Tsarist Russia joined Europe’s museum craze a little late, developing only a few large museums by the time of the Revolution. The USSR later enthusiastically developed museums as educational and propaganda tools. Today, the cities of Eurasia contain surprising numbers of these institutions, both private and publicly funded, and on nearly every subject imaginable. Many of these museums have survived wars, revolutions, and economic and political collapse, often by innovating ways of preserving, funding, and maintaining their collections. For anyone studying history, museum science, literature, art, or nearly any other subject, these places make for fascinating travel and study abroad destinations.
The Meros Silk Paper Factory was one of the last stops on this November’s trip from Bishkek to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, organized by SRAS and The London School of Bishkek as part of the Central Asian Studies study abroad program. Just outside Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the factory was built little over a decade ago, but it […]