Regional Study (entry)

Categories / Social Life/Social Organizations and Unions
REGIONAL STUDY, integrated study of a country or region and its lore. Regional study of St. Petersburg originates from the descriptions of the northern capital presented in the 18th - 19th centuries. In the early 20th century, when the cultural achievement of St. Petersburg made the capital a historical and cultural phenomenon of its own right, St. Petersburg regional studies became an independent area of research. Special role in this process has been played by the members of Mir Iskusstva (World of Art) Union. In 1907 the Museum of Old St. Petersburg was founded, and the study of city's history together with a systematic accumulation of graphic and documentary materials, began. In 1911, the Academy of Arts held the Historical exhibition of architecture, dedicated to St. Petersburg architecture of the 18th-early 19th centuries. In the meantime, scientific articles on the history of St. Petersburg architecture began to appear. In the 1920s, St. Petersburg regional studies reached the peak of its development. In 1921, the Old St. Petersburg society (Old Petersburg - New Leningrad, since 1925) was established with the goal to study and popularise historical and cultural monuments of St. Petersburg and its suburbs. The main achievement of regional studies of the time was appreciation of the significance of St. Petersburg Baroque and Neoclassical architecture, recognition of historical places associated with life and work of the greatest men of arts and letters. In the 1930s many St. Petersburg cultural workers were subjected to repressions, and local studies societies were abolished by the authorities. A new rise of interest in the legacy of the past was manifested in the mid-1960s. The Leningrad department of the All-Russian Society for Protection of Society for Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments was founded in 1965, bringing together the adherents of St. Petersburg antiquities and culture. In the 1970s - early 1990s, the School of St. Petersburg local studies was formed, uniting experts on history and culture of the pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg. At the same time Lenizdat (Leningrad State publishing-house) published the Architects of Our City and Leningrad for Tourists series, books on architectural ensembles, prominent architectural landmarks, as well as on men of science and culture. Fellows of the Monuments Protection Society delivered lectures on architecture and cultural workers of St. Petersburg and Leningrad. The Museum of Leningrad history organised permanent exhibitions of the city's history and its architecture, lecture-halls were also arranged there. St. Petersburg regional ethnographers studied a considerable number of new historical materials, which allowed expanding the idea of the historical and cultural legacy of the city and adopting a fresh view on significance of St. Petersburg Eclectic and Art Nouveau architecture, together with many other phenomena of the cultural life of the city. In 1991, St. Petersburg Researchers’ Association was instituted; it conducts workshops and seminars, and publishes St. Petersburg readings collections.

References: Блинов А. М. Общество "Старый Петербург - Новый Ленинград" // Памятники Отечества. М., 1987. № 2. С. 45-51; Лурье Л. Я., Кобак А. В. Заметки о смысле петербургского краеведения // Анциферовские чтения: Материалы и тез. конф. Л., 1989. С. 72-79; Их же. Рождение и гибель петербургской идеи // Музей и город. СПб., 1993. С. 23-31. (Арс; № 2); Попова Г. А. Музей Города // Там же. С. 16-22; Павелкина А. М. Музей Старого Петербурга // Там же. С. 10-15.

V. A. Frolov. Блинов А. М. Общество "Старый Петербург - Новый Ленинград" // Памятники Отечества. М., 1987
Кобак А. В., Лурье Л. Я. Заметки о смысле петербургского краеведения // Анциферовские чтения: Материалы и тез. конф. Л., 1989
Павелкина А. М. Музей Старого Петербурга // Музей и город. СПб., 1993
Попова Г. А. Музей Города // Музей и город. СПб., 1993
Кобак А. В., Лурье Л. Я. Рождение и гибель петербургской идеи // Музей и город. СПб., 1993 Museum of Old Petersburg
Academy of Arts
Academy of Arts
Old Petersburg, Society
Architects of Our City, publication series
St. Petersburg Researchers’ Association
Peterburgskye Chteniya (Petersburg Readings), almanac