‘...It is Urgent that Kalmyks Consider the Kalmyk Museum as their Own [Heritage]’: Analyzing a 1922 Letter by Nikolay N. Palmov

Introduction. The article is a source study that introduces into scientific circulation a little-known historical document dealing with the activities of Nikolai Nikolaevich Palmov ― the founder of Kalmyk studies in Russia, historian, archaeographer, and educator. N. Palmov’s work is an inspiring example for our contemporaries, and further disclosure of its details seems relevant enough. The newly introduced document reveals an understudied aspect of N. Palmov’s research biography ― his museological endeavors. Goals. The paper seeks to introduce the specified document into scientific circulation, which makes it possible to supplement the biography of N. Palmov with some little-studied data. Materials and methods. The study focuses on a handwritten document stored at the State Historical Museum (Department of Written Sources) ― a note submitted by N. Palmov to the Main Museum Directorate under the People’s Commissariat for Education. Methodologically, the work rests on tools inherent to source studies at large. Results. The careful insight into the document has revealed the circumstances of its creation in the contexts of then Russia’s museum affairs ― and N. Palmov’s research biography proper. In the note, N. Palmov advocates the independence of Kalmyk Museum of History and Ethnography, outlines some prospects of its further development as a host for not only ethnographic but also archaeological and natural science collections. The scholar mentions names of his fellow naturalists who are ready to work for the benefit of the Museum. But the most important thing is that N. Palmov draws facts of genuine interest in the museum’s activities and the formation of its collections shown by both the Kalmyk intelligentsia and ordinary Kalmyks. The document tells about the efforts undertaken by the Museum’s employees among the Kalmyk population, N. Palmov’s personal labors aimed at developing the Museum and expanding its collections. Conclusions. N. Palmov proved to be not only an outstanding historian and archaeographer but also a museum worker who not only realized the importance of exploring spiritual and material cultures of Kalmyk Steppe ― both the preceding and existing ones ― but also spared neither pains nor time for that cause, and would attract like-minded enthusiasts from the local cultural environment.

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