Paper long abstract:

Cultural historian Zukhra Kasimova will discuss the specifics of working with private and public archives in Central Asia. The author pays special attention to the Igor Savitsky Museum of Arts in Nukus (Karakalpakstan). Kasimova claims that due to limited access to archival documents about the museum, the narrative about its unique collection of the Russian avant-garde was surrounded by myths, including one focused on the heroization of the museum's founder, Igor Savitsky, as a person who single-handedly opposed the Soviet Soviet "system". Kasimova will talk about the possibility of writing an alternative history of the museum based on archival documents in the environment of limited access.