Interaction of the Museum and the Local Community in Chukotka in the 1930s-1950s.

The aim of this article is to present and analyse interactions between museum specialists and the indigenous people of Chukotka in the 1930s-1950s. To achieve this aim, the article solves the following problems: analyses history sources of creating the first museum in Chukotka and describes the features of the interaction of cultures during the first museum's archaeological expeditions. The history of museum work shows how a new environment created the need for the preservation of the traditional culture of the northern peoples. This case study allows re-evaluating directions of museum work at present. In this article, the history of the first museum in Chukotka was reconstructed based on the sources from the State Archive of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Archive materials allowed analysing the information about museum activities throughout the mentioned period and learning about the life and work of its founders. Unfortunately, visitor statistics are only represented partially in the archive materials, due to the loss of documents or a negligent maintenance of the archives under the changing management. Correspondence of the museum with other museums in the country reveals the general direction of all the museums in the Soviet Union at the time. Memoirs of the relatives of museum workers, which the author had found in the press or on the internet, allowed assessing workers' professional attitude towards interacting with other people and provide an understanding of the social atmosphere of the time. The sources also allowed analysing the role of the museum in archaeological expeditions in the 1950s. The preserved diary notes of the expedition members contain information about the kind of communication with the indigenous peoples during professional and daily situations. Collaboration of the representatives of different cultures, education and generations formed the indigenous peoples' special attitude towards collecting and preserving of cultural artifacts. The author concludes that museums became a new form of preserving cultural heritage in the region, and became the centre of collecting knowledge about the ancient history of the humankind, the nature of the region and the traditional culture of the indigenous peoples. Communication of the museum with local communities and other categories of visitors has its peculiarities and a long history. Currently, the older generations of the indigenous peoples of the North are the keepers of traditional knowledge, and can act as consultants or experts in ethnographic issues in the museum.

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