Celebrated the anniversary

200 years of the Moscow Kremlin Museums

On March 10, 1806, Emperor Alexander I signed a decree “On measures for the permanent preservation of valuables in the Armory and Workshop Chamber.” From this day the history of the Kremlin museums begins. The bicentennial anniversary became a truly state event. The solemn congratulation ceremony in the Grand Kremlin Palace was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II, Minister of Culture and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation A.S. Sokolov, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, government members, heads of famous museums around the world.

There is a great temptation to pick up the tone of the official praises and sing another hosanna. Thanks to the exhibition for the anniversary. She puts everything in its place. The exhibition is called “Russian Emperors and the Armory Chamber”. It takes place in two halls - the One-Pillar Chamber of the Patriarchal Palace and in the hall of the Assumption Belfry. The first shows treasures brought into the Armory by the emperors of the 18th century. In the second - collections of the state museum of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Why two halls? The first problem is identified: the Kremlin Museums have very little exhibition space. We have to squeeze exhibitions into cramped medieval cells, sacrificing both entertainment and meaning. There is never any talk about design delights in the case of Kremlin exhibitions. Like, precious objects will speak for themselves. There are no frills at the anniversary exhibition, which is not much different from the exhibitions of the Kremlin treasuries in many old Russian cities, for example in Zaraysk or Rostov the Great. Showcases, showcases, showcases. They contain certificates, orders, weapons, books, miniatures. Above the display cases are portraits, portraits, portraits. In a separate glass box is Anna Ioannovna's crown, sprinkled with diamonds like powdered sugar. And everything individually is interesting and beautiful. But the whole impression is difficult to form. Because no one adjusts the optics of today. No one is directing today's point of view on this façade, ceremonial side of Russian history. And here is another problem of the Kremlin museums: cohabitation with power, dependence on it - both material and ideological. In the era of the Tsars, the exhibition of the Kremlin Museums dramatized the formulation formulated by the Minister of Public Education S.S. Uvarov in 1834 ideologeme “Orthodoxy - autocracy - nationality”. Then the Soviet era came. The Kremlin museums remained, although the Bolsheviks plundered their funds. Since the ideological attitude had changed, and it was necessary to show the people the same things as under the kings (crowns, powers, sceptres), the conceptual meaning of the collection was consistently erased. The Soviet government wanted to see, first of all, works of jewelry, pure artifacts. Now it seems like a new time - new songs. But the principle inherited from Soviet times - to look at documents as a pure artifact that is not integrated into the modern process of understanding the world - has been preserved. And this timidity in formulations on the essential problems of history, the state, its rulers and citizens is very flattering to the vaguely eclectic (and therefore justifies arbitrariness) ideology of the day. Dependence on the Kremlin makes it possible to cope well with anniversaries, but for the full life of a cultural institution that aspires to international significance, it is a hindrance.

Sergei KHACHATUROV