Keywords
monument protection
USSR
museum piece
Church
religion
How to Cite
Abstract
The article demonstrates how museum employees in western Ukraine performed their professional functions with varying degrees of success in the face of the USSR’s anti-religious policy. One of the main areas of their work was the search for artifacts related to the Church to replenish museum collections and the identification, registration, and protection of architectural monuments, including church buildings. Although the chronological framework of the publication is in the past, the author also actualizes and tries to find a way to solve several contemporary problems. They lie in the area of Church-State relations. After Ukraine gained independence in 1991 and changed its socio-political system, these problems did not disappear but changed their essence. For example, total state control over the Church has given way to de facto uncontrollability. Due to the specifics of their work, museum workers cooperated with representatives of the Church and the USSR authorities. As a result, they gained a difficult but unique experience. It would be justified and appropriate to refer to it now. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to conduct a study of the collecting and monument protection work of museums in Western Ukraine in the context of the USSR’s anti-religious policy. The research methods used are appropriate to the goal and the available body of information and the nature of the sources in which it is contained. General scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, and generalization were used. The historical and genetic method was also used. The results of the research demonstrate that the collecting and monument protection work of museum workers in Western Ukraine suffered from the anti-religious policy of the USSR. This is confirmed by several examples cited in the article. They were found both in the literature and in archival sources. They contain reliable and representative evidence of how the actions or passivity of the USSR authorities hampered the work of museum employees. Despite these obstacles, they were able to replenish the collections of their museums and protect monuments quite effectively. The research results also allow us to raise several debatable issues. In particular, the problem of the passivity of clergymen in cooperation with museum workers and the shortcomings in the regulation of church-museum relations after 1991 are promising for further research.
References
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