Museums in Russia at turn of 19th and 20th century

No unified and commonly accepted periodization of museum practice in Russia can be found in academic museological literature. The reason behind it is in the lack of studies conducted in broad temporal and spatial boundaries. The period at the turn of the 19th century turns out to be the most difficult to analyze. Museums’ activities were carried out amid the most difficult geopolitical changes during these years. However, at that point in time the completion of the genesis of museum as a «cultural form» and the acquisition of the status of a «cultural norm» by museums took place and they became part of the cultural tradition. The fact of reaching the status of a «cultural norm» by museums is evidenced by the following facts: the preservation of the relevance of museums for a few centuries; conceptualization of standard semantic interpretation of the concept of «museum»; professionalization of museum activities; increase of the credibility of the museum beyond the professional community. Widely varied reproduction of the museum as a cultural form in artifacts, which could be witnessed within the first decades of the 20th century, is also typical of the «cultural form» having reached the status of a «cultural norm».