Transnational circulation of cultural form: multiple agencies of heritage making

ABSTRACT

The article analyses the evolution of the Soviet heritage-making policy in late socialism. Based on archival sources and interviews with former key experts from the Soviet ICOMOS committee, as well as other activists in conservation and heritage protection in former Soviet republics, the article explores the multi-faceted nature of the construction of heritage in the Soviet context that involved a complex interplay between local and international agencies, mediated by Soviet cultural institutions. It shows that rapid development of conservation activity in the USSR along with officially backed public engagement in heritage protection in the late 1960s and 1970s manifested a ‘historical turn’ that reflected a demand on the rationalized past in the socialist modernization project similar to that seen in many western countries. The article contributes to the discussion on the role of cultural heritage in the ideological construction of Soviet society and to the growing literature on socialist cultural engagement with the outside world by examining the role of heritage as a global cultural form.

KEYWORDS:

• Internationalism
• heritage protection
• Icomos
• Soviet Union
• socialism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Hotel Rossiya was built in 1962-1967 and demolished in 2006.

2. The statement of the Soviet National Commission on the participation of the USSR in UNESCO’s Major Project for Mutual Appreciation of Eastern and Western Cultural Values (1957-1966). UNESCO Archive 008 477 MP-03.

3. The scientific restoration workshops (studios) existed in the USSR between 1924-1934. After their dissolution in 1934 their functions were transferred to major museums.

4. Full text of Decree: http://pravo.levonevsky.org/baza/soviet/sssr6320.htm.

5. Author’s interview with the President of the Soviet Committee of ICOMOS 1986-1991 Sergei Petrov, 1 November 2016, Moscow.

6. Instruktsia o poriadke ucheta, registratsii, soderzhania i restavratsii pamiatkinkov arkhitektury stoyaschikh pod gosudarstvennoi okhranoi, Moskva: Gosudastvennoye Arkhitekturnoye izdatelstvo, 1949.

7. Author’s interview with Prof. Jonas Glemža (Vice-President of ICOMOS representing USSR, 1981-1990) 22 December 2015, Vilnius.

8. Author’s interview with Prof. Jonas Glemža, 22 December 2015, Vilnius.

9. See the article by Corinne Geering in this issue.

10. Author’s interview with Prof. Jonas Glemža, 22 December 2015, Vilnius.

11. In spite of being a part of the south Caucuses region together with Armenia and Georgia, Azerbaijan joined the Central Asian group due to a shared Turkic and Muslim cultural tradition.

12. Author’s interview with architect Sergei Baglasov, August 2016, Minsk.

13. The mausoleum of Ahmad Yasawi was built in the fourteenth century by the emperor Timur (Tamerlane) to commemorate the Sufi poet and teacher Sheikh Ahmad Yasawi, who died in 1166. Yasawi is credited with the conversion of the Turkic-speaking people to Islam, and is considered as ‘Father of the Turks’.

14. Author’s interview with Prof. Bayan Tuyakbayeva 29 March 2017, Astana-Almaty.

15. RGRALI f. 674. 4. 849.

16. Russian Committee of ICOMOS had lost accreditation with ICOMOS from 2014 to 2016 as a result of organisational disarray that led to the failure to pay ICOMOS membership fee.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Leverhulme Trust [RL-2012-053].

Notes on contributors

Nelly Bekus

Nelly Bekus is Associate Lecturer at the University of Exeter, she holds a PhD in Sociology.  Her publications include monograph Struggle over Identity. The Official and the Alternative “Belarusianness” (CEU Press, 2010), and numerous articles published in leading journals including the British Journal of Sociology, Europe-Asia Studies, Nationalities Papers, and others.