‘Where History Is’: An Events Listing for Living History
Crafts master classes, fencing sessions, and folk singing lessons—discover these and much more on the Where History Is website created by Maria Ukolova, Project Head of the Youth Policy Laboratory at HSE University. Maria spoke to the HSE News Service about the new project.
About the Website
The project is dedicated to supporting and developing a community of professional historians and lovers of history, archaeology, and ethnography. Its aim is to help create tourism infrastructure around Russia’s cultural and historical sites. The website, which was created with the support of HSE University, is a practical implementation of the mission of the Archaenomics: The Economics of Heritage programme, which we are implementing in accordance with the order issued by President Putin.
Archaenomics (website in Russian) is a platform for supporting projects and initiatives related to Russian history, to the revival, study, and popularisation of historical heritage. The project is being implemented by HSE University, the Agency for Strategic Initiatives, and the Russian Military Historical Society.
Origins of the Project
My academic specialisation is the philosophy of history. I have always been interested in the relationship between people and historical memory, the nature of historical memory and how it forms, and what it influences in human activity. That’s one side of it. The other is my hobby. I am quite closely connected to the living history space, with historical reconstruction and ethnography. And I could not understand why so few people are involved in this field, which has huge cultural and economic potential. I wanted to share its riches with as wide a group of people as possible because, in my opinion, there is an especially high demand for identity right now. People want to understand, to find their roots. And this is what Archaenomics is about.
In Summer 2023, we presented this project to the president at the Strong Ideas for a New Time forum and managed to receive his support. It has been just over a year since we started working to implement our idea. We currently have five people working on the Where History Is website.
Target Audience
The website is aimed at the widest possible audience—it is essentially a listing of events related to living history. You can find a timetable of crafts masterclasses suitable for young and old alike. There is information about activities and sports related to our historical heritage, about fencing sessions, folk singing classes, ethnography and more. There is such a wide range that there’s no limit to the target audience. We also really want the site to be used by people who create and run such events with elements of live history, that they are interested in the website as a work tool.
The project’s partners also include the Russian Znanie society, the All-Russia Historical Medieval Battle Society, the Vechny Gorod legal company, the Museum of Military History, the Polye Brani festival, and the Soyuz international public organisation.