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REGIONAL STUDIES MOVEMENT -
CONTINUOUS CREATIVE LEARNING
FOR THE BENEFIT OF A REGION AND CITIZENS
E. V. Komissarova
This article is dedicated to regional studies as non-formal lifelong education, public activity devoted to studying and developing a region, and intellectual leisure enriching students' personalities.
Key words: regional studies, regional studies movement, modernization, territorial resources, intellectual leisure, non-formal education.
Regional studies perform various socio-cultural functions: research, educational, world outlook, pedagogic, cultural heritage protection, communicative, socialization, enculturation and adaptation, and leisure ones. Cooperation between generations is a socially valuable quality of regional studies. Regional studies provide comprehensive knowledge based on the achievements of many theoretical disciplines.
The principal state and municipal institutions carrying out regional study research on site are museums. A local history museum is democratic by definition: it is accessible and attractive to all social and age categories of the population. Museums in district centers, small towns and rural villages become centers of knowledge, cultural heritage broadcasting, sites for the activities of folklore groups and amateur hobby groups. Museums are created to a large extent because of public initiative, or the personality of an enthusiast keen on the history of his or her own village, factory, or his or her nation. Many Russian museums were created thanks to the efforts of veterans of the Great Patriotic War and labor. Cultural and leisure centers, or amateur creativity centers, hold events dedicated to folk traditions, to memorable dates in the history of their region, to famous countrymen. Amateur creative groups and folk craft groups cannot operate without the support of regional studies. Both the amateur actors and craftsmen and the spectators of various generations attain intellectual enrichment in the process of this creative activity.
Regional studies are attractive for youth not as booklore, but as "living history" recreating the time spirit and artifacts of past epochs. The types of contemporary regional studies activities are various: archival research,
genealogical research, recording veterans' reminiscences, archeological and ethnographical expeditions, collecting, photographing and video filming, creation of museums, protection and restoration of architectural, historical and cultural monuments, tourism and tours, historical reenactment, rebirth of traditional cultures, technologies of handicrafts, holidays and rites, etc.
A characteristic feature of the regional studies movement of the Volgograd region is the combination of a theoretical foundation created by academic advising of the main sections of the Volgograd Regional Society of Local Historians by the region's leading scientists, and the enthusiasm of amateur local historians that pioneer studies of new aspects of byways of local history. Many years' studies carried out by active local historians resulted in the regional encyclopedic editions:
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"Encyclopedia of the Volgograd Region" [6] and "Encyclopedia of the Battle of Stalingrad" [7].
While building up work aimed at studying and preserving regional cultural heritage, it is important to concentrate on the most important but also the most complicated problems in this sphere, that is, first and foremost, the protection of historical and cultural monuments from catastrophic destruction, prevention of ecological disturbances and exclusion of the destructive operation of many historical and cultural territories of the Region, etc. We should stress that cultural and historical heritage plays the role of a filter sifting the memory of a society, and making the most significant information known to an individual. The cultural heritage of the "small motherland" plays a special role in the acculturation and socialization of both an individual and various social groups and the society as a whole. Apart from bringing economic profit (the development of tourism, increased museum attendance, publication of academic and popular science literature), and preservation of cultural heritage, putting it to good use can change the sociocultural development of a region for the better.
Thereby, regional studies are continuous life-long education facilitating dynamic development of a region and its population.
Bibliography
1. Галкова О.В., Комисарова Е.В., Петрова И.А., Савицкая О.Н. Культурное наследие Волгоградской области. - Волгоград: Изд-во ВолгГМУ, 2013. - С. 332.
2. Галкова О.В. Российские традиции охраны отечественного культурного наследия: монография. - Волгоград: Издательство ВГСПУ «Перемена», 2011. - 239 с.
3. Кибасова Г.П. Методологические проблемы краеведения // Культура Юга России: социальные и этноконфессиональные аспекты: сб. докл. / Ком. По культуре Адм. Волгогр. обл.; редкол.: О.И. Сгибнева и др. - Волгоград: ВолГУ, 2003. - С. 48-54.
4. Особо охраняемые территории Волгоградской области / В.А. Брылев, Н.О. Рябинина, Е.В. Комиссарова, А.В. Материкин, Н.В. Сергиенко, И.С. Трофимова / под ред. В.А. Брылева. - Волгоград: Альянс, 2006.
5. Сгибнева О.И. Культурное наследие как объект исследования краеведов // Вопросы краеведения. - Вып. 9: Материалы XV и XVI краеведческих чтений / под ред. И.О. Тюменцева. - Волгоград, 2005. - С. 4-7.
6. Энциклопедия Волгоградской области. - Волгоград, ГУ «Издатель», 2007. - 448 с.
7. Энциклопедия Сталинградской битвы. - Волгоград, ГУ «Издатель», 2007. - 512 с.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translastions Bureas
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