About the author:
Olga L. Solomina — chief specialist of museum of History of Library, Russian State Library, Vozdvizhenka, 3/5, 119019 Moscow, Russia.
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Abstract:
The article traces the process of forming the A.S. Pushkin archive in the first public Moscow museum — Moscow Public and Rumyantsev museum, later the All-Union Public Library of the USSR named after V.I. Lenin. The archive was created for two reasons: identifying the poet’s documents in the archives and collections of his contemporaries and friends, and transfer of the archive kept in the family of Pushkin to museum. In the 19th century, admission the museum took place at the behest of fund holders. After 1917, the process changed — the museum received archives from the nationalized estates. Since the early 1930 in addition to archival documents memorial items be longing to the poet were transferred to the library. The process of centralization and subordination of state ideology affected the legacy of Pushkin. In 1937, an exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the death of the poet was held, and in 1938, on its basis, the State Museum of A.S. Pushkin, which was under the jurisdiction of IWL AS USSR. All materials related to the life and work of the poet, as well as the of A.S. Pushkin archive from the library were concentrated in the museum. The museum acted as a research center for Pushkin studies and a political and educational institution. In 1948 the State A.S. Pushkin Museum was transferred from Moscow to Leningrad and all the archival collections that belonged to the museum were transferred to the Institute of Russian Literature Academy of Sciences of USSR.