This book presents the results of extensive research into the very interesting phenomenon of local museums - kraevedschskyi museums - in Russia's regions.

Sofia Gavrilova completed her doctorate at the University of Oxford.

Acknowledgements

Note on transliteration

List of figures

Introduction

1 Cultural myths and common silences in (post-)Soviet museums

2 'Ask anyone; it's just around the corner': kraevedenie museums in the Russian cityscape

3 A brief overview of the history of Russian regional museums

4 'Arctic tundra. Forest. Desert': constructing nature in kraevedenie museums

5 Nature-human relations in contemporary kraevedenie museums

6 'From ancient times to the present day': the construction of history

7 Representations of the Great Terror: from denial to understanding?

8 'A northern man with a harpoon': representing a socialist society and creating 'others'

9 Creating 'the other' in contemporary Russian kraevedenie museums

10 Creating (post-)Soviet taxonomies: cultural myths and 'common unsaids'

Index