The 1867 All-Russian Exhibition - a new stage in the development of ethnographic science
Authors:   Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology RAS, Kerimova Mariam M. 
Published: February 2023

In historiography dedicated to the First All-Russian Ethnographic Exhibition of 1867, the emphasis is usually placed on its political goals - the demonstration of the imperial ambitions of Russia rallying the foreign Slavic peoples around it. The aim of this article is to show that the primary principles of the exhibition were scientific tasks: the creation of the Dashkovo Ethnographic Museum at the Rumyantsev and Public Museums in Moscow and the Ethnographic Department of the Imperial Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography at Moscow University. These two events marked a new stage in the development of ethnographic science in Russia. After the exhibition ended, ethnology loudly proclaimed itself an independent science. The author relies mainly on archival sources and literature of the second half of the 19th century, using a systematic analysis of sources related to various issues raised at the exhibition. The comparative-historical method is also used, which made it possible to show the place and role of the exhibition in the structure of Russian science in the last decades of the nineteenth century, in the context of the historical, social and ideological situation in Russia and foreign Slavic countries. The author shows that the exhibition raised important problems of further expanding the comparative study of history, everyday life and customs, religion, economic development of the peoples of Russia, the Southern and Western Slavs, and expanding cultural interaction with them. The purpose of the exhibition was to stimulate interest in the study of the material and spiritual culture of different peoples, and for this it was necessary to make the exposition detailed, visual and reliable. The article discusses in detail the stages of preparation and holding of the exhibition and its results. For the first time, the author analyzes a large exposition of Western and Southern Slavs: Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, Slovenes, Poles, Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonians, and Bulgarians; describes in detail scenery scenes (Russian fair, Slovenian wedding), which attracted the greatest attention of visitors. The author highlights the huge contribution to the preparation and holding of the exhibition of initiators and organizers: A.P. Bogdanov, V.A. Dashkova, N.A. Popova, M.F. Raevsky and others, and also shows the role in the organization of the exhibition of famous figures of the national revival of the Slavic countries: M. Mayar, B. Petranovich, J. Milutinovich, N. Ducic and other fighters for the freedom and independence of their peoples, who were at that time under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. The Dashkovo Ethnographic Museum was founded on the basis of the exhibits collected in different regions of Russia and in the countries where Southern and Western Slavs lived. The exhibition contributed to the founding in 1868 of the Ethnographic Department of the Imperial Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography at Moscow University. These events marked a new stage in the development of ethnography, anthropology, and Slavic studies.