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Project

To have and to hold? The preservation of Russian cultural heritage in Belgium, 1917-1950

The Russian emigration presented itself as the preserver of the cultural heritage that had been lost after the 1917 revolution. As such, it became a source of inspiration for Russia's new national identity after 1991. Emigration culture, however, was a construct, the result of political bias and circumstance, rather than the continuation of imperial Russian society. The present project focuses on the Russian community in Belgium, the only country in Europe where the number of Russians was continuously increasing and that in the 1930s became the haven of conservative, 'sound Russianness'. The preservation of cultural heritage, both material and immaterial, became an important aspect of Russian life in Belgium. We want The proposed project wants to study 4 different themes: 1) How were cultural heritage and its preservation perceived by the key actors (e.g. M.D. Vrangel' and her 'Living chronicle of the living’ in the 1930s); 2) How was the preservation effectively organized (exhibitions, archives and museums, churches, schools, traditions); 3) The mythology of Russian culture: how Russian émigrés in Belgium created and disseminated a number of cultural hoaxes (e.g. the 'lost' Pushkin diaries or the 'Vlesova kniga', allegedly the oldest history of the Slavic tribes, with Russia in the ‘leading role’); 4) The interaction with cultural preservation activities in Belgium and its international impact (the Roerich pact, precursor to Unesco, was initiated from Belgium).

Date:1 Jan 2019 →  31 Dec 2022
Keywords:Cultural history, Baltic and Slavic literature
Disciplines:Cultural history, Other slavic literatures