The History of Bukhara and the Work of the Bukhara Museum of Local Lore in the Archive of R.B. Kansky

The article is a brief overview of never-before-published materials on Central Asia (Bukhara) of various kinds, which are contained in the archive of Rostislav Kansky. Rostislav Borisovich Kansky (1906–1948) was repressed in 1938 and after imprisonment in 1943 he ended up in Central Asia, where he organized the exposition and the current museum of local lore in Bukhara (in the Ark fortress, since 1983 – the Bukhara State Museum), which was moved to the Ark fortress in 1945. R.B. Kansky served as Deputy Director of the museum for scientific work. Archive of R.B. Kansky’s collection, now kept at the Center of Islamic Manuscripts of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, contains documents related to the history and culture of Central Asia, including the project of the thematic and exposition plan of the museum, information on the history of Bukhara in the 19th – 20th centuries, documents relat-ed to the material culture of Central Asia (sketches of archaeological finds and excavation plans), ethnographic notes, unfinished work on the problems of aesthetics and style of Kamal-al-Din Behzad (1455–1535), a detailed plan of the monograph dedicated to this artist, as well as the remaining unpublished materials on miniature painting of Central Asia of the 13th – 17th centuries. Scientific heritage of R.B. Kansky’s research related to the activities of the museum in Bukhara and his research in the field of art history in Central Asia remains practically unexplored and is only now beginning to be introduced into scientific circulation.