Siberia: At the Edge of the World, Manchester Museum
Mark Suggitt enjoys this timely exhibition that uncovers the diversity of the rich and varied Russian territory of Siberia
Temporary exhibition
We have all heard of Siberia, either through Russian literature, history or cold war spy movies. It’s the place of revolutionary exiles, gulag camps, extreme climate, frozen mammoths and vast oil reserves.
This exhibition is the result of collaboration with Russian museums and aims to look beyond the stereotypical view and reveal the true Siberia. These preconceptions are neatly illustrated in a film on the Manchester Museum’s website that includes comments from people about what they associate with Siberia.
“Cold”, “snow and ice” and “wasteland” are among the answers. Given that Siberia accounts for 77% of the modern Russian Federation and on its own would be the world’s largest country, there has to be more to it than this. It also holds 80% of Russia’s oil, gas and coal reserves and more than 40% of its timber. Without it, Russia would soon be bankrupt.
Walking into the museum on a cold, if not exactly Arctic, day I’m greeted by a large Siberian bear that “guides” me into the show. The entrance is an atmospheric space lined with birch trunks and exhibiting a slideshow of the different peoples of Siberia.
There is a “Welcome to Siberia” in the different languages spoken here. A range of maps shows just how big it is.
The introduction panel lays out the basic facts of landscape and climate, asserts that Siberia has shaped Russian national identity and states its intention to challenge the stereotypical view of the territory. This is quite a tall order for what is a relatively small exhibition.
The exhibition looks good. It is broken down into themes such as People of the Arctic, the Taiga Forest and the Steppe. All the artefacts are cased and surrounded by supporting graphics, moving images and many large, beautiful photographs.
There is the familiar but popular touch panel to stroke bear, wolf and reindeer skin.
A silent video shows the seasons on the tundra, whose star is a wonderfully observant toddler. The storyline text is clear and never exceeds 250 words. The surrounding surfaces are painted in pale grey, green and ochre, which allow the artefacts to shine through.
Some of the photographs have proverbs from ethnic groups that reflect both traditional (“A man without a wife is an orphan”) and sustainable viewpoints (“Don’t catch all the fish in the lake, leave some for your children”).
I particularly liked “A happily living person is the one who has good clothes” – although I suspect it relates more to a warm coat and good boots than this year’s must-have jacket.
Flora, fauna and the Gulag
A good jacket and boots were essential to those other residents of Siberia who did not want to be there – the political exiles and victims of the Stalinist purges. Siberia housed some of the worst Gulag camps and their inmates mined minerals and built most of the region’s roads, cities and factories in appalling conditions. Their role is recognised in the Never Forget section.
In many respects, the show presents what you would expect to see in a snapshot of a country; the people and their tools and crafts, the minerals found there, including reindeer and mammoth bones, the weird fish in Lake Baikal (a World Heritage Site), the flora and fauna. What is less explicit, but does emerge from the storyline, is the theme of connectivity, past and present.
The fur trade (furs were known as soft gold) began in the 16th century and attracted the English and other Europeans to trade with Russia. As Russia colonised Siberia and expanded its industry, it attracted western specialists and dynastic and aristocratic ties were sealed with gifts from the wealth of Siberia.
The huge block of the mineral malachite housing a clock and bronze of Peter the Great, a gift to the Duke of Devonshire from Nicholas I in 1844, illustrates this.
Moving on to today, the exhibition states that there is more carbon locked away in the Siberian permafrost than there is CO2 in the atmosphere. This shows that the problem of global warming is one that affects all of us. Siberia is also vulnerable to insensitive mineral extraction and illegal deforestation.
These need global solutions and Russia’s continuing cavalier attitude to the environment and increasing isolation do not help. The work of Unesco in protecting Lake Baikal and running Nomadic schools is also important.
I would have liked to see more on the lives of today’s city dwellers and the thriving arts scene in places such as Krasnoyarsk. And I’m also not sure that the assertion that Siberia shaped Russian identity completely stood up. Serfdom, Pushkin, Tolstoy, Russian orthodoxy, communism and the Great Patriotic War have equal claims to shaping the nebulous concept that is the Russian soul.
No-show for Masha
Also, for those who wanted to follow up there was little in the shop to buy. A few copies of Colin Thubron’s In Siberia and Jonathan Dimbleby’s Russia would have helped. I am sure that the collaborating Siberian museums could have provided some wooden toy souvenirs for the UK market.
Sadly, one of the stars of the show, Masha the baby mammoth, which was found preserved in the Siberian permafrost, did not arrive in time. The Zoological Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg was keen for the loan to proceed but it appears both it and the Manchester Museum were given unrealistic deadlines by the UK and Russian governments.
Nevertheless, the exhibition was always about more than mammoths and overall it delivers an excellent primer on the region. As political relations between the west and Russia grow colder, the Manchester Museum and its Russian partners are to be congratulated on highlighting a place that is central to Russia’s fate and whose future matters to us all.
Mark Suggitt is the director of Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site
We have all heard of Siberia, either through Russian literature, history or cold war spy movies. It’s the place of revolutionary exiles, gulag camps, extreme climate, frozen mammoths and vast oil reserves.
This exhibition is the result of collaboration with Russian museums and aims to look beyond the stereotypical view and reveal the true Siberia. These preconceptions are neatly illustrated in a film on the Manchester Museum’s website that includes comments from people about what they associate with Siberia.
“Cold”, “snow and ice” and “wasteland” are among the answers. Given that Siberia accounts for 77% of the modern Russian Federation and on its own would be the world’s largest country, there has to be more to it than this. It also holds 80% of Russia’s oil, gas and coal reserves and more than 40% of its timber. Without it, Russia would soon be bankrupt.
Walking into the museum on a cold, if not exactly Arctic, day I’m greeted by a large Siberian bear that “guides” me into the show. The entrance is an atmospheric space lined with birch trunks and exhibiting a slideshow of the different peoples of Siberia.
There is a “Welcome to Siberia” in the different languages spoken here. A range of maps shows just how big it is.
The introduction panel lays out the basic facts of landscape and climate, asserts that Siberia has shaped Russian national identity and states its intention to challenge the stereotypical view of the territory. This is quite a tall order for what is a relatively small exhibition.
The exhibition looks good. It is broken down into themes such as People of the Arctic, the Taiga Forest and the Steppe. All the artefacts are cased and surrounded by supporting graphics, moving images and many large, beautiful photographs.
There is the familiar but popular touch panel to stroke bear, wolf and reindeer skin.
A silent video shows the seasons on the tundra, whose star is a wonderfully observant toddler. The storyline text is clear and never exceeds 250 words. The surrounding surfaces are painted in pale grey, green and ochre, which allow the artefacts to shine through.
Some of the photographs have proverbs from ethnic groups that reflect both traditional (“A man without a wife is an orphan”) and sustainable viewpoints (“Don’t catch all the fish in the lake, leave some for your children”).
I particularly liked “A happily living person is the one who has good clothes” – although I suspect it relates more to a warm coat and good boots than this year’s must-have jacket.
Flora, fauna and the Gulag
A good jacket and boots were essential to those other residents of Siberia who did not want to be there – the political exiles and victims of the Stalinist purges. Siberia housed some of the worst Gulag camps and their inmates mined minerals and built most of the region’s roads, cities and factories in appalling conditions. Their role is recognised in the Never Forget section.
In many respects, the show presents what you would expect to see in a snapshot of a country; the people and their tools and crafts, the minerals found there, including reindeer and mammoth bones, the weird fish in Lake Baikal (a World Heritage Site), the flora and fauna. What is less explicit, but does emerge from the storyline, is the theme of connectivity, past and present.
The fur trade (furs were known as soft gold) began in the 16th century and attracted the English and other Europeans to trade with Russia. As Russia colonised Siberia and expanded its industry, it attracted western specialists and dynastic and aristocratic ties were sealed with gifts from the wealth of Siberia.
The huge block of the mineral malachite housing a clock and bronze of Peter the Great, a gift to the Duke of Devonshire from Nicholas I in 1844, illustrates this.
Moving on to today, the exhibition states that there is more carbon locked away in the Siberian permafrost than there is CO2 in the atmosphere. This shows that the problem of global warming is one that affects all of us. Siberia is also vulnerable to insensitive mineral extraction and illegal deforestation.
These need global solutions and Russia’s continuing cavalier attitude to the environment and increasing isolation do not help. The work of Unesco in protecting Lake Baikal and running Nomadic schools is also important.
I would have liked to see more on the lives of today’s city dwellers and the thriving arts scene in places such as Krasnoyarsk. And I’m also not sure that the assertion that Siberia shaped Russian identity completely stood up. Serfdom, Pushkin, Tolstoy, Russian orthodoxy, communism and the Great Patriotic War have equal claims to shaping the nebulous concept that is the Russian soul.
No-show for Masha
Also, for those who wanted to follow up there was little in the shop to buy. A few copies of Colin Thubron’s In Siberia and Jonathan Dimbleby’s Russia would have helped. I am sure that the collaborating Siberian museums could have provided some wooden toy souvenirs for the UK market.
Sadly, one of the stars of the show, Masha the baby mammoth, which was found preserved in the Siberian permafrost, did not arrive in time. The Zoological Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg was keen for the loan to proceed but it appears both it and the Manchester Museum were given unrealistic deadlines by the UK and Russian governments.
Nevertheless, the exhibition was always about more than mammoths and overall it delivers an excellent primer on the region. As political relations between the west and Russia grow colder, the Manchester Museum and its Russian partners are to be congratulated on highlighting a place that is central to Russia’s fate and whose future matters to us all.
Mark Suggitt is the director of Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site
Project data
- Cost £50,000
- Main funders Manchester Museum; NERC
- Curators Dmitri Logunov; David Gelsthorpe
- Exhibition design Redman Design
- Exhibition ends 1 March