Between State and Church

This article examines the controversial relations between the museum and the Church in post-Soviet Russia. The study and detailed analysis of past experience pertaining to those relations are essential if a way is to be found for the museums and the Church to work together going forward. The conflict between Church and museum that is grounded in the apportioning of church property is characteristic of both Russia and other countries formerly in the Soviet sphere of influence. St. Sampson's Cathedral, a unique historical and architectural monument of the first half of the eighteenth century, was a test case for a policy of fruitful, conflict-free coexistence between a museum and a functioning place of worship.