and development of the proletariat movement (1880– museum are clear to us, and the limits and character of its 1904), (e) the first mass revolution (1905–07), and (f) the exhibited material are known. So, how can one represent fall of the autocratic regime and the immediate antecedents class struggle in its greatest and most intensive forms by of this event (the progression of the era of financial capital). means of these exhibitionary methods? If the exhibit of the The events of this great three-hundred-year period historical and revolutionary museum must be shot through are tremendously varied and intrinsically heterogeneous. with the ideas of dialectical development, then from there Here proceed various classes of first feudal and then capi- follow certain requirements for the arrangement of material: talist society: the peasants, the upper bourgeoisie, the the revolutionary movement must be shown as an uninter- petit-bourgeois intelligentsia, and finally, the industrial pro- rupted and accrescent process. In other words, the museum letariat. In the period of emerging capitalism, the struggle exhibit must by dominated by the chronological principle acquires a more complex character: it’s directed not only of construction. Before the viewers must develop not static against the feudal superstructures—namely, the autocratic depictions of a “frozen” revolution, but the vigorous pro- regime—but also against the foundations of the capitalist pulsion of a persistent struggle. The fundamental stages of system. In that entanglement of two revolutionary move- this societal course are composed of elements pivotal to the ments, an idiosyncrasy of the Russian historical narrative exhibit’s narrative. begins to show: the fusion of a newly advanced capitalist The professional museologist will not need to invent his system with imperious feudal holdovers. But this conspicu- own frameworks here. He can adopt one ready-made from ous intermingling doesn’t interfere with the thoroughness the conclusions of seminal Marxist literature. According of the historical and revolutionary museum’s formulation: to this point of view, the museum exhibit can be broken up the revolutionary dominance of the entire three-hundred- into three sequential categories in keeping with three funda- year period manifests itself in the continuous struggle of mental concerns of historical and revolutionary movements: the working masses against the political dictatorship of the

Museum of the history V 518 of the revolution 519 museums of the revolution nikolai druzhinin landed gentry. Unifying all the moments of this struggle, we significance of this category is no less important than that get the opportunity to expose its inherent dialectic, to show of the preceding category: the exhibit couples the events of the powerlessness of the isolated peasant class, the political the past with contemporary facts precisely here. Here, the futility of noble efforts, the political helplessness of the petit- preceding course of the historical and revolutionary pro- bourgeois intelligentsia, and finally, the leading significance cess discovers its final purpose. Our museums have arrived of the proletariat, having organized and directed the victori- at the construction of this consummate category, “socialist ous movements of the revolution. construction,” relatively late. All too often it remains cov- The second category of the historical and revolution- ered only in a rudimentary capacity. Methods of exhibiting ary museum (“the struggle to dissolve the capitalist sys- its emergence are yet primitive and vague. But there is no tem”) is composed of three exhibitionary subcategories: doubt that this category is due a bright future, and that this (a) February–October 1917 (the escalation from a bour- category is comparable, both in its quantity and quality, to geois revolution to a proletariat revolution), (b) the October the history of the period leading up the October Revolution Revolution, and (c) the Russian Civil War (1917–21). Judging and to the period of the socialist revolution. by the sweep of its chronology, this category would appear to On the basis of this chronological division of material, be inferior to the one preceding it. But judged by the wealth of installations must be built on themes more narrowly defined. its historical events and its political impact, it carries not less, The task of a more granular composition is to focus the atten- but more significance in the historical narrative. The struggle tion of the viewer on particular irreducible moments in the of this period is uniform at its core, but is still no less complex. revolutionary movement, to ascertain their causality, and Here various classes in society come to the fore, and the fate to expose the identities of the classes involved. Factoring in of the former Russian empire becomes inseparably entwined the many years of experience of historical and revolution- with world historical events. The predominant revolution of ary museums, we can observe here several fundamental, this period: the struggle for rule by the proletariat without repeating themes. Elements typically represented at exhib- regard for the borders of any one nation. its are: (a) the revolutionary event (a strike, demonstration, The third category (“the struggle over the construction of revolt, and so on), (b) the revolutionary organization (a socialism) is composed of two exhibitionary subcategories: circle, group, collective, party, and so on), (c) the revolution- (a) a period of recovery, and (b) a period of reconstruction. ary ideological schools of thought (social instruction, a pro- The substance of this category is comprised of class struggle grammatic direction, a sectarian platform, and so on.), (d) between the proletariat, led by the Communist Party, and old the feature of the revolutionary lifestyle (the technical work societal classes, the bearers of enduring capitalist tenden- involved, incarceration in prison, a stint in exile, and so on.); cies. The entire exhibit and all representations of economic and finally, (e) the revolutionary figure (an important theo- achievement and new sociocultural formations must be sub- rist, the Party leader, and others). Along with these essential ordinated to this essential, predominant idea—class struggle installations, we can identify two other repeating themes: over socialism. The academic and politically enlightening the combined theme “Party conventions (and conferences),”

Museum of the history V 520 of the revolution 521 museums of the revolution nikolai druzhinin which includes all the events occurring there, the organiza- event displayed must be introduced by the socioeconomic tions and ideological schools of thought; and, on the other processes that had determined the event’s genesis and the hand, the introductory theme, “Socioeconomic factors,” the direction according to which it developed. primary reference point in the explication of historic-revolu- An installation called The October Revolution in Moscow tionary material from a particular period. If we look closely (The Museum of the Revolution of the USSR) can serve an at the composition of a major historical and revolutionary example of a similar exhibitionary presentation of revolu- museum, we will see that its entire exhibition is comprised tionary events. At the center of this nook were placed physi- of these recurring thematic elements. In order to build a cal relics of the struggle in the streets: rifles and machine proper and complete exhibit, it’s necessary to provide a clear guns belonging to the Red Guards, exploded weapons cas- account of the content of each installation. Each theme must ings, various objects perforated by bullets and deformed by be developed with respect to class struggle, but each must gunfire. Upon looking at the original remnants of those ardu- also possess its own particular idiosyncrasies, which must ous battles, museum viewers immediately feel the acuteness have been hitherto considered by museum staff. of that particular moment and the general character of those There is no doubt that revolutionary events are the com- armed encounters. The expressive but fragmented artifacts manding theme of the historical and revolutionary museum. can convey the specificity of documentation and a vivid artis- The process of revolutionary struggle is composed of sepa- tic whole. Beforehand, the viewer passes a whole series of rate events, and through those very events the active dyna- photographs that show street trenches and barricades, artil- mism immanent to the struggle is revealed. That is why lery equipment brought foreword, and the manifold destruc- these events must set out in the forefront and illuminated tion from armed weapons fire. Paintings by Yuon and Kotov from all points of view. It’s essential that a central position depict the final stage of the struggle: a massive assault on the in the exhibit be assigned to show the appearance of class Kremlin by squadrons of soldiers and civilian-laborers. An struggle, attempting to display it as an active and dynamic explanatory diagram conveys the principal moments of the phenomenon, by way of its successive stages. It’s also neces- six-day battle, the principal and quickly vacillating military sary to underscore the movement’s social foundation using victories and defeats. So, the main part of the exhibit paints a particular artifacts: the struggling classes must be shown picture of the October Revolution from within. Surrounding in an expressive manner and thrown into relief in the faces this central nucleus are positioned photographs and illustra- of their leaders and their representatives. Here, it’s essen- tions depicting the typical actors from each of the warring tial to roll out the materials that introduce the ideologies of sides. On one side there were laborers, Red Guards, soldiers the struggling classes and express their interests and goals. from support units, representatives of revolutionary work- With each particular instance, it’s necessary to shed light on ing youth. And on the other there are cadets, officers, univer- a question concerning the struggle’s organization: to deduce sity and grammar-school students. This sphere showing the the degree to which each camp was organized and identify faces of those living and fighting is accompanied by a pic- the character of their main offices. Every major revolutionary ture of leading organizations. Enormous murals put up on

Museum of the history V 522 of the revolution 523 museums of the revolution nikolai druzhinin backboards illustrate the military-revolutionary committees before all else, a concrete depiction of the members belong- and the five Party leaders. Photographs of the participants ing to a political association, but, at the same time, it must and photographic prints of the facilities used by revolutionary underscore the class nature of this collective entity. It must bodies provide a bountiful supplement of documentary mate- familiarize the viewer with the ideology of the group repre- rials. Handwritten resolutions, printed leaflets, and quotes sented, focus our attention on its revolutionary activities, from speeches delivered convey the ideology of the struggle and, if at all possible, reveal the group’s internal social and that took place, its motifs, immediate objectives, and ultimate political stratifications (the warring factions and objec- societal goals. The whole time, the viewer sees and feels the tives). The organization must be opposed to those class two camps of the opposing classes. Events unfold before his forces against which it stands and struggles. The moment of eyes not just in the dramatic encounters on city streets, but class struggle must be paramount. The organization must in the preliminary preparation of the classes, the programs of take shape as an active, evolving, continuously advancing their platforms, and their final outcomes. That said, it should presence. An installation called The St. Petersburg Soviet of be noted that the revolutionary side was pulled out into the Working Delegates, 1905 (at The Museum of theR evolution foreground. The human archetype helps to incite the feelings of the USSR) can serve an example of a similar exhibit. A of the mass movement, and portraits and speeches of Party series of photo portraits frame a backboard consecrated to leaders underscore the organizing role of the Party’s work. this one purpose. Before us pass images of the working men The events are perceived to make up a process advancing and who, with their entire physiognomy, bespeak their member- continuously evolving. The exhibit is closely tied together by ship in the proletariat. Photographs are grouped together by primary and secondary elements: at the front is the October their subject’s political allegiance (Bolsheviks, Mensheviks, Revolution in Petrograd, and following it are the armed upris- SRs, nonpartisans), and simultaneously help to shed light ings in the provinces. Socioeconomic antecedents can be seen on the inner composition of the Soviet organization. At the in a previous hall, and form a general expository introduction top of this backboard hangs an additional diagram, which to all the events of the period of the October Uprising. In this shows the massive proletariat makeup of the Petersburg fashion, the exhibit of revolutionary events is developed in Soviet. At the center, material depicting the militant, revolu- the remaining rooms of The Museum of the Revolution of the tionary purpose of the new organ is concentrated: decisions USSR. With some or other variations, disparate elements of made for strikes, “a financial manifesto” aimed against the the installation recur on a backboard dated March 1, 1881, autocratic regime, a collection of news clippings printed in on a wall dated January 9, 1905, in a representation of the an engrossing style, and a revolver belonging to a member of Decembrist revolt, and in the artifacts from the February the executive committee. Revolution of 1917. looking closely at these exhibit items, we can discern The theme “The Revolutionary Organization” is being distinct stages in the activities of the Soviet, beginning with planned on the basis of the same methodological principles. the organization of the October strike and ending with The historical and revolutionary museum must provide, the call for an armed uprising. Large portraits, placed a bit

Museum of the history V 524 of the revolution 525 museums of the revolution nikolai druzhinin higher, above the backboard, provide an understanding of artifacts of attendant literature—books, brochures, leaflets, the Soviet’s leaders and, moreover, of the schools of thought and handwritten documents. He must find the exact yet con- they represented. The Soviet was a populist and nonparti- cise expression of the given ideological position in the mate- san organization, but it was led by the Social Democratic rial. Before his eyes must pass active vehicles of the schools Party. Opposing declarations, one written by the Bolshevik of thought presented. Finally, and most importantly, he Knunyants and the other by the Menshevik Trotsky, under- must witness political theory in action, in active conflict with score the existence of a sectarian conflict within the Soviet. other competing schools of thought. More so here than any- Certain artifacts (drawings, portraits, executive orders) where else, a political assessment is necessary in the form of throw light on the orders of the executive camp. The viewer an attendant quote or museum placard. An installation on can grasp the reciprocal dealings between the organs of the theme “Legal Marxism” (The Museum of theR evolution the revolutionary proletariat and the wavering, but not yet of the USSR) can serve as an example of such an exhibit. wholly overpowered, tsarist regime. The material, in char- Censored publications from the 1890s, which were put out acterizing the activities of the Soviet, clearly speaks to the under the banner of Marxist ideologies, are positioned at Soviet’s chosen path. Large quotes from Lenin summarize the center of a large display. Above them are a group of por- the Soviet’s militant intentions and encapsulate the whole traits of “legal Marxists” from that period. The class nature collection of evidence presented. Analogous themes—one of this movement is shown by “human archetypes”—a few on a group called “Liberated laborers,” one on a collective, group photographs depicting the bourgeois intelligentsia, “Earth and will,” and another on the editorial body called the agents of this new movement. The bourgeois, antirevo- “Sparks,” among others—are presented in the same fashion. lutionary nature of this entity, “Legal Marxism,” is empha- The thematic installation “Revolutionary-Ideological sized in eloquent and vivid quotes, positioned in the gaps Schools of Thought” lends itself with more difficulty to the between the artifacts on display. Nearby, as a counterweight apparent influence of the museum: the divergent principles to this right-wing, opportunistic school of thought, another of the Party’s program can’t be displayed with the same revolutionary school of thought is shown in the faces of visual expression with which are drawn distinct historical Plekhanov, Lenin, and other orthodox Marxists. Polemical events or the dramatic activities of revolutionary organiza- quotes reveal the principal difference between true follow- tions. Here there is an inescapable abundance of textual ers of Marxism and unfortunate Russian Bernstein-ians. material and the limiting role of the concrete image. But A neighboring display presents, in photographs and print the political significance of this theme is so essential that artifacts, the most important manifestations of Marxism in the historical and revolutionary museum must seek out all legal literature, the sociopolitical stratifications in the ranks possible measures for a vivid demonstration. It’s necessary of the Marxists, and the inner ideological struggle between to focus the attention of the viewer on the fundamentals of the orthodox and the opportunists. class ideology, in sharp relief against the ideology of another A peculiar place in the historical and revolutionary opposing class. The viewer must see before him the original museum is held by the exhibit’s treatment of the facts

Museum of the history V 526 of the revolution 527 museums of the revolution nikolai druzhinin of revolutionary life. This is where the museum worker of revolutionary life possesses other drawbacks: the exhib- arranges some of the most prized and meaningful origi- it’s chronology breaks, and the mature construction of the nal material: the protracted use of various artifacts under museum—and most importantly, of the exhibit—takes on a the conditions of clandestine work and especially impris- purely literal and autonomous character. Scenes from daily onment behind bars ensured the objects would be better life break loose from the universal context of class strug- preserved than other relics from the revolutionary past. gle, and end up isolated, deprived of their basis and with- The furnishings of prison cells, clothes, and utensils from out their essential Marxist justification. On the other hand, labor camps, goods manufactured by political prisoners, without these collections, principal museum departments and the remains of clandestine practices often enrich the also suffer: they forfeit their most prized material artifacts, collections of historical and revolutionary museums. Some and their most vivid images from the history of our most of those who actively participated in the revolution and who arduous class struggle. would be able to depict, with precision and detail, the con- Two solutions are possible for such a situation: either ditions of clandestine work are sill alive. By their direction departments on day-to-day revolutionary life will expand and under their supervision, the museums create models of the scope of their material to include a broad picture of revo- workshops, underground printing presses, and the apart- lutionary struggle and become, for all intents and purposes, ments of conspirators. But the exhibition of these lifestyle clones of the principal exhibit, or the departments on day-to- installations presents an obvious difficulty: the objects of day life will be liquidated and its material will dissolve into revolutionary life are significantly harder to connect with the general mass of the museum’s primary artifacts. The lat- the entire system of historical and revolutionary mate- ter solution appears to be, on principle, the right one. The rial. Ordinarily, they break away from the whole and form appearance of a revolutionary life in and of itself lacks scien- their own subcategories: “Underground Equipment,” “The tific or politically enlightened meaning. It is interesting and Prison, Labor Camp, and Life in Exile,” and others. This significant only insofar as it reflects the attitudes of the era in kind of compartmentalization possesses a few advantages. question. Evidence of revolutionary life must be considered These objects of revolutionary life are concentrated by their as just the incidental garb of the unceasing revolutionary thematic attributes and thus acquire greater affect. The struggle within the conditions of a particular place and time. abundance of corporeal relics evokes greater interest in the And if that’s so, there is no reason to isolate representations viewer. Such scenes, like that of a prison, a labor camp, or a of revolutionary life. In fact, quite the opposite. It’s necessary life in exile, can be examined just by looking at them and can to incorporate them into the general system of a chronologi- beget a strong, agitating reaction. And finally, the concen- cal exhibition and artfully weave them in with other arti- tration of household artifacts can curiously also stimulate a facts of their period. The underground publicationWorking desire to collect items among employees and visitors of the Papers (1897) will find an appropriate place for itself near the historical and revolutionary museum. However, the devel- Kiev Social-Democratic Congress as the nearest antecedent opment of exhibit categories specializing in the day-to-day for the Party’s first convention there. The Military Technical

Museum of the history V 528 of the revolution 529 museums of the revolution nikolai druzhinin

Bureau of the RSDWP1 of 1906 would make up one of the the portraits of the most significant revolutionary leaders, elements part of the first mass revolution, an instance of e.g. Lenin. As a general rule, a biographic theme must unfold the militant operations of the Social-Democratic Party. The against the exhibition’s general background and in seam- prison, labor camp, and exile will be allocated to different less connection to revolutionary events. So, the biographical categories and acquire a proper interpretation as instances theme “V. I. Ulyanov” must be included in the general exhibit of revolutionary class struggle between the autocratic regime The People’s Will and the biographic theme “N. E. Bauman” as ruled by the landed gentry and the revolutionary avant- in the general exhibit 1905, and so forth. garde of the struggling classes. Every period will find itself The enormous significance of the Communist Party as illuminated from many sides. The revolutionary struggle will the leading organization, and the head of a mass proletar- achieve its natural complement in its freedom, but the strug- iat movement, raises an important question concerning an gle is no less indomitable and no less grueling from within exhibition’s portrayal of Party congresses. Congresses—the cell walls. The core principle of the presentation of daily revo- principle milestones in the history of the Party—are also lutionary life will reveal itself against the general background the turning points of the Party’s inner development. Here, of the social relations of production and the class conflicts of revolutionary ideology emerged most vividly. Here, schools a particular era. of thought paramount to the future aims of the mass revolu- The historical and revolutionary museum cannot and tionary movement were determined. From here, the impor- must not strike out the characteristics of particular indi- tance of the space occupied by the thematic installation viduals from its exhibition’s program. The activity of one Party Congress is readily apparent. revolutionary constitutes a legitimate subject of depiction Significant challenges arise here for the museum for an academic biographical construction and for a visual employee. How to convey the political content of congres- museum exhibition. But that particular individual must be sional work as visually and vibrantly as possible? There’s shown not as an autonomous and omnipotent force, but as a no doubt that the core of the difficulty lies in that internal representative of particular class factions. This individual’s ideological struggle that precedes the admission of final views and actions must be derived from the social condi- orders. That’s why it’s necessary to arrange the artifacts tions of the corresponding period. The individual must be that best characterize the conflicts of various ideological presented before the viewer as a direct participant in class schools of thought—namely the drafts of resolutions, politi- struggle, in the key stages of his own inner development and cal brochures, and speeches delivered by delegates, among his manifest political activities. Even here, one shouldn’t others—at the very center of the entire exhibition. Warring break loose this thematic installation from the general mass Party factions must be presented in the photographs of their of the historical and revolutionary material. Yet it’s possible participants. The class basis for each departure from the cor- to form permanent commemorative sections (or halls) for rect Party line must be shown not only in verbal accounts (quotes from Lenin, and so on), but also in the surviving 1. russian Social-Democratic Worker’s Party —Trans. note documents (for example, in the characteristics of the class

Museum of the history V 530 of the revolution 531 museums of the revolution enemies of the Party), and in visual representations (for example, in photographic stills of pre-congressional assem- A New Exhibition at blies with a particular class makeup). The Party congress the Leningrad Museum of must not be perceived as an isolated event—the museum exhibition must draw a visible narrative thread between the the Revolution principal struggle at the congress and class antagonisms beyond Party lines. For every political faction, the museumgoer must be able to witness the class sphere that would have informed the faction’s conforming interpretations. The museum placard here acquires an important political significance, but it’s also important to remember that an excessive abundance of text will burden the exhibit and repulse the mass visitor. And in them, as everywhere and always, it’s necessary to use concrete language and graphic descriptions to introduce enlivening artistic representations (paintings, drawings, caricatures on a few of the themes represented), and to stir up the texts with arrangements of group photographs and especially with lively reproductions of mob scenes (the demonstrations of orators, the presentation of gifts, and so on).

Vera Leykina

V 532 a new exhibition at the Leningrad Museum vera leykina

First published in 1931 Stemming from its primary purpose—to thoroughly lay Translated by Bela Shayevich out the history of class struggle—the museum uses everyday materials to frame its economic foundations. The thorough The State Museum of the Revolution in Leningrad is the illumination of economics is among the museum’s accom- first Soviet historical museum of the Revolution, founded plishments in this realm. in 1919. Since the beginning, it has unswervingly followed The main condition for the comprehensibility of any a course of “museifying” its History of the Revolution exhi- given collection of materials is the accessibility of the guid- bition, making it more comprehensible and accessible to ing labels. In this case, the labels consist of thesis texts cover- the masses. The museum took the first steps in creating ing entire wall-lengths naming the larger topic, which is an what are now templates for other museums—diagrams, improvement compared to the commonly accepted system historical-revolutionary mock-ups and models, hand- of simply cataloguing topics or using slogans. The greater colored photographs, and so on. With a wealth of original simplicity and elementariness of the thesis summary is artifacts and relics from the Revolution, the museum had geared toward the masses and intended to be maximally a longstanding practice of emphasizing its material hold- comprehensible. Of course, certain success, that is, satisfac- ings, rejecting the approach of presenting two-dimensional tory results, cannot be achieved without some experimenta- diagrams and unreadable wall texts covered in quotations, tion, and this approach is being used on a trial basis. striving instead for a stylized presentation of each era. In addition to the main guiding labels (which are con- Today, in light of the objectives of museum restructuring structed from cut-out letters), the class characteristics of the that now stand before all museums, the importance of acting forces in each depicted event are laid out in descriptive developing more in-depth labels for our exhibits comes labels with quotations from contemporary sources. The aim to the forefront of our goals providing the best possible of these labels is to provide examples of the style and mood Marxist accounts of our collection. The museum’s develop- of the time. With a colorful background, they are like their ment plan therefore includes a foundational reworking of own museum pieces. The third kind of labels are evaluative, the galleries; we have conducted a number of experiments providing Marxist analysis or assessment of historical phe- in labeling—creating new guiding, descriptive, and evalu- nomena in accordance with the tasks of the proletarian revo- ative labels, as well as more attractive and comprehensible lution. Finally, there are descriptive labels under each artifact. designs for our exhibition on economics—the foundation These range from simple “naming” texts to political analysis of class struggle. necessitated by insufficiently intelligible objects or those from One of these experiments is the new exhibition, part a foreign class, and occasionally explanatory quantitative of the yet-unfinished gallery called “The Revolutionary information that helps develop the theme of the given object. Movement Before the First Workers’ Revolution,” which The exhibition begins with the thesis “The Serf Order covers the period from Pugachev’s Rebellion through the Was Based in the Forced Labor Exploitation of the Peasant dissolution of The People’s Will N( arodnaya Volya) Party. by the Aristocrat and Landowner.” The central themes are

Museum of the history V 534 of the revolution 535 a new exhibition at the Leningrad Museum vera leykina illustrated by a life-size model of a peasant plowing with Were the First Division in the Bourgeois Revolution.” The an authentic antique plow, and over him, a symbol of non- introduction to this subject is a small, partitioned interior economic compulsion, an authentic three-tailed whip, and with antique furniture, paintings, engravings, and plaques a landowner of the magnate-parasite type. In front of the depicting the social origins of the Decembrists, diagrams of model, there are materials relating to: (a) the consumerist their agrarian and political programs, and the social com- nature of the landowner’s household, (b) how developing position of secret societies. The three walls behind the inte- industry forced the landowner to cater to the market—the rior present the December 14 uprising. At the center of the serf industry grew more expensive, and (c) how, beginning room, the most prominent spot is devoted to the Chernigov at the end of the eighteenth century, the expanding grain Regiment revolt. In order to analyze the tactics in these market led to the intensification of forced labor. revolts side by side, the museum created additional materi- The second wall addresses “Pugachev’s Rebellion –The als including a specially commissioned painting by Rudolph Peasant’s Answer to Intensified Forced Labor.” The subject is Frentz, The Positions of the Soldiers On Senate Square (painted framed by an ornamental mural presented against the back- in 1925), and a map of the positions of the Chernigov drop of a burlap wall covering. Placards placed around a map Regiment and the activities of the “slavs” from a bird’s eye of the areas affected by Pugachev’s Rebellion describe the view. Bright yellow walls, a dark blue interior, and a velvet social background of the movement. The way that the nobil- wall hanging with Masonic symbols reflect the age of nobility dealt with the rebellion is illustrated by a breaking wheel, ity. Silhouettes of the statue of Peter the Great and the Peter shackles, brands, and other instruments of torture. and Paul Fortress serve as its emblems. The third topic is “Absolute Monarchy Establishes The The topic of the reaction under Nikolai, “The Agrarian Power of the Nobleman Over The Muzhik,” and is illustrated Crisis Temporarily Strengthens Serfdom,” is presented with symbols. A tsar’s throne (a replica of the Romanovs’ with original luboks2 and lithographs reflecting the ideol- throne)1 is placed high in a red velvet niche; on both sides ogy of “autocracy, Orthodoxy, and nationality” as well as of the throne are the monarchy’s pillars of support—a guard the political machine of Nikolai I’s monarchy: the army, the officer and a priest—and the throne is topped by a predatory gendarmerie, and the bureaucracy. Models of cavalry and two-headed eagle with a whip instead of a scepter, and fetters foot soldiers from original Romanov collections help illus- around the ball. The aristocratic essence of the monarchy is trate the presentation of the tsarist military; these include a demonstrated by the Charter to the Gentry. It is adjacent to contemporary statuette of Nikolai II on a marble column in a partition covering the battle with autocracy, Radishchev, a soldier’s overcoat and a general’s helmet. The third room Novikov, and others. addresses the battle for bourgeois reform. A wall labeled The second room is dedicated to the time of Nikolai I, “Emerging Capitalism Requires ‘Free Workers’” provides and is accompanied by the following label: “The Decembrists 2. Woodcut prints popular in Russia beginning in the late seventeenth century, usually depicting folk, literary, and religious stories. 1. Term signifying a hardy (male) Russian peasant—Trans. note —Trans. note

Museum of the history V 536 of the revolution 537 a new exhibition at the Leningrad Museum vera leykina an account of the pre-Reform economy—the crises of forced Sovremennik. Additional materials on the peasant revolts of labor in agriculture pitted against the rise of voluntary labor the 1860s include specially commissioned paintings by Ivan in manufacturing. The material is divided between two relief Vladimirov on the Berdyansk Execution. The display also diagrams: (a) The rise in grain exports with two plywood includes little-known political caricatures about the reaction ships floating on waves, and (b) The rise of manufacturing; from the 1860s. groups of figures standing on a platform demonstrating the The presentation of the economic underpinnings of inefficiency of forced labor and the high cost of voluntary narodnichestvo—the vestiges of feudalism in the provinces labor when the bulk of the workers are peasants on obrok.3 combined with the simultaneous growth of capitalist ele- The wall dedicated to “The Bourgeois Intelligentsia Fights ments—is clustered around a large diagram titled “The for Reform” deals with the movement in the 1840s led by Development of Capitalism Following the Reform,” where Belinsky and the Petrashevites. A partitioned-off corner cov- numerical graphs are displayed alongside original railroad, ers two topics: “The Surrender of Sevastopol” and “The Fall bank, and manufacturing shares from the 1860s and 1870s. of Serfdom in Russia,” which are presented with the help of The foreground of the diagram features a model of the com- weapons—the rifles of the Russian and allied troops, and parative growth of coal, raw iron, oil, cotton, railroads, and what the serfs used to fight the bourgeoisie. The central arti- grain exports. fact for “February 19, 1861—the Beginning of Bourgeois The next wall is titled “Revolutionary Intellectuals Seek Russia” is a model of a “freed” serf. It is created using acute Ways to Connect with the People” (on the first clubs and rev- “defamiliarization” and the externalization of verbal mate- olutionary organizations of the 1860s and ’70s), and leads rial. In the model, (a) A rider sits atop a serf, and (b) The rider into the room dedicated to narodnichestvo. has gotten off, having received a redemption payment to do This room opens with a statement from Lenin: so while the serf now lies under the press of government trib- “Narodnichestvo is the protest against serfdom and the utes that has a policeman standing on it. Above this scene, bourgeois way of life from the perspective of the peasant there is a bas-relief of the tsar’s manifesto announcement and the small producer.” Land and Liberty (Zemlya i Volya), under the cover of cannon fire. the first revolutionary party, is presented through selected The labels on the fourth wall illuminate the peasant revo- materials related to geography, terror, and party organiza- lution and its spokesman Chernyshevsky, who railed against tion. Plywood covering the fireplace creates two “windows” the landowners and nobility of Russia with the question, that are illuminated from the inside by electric light. The “Through Revolution or Through Reform?” Materials on first tall window displays the “shades of the past”—from Chernyshevsky are thrust into the wall at sharp angles, pre- behind a muslin cloth, a meeting of the minor council of sented against the background of a blown-up title page of the Land and Liberty discussing their program. This appears alongside original manuscripts (enlarged reproductions of 3. A fine serfs were forced to pay if absent from their villages. the originals, which are in the museum archives) of their —Trans. note program and charter on the wall. The other low window has

Museum of the history V 538 of the revolution 539 a new exhibition at the Leningrad Museum vera leykina a flower on the windowsill—a sign of safety—and is used as Two additional small rooms illustrate Alexander III’s a frame for the original documents arranged behind it from reaction. An interesting artifact here is an emblem of a the “bureaucracy in the sky” (false stationary, stamps, fake municipal police chief created with elements of a police uni- passports, and so on). All of this comprises the topic “The form mounted on the wall and an expressive hand gesture Revolutionary Conspiracy.” created by its white gloves. Next is the wall on the workers’ movement of the 1870s, The workers’ movement that developed in the years of titled “The Only Real Force is the Strike Movement of the Alexander’s Reaction, which determined the course of the Workers.” The fracture of Land and Liberty, under the the- Russian Revolution, are to be covered in the second half of matic heading “The Narodnaya Volya Party Takes a Step the section, entitled “The 1890s through the 1900s.” Forward, Crossing Over Into Political Battle,” is illustrated by a crack that goes through the entire wall, with materials on the Black Repartition and The People’s Will on either side. The text above the materials on the assassination of the tsar reads, “March 1st—the Most Powerful Blow Against Autocracy. This Wasn’t the Storm Yet, The Storm Would be the Movement of the Masses.” Alexander II’s carriage is placed on a slant, underlining its bad luck, and behind it there is a transparency of an exploding bomb that lights up. The next small room focuses on the decline of The People’s Will and summarizes its achievements. Next to it, last year, the museum installed models of the equipment in Pribylev and Grachevsky’s dynamite-making studio as it would have looked in the early 1880s, with two life- sized figures intended to show the original technology of hand-to-hand combat with autocracy. The same subject is addressed by the museum’s replica of the basement of the Winter Palace where Khalturin lived, the walls and layout of which are reconstructed based on archival research. The defeat of the People’s Will party is also represented in the model of a jail cell from the Shlisselburg People’s Will Prison (with original details), which was constructed in 1922 and served as the prototype for all such models currently on view in museums.

Museum of the history V 540 of the revolution 541 The Museum as a Weapon of Class Struggle: Here and Abroad

Roza Frumkina The Museum as a weapon of Class Struggle Roza Frumkina

First published in 1934 disarmed not only physically, but spiritually as well. And Translated by Ian Dreiblatt here, alongside the press, cinema, and radio, the bourgeoisie deployed the museum. When the Soviet tourist happens into one of the museums In the postwar museum, the bourgeoisie agitates all the of Berlin, Paris, Vienna, or another city, he is struck most more brazenly and remarkably for an eternal, indestructible immediately by the relative paucity of fellow visitors. Only capitalist order. Here are a few striking examples. in those that the Baedeker guide marks with an asterisk will 1928. An exhibition of prints in Cologne. The signs of cri- you find tour groups, particularly foreign ones. These groups sis are not yet visible on the horizon. The German bourgeoi- race through the halls of the Louvre, hurrying to see—or, sie, in a moment of sharp museological wit, draws The Life more accurately, not to see so much as to be able to say they of Man as a series of newspaper ads. The first ad: two proud have seen—the Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa, and a handful parents announce to friends and acquaintances the birth of of other masterpieces and attractions of worldwide repute. their son Hans. The second: first day of school. The third: time It is the same in every world capital. In Berlin, Englishmen to learn a trade. The fourth: Hans, now a clerk, has become and Americans throng before Pergamon—but merely press engaged to Greta. The fifth: now they are married. The sixth: a few blocks further to the richest of ethnographic museums, Hans, now a sausage-maker (our Hans has in the interim and you will not encounter a soul. On a Sunday, perhaps, a opened his own shop), and his wife Greta joyfully announce school trip will amble about. Five or six hundred visitors, at to their friends and acquaintances the birth of their son Fritz. the most, may stop by the ethnographic museum in a day. The circle is complete. Not a single ad enfolds a meeting, a Prewar capitalism treated the museum as a weapon of lecture, a party demonstration into the grim life of its hero. class struggle and influence, with more than a touch of con- And this is only natural. The worker aspires only to ownership descension. The art museum satisfied the bourgeoisie’s need of a small house with a small garden and his own shop. for aesthetic snobbery, the technical museum prepared the A second example. The brilliantly appointed museum of qualified laborer-engineer, and museums of sociopolitical the national economy in Düsseldorf. By way of a series of development were with rare exception completely inacces- clever display gimmicks, the visitor is emphatically, obsti- sible to the masses. nately induced to consider how magnificently well-ordered After the war, when a proletariat that could enjoy the shin- is German industry, and how Germany and all its inhabit- ing example of the October Revolution attempted to restore ants might have flourished if not for the Treaty of Versailles. to itself those material and spiritual values that the bour- Salvation lies in autarky, and the museum brilliantly illus- geoisie had been plundering by the day and by the hour, a trates this position with the help of another piece of museo- question arose sharply. The bourgeoisie took shelter behind logical wit. Before the viewer are two domestic interiors, its right to surplus value, employing all the means at its dis- with two families sitting down to breakfast. One of these posal, from gun and gallows to church and social-democratic is the family of a “traitor” to his motherland, a “betrayer” envelopment. Its class enemy—the proletariat—had to be of his fatherland, and on that family’s table sit butter from

Museum of the history V 544 of the revolution 545 The Museum as a weapon of Class Struggle Roza Frumkina

Denmark, coffee and eggs from Holland, and Australian idea: the war was imposed on Germany and prosecuted by lamb. Every few minutes, some German bank notes flutter her entire populace, the soldiers and officers on the front con- by in the window. The other interior shows us how a “patriot” stituting a unified whole that went undefeated, and the rear of his fatherland takes breakfast: on his table sit ersatz coffee suffering its blockade, cornering the front into surrender. made from acorns, margarine in place of butter, and so forth, Revolutionary progress reflected nothing but the machina- all of it made from domestic products, so that money stays tions of the Triple Entente. The death of Karl Liebknecht was in the country, in the pockets of the fatherland’s capitalists. declared in this notice, which had run in the Berliner Tageblatt: Another display uses a mechanized, electric train to show “I bring to the attention of friends and acquaintances news of graphically how much capital is being carted out of Germany. the passing of my companion in juridical consultation, Doctor you can walk the full length of the museum’s ten halls of Laws Karl Liebknecht.” Signed—Doctor of Laws So-and-So. without seeing even the slightest tract of class struggle rep- The war had just ended, leaving thousands of cripples. But oh, resented. In another section dedicated to the force of the don’t worry about them! Let this row of photographs show workers, which is horribly poor and meager by comparison, you what marvelous prostheses they received, what a variety only two things are shown: the rationalization and choice of of crafts they were taught—in the end, you may even regret not a profession based on a battery of tests. The entire function having been crippled yourself, or blinded. And if you should is to ensure that a man best suited to working with a paint- chance to recall that five minutes before you encountered a brush is not instead placed before a lathe, and that the table legless invalid begging alms on the streetcar, then surely you and instruments are arranged to ensure minimal loss of time. were dreaming. And so it goes: long live war. As though the fulfillment of these two principles could some- But for the fifteen years before the war in a series of coun- how ensure a shining future … tries, the Second International and all its parties in fact enjoyed It should be no surprise, then, that among the friends of tremendous influence. The Second International fought for this museum who sit on its advisory board we see such names the soul of the workers, and, in the guise of the German Party, as Thyssen and other leaders of German heavy industry. the Labor-Party, and the Austrian S(ocial)-D(emocrat) Party, There is only one problem: workers never visit this museum. was periodically in power. How did it register its intentions? But the bourgeoisie must make its preparations for war The answer is clear and simple: it did not. The very house where at an ever faster pace. A new generation has arisen. One that Karl Marx was born was in the hands of the Social-Democrat did not fight in the trenches, that must be shown war from Party. But in 1933 Hitler rose to power and hoisted his fascist its most appealing angle. How can this be done? One need flag over it. The only exhibition of Social-Democrat materials only look to the Stuttgart Museum of World War, or to Paris’s that I was able to see was in Cologne, consisting of printed Legionnaires’ Museum, to find out. In Stuttgart, the entire matter from the German Social-Democrats. In a small pavil- museum consists of a selection of newspaper clippings and ion several newspapers lay dully together, graying and hardly photographs. There are hardly any actual artifacts. The muse- distinguishable from one another. Nothing more. I had the um’s ten halls follow, in obstinate sequence, an uncomplicated opportunity to speak with the administrators of the pavilion,

Museum of the history V 546 of the revolution 547 The Museum as a weapon of Class Struggle Roza Frumkina and to my puzzled inquiries they answered simply, “Here in “Communist Insignias Seized by the Fascists” unwittingly Cologne there is an exhibition of printed materials, and so fills the soul with bitterness, and serves as a reminder that we are displaying ours.” I held forth to them that the utility of the hour is not far yet when these insignias will be removed print derives from its contents, and here these could not be to their rightful place: the Museum of the Italian Revolution. discerned, but this proved quite incomprehensible to them. The German fascists, copying their Italian predeces- The sole Social-Democrat museum worthy of this appellation sors to the fullest extent possible, have from the very first is the Commune Museum in Vienna. The entire museum con- given careful thought to the matter of exhibitions. First off, sists of charts made according to Professor Neurath’s system, immediately upon rising to power, they razed from the face which has been dispersed widely across the USSR through of the Earth the small Museum of the Great War, showing its the Institute of Representational Statistics. In this, it is typi- horrors. The museum was located in a small house. Now the cal of the refined methods of Social-Democratic envelopment. fascists have opened a giant exhibition of war memorials in Thus, for example, in the chart titled “How Many Votes Did the center of Unter den Linden, extending the tradition of the Workers’ Parties Receive in the Elections?,” the votes of the Stuttgart Museum. By displaying cutaways of trenches, communists and socialists are tallied together. The museum mock-ups of cannons, soldiers’ encampments, and the like, is founded on glorifying the virtues of the municipality of it lavishes upon slaughter untold glories. For what does Vienna. Every mention and notion of class struggle has been Germany need war? In truth, only to restore its colonies. The chiseled from the memorial to Otto Bauer. German people need colonies, and under this slogan a great Far more work has been done by fascism in the realm of exhibition was unveiled in Berlin, showing the beneficences museum displays. In Italy, the fascists have created a great conferred by Germans on the natives of their colonies. Nor archive and unveiled an exhibition of photographs, post- will the matter of exhibitions be pushed aside in the prov- ers, and ephemera to commemorate the tenth anniversary inces. Votes are needed in Pomerania, and suddenly, just like of the March on Rome. We may judge this exhibition by that, an exhibition is mounted: What the Fascists Have Done its photographs, which are mounted on a series of discrete for Pomerania. All words and pictures, with no facts. boards. Taken together, they clearly show how great an For our article, we also stopped by a few typically bour- influence has been exerted by our own methods of display. geois museums, but in other countries one finds the same. Certain of the boards directly duplicate particular models The exhibition of colonization in Berlin is the direct progeny from the Museum of the Soviet Revolution of 1925–26. A of a tremendous and similar one in Paris, the Museum of the tremendous amount of space is devoted to materials prais- Empire in London, and so forth. ing Mussolini, with especial stress on the struggle against In brief, we may say that the museum and exhibition communism. A special display titled “Weapons Confiscated are, in capitalist countries, widely used as intoxicants of the from the Communists of Bibiena’s City,” in which we see toiling masses. but a few rifles and revolvers, speaks eloquently to how What distinguishes our friends from them? Our friends meagerly armed were our comrades. Another display titled are distinguished by making visible the construction of

Museum of the history V 548 of the revolution 549 The Museum as a weapon of Class Struggle socialism in the fatherland of all laborers. The USSR appears in all international exhibitions and fairs, and the pavilions VI demonstrating the achievements of workers and peasants invariably swell with visitors. Over the past few years, the Society of Friends of the USSR has often employed the method of mounting small, traveling exhibitions on the various subjects that arise in the construction of socialism. They arouse lively responses in the toiling masses; the visitors’ books have amounted to a kind of mass rally. “Lenin’s dream lives—what has become of Masaryk’s?” wrote one Czech worker, a visitor at an exhibition on socialist construction in the USSR. This leitmotif runs through all the comments. The last great exhibition, mounted abroad, commemorated the fifteenth anniversary of the Soviet Union. Even today, this exhibition remains open in Scandinavia, to great success. Our foreign friends have discovered yet one more striking way of utilizing exhibition materials—publishing the exhi- The Atheists’ Museum bition, in whole or in part. Recent years have seen part of an exhibition on the construction of socialism published under the title The Filippov Family as a special number of AITS; it went on to circle the globe. An exhibition of the fifteenth anniversary of the USSR was published in its own edition in German, under the title Fifteen Iron Paces, and in the near future a Dutch house will be following suit. These exhibitions have done their job: unmistakably standing up against bourgeois terror and global crisis to achieve our Five-Year Plan. The same struggle has been fought on this front as on the others. That struggle continues, and we have the duty of marshaling all our strength into a contribution to the work of the great struggle for the majority of the working class, for the propaganda of communism, for the shock brigade of the world proletariat—our socialist fatherland.

V 550 An Exhibition and Panorama of the Moscow Crematorium

A. F. Levitsky an exhibition and panorama a. F. levitsky

First published in 1931 old; the projection slides are duplicates (the crematoriums Translated by Maria Tananyan Goldverg in Australia); captions are sometimes grammatically incorrect (the dimensions of Moscow’s cemeteries are measured An exhibition and panorama of Moscow crematoriums has in “square hectares”); there is no literature or bibliography been up for three months already in Kharkov (1 Sverdlov provided on matters concerning burial and especially cre- St.). Since there is no museum or permanent exhibit on mation. There is one ill-considered caption labeling a sec- antireligious matters in the Ukrainian SSR, combined with tion “Testimonials of Cremation,” but actually, in addition the construction of a crematorium in Kharkov for the pop- to testimonials, there is information on the period when ularization of the idea of cremation and the education of cremation was legalized by the state (in 1918, for us) and the public in the materialist worldview, this exhibit is more photographs of those who had been cremated, for example: than welcome. Durov, Tsiurupa, Solovyov, Skvortsov-Stepanov, the scholar The exhibit and the panorama are housed in two mod- Bekhterev, and Vladimir Mayakovsky. Indeed, for such a erately sized rooms within a shabby, newly built plywood serious and important exhibition, one must be a wunder- structure. In the first room: installation materials, historical kind of a guide in order to be able to briefly outline, over information on burials, buried remains, cremation machin- the course of a mere four or six minutes, the installation ery, and “testimonials of cremation.” In the second: a burial and its materials to adult visitors or a group of schoolchil- and cremation panorama, cremated remains, projection dren—all this is done according to one manual. A disclosure slides of contemporary crematoriums. There are a good made on the part of the tour guide (and possibly according number of slogans at the exhibit, with sufficient explanatory to outlined instructions given to him) included the asser- labels, tables, and photographs. The projection slides and the tion that our oldest relics were those of Theodosius Uglich, panorama are relatively effective. The exhibition attendance “preserved in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra” (right away, there rates are high even today. Guides provide additional infor- is an inaccuracy—one of chronology and fact). The guide’s mation to organized tours and small groups of visitors. inability to relate his explanations with the exhibition’s At the same time, it is necessary to note the drawbacks location in Ukraine is somewhat surprising. For example, of this particular exhibit: the organizing principle of this with respect to relics, even to this day there are relics in the mobile exhibit is unclear; the layout of the exhibit and former Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, while at Kharkov’s cultural even a schematic diagram indicating the principles accord- museum, Artyom, there is a mummified corpse. Because all ing to which materials are arranged are missing; themes the materials in the exhibition are so thoughtless, it is pos- aren’t made clear to exhibit tours; there is no guidebook sible to leave it confused: Is cremation at all needed, or is it or catalog available; no much-needed agitprop leaflets; all better to abide by the age-old custom of burying the dead? captions and annotations for visitors are written only in In one ill-fated place in the exhibition—on the eastern wall Russian, while the exhibit sign is written out in improper in the first room—appears the following thesis caption: “The Ukrainian; some of the photographs on display are terribly enormous work of liberating Earth from rotten plant-matter

VI 554 the athiests’ museum 555 an exhibition and panorama and the corpses of animals and people is performed by bacteria. Due to their efforts, all major categories of organic The Question of Exhibitions in substances decompose into simpler compounds until they Antireligious Museums become completely mineralized. This renders them again fit for plant consumption, in order to once more enter a new cycle of life.” This is not just a technical error, but a crude ideological blunder on the part of the exhibition’s organizers. It is crucial that significant corrections be made to the material and operation of this exhibit as soon as possible.

S. P. Lebedyansky

VI 556 the question of exhibitions s. P. lebedyansky

First published in 1931 stepped up to the job—that is, the exhibition—they found Translated by Margarita Shalina themselves completely at the mercy of the old workers and patterns of exhibition derived from the old museums. Faced First I’d like to talk about the principles of installation with these new challenges to antireligious museums, the with which we approached the challenge of organizing the old method of museum exhibition could not be taken into Antireligious Combine in Leningrad. We did not name it the consideration. The challenge of new forms and methods Antireligious Museum, but the Combine, and here’s why: we of exhibition had arisen. However, strange as it may seem, have come to the conclusion that this manner of antireligious no new methods had been created, and in terms of exhibi- work must be conducted by all museums, since all museums tion today the antireligious museum falls behind all other are built on Marxist methodology. Each of these museums museums. I’ll repeat, the reason is that these new antireli- must conduct systematic propaganda around the Marxist gious workers have not developed the techniques they had worldview, and the Antireligious Combine occupies a defi- in their own hands. nite place in this plan. The experience of constructing the Antireligious Today, when the question of antireligious work becomes Combine in what was formerly St. Isaac’s Cathedral creates a political actuality, there is a need to create a particular the challenge of attempting to build the kind of form that is Combine that would conduct systematic antireligious work, most effectively expressive and provides maximum thematic linking it to other departments. There must be fundamen- clarity in the museum’s presentations, all so that the viewer tal themes included in the Antireligious Combine, linked to does not think he is entering the Kunstkamera, but instead religion, the role of class struggle, and the role of religion in has no illusions that he is viewing the Combine. contemporary society; in addition, a department of natural On the other hand, the following must be taken into sciences must be organized in all of the museums so that account about the work: when you view shows that are a different worldview is provided in place of the religious antireligious in nature, it’s hard not to notice that to a large worldview that we are erasing. These are the two sides that we degree this work is in line with cultural redistribution. The were faced with during the organization of the Antireligious most prominent show in Leningrad, open in the halls of the Combine. We consider it to be temporary. It will exist for fif- Winter Palace, satisfies all aspects of antireligious work and teen to twenty years, and with time the need for it will decrease, appears to be a purely culturally redistributive show. The gist but the propaganda opposing a religious worldview to a mate- of the show is the history of religion, except the history of rialistic worldview and promoting the education of youth tak- religion is parallel to ethnographic studies and while viewing their first steps toward Marxist appreciation will be passed ing the exhibition an excursionist might come to the follow- on to another museum. This compels us to approach the orga- ing conclusion: every nation and every group had their own nization of the Combine with particular care. gods. A materialist explanation of religion is not provided. Work on antireligious exhibitions began to develop This practice must be categorically condemned, because it only after the October Revolution, and as our workers merely provides elements of cultural redistribution without

VI 558 the athiests’ museum 559 the question of exhibitions s. P. lebedyansky even providing a Marxist outlook, which leads to a blurring and fully explaining the material. Sometimes this results in of antireligious work’s fundamental content with its current connections being automatically made in the material. political narrowness. With regard to the distribution of objects in the theme: What is the role of the material in the exhibition and things are distributed according to how they pertain to the how is it conveyed? Typically in the old museums, its current issue. Very often (this can be found in any museum) quantity and range was not determined by the political objects that are secondary from the point of view of the fun- relevance of the current theme, but by how much mate- damental theme overshadow the primary target, as they rial could be collected around that current theme, and the are superficially more effective, thereby focusing the view- habits characteristic of old museums reveal that it was the er’s attention on secondary objects to the detriment of the quantity of collected materials that determined the range. entire exhibition. The same thing often occurs in antireligious museum as Themes are severely overloaded. This is a vice which we well. If the Sectarian Department has collected a large must struggle against. Quite often, having arrived at the quantity of material, their theme will fill half the museum museum, the viewer gets bored. Museums are in competi- regardless of the fact that sectarians are of less importance tion with each other over who can shove the most material than religion in general, while the other, more important onto a wall. The appreciation desired of the viewer will not be theme is displayed on just one small panel. At the end of achieved this way. Flashy objects attract the most attention, the day, what it comes down to is that the museum-lover followed by everything else being viewed “after the fact.” goes to an exhibition because of the material. What does Attempting to present fewer exhibitions gives more favor- this point to? Essentially, that the viewer arriving at the able results, and rightly so. Those who arrive for the tour will museum may miss what’s important, paying more atten- view the whole exhibition with the utmost attention. tion to the secondary part. The experience of curiosity at the Tolstoy Museum in How should material be distributed within the theme? Leningrad: they conduct this experience to its fullest there. On the surface, this question does not seem to present any Sometimes on a wall, very large in size, only one exhibit is great difficulty, but in fact it is one of the most fundamental displayed, and the excursionist will survey it with scrutiny. questions of the exhibition. How is material exhibited in any This smaller quantity of material expresses the idea pre- museum? There is a thematic banner mounted overhead, sented by the exhibition best of all. In many instances the while beneath that theme are mounted all the materials per- following conclusion may be drawn: it is possible to include a taining to the current theme. Occasionally a slogan may be large number of exhibits that convey the spirit of the chosen included. This concept was introduced at Peterhof and has theme. However, the material must be displayed in a way that produced significant results. elicits the greatest response. Every theme must have a thesis, and the material must be At the antireligious museum we overload the material revealed by this thesis, which ties in to the entire exhibition with photographs which are variations of one and the same and guides the viewer through the theme, orienting the viewer theme from different perspectives. Intriguing things happen

VI 560 the athiests’ museum 561 the question of exhibitions s. P. lebedyansky as a result. A photograph pertaining to a current theme is Typically, so that the theme can in some way be uniform, hung and when its timeliness fades away, new photographs materials that are either diagram, slogan, or schematically are hung, but the old ones are never removed and the result oriented are included. How is this material applied? Most is an overload. In certain instances it is necessary for there to times it is unsatisfactory. Every one of us has—we got this be less photographic material displayed, seeing as how it is from the old museums—held on to the idea that the sche- too congested in large quantities. matic, the diagram, and the cartogram are supplemental The fundamental and probably central shortcoming of materials in the museum that have no right to be equal to the exhibition is that the material grows stale. A museum is showpieces on display. This leads to our diagrams and sche- typically visited only one time—one can’t compel the visitor matics being made in a way that it is unpleasant to look to come for a second time. These are the responses: “I went at. This is a careless making of two-dimensional objects, to that museum, saw everything, it wasn’t interesting.” The and a place should be allocated for them the same as for viewer must be taught that with the changing concerns of supplemental materials. This is why a large part of the role the day, the exhibition changes, stepping aside for a new that they must play in explaining the exhibition is lost, even one to take its place. Whenever you want to find out any though it’s we who employ them for the purpose of provid- kind of news about the museum, you can drop by and get ing a materialist, Marxist explanation to a whole series of that news. Another colossal shortcoming is that material questions. The explanation falls away as a result, because we loses its political relevance. do not have a definite viewpoint on this material as material The problem of exhibition design deserves broad dis- of importance. cussion. It is the thorn in the side of all other museums too. It is the same with museum labels. The problem of What role should exhibit design play in the exhibition of museum labels in all the museums in Moscow is the loss of, materials? First of all, exhibition design typically conforms to put it simply, the slogan. This leads to the slogan being to being a kind of naturalistically decorative design. What understood, formally, in and of itself but not as an explana- does this result in? For one thing, all the distinctness of the tion of the object. Faced with this system of museum labeling, panel itself is lost. When you display an icon using select a person arriving at the museum gets confused, reads slo- exhibition design, what this leads to is that people come to gans, and views displayed showpieces like the objects at the pray. Such episodes occurred at the Cabin of Peter I. Once Kunstkamera, but the theme is not expressed in an integrated that icon is hung on a simple panel, it may bring out this sort way to him. Even if guidebook materials were provided, to of response in a believer. When elements of biting cartoon- make him follow a red line through the entire network of ish artistry and caricature are missing, in many instances museum labels, provided as more than just slogans—all this objects displayed in a museum can have a purely religious could never be applied and could never be applicable, and impact on the viewer. Churikovsky’s material was laid out rightly so. It’s necessary to direct your attention here to the simply in display cases and that brought on the sort of experience of Leningrad, via the accomplishments made at ecstasy that I just mentioned above. the Peterhof Museum, one of the best museums at organizing

VI 562 the athiests’ museum 563 the question of exhibitions s. P. lebedyansky materials. They applied themselves to reworking the system Here is the fundamental route that we are taking in regard of museum labels, and achieved favorable results. With orga- to exposing the church. It’s the kind of exhibition that must nizational ineptitude, material turns out to be the primary kill the church, show alien themes. Occasionally we include shortcoming of the exhibition, which we can observe in the whole chunks of the current cathedral in our exhibitions. I antireligious museums and which appear to have been inher- acknowledge that this is the primary route which the organi- ited from the old museum exhibitions. zation of the museum must follow. Now please allow for a shift to our findings on technique in Now, regarding the general principles of our exhibition. the exhibition. I’ll begin with a few words on the general prin- It is constructed on thematic principles so that the theme cipals of the exhibition as a whole. It may seem strange that will be clearly recognized and definitively concluded, and there is nothing about exhibition within a church in the the- the rather difficult task of organizing the cathedral is done sis. The reason for this is that we’re only just now organizing in a way that is designed to make it possible to mount any a museum in a church (in the former St. Isaac’s Cathedral), antireligious tour at the museum based on its themes and and naturally, while we have not yet tested all the methods of materials, while the Antireligious Combine provides an processing or “outplaying” the church, we cannot speak to opportunity to broadly establish antireligious work so that the general direction that the work must be pointed toward. each and every student may be shown the museum from dif- At the same time, I’ll try to sum this up in brief. ferent angles. It’s not necessary to discuss the principles of In our opinion, the fundamental goal of the antireligious Marxist construction. They are evident in and of themselves. museum within the church is to decanonize, to outplay the The fundamental goal is to direct the exhibition and dis- church. A big part that goes into building the museum- tributing materials according to place and theme. What fol- church is the introduction of material that does not cultivate lows is our fundamental criteria. Our principle is: the theme the pairing of church qua church. The exhibition that we cannot be overloaded with exhibits and priority should be bring into the church should relay the feeling that it is wholly given to exhibits that reveal the core of the theme. In regard antireligious. Secondly, icons and existing materials must be to secondary materials, however sad it may be (I’m a museum included in the exhibition, and we’re doing this. They must lover too, and sometimes it’s painful to throw things away), we be brought out into the light to show the much-needed piece have to go ahead and throw out secondary material. This is the which connects the exhibition to the cathedral. If we encoun- fundamental principle that must govern the entire exhibition. ter instances where both our theme and our material are The enormous advantage of thematic materials is that diverse and the segments do not tie in to our mutual plan for we have the ability to change the material during the the- the construction of the thematic museum, we focus on mak- matic exhibition. When we have a grand communal theme, ing the exhibition balanced without interrupting the theme. we display the material with precision, particularly within We must then utilize all in-house material for the purpose of each theme. The elements of rearrangement in the exhibi- exposing the current church, for the purpose of our begin- tion, along with contemporaneity, will become an inner part ning with a concrete cathedral that houses timely materials. of the exhibition.

VI 564 the athiests’ museum 565 the question of exhibitions s. P. lebedyansky

The principles of thematic exhibition are revealed fore- thesis that is presented not only through slogans linked in most in the successful delivery of the exhibition. The theme with the current theme, but materials explaining that theme may be in the form of a stationary exhibition, but it grabs as well, becomes a part of the systematic construction of the hold of the fundamental material—the essence of the current current theme. Secondary material: supplemental, allowing theme. When we display material about the history of reli- for the story behind the current theme to be told; and tertiary gion, we display the elements of production in the General material: allowing for the organization of its construction. Department, showing how it all came together. This provides The method of building a system of museum labels in such the economic base that it grew out of. The same applies to a manner produces favorable results. The principal guiding contemporary religion as well. Construction remains ongo- theme stands out sharply. ing, but the material may be changed daily. It is vital that What themes should be included in the composition of exhibit design is used totally for the purpose of accentu- the Antireligious Combine: it is impossible to permanently ating this material, and we’re accomplishing much in this decide this for every Combine, since it is necessary to take all regard. Secondary objects are excluded. Exhibition design regional material into consideration. For this reason, I, for accentuates slight objects which are interesting for our pur- instance, cannot recommend the plan for executing exhibi- poses and places them center stage. We proceed in this way, tions at the former St. Isaac’s Cathedral for other Combines. so that exhibition design remains a dutiful apparatus in our The question must be decided in every respective instance, hands. This method conforms to the design of departments. basing it, of course, on your respective installations. Departments with beautiful materials will reveal themselves to be exactly that, and we will apply exhibition design to departments that are lacking. On diagrams and cartograms: this material is just as important as any other material. The diagram schematic must be included in the conversation and should be just as aesthetically pleasing as all other exhibitions. The viewer must look at the diagram schematic in the same way that he looks at the exhibition—that is what we must strive for. We plan to introduce electrical lighting and maneuverable maps. The introduction of all these things will compel the viewer to look at the exhibition. The question of museum labels: the museum label must, in my opinion, be presented in three parts. If the thesis has been artistically realized, then it will be displayed as a whole of all its parts, including the theme. A

VI 566 the athiests’ museum 567 The Museum on the Frontlines of the War on Religion

Yuriy Kogan the museum on the frontlines Yuriy Kogan

First published in 1932 The October Revolution busted open the doors to acad- Translated by Bela Shayevich emies and museums for the working classes, where they may find great cultural treasures. These treasures, however, Alongside museums of the history of the Revolution, anti inherited from the era of slavery and exploitation, must be religious museums are the true children of October. contemplated with a critical eye by the working classes: they The OctoberR evolution wrested one-sixth of the planet need to be understood correctly in order to make sense of from the hands of the exploiters who “require filling two the exploitative way of life, particularly the class-exploitative social functions in order to defend their dominance: the role nature of religion. of the executioner and the role of the priest” (Lenin). “Our In the first few years after October, during the Civil Revolution … presented the greatest challenge to religious War and even while our economy was being established, thought, the greatest criticism of the religious worldview and museums fell behind other warriors on the cultural front. the societal forces that constrain religion” (Yaroslavsky). Museum collections were preserved, but it was very difficult After the October Revolution, the mass departure from reli- to reform the museums. Special antireligious museums did gion took off, and the antireligious movement keeps grow- not yet exist—neither in the big cities nor in the provinces. ing. Our battle to liberate the working class from religion The old central museums outright avoided antireligious is closely intertwined with our fight for socialism. “The war propaganda. However, the battle against museums under- against religion is the war for socialism.” This is the motto of mining antireligious propaganda was already underway; the millions-strong League of Militant Atheists. people fought against the perversion of Lenin’s party line in The League of Militant Atheists (LMA) fights religion in the realm of antireligious work. Militant atheists were and every way, using all possible approaches. Museum-related remain trailblazing activists in this battle. methods are an extremely powerful weapon in our arsenal. In the first few years of the organized antireligious move- At the Antireligious Museum, we use visual aids to dem- ment, antireligious museums were established without onstrate our principles, debunking the class-exploitative a plan, haphazardly. There were only a handful, and they essence of religion using archival materials, documents, were completely unsatisfactory in terms of their collections. photos, painting, sculpture, and so on. This can achieve great However, these first antireligious museums showed that results, especially amongst the religious and other catego- “visual aids” and the “museum method” were crucial for ries of working people for whom the exhibition of original antireligious propaganda. documents and artifacts debunking religion in a museum are The first antireligious museums were overall tainted often much more persuasive than even the most well-argued with amateurism. Most often, they featured materials from lecture. For this reason, from its very first efforts, the LMA Leningrad art reproduction workshops that focused on com- has set out to establish antireligious museums and strongly parative mythology and the ancient history of religion. There censure the failures that often occur in this area, especially were almost no exhibitions on the counterrevolutionary, in relation to so-called historical churches and monasteries. exploitative role of religion or the antireligious movement.

VI 570 the athiests’ museum 571 the museum on the frontlines Yuriy Kogan

To a certain extent, the exception was the museum exhi- organized in 1926 at the Military Engineering Academy in bition at the Central Soviet of the Society of the Friends of Moscow. This exhibition featured a large number of docu- the Atheist newspaper.1 This exhibition was organized in ments revealing the class significance of religion and was 1924 and shown to the delegates during the First Congress met with great success. Two years later, on the foundation of of the Union of Atheists. It closed when the Central Union the materials collected for the exhibition, the Antireligious of Atheists changed locations. Also of note is the Central Museum was opened in an ill-equipped basement space. Antireligious Museum in Leningrad, which opened at the To counter the aforementioned monastery museums end of 1924, which included displays on “The Church and and the several antireligious institutions infected with kul- the State,” and “Religion and Marxism.” turnichestvo,2 the Moscow Museum’s objective was to be an In 1925, a handful of museums in the provinces opened instrument for exposing the class-exploitative essence of antireligious galleries (for instance, the Bryansk Guberniia religion. The museum illustrated the relationship between Museum), and then, a year later, we saw the appearance of religious organizations and organs of the tsarist govern- small antireligious museums at the Groznensky Oil Field ment, the counterrevolutionary activities of religious orga- in Svedlovsk, the University of Minsk, as well as a handful nizations in 1905 in the reactionary years, and how these across several Soviet republics (Baku, Kokand, and others). organizations supported imperialist massacre; their resis- Alongside these generally auspicious beginnings, we also tance to the October Revolution; their relationship with the had to contend with clerical elements infiltrating museum White Guard. administrations. An intense class war was being waged on The basement space where the museum was located was the consolidating antireligious museum platform of the not conducive to the expansion of its activities. All efforts cultural front. Prominent examples of this occurred in the were made to find a different location, and finally, when, after monastery museums at the former Sergiev-Posad-Trinity great difficulty, the museum was granted use of a cathedral and Kiev-Pechersky monasteries. The next milestone in the church of the former Strastnoy Monastery, it took a great history of the construction of antireligious museums was the deal of work to reclaim this (incidentally ill-suited) space. The opening of the Central Antireligious Museum in Moscow. museum was completed in the beginning of 1929, and thus, The Central Antireligious Museum (CAM) of the League the anti-Easter campaign was inaugurated in the very center of Militant Atheists has only been open for four years. Its gen- of Moscow, in a former stronghold of the religious opiate, esis can be dated to the Church and the Revolution exhibition at the museum of atheism. Two months later, the museum in the former Strastnoy Monastery was graced by delegates 1. The Society of the Friends of theA theist newspaper (Obschestvo druzei gazety “Bezbozhnik” [ODGB]) was a committee of atheist from the Second All-Soviet Congress of Militant Atheists. activists involved with the Atheist newspaper, which formed in 1924. From November 1929 to November 1930, the museum saw The League of Atheists was formed at the First Congress of the ODGB, 234,716 visitors. in 1921. In 1929, at the Second Congress of the League of Atheists, it was renamed the League of Militant Atheists (Soyuz voinstvuyus- chikh bezbozhnikov [SVB]). —Trans. note 2. This term signifies apolitical cultural activity. —Trans. note

VI 572 the athiests’ museum 573 the museum on the frontlines Yuriy Kogan

It’s important to emphasize that during that time, the cover a far greater scope, not to mention its methodological organization of CAM exhibits was highly unsatisfactory. and pedagogical elements, which are currently very weak. The politically acute displays had the flaw of attacking CAM participates in public museum life, with various pub- Christianity (specifically and especially Russian Orthodox lic museum shows, is on the museum methods commis- Christianity), and not religion in general. On the other hand, sion of the Academic Sector of the People’s Commissariat the overall objective was to build a museum that adhered to for Education, the Central Bureau on Local History, and a rather constricted Marxist framework, and thus, to display other organizations. In the near future, the CAM is poised materials on social formations that would be interrelated to become a true all-Soviet and even international museum and demonstrated in their historical contexts. It was impor- center for proletariat atheism. tant to show how religion emerged in a pre-class society, how Over time, antireligious museum construction came to be it developed throughout the subsequent course of societal more plan-oriented, and started following the path for achiev- formation; its political role in a society transitioning from ing the objective of creating many antireligious museum loca- capitalism to socialism; and finally, how religion will die out tions around the country. The antireligious museum is not a in a socialist society. haphazard institution emerging from favorable conditions; Naturally, restructuring the museum presented a great it’s a powerful lever of our antireligious propaganda machine deal of difficulty. Today, as a result of the restructuring, CAM as important as the other forms and methods of battling reli- has an introductory section (“The Dialectic of Nature”), and gion that have gained currency concurrently. displays addressing religion in pre-class, slave-owning, feu- The turning point in the development of this plan for the dal, and capitalist societies, as well as societies transitioning antireligious museum inarguably came with the First All- from capitalism to socialism. It also features permanent exhi- Russian Museum Congress (December 1–6, 1930), which bitions on all Christian sects. called for the overall reconstruction of the entire museum The CAM’s redesign by no means signals that the complex of the cultural front with a view to socialist con- museum is complete; indeed, the new exhibits require fresh struction, and turning museums into “instruments of the processing. We have taken only the initial steps in this direc- cultural revolution.” tion in light of the fact that the objectives set out before CAM In his opening address, Comrade Bubnov declared that are too great compared to its capacity to achieve them over museum work “remained contaminated with significant ves- such a short period. tiges of backwardness, and [was] far from reaching the objec- In its few years of operation, the CAM has managed to tives in the struggle and construction of socialism relevant achieve substantial results, including conducting thou- today.” This was an irrefutably fair assessment of museums sands of organized tours, numerous traveling exhibitions in general and how museums approach antireligious pro- that are now prepared at a special exhibition workshop, paganda in particular. In most museums, the latter seems to and participating in street and park exhibitions. However, have stalled in its often-haphazard application, which, more this is not enough. CAM’s work with the masses needs to often than not, was abandoned. At the same time, the socialist

VI 574 the athiests’ museum 575 the museum on the frontlines Yuriy Kogan reeducation of the working masses, in which our museums Nonetheless, the First All-Russian Museum Congress has are called to play a prominent role, that is, the introduction led to the rising profile of the antireligious front. Antireligious of the materialist Marxist-Leninist worldview into their con- work in museums have become the subject of serious inquiry sciousness, is unthinkable without atheist propaganda. from the wider museum community. These successes should rich and varied materials were provided by the antire- not only be appreciated from the standpoint of the progress ligious panel of the congress, which worked in conjunction of antireligious propaganda: the expansion of antireligious with the League of Militant Atheists.3 The question of antire- activity in museums is one of the expressions of the museum ligious propaganda in local history museums inspired heated front turning toward the great construction of socialism. discussion. The argument centered on whether local history For the past three years, especially during the First All- museums should have discrete antireligious exhibitions or Russian Museum Congress, there has been an appreciable whether antireligious materials should be placed through- increase in the number of antireligious museums as well out their collections. Noting the tendency of the majority of as antireligious wings in local history museums. Across the local history museums to have scant antireligious materials RSFSR, there are nearly one hundred antireligious museum scattered throughout their exhibition, the panel concluded locations, although the exhibition quality in the majority of that in light of the meagerness of antireligious materials in them is rather pitiful. the provinces and the necessity of mobilizing the attention of In Moscow, in addition to the CAM, there’s the Anti the masses, turning it to the battle with religion, special antireligious Museum of Art (formerly the Donskoy Monastery), religious wings are needed in local history museums, which which breaks down the class essence of religion in art. Using does not, of course, preclude but rather further emphasizes materials found in the monastery, the museum presents an the necessity of adding antireligious elements throughout exhibition on Religion and War; the tombstones and memori- their permanent collections. In its conclusion, the panel als in the cemetery are incorporated into the Class Significance emphasized that antireligious exhibitions in local history of Burial exhibition. An incomparably less successful museum museums should provide in-depth examinations of the in Moscow is the Museum of the Emancipated Woman, where counterrevolutionary class role of religion. Unfortunately, the role of religion in the enslavement of working women and we must acknowledge that the recommendations set forth the struggle to liberate them from the opiate of religion are in this resolution have yet to be thoroughly implemented. among the topics explored. leningrad follows in Moscow’s footsteps in developing 3. The antireligious panel featured the following papers: its antireligious museums. Here we find the antireligious “Antireligious Work in Museums of Various Profiles,” “Antireligious Work in Historical Museums,” “On Antireligious Work in Art museum (LGAM) in the former St. Isaac’s Cathedral, and the Museums,” “Antireligious Work in Local History Museums,” “Methods broadly conceived Museums of the History of Religion and for Exhibiting Materials on the Origins of Religion” (“On Exhibitions Atheism currently under construction in the Kazan Cathedral. in Antireligious Museums”), and “Scholarly Research in Antireligious Museums” (See: “Papers from the First Museum Congress of the Incidentally, the LGAM’s collection includes the first Foucault’s RSFSR,” v. II). pendulum in the USSR, which is also the world’s largest.

VI 576 the athiests’ museum 577 the museum on the frontlines Yuriy Kogan

The class enemy, seeing the might of the antireligious means satisfactory: we see dozens of antireligious museums, propaganda in our museums, attempts to sabotage us. There when the number of centers of antireligious museum opera- have been acts of sabotage and agitation at the LGAM. tions should be in the hundreds and even thousands. Following the example of the large museums, smaller The majority of the progress made so far has been in the museums outside of major cities demonstrate an increasing realm of collecting the materials necessary for antireligious aptitude for adopting the correct political orientation, and museums and galleries. This is of course of great importance, their “toothless,” often apolitical4 museums are steadily trans- but today, it is overshadowed by the tasks of significantly forming into true centers for militant atheism. Of course, intensifying our antireligious activity and raising it to a high we will endure many pitfalls here yet, but there have still ideological level. been some successes. In particular, it bears mentioning the On the eve of the second Five-Year Plan, our country Bryansk Antireligious Museum, which has been around for must triumph over the remains of capitalism in the con- several years. It has seven galleries and five thousand artifacts; sciousness of our people. This historical goal lends a special it has organized twenty-four mobile exhibitions and outfitted importance to antireligious propaganda, which must go an antireligious museum unit in a train car. This location sees deeper and reach the largest possible number of religious a widespread development of socialist competition, orga- working people; it must become more convincing. The nizes a great deal of community service works, and facilitates museum as a locus for antireligious activity will allow it to scholarly research. The Central Museum in Tatarstan is also meet all of these objectives and for this reason, it demands the site of notable ongoing antireligious activity. to be a higher priority. The opposite can be seen in, for instance, in the Volga In the coming years, we aim to expand antireligious region, in the Urals, in the Ivanovsk Oblast. Inspections have work in museums, build antireligious museums or galleries revealed thoroughly inadequate paces of construction and in every region and every city, and fill every museum with reconstruction of antireligious museums and departments antireligious information throughout its galleries, first and in those areas. Local materials are not being used, exhibi- foremost, at local history museums. tions are far from politically acute, efforts to work with the The second decisive element is cadres. The antireligious masses are weak, and no attention is paid to the techniques museum workforce suffers from an almost complete lack of of exhibition. The situation with funding and staff is pathetic, personnel. They would need to be prepared and educated on the administration in the center has not been a stable entity, a broad range of subjects, and fast. Today, there are no quali- and regional museums are completely divorced from munici- fied antireligious museum workers to serve even the special- pal ones. Finally, there is no dialogue—the examples of the ized antireligious museums, not to mention the local history work of our finest antireligious museums are not reaching museums. Meanwhile, antireligious work needs to be raised these regions. The network of antireligious museums is by no to a higher level: the network of antireligious museums needs to be expanded—which means that we must first make con- 4. Another reference to kulturnichestvo—Trans. note siderable advances in the direction of training personnel.

VI 578 the athiests’ museum 579 the museum on the frontlines

The recently held Second All-Soviet Conference on Antireligious Work of the League of Militant Atheists outlined Antireligious Work at the practicable pathways in this direction, namely: creating train- Kliment Timiryazev Biomuseum: ing and education facilities at CAM, LGAM, and the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism; holding correspon- Supplementary Report dence courses; and creating methodical and educational textbooks for antireligious museum work, among other things. We have made little progress in developing the methods for curating antireligious exhibitions. Here, we find a lot of amateurism and no set guidelines. The research work necessary for resolving certain theoretical issues connected to antireligious propaganda in museums must take its rightful place in the corresponding institutions as well as becoming a part of the absolutely crucial research institute for methods and means of antireligious propaganda. The successful development of our museum-exhibition work is closely related to the expansion of the research work of the League of Militant Atheists. The task lies in studying local materials, studying the enemy, and studying the process of the emancipation of the workers from religion. This work must involve low-level local history organizations and follow through on arrangements made between the Central Bureau of Local History and the LMA. It’s critical to mobilize the forces of Soviet art so that our antireligious museums can be filled with artistically powerful artifacts to take the place of innumerable photos. Finally, the Central Antireligious Museum must become the true administrative center for all antireligious museum activity. The CAM needs to be provided with the best possible conditions for making the development of its work possible in the future. Following these paths, we will ensure that our museums, first and foremost the antireligious ones, will become powerful weapons in the battle against religion and for socialism. Vorontsovsky

VI 580 antireligious work vorontsovsky

First published in 1931 Additionally, there are all kinds of examples of predatory Translated by Ainsley Morse behavior, parasitism, and so on. In this way the organization of antireligious subsections within existing sections supple- The work of the Kliment Timiryazev Biomuseum can serve as ments and intensifies antireligious work. an example of how our comrades from further-flung regions Moreover, entire sections can be organized around an can work with science museums in their own areas, toward antireligious core. The Timiryazev Biomuseum has a sec- the end of using them in antireligious work. tion of physiological demonstrations focused around the We think that exhibits and topics not expressly con- topic “Does man have a soul?” We would like to use this sec- structed around an antireligious core can also be useful tion as an example of how museums are bound not only to from an antireligious angle. We believe that any scientific demonstrate finalized conclusions, but also the methods position proceeding from general biological foundations, of scientific study themselves, the methods used in labora- even the purely educational, nevertheless offers a great deal tory experiments. Demonstrations of individual organs and of material insofar as it replaces the nonscientific religious experiments on living animals are performed in this section, worldview with a purely scientific, dialectical-materialist and all of the labeling, indeed the whole stance of the section, worldview. Thus such general biological topics as the origin is of a purely antireligious character. of man and animals, variability, and inheritance can also be We believe that the material in science museums should made use of from an antireligious angle and supported as be necessarily used for all kinds of courses, seminars, politi- such by appropriate labeling. Truth be told, not every begin- cal education work, and teachers’ retraining courses, courses ning museum guide will know what to do with material not for workers and for workers promoted to administrative previously established as antireligious in nature, and for this work. These courses are held at biomuseums using this sci- reason labeling developed by comrades more experienced in entific material. The Timiryazev Biomuseum has been doing antireligious work will serve to direct them. this work for six years already, and the courses we hold for Further, we believe that each of the museum’s main sec- rural reading-room managers, political education workers, tions should contain subsections of a specifically antireligious and pedagogues have been tremendously fruitful, because bent. For instance, under the general education topic “The we maintain our connection with them afterward as well. Environment and the Organism” there could be a subsec- The fruitfulness of our work is even evident in the fact that tion, “Does Everything in Nature Have a Meaning?” or “The small museums are being organized in far-flung areas; these Meaningless and the Imperfect in Nature.” The Timiryazev museums constantly have dealings with us and make use of Biomuseum has just such a subsection, which features a our guidance. Furthermore, we believe that museums’ mate- collection of every imaginable example of deformity in the rials should be brought out into workers’ clubs, kolkhozi, world of man and animals, every imaginable case of inex- into parks, public gardens, onto boulevards, public squares, pedience, by which we mean non-correspondence between and so forth. I can point to what we are currently organiz- the functions of the animal and the conditions of existence. ing at two major workers’ enterprises, the Aviakhim factory

VI 582 the athiests’ museum 583 antireligious work vorontsovsky and the brake equipment factory, where there are con- is for the most part inserted into the lectures themselves. stantly changing mobile exhibitions on the following topics: We endeavor to display experiments, slides, and a whole “Science and Religion,” “The Origin of Man and Animals,” selection of exhibits that we borrow from the museum, as and “Does Man Have a Soul?” They are exhibited in workers’ we have extra specimens for this purpose. Our lectures are clubs and always accompanied by museum guides, who not a huge success. We have been told directly that all it takes only provide explanations but also conduct guided tours. We is to bring a single little frog and use it to demonstrate a organized the same kind of work in the Park of Culture and few experiments in relation to the slackening of its neuro- Leisure, and the carrying capacity of the scientific pavilion muscular apparatus, that this will most likely guarantee the there is tens of times higher than the number of visitors that success of the lecture—the audience is that hungry for the come through our museum. use of visual methods and for factual material. Leading up Science museums should also represent themselves in to the anti-Christmas campaign, we start getting orders for printed matter: the publication of small brochures, perhaps lecturers a month and a half in advance. illustrated with fresh new photographs from the muse- Further, we wish to indicate that our fundamental work ums’ exhibits; the publication of small-format antireligious with scientific material should nevertheless not be self-con- albums based around a drawn photographic image with tained. Our aim is not only to develop the materialist world- additional text, which is tremendously useful for low-level view but also to reveal the class-based essence of religion audiences; and so on. After this follows the publication of using this material, and this should be dominant. I offer the photographs of various wall diagrams, which we are in the following examples. Take the question: “Does man have a process of doing right now. Several brochure series under soul?” We endeavor through a whole series of experiments to the heading “The Brain and the Soul” and “The Structure and show the material basis of life processes and to show, at the Work of the Body” were taken from our museum’s exhibi- beginning and the end of the lecture, whether man has a soul tion materials. Thus the printed representation of biological from the class point of view, in order to show that belief in the museums’ scientific materials should be tremendously var- soul has been used in fashioning a tool of oppression. ied and extensive. All of the antireligious work in biological and scientific museums should, of course, be conducted in close contact with social organizations. In this sense we are connected to the central and regional Soviets of the Militant Atheists Union; we meet their specifications in the form of guest lectures and the like. I mean that the Biomuseum not only puts on mobile exhibitions in workers’ auditoriums, but also lectures, and our lectures differ from those of other organizations in that the museum’s method of demonstration

VI 584 the athiests’ museum 585 Church Painting and its History as an Object of Antireligious Propaganda

Ivan Skulenko church painting and its history ivan skulenko

First published in 1932 of thousands of industrial and kolkhoz workers. Sometimes Translated by Ainsley Morse these monasteries and churches are many centuries old and thus in and of themselves represent great cultural-historical Amid the general successes of socialist construction, the pro- value, which we are bound to protect—not for the sake of cess of cultural revolution is unfolding in our country at an the churches themselves, but for the usefulness that we can unprecedented rate. The victorious proletariat of one-sixth of extract from them in reeducating the laboring masses in the Earth is not only refashioning the economy in a socialist Marxism-Leninism and thus atheism. direction, but also retuning their worldview in terms of the With its many and varied churches and “shrines,” Kiev1 materialist dialectic, of Marxism-Leninism, educating the was a center for Russian Orthodoxy and autocracy, not only laboring masses in the spirit of class hatred and uncompro- of the area once known as the southwestern territory, but for mising resistance to the oppressors. “Everywhere and at all the entire Russian Empire. Because of this, the ecclesiasti- times, every manifestation of religion was the ruling classes’ cal and secular authorities paid particular attention to Kiev most powerful and versatile tool of oppression and enslave- when building and outfitting churches and “holy places.” On ment of the laborers, ever affirming faith in the ‘divine’ origin the other hand, the presence of a great quantity of churches, of the oppressors” (Lenin). monasteries, and various “holy places” in Kiev makes for In exposing the class nature of religion and the church, an extremely favorable atmosphere for antireligious propa- antireligious propaganda naturally constitutes a power- ganda, with the necessary condition that these monuments ful factor in the cultural revolution. Thus the task of the be used comprehensively in the light of the materialist dia- antireligious propagandist is to seize absolutely all avail- lectic and Marxism-Leninism. able opportunities and the slightest occasions for antireli- We have yet made little use of church painting—or, more gious propaganda work. In particular, religious painting in precisely, we have made no use of it—in antireligious propa- churches offers incredibly rich material for antireligious pro- ganda. Meanwhile, in Kiev the All-Ukrainian museum com- paganda. The oppressors saw in church painting a powerful plex is housed in a former monastery (the Kiev-Pechersk means of influencing the laboring masses, and for this reason Lavra), and the All-Ukrainian antireligious museum is everyone—from the shabbiest local priest to the “autocrat”— housed in the former Vladimir Cathedral.2 In 1931 these worked to develop and support the necessary artworks, pay- museums were visited by around 300,000 sightseers. All ing particular attention to the selection of artists as well. of them in one way or another encountered and viewed the The October Revolution declared a great number of churches’ paintings. Our task is to expose the class essence churches and monasteries of the former Russian Empire cul- and history of religious art, to lay bare its foundations, and tural-historical preserves; many of them are now museums, mostly antireligious, and many are used as institutions of 1. Now more commonly written as “Kyiv.” Here and elsewhere I use the standard “Russian-English” spelling for Ukrainian place-names to cultural education. Antireligious museums housed in former reflect the time the article was written—Trans. note monasteries and churches are already visited by hundreds 2. Now known as the Volodymyr Cathedral—Trans. note

VI 588 the athiests’ museum 589 church painting and its history ivan skulenko we are commencing by taking as our main object the former with great thoroughness, but “prior to being transferred Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and Vladimir Cathedral, the paintings to the walls, the sketches and cartoons of all images had to of which were made nearly at the same time. be presented for the inspection and approval of the Lavra When examining church art, one must first and foremost Ecclesiastical Council and its holy archimandrite.”4 attend to the way in which its project was developed and As a result of such strict control over the artists, Savenko confirmed. At a session of the Ecclesiastical Council of the (quoted above) declared: “This is icon-painting, not mere Kiev-Pechersk Lavra held on May 22, 1893, it was resolved to painting” (20). But it would be naive to think that these are “replace the main church’s existing paintings with new ones just icons. After all, before installing the new frescoes, the old better suited to church traditions, in particular, paintings in ones had to be destroyed, and this caused some serious diffi- the style of tenth- to twelfth-century Byzantium, according to culties for the Lavra. The fact of the matter is that voices were the plans of Bishop Sergii of Umansk.” The plan for these new raised in the press—if not the most decisive—on the part of paintings was confirmed by the Metropolitan of Kiev and the nationalist-inclined Ukrainian intelligentsia, favoring Galicia Joanicius, and subsequently by the Synod; later the the preservation of the old paintings in light of their histori- project was examined and confirmed by the imperial archae- cal significance. ological commission and finally, on May 14, 1894, it was pre- TheL avra mobilized its ecclesiastical and secular scrib- sented for the “most high” examination of Tsar Alexander blers and, backed by the authorities, got out of its difficulties III. The latter scribbled by hand on the project: “Approved. I by proving “scientifically” that the old paintings were “of no hope they won’t get too fanciful.” This resolution of the tsar historical significance” and that they moreover needed to be would be the primary guidance for the church’s new fres- completely destroyed rather than just painted over; toward coes. That is, what was painted on the church’s walls had to this end they referred to the need for a total architectural correspond to what the Lavra administration saw fit, and renovation of the main church building. there was to be no fantasizing. The Lavra typography would We will not go into the details of the artistic value of later print a brochure declaring: “The Kiev-Pechersk Lavra the old paintings here, but we can say definitely that these understood these sovereign words to mean that its new wall- paintings date from the eighteenth century and doubtless paintings should hold strictly to church traditions and not presented historical interest as a monument of that era. The deviate in the direction of new-fangled trends in contempo- churchmen themselves did not deny this fact, saying that rary religious painting, avoiding the realism and individualism the “Lavra images … present a certain historical interest.”5 of contemporary secular art.” 3 Consequently, in destroying these paintings in order to And indeed, it is difficult to find any realism or individual- accommodate religious and great-power interests, the monks ism in these paintings, for not only were the artists selected 4. Ibid., 15. 5. Izvestiia Tserkovno-arkheologicheskogo obshchestva pri Kievskoi 3. A. I. Savenko, Velikaia tserkov Kievo-Pecherskaya lavra (The great dukhovnoi akademii (Proceedings of the Church-archaeological Kiev-Pechersk Lavra) (Kiev, 1901), 20. Italics added—Trans. note Society of the Kiev Theological Academy) (1886).

VI 590 the athiests’ museum 591 church painting and its history ivan skulenko committed an act that can only be called vandalism, once on the Vladimir Cathedral frescoes was drawing to a close, again proving the enmity of religion toward culture. In order and the contractor who had been in charge of the project— to repel the attacks mentioned above, the Lavra arranged A. V. Prakhov—offered his services to the Lavra, including matters entirely “scientifically,” assigning a special commis- the whole team of artists who had worked on the cathe- sion (composed exclusively of priests, of course) to assess the dral. But the Lavra declined his offer, informing the con- old paintings. In the commission’s report we learn the reason tractor: “You think we want Vasnetsov to paint us angels why the Lavra could not reconcile itself to the old paintings, drawn from streetwalkers, like in the Vladimir Cathedral!” as well as the reason the paintings were defended by some of An offer from Brusnikov was also declined; the academic the Ukrainian nationalists. First and foremost: “The remains painting expert Vasiliev refused to work for the Lavra for of the eighteenth-century paintings strongly demonstrate the some reason; and then they settled on V. P. Vereshchagin, stamp of the art of the previous century with its predominant because the “name of Professor V. P. Vereshchagin can serve features of the late Renaissance, the so-called Baroque”; “This as adequate guarantee that the paintings will be carried out is one of the most glaring and undesirable traces of the Latin entirely conscientiously.” What the churchmen understood influence on the great Orthodox shrine of Kiev.”6 Further in as “conscientious” we will see later on, but for now let us the report we read: “Four rows of non-sacred images of vari- have a look at how generously the church remunerated its ous people”—there follows a list of every imaginable prince servants for “conscientious work.” of Polish-Lithuanian origin and, finally, the very worst: “on According to his contract, Vereshchagin committed to the same side, an image of the Little Russian leader, presum- painting 280 images of saints, for which the Lavra would pay ably Hetman Mazepa … A Little Russian leader in typical him “more than 200,000 rubles.” In addition, Vereshchagin Southern Russian national costume.”7 Here is why the Lavra painted two icons separately: Deposition of the Most Holy could no longer tolerate the presence of these paintings in the Theotokos and Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the church and why, on the other hand, the Ukrainian national- Temple, for which he received an additional 10,000 rubles. ists insisted on their preservation. Carvings were done by academician Fartusov, who received When the necessity of destroying the old paintings “more than 40,000 rubles.” Vereshchagin also had ten assis- had been proved in this way and the new project had been tants, led by Popov. And yet, despite all of Vereshchagin’s approved, the selection of artists began. At this time work “trustworthiness” and the close supervision of the Lavra administration, there arose a concern that the artists might 6. Akt komissii (Commission report) / Trudy Kievskoi dukhovnoi paint “something untoward,” and for this reason a special akademii (Proceedings on the Kiev Theological Academy) (1899), III. 7. “Little Russia” was an imperial-era synonym for Ukraine. Hetman consultant was called in. For his “work,” the Lavra paid Mazepa (Ivan Stepanovich) was a military and political leader active the consultant, academician Lazarev-Stanishchev, 20,000 in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Ukraine. Because rubles. All told, the Lavra paid around 400,000 rubles for its of his controversial politics and affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church, the Russian Orthodox Church laid an anathema on Mazepa new paintings, which meanwhile constituted less than half of in the early eighteenth century that is still in place today—Trans. note the sum squeezed annually out of its pilgrims and donors.

VI 592 the athiests’ museum 593 church painting and its history ivan skulenko

However, despite the meticulous selection of the artists, Those “simple” people needed their paintings to be more the approval process of the new paintings (once again, by simple and stern so that, during sermons on the universal a selectively composed commission) involved a number equality of all before God, the art did not give rise to con- of misunderstandings. Three members of the commis- fusion over what was seen on the walls of the church; and sion—Archimandrite Nikolaev and the artists Seleznev so that its earthly sensuality and beauty not distract the pil- and Pimonenko—signed a separate report in which they grims from the heavenly and otherworldly, for declared that “the new paintings are largely monotonous and there is a significant lack of variety in the depiction of individual sensual beauty is not always appropri- the saints.” The Lavra had to wage war yet again in order ate in houses of God, where the overall atmosphere to save the new paintings, since the Kiev Newspaper wrote should incline the pilgrim to an elevated and prayer- openly: “the paintings are so bad they need to be completely ful mood and at the very least not sway his attention redone.” But the Lavra had arguments and people capable in the direction of sensual, corporeal beauty.10 of standing up for its interests. Professor Petrov of the Kiev Theological Academy wrote: “The Kiev-Pechersk Lavra fears Petrov goes on to reassure any doubters with historical the artistic individuality, trueness to type and expression examples, and relates how one artist working on the frescoes required by Professor Vereshchagin’s artists’ report, and its at the Novgorod Cathedral “depicted Archdeacon Stefan in fears are not unfounded.”8 a sketch as a fat, squat village deacon with a red meaty nose, At this point the Vladimir Cathedral enters the scene, swinging his censer far too freely”; thus with its paintings that many considered better than those of the Lavra; this is what Petrov was hinting at with “fears one should keep strictly to church traditions and not unfounded.” But even earlier than Petrov, Ertel—presi- not deviate in the direction of new-fangled, some- dent of the Kiev Insurance Society and an independent cor- times sharply tendentious trends in contemporary respondent of the Kiev Theological Academy (there’s some religious painting that are capable of disturbing the real pluralism!)—wrote: religious feeling of the pilgrims.11

and we declare that in the future this great church, As we can see, particular fervor was devoted to defending the though it may not dazzle the eye with the extrava- religious feeling of the simple pilgrims, whom the clergy were gance and effects of the newly opened cathedral of St. ready to tear away entirely from all things earthly, real, and Vladimir, will nevertheless be a temple comprehen- beautiful (such as give pleasure to others) and to carry over sible to the people, as a church should be.9 into the next world.

8. N. I. Petrov, in Trudy Kievskoi dukhovnoi akademii (Proceedings on the Kiev Theological Academy) (1901), 11. 10. N. I. Petrov, ibid., 12–13. 9. A. D. Ertel, ibid., 527. 11. Ibid., 12.

VI 594 the athiests’ museum 595 church painting and its history ivan skulenko

The wall paintings of the greatL avra church, designed quality and vividness, with a noticeably realist tendency, for the simple people, must have a strictly religious provoked a whole series of attacks on the artists from the character or at the very least avoid tempting contact Lavra and its stooges at the Kiev Theological Academy. This with real, living beauty and every imaginable affecta- circumstance cannot, however, be seen as stemming from tion and preciosity.12 the ill-will of artists who wished to play a dirty trick on the priesthood. On the contrary, these paintings are entirely But that’s not all. The Lavra paintings were also intended to reactionary and executed highly artistically, affirming play a certain missionary-like role among the sectarians. It mysticism and the priesthood even more than the Lavra’s wasn’t enough for the Lavra that its monks worked as mis- paintings. The art of the late nineteenth century is reflected sionaries in every corner of the globe; it also needed to make here in high relief, entirely mystical and decadent, reflect- church paintings that would ing the terror and confusion of part of the intelligentsia and bourgeoisie in the face of the burgeoning revolution- not offend or disturb the religious feeling of our so- ary movement of the workers. The Vladimir Cathedral fres- called Old Believers and not turn still further from coes, like no other church paintings, reflect Great Russian the church our new iconoclast-Shtundists, who reject chauvinism and great-power tendencies, as well as a striving sensual, realist depictions of God and his saints. toward portrait-like realist depictions of imperial-princely saints, doused in the romance of Old Russia—and the Lavra Here we see the full range of demands made of church paint- attacked the artists for all this as well. ing, designed to dupe the pilgrim and deaden the class The idea of building a cathedral in Kiev in honor of Prince sense of the working man. These demands were developed Vladimir had emerged in the mid-nineteenth century dur- together by the ruling heights of both the secular and theo- ing the reign of Nicholas I, who decided for some reason logical authorities. that he and Prince Vladimir had a lot in common, and was The paintings in the Vladimir Cathedral represent no thus greatly in favor of the idea. But the contractors build- less gratifying material for antireligious propaganda than ing the cathedral were so greedy with regard to the materials the paintings in the Lavra. Much higher in artistic signifi- of God’s house (and so fearless of God’s punishment) that cance, the former paintings were from beginning (that is, when the cathedral had been nearly erected, it immediately from the selection of artists) to end directed toward a single began to fall down. Renovating and fortifying the new build- goal: to put the visitor into a mystical mood and to cultivate ing involved a great deal of nuisance and it was finished only his sense of “sovereignty and Orthodoxy.” And the fact that at the end of the nineteenth century. Immediately after the the Vladimir Cathedral paintings are of very high artistic architectural part was finished, representatives of the Kiev Theological Academy began hanging around the cathe-

12. Trudy Kievskoi dukhovnoi akademii (Proceedings on the Kiev dral with their plans for the wall-paintings. But they were Theological Academy) (1901), 14. all outwitted by A. V. Prakhov, professor of the Petersburg

VI 596 the athiests’ museum 597 church painting and its history ivan skulenko

Imperial Academy of the Arts, who received the contract for expression, was not allowed to participate; when he painted the Vladimir Cathedral frescoes. He was responsible for mak- The Second Day of Creation (1898) on the right-hand plafond, ing the plans and selecting the artists and general manage- Svedomsky even repainted the entire plafond. This clearly ment, in return for 10 percent of the total sum to be spent on shows how carefully the churchmen selected the artists they the cathedral’s paintings and decorations. needed; and still they faced accusations that inadequate Prakhov himself, a very religious man who believed in mir- attention had been paid to the question of artist selection. acles, began looking for artists who were also “sincere” believ- Both the Lavra and the Kiev Theological Academy pilloried ers. And he was thoroughly lucky. In a letter to the Umansk Prakhov for the fact that he included artists “of non-Russian bishop dated October 30, 1882, he wrote obsequiously: origin,” which in the opinion of the monks had led to misunderstandings like the resemblance between “angels” and I hurry to inform you with particular pleasure that “streetwalkers.” Professor Petrov wrote unequivocally: Fate, it seems, wishes to smile upon the endeavor to which you were so kind as to invite me as well. In pass- the question of to what extent individual themes in ing through Moscow I managed to see a few of our best the Vladimir Cathedral paintings correspond to the artists, and two of them agreed to participate in the iconographic traditions of the Byzantine and Russian work on the Vladimir Cathedral frescoes. The first of Orthodox churches was predetermined by the selec- them, V. M. Vasnetsov, is a man with brilliant gifts, and tion of the four main artists slated to work on the furthermore, as is so important in this case, deeply project, i.e. Vasnetsov, Nesterov, Svedomsky, and Russian gifts, and, finally, asincerely religious man … Kotarbinsky, nearly none of whom, with the possible But in addition to Vasnetsov I also got the assent of exception of Nesterov, had previously worked on Surikov, who participated in painting the frescoes in church paintings; Svedomsky and Kotarbinsky were the Church of Christ the Savior in Moscow.13 not only entirely unschooled in religious painting but had had no Russian art education at all. To judge by We don’t know why Surikov, the artist mentioned by his name (Wilhelm), Kotarbinsky belongs to those Prakhov, did not participate in work on the Vladimir paint- non-Orthodox Christians about whom was once ings, but instead of him Prakhov got the extraordinarily written: “icons such as have been wrought of infidel sugary mystic artist Nesterov. Besides Vasnetsov and hands, shall not be accepted, and sacred icons into Nesterov, the Vladimir Cathedral frescoes were painted by infidel hands not passed; it does not do for Orthodox Kotarbinsky, Svedomsky, and many other artists. Vrubel, Christians to accept icon images from infidel foreign who in the context of his religious-mystical work also dem- Romans and Armenians.”14 onstrated a certain striving toward some kind of demonic 14. The quote within Petrov’s quote comes from Old Church Slavonic 13. Prakhov’s italics—I.S. theological writings—Trans. note

VI 598 the athiests’ museum 599 church painting and its history ivan skulenko

This statement blatantly hammers in the Great-Russian And a complete scandal: “In the icons on the iconostasis, chauvinism fostered by the church and its stooges since time many of the saints have been given artificial poses, and some immemorial. It is curious that despite following different of their faces are portraits or likenesses of individuals still paths, the ignorant part of the clergymen grouped around walking among us today.”17 the Lavra and the Kiev Theological Academy (for the most Nesterov was singled out for particular criticism, since part, the regular clergy) and the educated (so-called) part of despite his religiosity and practice he had mixed up the the secular priesthood or the religiously inclined intelligen- Mother of God with an ordinary woman. In the right-hand tsia, nevertheless arrived at a shared goal and quickly made gallery of the iconostasis, Nesterov painted a “Birth of peace with one another. Christ” icon, “in which the Virgin is presented with a suf- The Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, drowning in gold and luxury, fering and pained expression like that of ordinary birthing with its million-ruble annual income gouged out of its pil- mothers, which contradicts the Orthodox Church’s teach- grims (most of them of the “simple folk”), saw the way to ing on the innocence and painlessness of the Virgin’s birth- ongoing peaceful existence in distracting the masses of “sim- ing of Christ.”18 How could Nesterov have dared to present ple folk” (i.e. the laborers) away from all earthly and real mat- a Virgin who could even slightly recall an ordinary woman? ters and directing them to seek comfort in the world beyond The defamation of Nesterov for this ill-fated Virgin took on the grave. It thus made its devotional art unchangingly such grandiose dimensions that there were even discussions monotonous, grey, and colorless. Meanwhile, the Vladimir of the icon being repainted. Cathedral used art to develop in those same masses a sense Soon, when the formal artistic features of the Vladimir of devotion to all things Russian and evoked great-power Cathedral paintings had been properly appreciated, all of the patriotism through the use of secular motifs in the paintings, attacks ceased—as if they had never been. And at bottom for which it was criticized by the Lavra. “Secular motifs in there was nothing to argue about. After all, none of those religious painting can be noted even in such a talented and who had reproached the Vladimir Cathedral paintings had deeply religious artist as is certainly Vasnetsov.”15 recalled the fact that Nicholas I, during whose reign dis- Another question that troubled the Lavra monastic cussions of the building of a cathedral in honor of Prince community was realism and a portrait-like quality in the Vladimir had begun, had for some reason seen in Vladimir depiction of saints: “thus, for example, in Svedomsky’s his predecessor; consequently, the Vladimir Cathedral was to Resurrection of Lazarus we observe a woman wearing a have been a monument less to Prince Vladimir (whom no one nearly present-day Serbian costume”; “In their Last Supper really remembered) than to Russian autocracy, which most Svedomsky and Kotarbinsky … have depicted the savior in a certainly existed at that time. This circumstance left its mark distinctly indecent way.”16 in the selection of saints to be depicted in the paintings; let us

15. Trudy Kievskoi dukhovnoi akademii (Proceedings on the Kiev Theological Academy) (1899), 318. 17. Ibid., 318. 16. Ibid., 318. 18. Ibid., 319.

VI 600 the athiests’ museum 601 church painting and its history ivan skulenko note that no objections were raised against the selection. The in their enslavement and oppression of the laborers. Every saints painted on the walls of the Vladimir Cathedral include church and every monastery has doubtless preserved docu- the following: four tsars, two tsarinas, thirteen princes, six ments relating to its paintings and frescoes, and these must princesses, ten metropolitans, twelve bishops, one merchant, be used to demonstrate through concrete, documentary facts and thirty-one monks. how the church and political authorities, working together For this reason, when during the years of reaction in closely, developed the methods and devices of religious influ- Kiev (in 1907) a place was sought to keep the Union of the ence over the laborers. Archangel Michael gonfalon, it was the Vladimir Cathedral At the present stage of the antireligious movement, that agreed to house it. One year prior, a Black Hundreds words will convince but few. The masses of industrial and demonstration began from the Vladimir Cathedral—and kolkhoz workers demand from antireligious workers var- ended in a Jewish pogrom.19 This was also the starting point ied and convincing arguments that reveal the class essence for a patriotic demonstration accompanying deputies to the of religion and the church. In this case, church paintings Second State Duma, exulting in the fact that eleven of Kiev’s represent exceptionally gratifying material for the anti fourteen deputies were priests. Thanks to all these quali- religious worker. ties, the Vladimir Cathedral became Kiev’s center for Black Hundreds and pogrom participants, great-Russian chauvin- ists, and monarchists. Thus we have briefly sorted out the history of two churches’ religious paintings and frescoes. As the exploiters’ most effective means of influencing the feelings of religious people, these paintings were supposed to act as a tool for the oppression of the laboring masses. By revealing the class roots of religious painting, the methods and aims of its production, we will force it to speak the language of atheism and to serve the task of the reeducation of the laboring masses on a socialist basis. We should avoid general statements about these paintings being indisputably and significantly useful to the exploiters

19. The “Black Hundreds” encompasses a number of Russian nationalist-chauvinist monarchist groups (the Union of the Archangel Michael was one) devoted to the ideas of national purity and autocracy. Known also for anti-Semitism and incitement to pogroms, these groups experienced a heyday in the decade-plus between the 1905 and 1917 revolutions—Trans. note

VI 602 the athiests’ museum 603 Authors’ Biographies Authors’ Biographies Authors’ Biographies

David Efimovich Arkin (1899–1957) was an art critic Makovetz group of avant-garde artists (1921–1927). He was and art historian. Arkin taught at the Moscow Architecture a follower of the philosophy of Nikolai Fedorov and shared Institute, and advocated for progressive aesthetic and techni- Fedorov’s idea of the universal resurrection and the moral cal principles within the art and culture of his time. He was perfection of human beings through art, which was reflected the author of a number of books on fine art, architecture, in his works. and sculpture. Leonid Osipovich Chetyrkin (?–1942) was a journal- Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev (1857–1927) ist who graduated from the All-Union Communist Institute was a neuropathist, psychiatrist, psychologist, and morphol- of Journalism at the Central Executive Committee of the ogist of the nervous system, as well as a pioneer of reflexol- USSR. He later worked for the art publishing house known ogy. In 1908 he founded the Neuropsychiatric Institute in St. as Iskusstvo. Petersburg. Bekhterev devised the idea of a “pantheon of the brain,” a scientific institution where visitors could view the Nikolai Mikhailovich Druzhinin (1886–1986) was a preserved brains of talented and outstanding Soviet people. historian, museum specialist, and a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. After the revolution of 1917, he orga- Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Bogdanov (1873– nized educational work within the central state organs. From 1928) was a revolutionary activist, Bolshevik, philosopher, 1924 to 1934 he worked at the Museum of the Revolution of sociologist, economist, writer, and naturalist who was actively the USSR as a research secretary, and then was put in charge engaged in medicine and research activities. He was one of of the exhibition department, where he created vivid and the ideologists and leaders of Proletkult (Proletarian Cultural memorable exhibitions on the history of the revolutionary and Educational Organization). Additionally, Bogdanov was movement. Druzhinin was an author of, among others, a num- the founder and director of the world’s first Institute of Blood ber of theoretical papers on museum work and museology. Transfusion (1926). His 1908 novel Red Star depicted one of the first science-fiction socialist utopias. Nikolai Fedorovich Fedorov (1829–1903) was a thinker, an advocate of Russian religious philosophy, and a pro- Osip Maksimovich Brik (1888–1945) was a writer, lit- ponent of Russian cosmism. From 1874 to 1898 he worked at erary critic, and a founding member of the Society for the the library of the Rumyantsev Museum in Moscow. He formed Study of Poetic Language (OPOJAZ). He was as well a mem- the philosophical doctrine of the “common task,” which ber of LEF—Left Front of the Arts—a group of artists and implied universal resurrection and immortality. The museum left-wing ideologues of Russian avant-garde art. Brik worked was to be the platform for this doctrine. His philosophical in the visual department of the People’s Commissariat for ideas are most fully reflected in his articles “The Museum, Its Education, which was responsible for art education through- Meaning and Mission” and “Exhibition of 1889.” Fedorov par- out the Russian Soviet Republic and for the purchase of new ticipated in the organization of a regional museum in Voronezh works of art for museums. He participated in the First All- (founded in 1894), where he initiated and actively participated Russian Conference on Museums in 1919, where he delivered in the preparation of a series of experimental exhibitions. a lecture on “The Museum and Proletarian Culture.” Aleksey Aleksandrovich Fedorov-Davydov Vasiliy Nikolaevich Chekrygin (1897–1922) was an (1900–1969) was a Soviet art historian, museum worker, artist, painter, graphic designer, and one of the founders of the and art consultant for the General Directorate of scientific,

Avant-garde museology 606 A–F 607 Authors’ Biographies Authors’ Biographies

scientific-artistic, and museum institutions of the People’s V. Karmilov (probably V. I. Karmilov) was a physicist and Commissariat for Education. From 1929 to 1934, he headed the dean from 1933 to 1934 of the Physics and Mathematics the department of new Russian art at the State Tretyakov Department at the Perm State University. Gallery in Moscow, where he was one of the creators of the Experimental Complex Marxist Exhibition; later, he was criti- V. Karpov—biography unknown—was a contributor to cized for a “vulgar sociological approach to art,” which forced Soviet Museum. him to leave his job. His museological works are mainly related to the development of the principles of museum construction Valentin Borisovich Kholtsov (1889–1942) was a and the organization of exhibitions. He participated in the First staff member at the Russian State Museum in Leningrad. He All-Russian Museum Congress in 1930, and was the author of worked on historical collections within the institution, which numerous exhibition reviews and pieces of criticism. in 1941 were transferred to the Hermitage Museum. Together with M. Z. Krutikov, Kholstov developed concepts for exhibi- Pavel Aleksandrovich Florensky (1882–1937) tion projects. In the mid-1930s, he also worked at the Museum was a theologian, mathematician, physicist, art historian, and of the Revolution in Leningrad. museum worker. In 1911 he entered the ministry and from 1912 to 1917 he was the main editor of the Theological Journal. P. N. Khrapov was a staff member of the State Biological From 1917 to 1919 he was the keeper of the sacristy of the Museum in Moscow, which was named after the botanist and Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and was a member of the commission physiologist Kliment Timiryazev. for the protection of monuments of art and antiquities of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. He was an active participant in discus- Yuriy Yakovlevich Kogan was a prominent specialist in sions around rethinking the role of art. He taught “Analysis the field of the history of religion who worked for the Central of Space in Fine Art Pieces” at VHUTEMAS (The Higher Antireligious Museum in Moscow in the 1920s. He partici- Art and Technical Studios), where he worked together with pated in the activities of the Union of Militant Atheists and many avant-garde artists like Kazimir Malevich, Aleksandr was the author of numerous scientific works. Rodchenko, Vasily Kandinsky, and El Lissitzky, among others. Florensky conducted museological research related to Natalya Nikalayevna Kovalenskaya (1892– the problem of the preservation and museumification of 1969) was an art critic and historian of Russian art. In the Orthodox cultural and historical heritage. He was persecuted 1920s, Kovalenskaya developed a basic methodology for in the USSR and died in exile. museum work with A. V. Bakushinskiy. From 1929 to 1935, Kovalenskaya worked at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Roza Frumkina was an officer of the People’s Commissariat Moscow, where under the leadership of Aleksey Fedorov- for Education, an assistant to Nadezhda Krupskaya, and her Davydov she worked on the Experimental Complex Marxist co-reporter at the First All-Russian Museum Congress in 1930. Exhibition. From 1942 to 1955, Kovalenskaya was a profes- Frumkina was a member of the editorial board of the journal sor at the State Moscow University. She was also the author of Soviet Museum launched in 1931. several works on the history of Russian art.

M. S. Ilkovsky—biography unknown—was a contributor to Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya (1869– the journal Soviet Museum. 1939) was a revolutionary, a Party and state leader, and the wife of Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin). From 1917 Krupskaya was

Avant-garde museology 608 F–K 609 Authors’ Biographies Authors’ Biographies

a member of the People’s Commissariat for Education. From October Revolution Malevich held several leadership posi- 1929 she served as Deputy People’s Commissar for Education tions in various cultural commissions and institutions. From of the RSFSR (The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist 1923 to 1926 he was the director of the Institute of Artistic Republic). Krupskaya participated in the First All-Russian Culture. From 1932 to 1933 he headed the experimental Museum Congress in 1930, where she delivered a report. laboratory at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. In From 1931 Krupskaya was an honorary member of the USSR addition to his well-known paintings, set design, and other Academy of Sciences and from 1936 onward she was a Doctor graphic works, Malevich was the author of several texts of Education. on philosophy and art theory, including his 1919 On New Systems of Art. S. P. Lebedyansky participated in the First All-Russian Museum Congress of 1930, where he delivered a report on Nikolai Pavlovich Peterson (1844–1919) was a exhibitions in antireligious museums. Lebedyansky’s report is teacher, a follower, and promoter of Nikolai Fedorov’s teach- based on his experience organizing the Antireligious Combine ings, as well as an editor and publisher (with V. A. Kozhevnikov) in Leningrad. of Fedorov’s posthumous collection of works. Peterson first met Nikolai Fedorov in 1864 in the town of Bogorodsk, and A. F. Levitsky—biography unknown—was a contributor to became interested in his ideas. As a result, Peterson became Soviet Museum. his assistant and co-author. In 1866 Peterson was involved in the investigation as a former active member of a revolution- Vera Romanovna Leykina (Leykina-Svirskaya) (1901– ary group and sentenced to eight months in prison. Due to 1993) was a historian and a specialist in source studies. She his acquaintance with Peterson, Nikolai Fedorov was also worked for the State Museum of the Revolution in Leningrad, arrested for a brief period. where she headed the Department of the Civil War. Leykina was an author of numerous scientific publications on the his- Andrey Platonovich Platonov (1899–1951) was a tory of the revolutionary movement in Russia. prominent fiction writer and playwright. In his early work he was closely aligned with the Proletkult (Proletarian Cultural Ivan Kapitonovich Luppol (1896–1943) was a histo- and Educational Organization), and worked as an engineer rian of philosophy, and from 1939, an academic at the USSR in the town of Voronezh, where he lived. In the late Twenties Academy of Sciences. He was in charge of the science sector and early Thirties, Platonov wrote the most significant fiction at the People’s Commissariat for Education of RSFSR (The works of the era: the novels Chevengur and The Foundation Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic), and played a Pit. Platonov was persecuted in Soviet Russia and much of his major role in the preparation and administration of the First All- work, including these two novels, remained unpublished until Russian Museum Congress in 1930. He was also the managing the second half of 1980s. editor of the journal Soviet Museum. In 1941 he was repressed by the regime and was only rehabilitated posthumously. Nikolai Nikolaevich Punin (1888–1953) was an art historian, art critic, professor, and museum worker. Punin was Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (1878–1935) was close to avant-garde circles, and from 1918 to 1919 he worked a prominent avant-garde artist. In 1916 he founded the in the Department of Fine Arts of the People’s Commissariat Suprematist art group, and in 1920, he formed the UNOVIS for Education, where he became one of the founding mem- (Affirmers of New Art) student group in Vitebsk. After the bers of The Art of the Commune newspaper. From 1913 to 1934

Avant-garde museology 610 L–P 611 Authors’ Biographies Authors’ Biographies

he was a staff member at the Russian Museum in Leningrad. Many of his museum colleagues were sent to various prison Punin was married to the poet Anna Akhmatova from 1923 camps, where some were executed. to 1938. I. F. Sheremet—biography unknown—was a staff member Aleksandr Mikhailovich Rodchenko (1891– at the Agricultural Museum in Kiev. 1956) was a prominent avant-garde artist, photographer, graphic designer, and set designer, and a representative of Andrey Vasilyevich Shestakov (1877–1941) was a Constructivist and Productivist art. From 1918 to 1922 he historian, a member of the revolutionary movement, and a worked in the Department of Fine Arts of Narkompross, where corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences he headed the Museum Bureau and was a member of the artis- (1939). A teacher and the author of the main elementary tic board. From 1921 to 1922 was the head of the Museum of school textbook on the history of the Soviet Union, he was Painting Culture. In the Twenties and Thirties, he taught at also one of the organizers of the Society of Marxist Historians. VHUTEMAS (Higher Art and Technical Studios) and at the Shestakov was the Deputy Director for Science from 1930 to Institute of Artistic Culture. In 1925, he designed the Soviet 1935 and then the Director of the Museum of the Revolution section at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts and of the USSR in Moscow. Industry in Paris, for which he received a silver medal. He was a member of various art groups, including the LEF group. N. A. Schneerson (1881–1937) was a museum worker Rodchenko was one of the founders of Soviet advertising. and administrator. He was the director of a pilot Local History Museum of the Moscow Region, established in the former Nikolai Aleksandrovich Rybnikov (1880–1961) Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery in Istra, near Moscow. was a scientist and psychologist, and a corresponding mem- This museum was an experimental platform for Soviet exhibi- ber of the USSR Academy of Sciences. From 1912 until the tions in local regional museums. He participated in the First end of his life he worked at the Institute of Psychology at All-Russian Museum Congress in 1930, and was an active con- Moscow State University (now the Institute of Psychology, tributor to the journal Soviet Museum, as well as a member of Russian Academy of Education). One of his fields of interest its editorial board. and research was pedagogical psychology. He developed the biographical method in psychology. Ivan Mikhailovich Skulenko (1901–1990) was a museum worker and a guide at the Ukrainian State Historical Yuri Aleksandrovich Samarin (in original text Reserve, opened in 1926 in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. From spelled as O. A. Samarin) (1904–?) was a researcher in the 1934 to 1937, he was the first Director of the Sofia Reserve, Slavic-Lithuanian Department at the State Central Museum which consisted of the Cathedral of St. Sofia and the adjacent of Ethnology in Moscow. He studied folk art, particularly eighteenth-century monastery in Kiev (now the National the art of pottery, and was a participant in various scientific Reserve “Sophia of Kiev”). expeditions. He was the author of several articles and the book Podolsk potters, published by the State Central Museum K. I. Vorobyov participated in the First All-Russian of Ethnology in 1929. Beginning in the late Twenties, a wave Museum Congress of 1930, where he delivered a report out- of arrests, and in some cases executions targeted museum lining his vision for the creation of socialist factory museums workers due to state charges of “anti-Soviet agitation.” In that would directly involve workers and students of the factory 1935, Samarin was fired for “ideological and political reasons.” schools in museum work.

Avant-garde museology 612 R–V 613 Authors’ Biographies

Vorontsovsky participated in the First All-Russian Museum Congress of 1930, where he delivered a report on the antireligious work of the Kliment Timiryazev Biomuseum in Moscow. Voronstovsky was probably a staff member there, and his report describes the museum’s alignment with the Militant Atheists Union.

Boris Mikhailovich Zavadovsky (1895–1951) was a biologist, museum worker, and a theorist of museum administration. He was the founder of the Kliment Timiryazev Biomuseum in Moscow, where he served as director from its inception in 1922 to 1948. Zavadovsky was one of the organizers of the First All-Russian Museum Congress. He engaged in museological research related to the design of a new typology for biology museums.

I. M. Zykov—biography unknown—was a contributor to Soviet Museum. Notes on the Original Publications

Avant-garde museology 614 Notes on the Original Publications Notes on the Original Publications

1. 2. Art of the Commune newspaper Association of Print Artists journal

Malevich, Kazimir. “On The Museum,”A rt of the Commune Bogdanov, Aleksandr. “Red Star,” Association of Print Artists no. 12, February 23, 1919, 2. (St. Petersburg: Art Print Partnership, 1908): 70–74.

Punin, Nikolai. “On the Results of the Museum Conference,” Art of the Commune no. 12, February 23, 1919, 1. 3. Chevengur On June 21, 1918, Kazimir Malevich, Vladimir Tatlin, and sculptor Boris Korolyov were elected to be a part of the Platonov, Andrey. “The Revolution Memorial Reservation” museum committee of the art board of the Narkompros from Chevengur, in Friendship of Peoples no. 3 (1988): Department of Fine Arts. It was a unique moment when repre- 133–138. sentatives of the artistic avant-garde became government offi- Platonov wrote the novel Chevengur between 1926 and cials. In February 1919, Kazimir Malevich participated in the 1928, which in its first manuscript form was called “The First Fine Arts Department Conference about museum work Builders of Spring” (1927). The final text was sent to Georgy in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), where it was decided to Litvin-Molotov, the chief editor of the Young Guard publish- establish a Museum for Painting Culture. Kazimir Malevich’s ing house, and on September 18, 1929 the novel was also article “On the Museum,” written from a futuristic and nihil- separately sent via post to Maxim Gorky. The latter, despite istic position, was associated with this conference, and it was liking the work, expressed serious doubts about the publica- first published in the daily newspaperA rt of the Commune. The tion prospects of the book, which in fact was to remain unpub- newspaper was published in Petrograd by the Department of lished in its entirety during Platonov’s lifetime. Fine Arts Commissariat of Education from December 1918 In 1928 the Moscow-based journal Red Virgin Soil pub- until April 1919, and served as the organ of the Petrograd lished excerpts titled “The Origin of the Master” and “The Futurists. Its editorial board included Osip Brik, Nikolai Descendant of a Fisherman.” The next year, the journal New Punin, and Nathan Altman, and until March 1919 Vladimir World published an excerpt called “Adventure.” On October 6, Mayakovsky was closely associated with the newspaper. In 1971 a fragment of the novel titled “Traveling with an Open its nineteen issues, the periodical vigorously attacked the art Heart” was published in The Literary Newspaper, and in of the past, which was declared to be bourgeois. The publica- the same year, the journal Kuban published another frag- tion took issue with Proletkult (the Proletarian Cultural and ment titled “Kopenkin’s Death.” In 1972, a French transla- Educational Organization which arose in conjunction with the tion of the full novel titled Les herbes folles de Tchevengour Russian Revolution of 1917) and proclaimed futurism to be (Chevengur’s weeds) was published in Paris. An Italian trans- the only direction for proletarian art. lation published the same year titled Villaggio della nuova vita (The village of new life) received high praise from Pier Paolo Pasolini. The first complete publication of the novel was released in London in 1978. In the USSR the publication of the novel was only possible during perestroika years; thus in 1988 Friendship of Peoples journal published the full novel over two

Avant-garde museology 616 617 Notes on the Original Publications Notes on the Original Publications

issues. The excerpt in this volume appeared on pages 133–138 5. in the third issue. N. F. Fedorov: Collected Works in Four Volumes

4. Fedorov, Nikolai. “The Art of Resemblance (of False Artistic Don newspaper Regeneration) and the Art of Reality (Real Resurrection),” N. F. Fedorov: Collected Works in Four Volumes, vol. 2 (Moscow: Fedorov, Nikolai and Nikolai Peterson. “The Catherine the Tradition, 1995), 230–231. Great Exhibition at the Voronezh Provincial Museum,” Don, no. 132, November 21, 1896. Cited in N. F. Fedorov: Collected Works in Four Volumes, vol. 3 (Moscow: Tradition, 1997), 6. 158–161. N. F. Fedorov: Pro et Contra

Fedorov, Nikolai. “The Voronezh Museum in 1998,” Don, no. Chekrygin, Vasiliy. “On the Cathedral of the Resurrecting 64, June 14, 1898. Cited in N. F. Fedorov: Collected Works in Museum,” N. F. Fedorov: Pro et Contra, vol. 2, eds. A. G. Four Volumes, vol. 3, (Moscow: Tradition, 1997), 177–184. Gacheva, S. G. Semenova (St. Petersburg: Russian Way, Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy, 2008), 450–482. Don was a Voronezh-based economic, juridical, and literary newspaper, running from 1868 until 1915. Don is one of the The anthologyN . F. Fedorov: Pro et Contra was published in oldest provincial newspapers, and its mission was to function 2008 in commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the birth as a mediator between the capital and the czarist empire’s and the hundredth anniversary of the death of Fedorov. The provinces as well as promote local interests. The daily periodi- second volume contains the original publication of Vasiliy cal was aimed at the industrial and agricultural bourgeoisie. Chekrygin’s text “On the Cathedral of the Resurrecting Issues like agricultural trade, industrial development, the Museum,” written in 1921 on Fedorov’s relationship with growth of private and public credit, roads, and Zemstvo meet- contemporaries such as Leo Tolstoy and Vladimir Solovyov. It ings and councils were discussed in its pages. The paper almost also introduces previously unpublished materials on Fyodor never commented on the most important social and political Dostoyevsky’s acquaintance with Fedorov and the latter’s events in Russia, like the revolutions of 1905 and 1907, or the criticism of Nietzsche’s philosophy. First World War, and usually confined itself to reprinting the official government statements on those matters. 7. See also note 14: The Philosophy of the Common Task: Articles, The First All-Russian Conference Thoughts, and Letters of Nikolai Fedorov on Museums, 1919

Brik, Osip. “The Museum and Proletarian Culture: Speech at the Meeting of the First All-Russian Conference on Museums” archival material stored at the Department of Written Sources of the State History Museum, part of a shorthand report of the First All-Russian Conference on

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Museums, typed text with hand corrections by an unidenti- 8. fied person, 1919, 4 – 61. The First All-Russian Museum Congress, 1930 Cited in Museological Thought in Russia in the Eighteenth– Twentieth Centuries: Collection of Documents and Materials, Arkin, David. “On a Museum of Industry and Art,” Reports collective of authors, ed. Eleonora Shulepova (Moscow: from the First All-Russia Museum Congress, ed. I. K. Luppol, Eterna, 2010), 471–73. vol. II (Moscow: Uchgiz, 1931), 148–155.

The First All-Russian Conference on Museums was held on Fedorov-Davydov, Aleksey. “Permanent Collections of Fine February 11–17, 1919 in Petrograd. The People’s Commissar Art Museums: Joint Report,” Reports from the First All-Russian of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky, prominent scientists, Museum Congress, ed. I. K. Luppol, vol. I (Moscow: Uchgiz, museum figures, art critics, and artists were in attendance. 1931), 75–82. It was deemed necessary to create a program for museum development in the new historical conditions brought by the Lebedyansky, S. P. “The Question of Exhibitions in October revolution of 1917. Urgent measures were taken to Antireligious Museums,” Reports from the First All-Russian protect and preserve the cultural heritage of the country, and Museum Congress, ed. I. K. Luppol, vol. II (Moscow: Uchgiz, to unite the efforts of the scientific and artistic intelligentsia in 1931), 123–128. the implementation of this program. Some continuity in the issues debated can be traced back to the Preliminary Congress Luppol, Ivan. “Dialectical Materialism and the Construction for the First All-Russian Conference on Museums in 1912. The of the Museum,” Reports from the First All-Russian Museum conference brought together all existing museums into a single Congress, ed. I. K. Luppol, vol. I (Moscow: Uchgiz, 1931), network, focusing the institution on scientific research and on 25–40. broader public outreach in relation to the cultural heritage in the various collections. Reports by Alexander Miller, Igor Shestakov, Andrey. “Marxism-Leninism in Exhibitions in the Grabar, Osip Brik, and Nikolai Romanov reflect the views of Museums of Revolution,” Reports from the First All-Russian different groups the government sought to attract in the pro- Museum Congress, ed. I. K. Luppol, vol. I (Moscow: Uchgiz, cess of institution building. 1931), 69–75.

—Adapted from Museological Thought in Russia in the Vorobyov, K. I. “Museums in Industrial Enterprises,” Reports Eighteenth–Twentieth Centuries: Collection of Documents from the First All-Russian Museum Congress, ed. I. K. Luppol, and Materials, collective of authors, ed. Eleonora Shulepova vol. II (Moscow: Uchgiz, 1931), 48–52. (Moscow: Eterna, 2010). Vorontsovsky, “Antireligious Work at the Kliment Timiryazev Biomuseum: Supplementary Report,” Reports from the First All-Russian Museum Congress, ed. I. K. Luppol, vol. II (Moscow: Uchgiz, 1931), 111–113.

Zavadovsky, Boris. “Marxist Exhibition Methods for Natural Science Museums,” Reports from the First All-Russian Museum

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Congress, ed. I. K. Luppol, vol. I (Moscow: Uchgiz, 1931), This movement implied a creative, reconciling, spiritual 40–55. approach based on the continuity of cultural tradition that was expressed in the name of the group. The name was taken The First All-Russian Museum Congress secured emerg- from Makovetz hill, on which the Trinity-Sergius Lavra stood ing theoretical trends of the Twenties for museology. The in the town of Sergyev-Posad, and where Pavel Florensky lived Congress took place December 1–5, 1930 in Moscow. Three- during most of his lifetime. hundred twenty-five delegates from a variety of institutions The founders of the group were Vasiliy Chekrygin and and disciplines attended, including the People’s Commissar Pyotr Bromirsky. In 1922 the journal Makovetz was created, for Education of the RSFSR (TheR ussian Soviet Federative edited by the poet Aleksey Chernyshev. The first issue of the Socialist Republic) Andrei Bubnov, and the Deputy of People’s journal contained Pavel Florensky’s text “The Church Ritual Commissar for Education Nadezhda Krupskaya. Also in atten- as a Synthesis of Arts,” as well as poems and texts by Boris dance were museum workers (mainly museum directors), Pasternak, Konstantine Bolshakov, and Velimir Khlebnikov, representatives of the national education system, university among others. Only two issues of the journal were published, professors, and employees of academic research institutes. as the third issue was stopped due to censorship in 1923. The The congress marked a new stage of museum history in the journal ceased to exist, and the Makovetz art group fell apart USSR, which lasted until the late Eighties. in 1926.

9. 11. Izvestia newspaper The Museum Bureau

Bekhterev, Vladimir. “On the Creation of a Pantheon in the Rodchenko, Aleksandr. “On the Museum Bureau,” Aleksandr USSR: A Proposal,” Izvestia no. 137, June 19, 1927, 5. Rodchenko: Opyty dlia budushchego (Moscow: Grant, 1996), 98–102. Izvestia (“news” or “reports”) is one of the oldest Soviet and Russian sociopolitical and business daily newspapers; it has Between 1918 and 1921 Aleksandr Rodchenko worked in the been in print since March 1917. During the Soviet era, it was Department of Fine Arts of the People’s Commissariat, and an official organ of the governing bodies of Soviet power, and was the head of the Museum Bureau. The Museum Bureau in particular the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. opened in 1918, and aimed to theoretically develop questions of museum building and amass an art collection large enough to organize several Museums of Painting Culture in 10. the USSR. A procurement commission of six people was cre- Makovetz journal ated for that purpose, including Robert Falk, Vasily Kandinsky, and Aleksandr Rodchenko. At their first session the commis- Florensky, Pavel. “The Church Ritual as a Synthesis of Arts,” sion decided to found a Museum of Painting Culture first in Makovetz no. 1 (Moscow, 1922): 28–32. Moscow, then in Petrograd, followed by other cities across the USSR. From 1918 to 1920 about two thousand paintings by In 1921 a new organization of artists, the Union of Poets and Kazimir Malevich, Marc Chagall, Vasily Kandinsky, Nathan Artists, was created in Moscow, renamed Makovetz in 1922. Altman, El Lissitzky, and others were purchased, worth nearly

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twenty-seven million rubles (at that time). The general price 13. of four thousand rubles per painting was established, and in OGIZ—IZOGIZ many cases artists were personally invited for the sale. During a one-year period from 1919 until 1920, the Museum Bureau Chetyrkin, Leonid. “The Diversity of Forms of Amateur Art,” established thirty new museums in twenty-seven different [alternatively titled “Avalanche Exhibitions: The Experience cities across the USSR including Vitebsk, Samara, Penza, of the Leningrad Organization of Worker Artists”] Worker- Voronezh with a total of 1,211 artworks distributed to these Artists (Moscow, Leningrad: OGIZ—IZOGIZ, 1933), 29. newly organized museums. In early 1922 the Museum Bureau was closed due to the economic difficulties and famine in the IZOGIZ (State Art Book and Journal publisher) was created country. Many of the artworks that were sent to the provincial in July 1930 by the order of the Central Committee of the museums deteriorated in the museum’s cellars or were burned. Communist Party of the Soviet Union as a part of OGIZ (the Association of State Book and Journal Publishers). IZOGIZ published monographs, textbooks, and fine arts manuals, 12. some of which were based on the work of the USSR Academy Museums and Places of Interest of Arts. in Moscow

Zgur, V. V., ed., “The Museum for Painting Culture at 14. Rozhdestvenka Street, 11” from Museums and Places of The Philosophy of the Common Interest in Moscow, (Moscow: Moscow Municipal Economy Task: Articles, Thoughts, and Letters Printing House, 1926), 82–85. of Nikolai Fedorov

The Museum of Painting Culture was founded in Moscow Fedorov, Nikolai. “The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission,” in 1919 by the order of the Department of Fine Arts of the The Philosophy of the Common Task: Articles, Thoughts, and People’s Commissariat of RSFSR as both an exhibition Letters of Nikolai Fedorov, vol. 2., eds. V. Kozhevnikov and and educational museum of modern art. Its purpose was N. Peterson (Verniy [now Alma-Ata], 1906; Moscow: A. to exhibit developments in painting, as well as to acquaint Snegireva’s Printing House, 1913), 398–473. Cited in Nikolai the masses with modern art. The museum was headed by Fedorov, N. F. Fedorov: Collected Works in Four Volumes, vol. 2 Vasily Kandinsky (1919–1920), Aleksandr Rodchenko (Moscow: Tradition, 1995), 370–422. (1921–1922), and its collection contained works by Kazimir Malevich, Vladimir Tatlin, Luybov Popova, Pablo Picasso, and Fedorov wrote “The Museum, Its Meaning and Mission” André Derain, among others. Similar museums were opened during the mid-1880s, but the text was not published as in Petrograd, Smolensk, Penza, Ufa, Vitebsk, Orenburg, and such within his lifetime. The Philosophy of the Common Task: Ryazan. Initially, exhibitions were installed not by the paint- Articles, Thoughts, and Letters of Nikolai Fedorov was origi- ing schools represented, but rather based on the principle of nally published only after Fedorov’s death, in the town of contrast between forms and painting techniques. In 1923, Verniy (now Alma-Ata) in 1906 in an edition of 480 copies, there was an attempt to create a new type of museum: the each marked “not for sale.” Part of this edition was sent to museum-laboratory. In 1923–1924, the museum was reorga- major libraries and scientific societies in Russia, and anyone nized into a branch of the State Tretyakov Gallery. could order a free copy. It was later reprinted in Moscow in

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1913 at A. Snegireva’s Printing House. Fedorov was remem- 16. bered by his contemporaries as a shy and private person, who Soviet Museum journal would speak and write anonymously or using an alias. During his lifetime, Fedorov was a pacifist who advocated for knowl- Druzhinin, Nikolai. “Class Struggle as an Exhibit at the edge and education in the public domain, and fought against Museums of the Revolution,” Soviet Museum no. 1 (1931): copyright laws. All of the reasons above didn’t allow him to 32–49. publish a systematic edition of all his writings during his lifetime; the full publication of all of his writing was released only Frumkina, Roza. “Museum as a Weapon of Class Struggle: in the 1990s. Here and Abroad,” Soviet Museum no. 1 (1934): 42–45.

Ilkovsky, M. S. “Bringing The Agitprop-Truck to the Service of 15. Cultural Construction,” Soviet Museum no. 3 (1932); 85–88. Rybnikov’s Biographical Institute Karmilov, V. I. “The Astronomical Observatory at the Perm Rybnikov, Nikolai. “Materials on the Biographical Institute,” Regional Museum,” Soviet Museum no. 4, (1935): 80–81. Biographies and Their Study (Moscow, 1920), 3–47. Karpov, V. “The Museum Newspaper: Suggestions for Rybnikov, Nikolai. “Example of an Autobiography,” Workers’ Regional Museums and Community Centers,” Soviet Museum Autobiographies and Their Study (Moscow: State Publishing no. 5 (1931): 89–91. House, 1930), 58–59. Kholtsov, Valentin. “Everyday Life of the Working Class Nikolai Rybnikov only received a primary education, and sub- from 1900 to 1930 Exhibition: History and Everyday Life sequently studied high school courses on his own. He began Department of the State Russian Museum” Soviet Museum working in psychology at the age of twenty-seven, as an assis- no. 3 (1931): 45–53. tant to Georgy Chelpanov, who established the first psychology laboratory at Moscow University in 1907. Khrapov, P. N. “Museum in the Street,” Soviet Museum no. 4 In 1918 Rybnikov began to work closely on one of the (1931): 40–47. themes that interested him most, the biographical method and its application in psychology. In 1920, Rybnikov’s book Kogan, Yuriy. “Museums on the Frontlines of the War on Materials on the Biographical Institute was published, and in Religion,” Soviet Museum no. 6, (1932): 46–51. 1923, a collection of articles he edited titled The Contemporary Child were also released. In 1926 Rybnikov published several Kovalenskaya, Natalya. “An Experiment in Marxist Exhibition- books such as The Professional Choice and a School, Child’s Making at the Tretyakov State Gallery,” Soviet Museum no. 1 Language, The Interests of a Contemporary School Pupil and (1931): 50–59. Children’s Drawings and Their Studies. In 1930 he published three more books titled Peasant Child, An Example of an Krupskaya, Nadezhda. “Lenin’s Attitude Toward Museums,” Autobiography, and Memory, Its Psychology and Pedagogy. Soviet Museum no. 1 (1931): 5–6.

Levitsky, A. F. “An Exhibition and Panorama of the Moscow

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Crematorium,” Soviet Museum no. 5 (1931):116–117.

Leykina, Vera. “A New Exhibition at the Leningrad Museum of the Revolution,” Soviet Museum no. 6 (1931): 33–40.

Samarin, Yuri. “The Experience of Developing Mobile Exhibitions,” Soviet Museum no. 2 (1931): 61–69.

Sheremet, I. F. “The Mobile Model of the Instructive Laboratory Hut and Its Operation,” Soviet Museum no. 5 (1935): 89–91.

Shneerson, N. A. “A Museum Exhibition or a Theatrical Performance?” Soviet Museum no. 4 (1932): 25–30.

Skulenko, Ivan. “Church Painting and Its History as an Object of Antireligious Propaganda,” Soviet Museum no. 2 (1932): 57–64.

Zykov, I. M. “On the Question of the Principles of Exhibition: Central Park of Culture and Leisure Exhibitions,” Soviet Museum no. 4 (1932): 31–40.

The Soviet Museum journal was an outcome of the First All- Russian Museum Congress in 1930. It was a scientific journal, and functioned as the major periodical in the field of museology. The first issue came out in 1931. From 1931 until 1940, the journal was published by Narkompros (People’s Commissariat for Education), first as a part of Science Sector department (1931–1933), then as a part of the Department of Museums (1933–1938), and subsequently as a part of the Local History Museums Department (1938–1940). Its publication was interrupted from 1940 until 1983. In 1993, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the journal was renamed The Museum World, and has since been in circulation in Russia.

Avant-garde museology 628 Colophon

Avant-Garde Museology “The Museum of Art” from Aleksandr Arseny Zhilyaev, Editor Bogdanov, Red Star: The First Bolshevik Utopia, Loren R. Graham and Richard ISBN 978-0-8166-9919-3 Stites, eds., trans. Charles Rougle (Bloomington: Indiana University e-flux Classics Press, 1984), 74–81. Reprinted by permission of Indiana University Press. Published by e-flux All rights reserved. www.e-flux.com [email protected] “The Church Ritual as a Synthesis of the Arts” from Pavel Florensky, Beyond Distributed by the Vision: Essays on the Perception of Art, University of Minnesota Press ed. Nicoletta Misler, trans. Wendy 111 Third Avenue South, Salmond (London: Reaktion Books, Suite 290 2002), 101–11. Reprinted by permis- Minneapolis, MN 55401 sion of Reaktion Books. All rights www.upress.umn.edu reserved.

Published in collaboration with “On the Museum” from Kazimir V-A-C Foundation, Malevich, Essays on Art 1915–1913, vol. 16, ed. Troels Andersen, trans. Xenia Glowacki-Prus and Arnold McMillin and with support from Kadist (New York: George Wittenborn, 1971), Art Foundation. 68–72. Reprinted by permission of Wittenborn Art Books, San Francisco. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2015 e-flux, Inc. “The Revolution Memorial Reservation” from Andrey Platonov, All rights reserved, including the right Chevengur, © the Estate of Andrey of reproduction in whole or in part in Platonov. Translation © 2015 Robert any form. Chandler. All rights reserved.

Every reasonable effort has been made “On the Museum Bureau” from to obtain permission to use the copy- Aleksandr Rodchenko: Experiments righted material that appears in this for the Future, Diaries, Essays, Letters, volume. If any rights holder feels that and Other Writings, ed. Alexander copyrighted material has been used in N. Lavretiev, trans. Jamey Gambrell error, please contact e-flux journal and (New York: The Museum of Modern we will endeavor to rectify the situa- Art, 2004), 115–118. Reprinted by tion in future editions of this book. permission of Jamey Gambrell. All rights reserved. Colophon

Series Editors Julieta Aranda Brian Kuan Wood Anton Vidokle

Managing Editors Kaye Cain-Nielsen Mariana Silva

Copyediting and Proofreading Michael Andrews Jennifer Piejko

Design Jeff Ramsey

Editorial Assistant Denis Stolyarov

Translation, Consultation, and Research Daria Irincheeva Alexander Izvekov Anastasia Skoybedo

Arseny Zhilyaev would like to heartily thank everyone listed above and also the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics, Katerina Chuchalina, Annet Sundieva, and Ivan Kostin for their valuable support and advice.