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The historical-revolutionary museums of Petrograd-Leningrad, 1917–1941

Project description

Remembering Soviet memory politics

How do we remember the 19th century revolutionary movement in Russia and the 1917 Revolution? How was the revolutionary narrative? The EU-funded REVMUS project will find the answers by analysing the formation of memory. It will study a group of historical revolutionary museums in Petrograd-Leningrad between 1917 and 1941. The two decades after the October Revolution witnessed a transformation of the memory landscape, as Bolshevik leaders exploited the struggle to overthrow the old regime as an instrument of political legitimacy. Particular focus will be on Petrograd-Leningrad due to its status in the Soviet memory politics – that of ‘the city of three revolutions’ and ‘the city of Lenin’.

Objective

This project will analyse the formation of memory about the nineteenth-century revolutionary movement in Russia and the 1917 Revolution in a group of historical-revolutionary museums in Petrograd-Leningrad between 1917 and 1941. The two decades after the October Revolution witnessed a transformation of the memory landscape, as Bolshevik leaders exploited the struggle to overthrow the old regime as an instrument of political legitimacy. The scholarship has dealt extensively with the management of the revolutionary narrative from the top; however, key institutions involved in the governance of the recent past, particularly, museums, remain understudied. This pioneering study of museums will provide a unique view of how memory was shaped on the ground. Petrograd-Leningrad is chosen for the analysis due to its status in the Soviet memory politics – that of ‘the city of three revolutions’ and ‘the city of Lenin’. The historical-revolutionary museums explored here include the House Museum for the Memory of Freedom Fighters, the State Museum of the Revolution – GMR, the Museum of Sergei Kirov, the Museum of Lenin in Leningrad, and a handful of smaller, short-lived museums such as the Museum of Komsomol and the Museum of the Army and the Fleet. While scholarship claims that the Soviet state was steady in imposing the ‘Bolshevik-centred’ memory project from 1917 on, I will show how a clash of seeming similar, yet different memory projects unfolded in all these museums. The House-Museum and the GMR operated with a broad concept of the ‘revolutionary movement’ that included all the antimonarchist political forces that had been active in the Russian Empire, not just the Bolsheviks. This project withered only in the early 1930s ceding way to the ‘Bolshevik-centred’ and then ‘Lenin/Stalin-centred’ ones that emphasized the role of the Communist party and mythologized figures of Lenin and Stalin in designing the 1917 revolution – to the detriment of all other participants.

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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020

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Coordinator

THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 224 933,76
Address
WELLINGTON SQUARE UNIVERSITY OFFICES
OX1 2JD Oxford
United Kingdom

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Region
South East (England) Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Oxfordshire
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 224 933,76
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