A School Museum in Krasnogorsk, My Grandfather, and Me: Motivations and Mechanisms of Space Heritage Production

Abstract

The article discusses a case where the processes of space heritage production by the Russian state and the production of family heritage by the author are intertwined. I examine the activities and motivations of four heritage actors: institutions directly implementing the state position in the field of space heritage, a school museum of space history in Krasnogorsk, my grandfather who worked for a long time as an engineer and referent for S.P. Korolev, and myself. The research optics is determined, on the one hand, by works dealing with the links and features of the interaction between heritage and politics; on the other hand, by works exploring the role of emotions and affects in the processes of heritage production. I employ the concept of authorised heritage discourse (AHD) to identify actors within the case, and the material analysed does not always fit within the conceptual framework. For example, one of the important elements of the AHD concept is the thesis of dominance of the expert community in the processes of heritage production and the hegemony of the expert knowledge they produce. My research, however, shows that drawing clear boundaries between experts and non-experts is not always possible, and actors’ inclusion or exclusion from the authorised discourse is not as unambiguous as it may seem at first glance. I pose several questions: how is the process of heritage production carried out by different actors? how are actors related to each other? what place do feelings and emotions occupy in the production of heritage by these actors and how are they related to the motivation for inclusion in this process? The research was drawn on interviews with museum workers, staff of the Krasnogorsk school № 18, and my own relatives, as well as archival materials including those belonging to my family, and autoethnographic work.