Tsarist Russia joined Europe’s museum craze a little late, developing a few large museums by the time of the Revolution. The USSR later enthusiastically developed museums as educational and propaganda tools – even pioneering new types of museums. Today, the cities within the former Eastern Bloc contain surprising numbers of these institutions, both private and publically 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 museum science, Russia and other former soviet bloc countries make for fascinating study abroad destinations.
Irkutsk, far from Moscow at the other end of the vast Russian empire, was once a major exile destination for dissident aristocrats and intellectuals. Because of this, it grew into a center of culture and learning to all of Siberia and also became a focal point for early transport and communication infrastructure efforts that sought […]
