History in Wood

Abstract

This chapter turns to other types of material objects that were capable of performing history: timber buildings associated with cultural heritage and historical ship replicas. The last three decades of the Soviet Union evidenced a fast growth in the number of heritage sites related to traditional wooden architecture. The chapter examines the museumification of old architecture as a process that was similar to the scale modeling hobby in its politics, but stimulated the nationalist understanding of Soviet history in its Romantic, rather than Techno-Utopian, interpretation. In particular, the chapter shows how wood, a traditional building material, became a symbol that objectified the “deep cultural roots” of Soviet society and served, because of its texture, as a living witness of its authentic history.