“Angel with the Trumpet”: Participation of Students in the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Heritage in the 1960s–80s (the Case of the Mephist Restorers)

Abstract

The main focus in our article is paid to mass, primarily student initiatives for the preservation of historical and cultural heritage in the late USSR. The emergence of a discourse on “cultural heritage” and awareness of the importance of heritage preservation helped attract students to the restoration movement, as did systematic funding of restoration work. The popularity of the student restoration movement, combined with an interest in the history and culture of the Russian north, contributed to the emergence of a new generation of restorers. As an example of student restoration activity, the authors reconstructed the history of the construction team of the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPhI) for the resto ration of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery (Kirillov, Vologda region). The authors explore the personal experience of students involved in the practice of heritage preservation, their immersion in the history of restored objects, and becoming restorers. The article is based on the reports of the VOOPIiK, the journals of the supervision of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum and oral memoirs of the participants of the student restoration teams.