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 Mora Museum, formerly known as the Museum of Russian Art, is a cultural fixture of Jersey City, NJ. It has a deep historical connection to the Nonconformist Movement in Russian art, and more recently has embraced contemporary movements such as those exemplified by artists like Elena Sarni, Leonid Lerman, Vasily Kafanov and Naum Medovoy. […]