Problems of forming federal and regional registers of intangible cultural heritage in Russia

The article examines Russia’s policy on preserving intangible cultural heritage. It highlights the historical context of collecting folklore and customs of ethnic groups, as well as the role of globalization and urbanization in the degradation of traditional culture. Particular attention is paid to international efforts to preserve intangible cultural heritage, in particular, UNESCO recommendations, and Russia’s response to these recommendations. The concept of „intangible cultural heritage“ presented in documents of international and federal significance is analyzed. The Federal Law of 2022 on Intangible Ethnocultural Heritage is considered, which introduces a new approach to the classification of intangible cultural heritage objects, providing for the creation of the Federal State and regional registers. The criteria for including objects in the register and the features of maintaining registers in Russia are described. The article also raises the problem of the correct description of the material components of intangible cultural heritage objects in the Federal Register, the absence of information on the Open Data Portal of the Ministry of Culture of Russia on objects of intangible ethnocultural heritage. Analysis of the registers shows contradictions in the selection of objects and the reliability of their description, problems with the classification of objects by category and controversial points in the description structure. Registers in different subjects of the Russian Federation have different technical and qualitative conditions. The authors especially emphasize that a qualitative analysis of both federal and regional registers allows us to identify certain contradictions and ambiguous points, both in terms of the selection of objects and the compilation of their scientific description and the reliability of information about them. All this taken together does not allow us to obtain a full understanding of the semantics of an intangible heritage object. The need for unified approaches to identifying, describing and classifying intangible cultural heritage objects, as well as methods of attribution and establishing their value, is emphasized as an important task for creating a complete picture of Russia’s cultural heritage. The article will be useful for understanding Russia’s current policy in the field of preserving intangible cultural heritage. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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