Elena A. Dobrynina,
director, Irkutsk Regional Historic Memorial Decembrists’ Museum, Irkutsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Birth of the Museum: History in Thirty Letters and One Telegram
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2020-6-11
In December 2020, the Irkutsk Decembrist Museum celebrates its 50th anniversary. The article is devoted to one of the aspects of creation of the Irkutsk Museum of the Decembrists – the birth of the idea of the museum and the attempt to bring it to life. Currently, the Irkutsk Museum of the Decembrists is not only the publisher of the legacy of the Decembrists, but also the custodian of several archives of famous Decembrists. Among them is the archive of the great-grandson of the Decembrist S.G. Volkonsky – Mikhail Petrovich Volkonsky. The article introduces into scientific circulation the complex of correspondence of 1960–1961 between the researcher of the Decembrists history S.F. Koval and M.P. Volkonsky, great-grandson of the Decembrist S.G. Volkonsky, and opens a new page in the history of creation of the Decembrists Museum in Irkutsk. The article covers in detail the trip of M.P. Volkonsky to Siberia in 1960, his scientific search and research on the history of the Decembrists. It also shows the relationship between people who stood at the origins of creation of the Irkutsk Museum of the Decembrists, the contribution of the Decembrist’s great-grandson to the formation of collection of the future museum, the lively and ardent interest of M.P. Volkonsky to the Siberian history of the Decembrists. M.P. Volkonsky’s idea of the creation of a museum of the Decembrists in Irkutsk was implemented by S.F. Koval.
Publishing: 31/12/2020
The article has been received by the editor on 06.10.2020
How to cite: Dobrynina E.A. The Birth of the Museum: History in Thirty Letters and One Telegram // Historical Courier, 2020, No. 6 (14), pp. 160–182. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2020/ISTKURIER-2020-6-11.pdf
Links: Issue 6 2020
Keywords: Irkutsk; Museum of the Decembrists; the Decembrists; S.F. Koval, M.P. Volkonsky; history of the museum