From Rurik to Putin - New Exhibition Centers Showcasing Russian History Take Country By Storm
At the end of the year, two more exhibition centers opened. They're called "Russia: My History". They opened in Perm and St. Petersburg. In total, the large-scale historical expositions have been opened in 16 cities. They've been a hit with visitors of all ages.
Russian history turned out to be unknown to so many of them. Half of the multimedia exposition is dedicated to the events in the center of the country, in the capitals, the other half tells about parallel events in the region where the exhibition is opened.
Next year, five more such historical parks will be opened: in Chelyabinsk, Krasnodar, Vladivostok, Rostov-on-Don, and Saratov. Preparations are in full swing. But even now, we can say that the project is truly the biggest phenomenon of the year.
Marina Gromova will talk about this uplifting phenomenon.
Where does the Russian land come from? In search of answers, visitors aren’t looking through the pages of a textbook or browsing the Internet. Instead, they interact with living history.
A child, the museum visitor: “Here's the liberation of the Kremlin.”
Curiosity and interest are also alive and genuine. With the wave of the hand, one century is replaced by another. Touchscreen tables and panels, projections, films. The country's great 700-year-long journey is in a labyrinth of halls.
The interactive multimedia chronicle was created in Moscow. So many people visited the temporary exhibition in Manezh that it was decided to make it permanent. The centers appeared one after another in Ufa, Ekaterinburg, Kazan, Samara, Tyumen, Yakutsk, and Makhachkala.
In the Dagestan capital, the opening of the historical park "Russia: My History" was held as a national holiday.
Makhti Ramazanov, the historical park's director: "A lot of people come from all the parts of our republic".
In Makhachkala, the exhibition was visited by more than 50 thousand people. They come not only to see the history of the country but also their regional one. The Caucasus and its rich cultural heritage are on display in a separate hall. In each city, part of the exhibition is local.
Yury Filippov, the museum's director: "We, the residents of the Nizhny Novgorod region, made such a separate room. We tried to cover the entire history of the Nizhny Novgorod Krai, I emphasize this word, Krai, since geological times".
Today, it’s the largest historical and cultural project of Russia. It has captivated the country.
Tikhon, Bishop of Yegoryevsk: "Frankly, we didn’t expect that these expositions would cause such interest. 18 thousand people came here. We heard more and more requests for such historical parks to be opened in the regions. These expositions, which are spread over many cities, create a single historical space for our country".
In Stavropol, every fourth city resident visited the exhibition. They also come from all over the region. Here, it’s like an educational pilgrimage.
A museum visitor: "This is something really, truly special. The explanations are brief, capacious, and understandable. I believe that both a child and an adult can understand this".
Where else would they talk about the Russian Joan of Arc - Rimma Ivanova, a Stavropol resident and World War I participant.
Vladimir Sergeyev, the museum's director in Stavropol: "She was the only Russian woman, except for the monarchs, who received the Military Order of St. George for a military feat. Most of the commanders were killed. And Rimma Ivanova, who was a nurse, rallied the soldiers for an attack".
Recently, the historic park opened in St. Petersburg.
Yelena Morozova, museum's deputy director in St. Petersburg: "Leningrad residents experienced the most severe siege in the history of mankind — 872 days. And every centimeter of this place was excavated. The biggest garden was here. A big part of the exposition is dedicated to this nightmare."
Not only photographs and facts chronicle the Leningrad Blockade. The decorations let you feel what it was like. Crosses made of newspapers on the windows, old wallpaper. This is a common tragedy, and it’s passed on from generation to generation. Today, students are taught tolerance and large-heartedness, and this begins with the love for one's people and history.
"They called Rurik. And why him?" This is a lesson with the Teacher of the Year, although, for the fifth-graders of Gymnasium 116, Ilya Sergeevich is just a teacher. Nobody is bored and isn't waiting for the class to end. 45 minutes pass in one breath.
Ilya Demakov, 2017 Teacher of the Year: "For me, as a teacher, this center, the idea itself allows me to overstep time. I can’t show with my hands what is shown here using these interactive, educational tools. I can’t show all this on a blackboard, even if I love doing that very much. This is a form that is familiar to children today, and that is what they readily perceive without any additional motivation".
When asked serious questions after the lesson, they didn't answer in a childlike way at all.
- It's easier to start a war than to finish it. It's better to live in peace.
- Ukraine and Russia. What’s happening now is wrong.
Contemporaries and ancestors talk through aphorisms and quotes from visitors. Scholars proved a long time ago that history is cyclical. Whoever forgets the lessons of history is doomed to repeat it. Not knowing your history is being like Ivan, who forgot his own people. Although there are fewer of them in the country now.
Marina Gromova, Tatyana Korolyova, Marina Lazareva, Alexander Botkin, Alexei Lyapin, and Alena Titova, Vesti News of the Week.