The history of the creation of the Azerbaijan State Museum (Azgosmusey)

Abstract

The history of museums in Azerbaijan is only a hundred years old, but the path traveled over the years has been very difficult. The development of museums was directly affected by the political course of the Soviet country. Museums were supposed to reflect the politics and ideology of the country, and everything that did not correspond to this was gathering dust in storage or even worse destroyed. The names of the owners of the collections were not mentioned in any public publication. Their names preserved only the basic documents of museums, acts and books of receipts, which were available to a very narrow circle of people. Often, collections mercilessly broken into small groups and transferred to various museums in the country. Namely, the property of many representatives of the national bourgeoisie enriched our museums. Nevertheless, in the first years of Soviet power, the museums created in Azerbaijan managed to assemble a rich collection, despite the obvious distortions in the reflection of historical truth. It was these works that formed the basis of the collections of modern National Museums, and, of course, the Azgosmuzey laid their foundation. It was the first museum to systematically and consistently assemble a collection. Azgosmuzey organized expeditions and conducted archaeological excavations. Excavations on the territory of Azerbaijan have always been carried out officially and unofficially, unfortunately, many discovered artifacts were exported outside of our country, but after the establishment of Soviet power, the situation in this area changed somewhat, and it should be noted for the better. On the initiative of the museum’s management, various exhibits were transferred to our museums from Moscow, and then from Leningrad, enriching the repositories of Western European and Russian art. Many materials cited in the article are not known to a wide circle of researchers.

Keywords:

museum, Azerbaijan State Museum, collection, archive, exhibition, expedition