The article «History of formation and activity of Council of Museums in museums of local history of the north-east of Kazakhstan in the 40-50s of the XX century» deals with the problem of organizing research in museums. The First All-Russian Museum Congress in 1931 contributed the transformation of museums from academic centers to cultural institutions and made scientific research impossible in museums. However, the lack of professionally trained personnel, the low level of scientific description of collections, construction of expositions, exhibitions, content of lectures and excursions, led to a gradual decline of the authority of museums. Based on the documents that were found in the funds of the State archives of Pavlodar region, Semipalatinsk, Ust-Kamenogorsk, the authors convincingly prove the flawed and erroneous attitudes of the congress. The study used archival documents on the creation of Council of Museums, their personnel composition, and main activities. It is proved that the need to revive the research activities of museums has led to new forms and methods of organizing research work. Council of Museums in local history museums of the north-east of Kazakhstan were established in the late 1940s. There were difficulties in organization due to the lack of specialists who could work in the museum on a voluntary basis. They attracted employees of party, soviet, and trade union organizations who were educated as teachers of geography and history. In special cases, managers of agriculture and industry were included. The members of the Council worked in three directions corresponding to the structure of the departments of local history museums of that time: nature, history, industry and agriculture. The Council of the Pavlodar regional Museum of Local History was registered only formally, its members did not meet and did not take any part in the activities of the museum. This was explained by the insufficient number of professional personnel, due to the lack of higher educational institutions in the region, as well as the employment of specialists in the main job. A significant number of interested specialists lived in Semipalatinsk and Ust-Kamenogorsk, forming a group of local history activists there, which had a positive impact on the creation and work of Council of Museums. Members of the councils gave lectures in the museum, went on business trips to collect exhibits, were engaged in the preparation, examination and adjustment of thematic and exposition plans, preparation of collected materials for exhibition, helped to establish the relationship of museums with administrative, industrial and public organizations. Museum employees could not perform such work on their own, due to the lack of necessary professional competencies and time. Thus, we can conclude that it is necessary to include third-party workers of science and education in the museum councils. The governing bodies and museum workers felt a lack of specialists in various fields of knowledge. The staff of the museums consisted of people without secondary, and in most cases higher education. They did not have the skills of systematization and were not familiar with the scientific methods of collecting and processing museum materials. The decisions of the Council of Museums were not official, but they were very significant and necessary. Without their activities, the museum practice of the region would not be so effective and efficient.
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