On 6 September 2019, the Eastern Crimean Historical and Cultural Museum Preserve was the venue for a meeting of the Presidium of the Union of Museums of Russia. The session was chaired by Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky, President of the Union of Museums and Director of the State Hermitage.
The meeting began with the signing of collaboration agreements between the State Hermitage and the Eastern Crimean Museum Preserve, and also between the Museum-Preserve and the Darwin Museum in Moscow. Then Tatyana Victorovna Umrikhina, Director of the Eastern Crimean Historical and Cultural Museum Preserve, gave a welcome speech.
Mikhail Piotrovsky addressed the participants with a report that primarily raised the question of the further promotion of the “Strategy for the development of museums’ activities in the Russian Federation up to 2030”. Sergei Stepanovich Zhamkochyan continued, speaking about “Certain legal aspects of the implementation of the Strategy…’” The Presidium adopted the decision to activate the working groups created to develop the main elements of the Strategy.
Since the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation has announced that museum directors will be selected through a competitive assessment of the concepts for development put forward by the candidates, Mikhail Piotrovsky stressed that if that proposal is adopted, the Union of Museums of Russia should be a participant in the commissions with the right to a deciding vote.
Members of the Presidium studied and adopted a resolution on the institution of a Badge of Honour of the Union of Museums of Russia “For services to the museum community” and regulations about the badge. The members of a commission of the Presidium of the Union of Museums to consider nominations for the award were agreed.
Further there was discussion of the legal regulation of the preservation of petroglyphs in the Russian Federation, as presently there is legal uncertainty with regard to the licensing and implementation of work to preserve such heritage sites.
At the session there was also discussion of the dismissal of Victor Nikolayevich Kovalevsky as Director of the Kostyonki Archaeological Museum-Preserve and the further actions of the Union of Museums in his defence.
Additionally, the participants discussed questions of the lifting of the ban on increasing the number of federal cultural institutions, the financing of the museumification of the Pantikapaion archaeological site, the extension of a zero tax rate on profits to federal museums, the systematization of lists of concessional categories of visitors and the development of a procedure for compensating museums for lost income. The meeting examined and confirmed the membership list of the Association of Literary Museums as a section of the Union of Museums and its two joint coordinators – Evgeny Bogatyrev and Dmitry Bak.
In the second half of the day, there was a round-table discussion devoted to the preservation of archaeological heritage in which the heads of Crimean archaeological expeditions and directors of Russia’s archaeological museums participated.
On the basis of the results of the round table and the meeting of the Presidium, a Resolution of the Presidium of the Union of Museums of Russia of 6 September 2019 was adopted and has been published on the site of the Union of Museums.
On the same day, 6 September, Mikhail Piotrovsky visited a unique work of fortification design from the second half of the 19th century, and on 7 September he spent time at the Nymphaion archaeological site and the Museum of Stone Antiquities. The Presidium of the Union of Museums of Russia gave a high assessment of the work carried out by the administration and staff of the Eastern Crimean Historical and Cultural Museum Preserve in the preservation of the cultural heritage of the eastern Crimea.
