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Research Work

The research work of the Museum-Reserve, as well as its activity, is determined by the concept of the Museum development called “Open Air Novel”. This brings out the main idea, the essence of our work.

At present, the Museum-Reserve is a unified system of memorial, historical, ethnographic and natural sights. All that M.A. Sholokhov described in his books, particularly in the novel “And Quiet Flows the Don”, can be seen not only at the exhibitions of the Museum-Reserve. The villages and stanitsas bearing the features of the former appearance, Cossack life traditions, familiar landscapes of the unique Don nature and the famous river, – all these form the surroundings for the Museum to develop and create new pages of the living book, where one can feel a vibrant breathing of Sholokhov’s earth preserving love for people, traditions, and for the writer. All these make a unique “open air novel”.

The main subjects of the Museum research work can be defined as a complex study in the life and work of M.A. Sholokhov, Cossack history and culture, natural landscape of the Museum-Reserve.

The research work is grounded on the Museum collections, memorial sites, monuments of history, culture and nature located in the area of the Museum-Reserve.

The scientific research developments carried out by the museum workers result in the scientific product of the Museum-Reserve:
1) scientific information materials;
2) passports of scientific description of the museum items;
3) catalogues of the museum collection;
4) materials used for setting up expositions and exhibitions;
5) texts for excursions and tour itineraries;
6) scientific articles;
7) books of collected papers, proceedings of scientific and practical conferences, and chronicles;
8) books about the history, main areas and prospects of the Museum-Reserve work.

The Museum-Reserve regularly holds international scientific and practical conferences “Modern Studies in the Work of M.A.Sholokhov: Approaches, Concepts, Problems” (“Sholokhov Readings”) and “Museum-Reserve: Environment and Culture”, which attract attention of the leading scholars. Their materials are published in the books “Vyoshensky Vestnik” (from 2001) and “Museum-Reserve: Environment and Culture” (from 2004).

The Museum-Reserve cooperates with different scientific institutions: the Moscow M. Gorky Institute of the World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), the Botanic V.L. Komarov Institute of the RAS, the Zoological Institute of the RAS, the Moscow Lomonosov State University, the South Federal University, the Moscow M.A. Sholokhov State Humanitarian University, the Russian D.S. Likhachov Institute of the Cultural and Natural Heritage, and others.