Mikhail Piotrovsky: The motto is cultural immunity

Representatives of creative unions, figures from the theatre and the museum communities gathered for the forum. There was something for everyone to show and to look at in Kaliningrad. The city is a place where you can trace the importance of a balance in relations between the centre and local traditions, the local and general Russian identity.

In Kaliningrad there was a meeting of the presidium of the Union of Museums of Russia, at which there was discussion of many pressing problems that are generating public resonance.

The first is the unity of the museum sphere in our country. We spoke about the work of the Association of Arctic Museums of Russia. There was a moment when it seemed that we did not need the Arctic. Russia’s return to the Arctic is being accompanied by a revival of the museums that are helping its new development.

There was also discussion about the territory of New Russia. A special commission is concerning itself with the museums in the zones of military conflict. There is a principle: the collections should be protected, saved, sheltered during military operations and returned to their restored museums. We know that work to restore ruined museums is underway. Sadly, little is reported about that. We also need to record the present day, so as to tell about it in the future. That too is a concern for museums.

We spoke about the legislative and legal protection of municipal museums. The importance of municipal museums is often proclaimed, but there are continual efforts to merge them with someone or other, to strip them of their financial independence. They need protection. The museum collections also need protecting. How to legally prevent their arbitrary removal from museums is a long-standing question.

The criteria for success are an important matter. There are several. One of them is the percentage of visitors that a museum is able to let in free of charge. Let me remind readers that a museum admits such visitors at its own expense. The state does not compensate that expenditure. A museum earns money and introduces concessions for visitors. Thirty percent of people enter the Hermitage without paying.

Another indicator is the extent to which the museum’s capacity to receive visitors comfortably is used up. For example, in the Hermitage the Winter Palace is fairly saturated; there is no need for more. The General Staff building can accept more. The maximum number for the Hermitage is 5 million visitors a year. Thanks to the time slots, a limit has been set. The Louvre is prepared to admit no more than 30,000 visitors a day, and it is huge. The Hermitage can take no more than 15–20,000. All of this is important for museums’ social position.

It turned out that Kaliningrad is a place of museums. Museums have a city-forming role there. Many historical events took place on that land, from which the city’s sense of itself was formed. As in other territories, there is an issue over the relationship between a federal and regional presence. At the forum we spoke about the extent to which the presence of federal-level museums helps or hinders local museum traditions.

Kaliningrad has the federal Museum of the World Ocean. Stunning and immense, it is in essence the face of the city. Let me remind you that the icebreaker Krasin, which is anchored in our city next to the Mining University, belongs to the Museum of the World Ocean. It had failed to find an owner and might have been cut up for scrap. The ship was saved thanks to the Kaliningrad museum.

In Kaliningrad standing along the quayside there are rescued ships, submarines, yachts… They are interesting to look at and important from a scientific point of view. All the ships have a crew, all the boats and yachts are in good order. Except, perhaps, the bathyscape that does not go under water. There is a problem: a museum exhibit is not supposed to function. If that does happen at some festival or regatta, that means it is not a museum exhibit. It ought to have some special status. In Kaliningrad they are tackling a problem of that sort.

Within that splendid museum, a “Peoples of the Sea” collection has appeared. A tremendous set of sculptures, unparalleled in Russia. Works of art from Oceania, Indonesia, India… In the Hermitage we are proud of the Garuda bird that was a gift from the President of Indonesia, but in Kaliningrad they have 36 similar sculptures.

One might think – what relationship does a collection of sculptures bear to the Museum of the World Ocean? They found a justification: the ocean also means the travels of Afanasy Nikitin, Miklouho-Maclay…

The scientific-cultural museum complex named Planet Ocean being constructed in the city preserves and presents knowledge about the Earth’s watery covering. It will have aquariums with fish, multimedia installations… A scientific account and entertainment, things which it is always hard to combine.

Kaliningrad has its own Museum of History and Arts, many memorial sites and subjects: fortress gates, forts… It is the place where the Teutonic Order first settled. The knights were driven out by the Poles, who then held those parts. Peter the Great visited many times. It is said that he borrowed the design for the Peter and Paul Fortress from there. Russia captured Königsberg [as it then was] in the Seven Years’ War. A monument to Empress Elizabeth is a reminder of that. Immanuel Kant lived in the city and the local university bears his name. In Tilsit [now Sovetsk on the region’s border with Lithuanian], a peace treaty was concluded between Alexander I and Napoleon. The region saw the famous Battles of Eylau and Friedland in 1807 and of Gumbinnen in 1914. Finally, there was the storm of Königsberg in 1945.

A great history, full of nuances. Peoples have succeeded each other on the territory; it has been inhabited by Slavs, Poles, Germans, Lithuanians, Russians. Much is intermingled. Historically things like that have happened all around the world. Different peoples and cultures replaced one another, resulting in a conglomerate.

Kaliningrad is the city of amber. It has a Museum of Amber and a Museum of Hermann Brachert in the house where that artist lived and produced remarkable sculptures, some of them from the fossil resin. The notable Impressionist artist Lovis Corinth was born and worked in the city. His pictures can be seen in the Kaliningrad Art Gallery, which is housed in the building of the Stock Exchange.

Kaliningrad was the birthplace of that teller of fantastic tales E.T.A. Hoffmann and has much that is associated with his name. There are quite a few little spots in the city with a museum feel to them. There have been used to create attractions, pseudo-museums. A background is formed that takes nothing away from the museums but makes it possible to draw upon local traditions. That gives life to the city, attracting people. Kaliningrad has a lot of tourists.

Major construction is going on in the city. A high-powered museum and theatre complex is being created that will also house subsidiaries of the Bolshoi Theatre and the Tretyakov Gallery. There is an issue bound up with that which we discussed at the forum. How will the local traditions, the history of museum life and its experience interact with the experience and traditions of the major museums that are coming in? Some fine tuning is required for them to work together.

A museum determines the identity of a locality. That applies not only to Kaliningrad, but also to the Caucasus, the Urals, the Far East, the Crimea… How the general Russian identity should be combined with the regional one, where there is its own history of different peoples, of belonging to different states, is a constant debate. That needs to be conducted calmly, constructing a dialogue of cultures and not wars of memory.

Today is a time of isolation. We aren’t really looking at Europe. It seems that no-one is looking at us either. But that’s not true – they are. They are watching how we cope with sanctions, not only economic ones, but also cultural ones. What we do today is important for the future. It will show whom the isolation impoverishes – us or Europe. With the latest IT resources – cloud-based museums, Internet connections, the world can see everything that is going on with us. Culture has a profound philosophical meaning and demonstrative effect, both for oneself and for others. The use of the latest technology is important and necessary. The era of digital expansion is upon us. That is a topic for a separate conversation.

This material was published in the Sankt-Peterburgskiye Vedomosti newspaper № 75 (7404) on 26 April 2023 under the headline “The motto is cultural immunity”.