objects and relics of the past attached to the People's Commissariat of Education was instituted by the High State Committee of Education May 28th, 1918. The object of the Section in charge of museums, preservation of art treasures and relics of the past attached to the People’s Commissariat of Education, is the finding of ways and means towards the creation of conditions favorable to the growth of Russian museums.
In addition to this task it is also the Section's duty to take care and apply measures for the preservation of art objects and relics of the past.
The immediate problem confronting the Section is the mapping out of the standing types of museums and carrying this plan into effect through reorganization of the existing museums and establishment of new ones. Also, the Section's task is the unification of activities of individual museums, introduction of a well-defined system into their activity, drawing up of general principles governing the State's museum policy and carrying it out into execution. Each year the Section presents a general museum plan and a common museum estimate, completed in conformity with reports and suggestions submitted by all museums and elaborating it by corrections and supplements necessary from the point of view of general State interest.
The Section intends to devote its foremost attention to the question of museum accessions. Preserving for the museums their right of purchase at their own initiative, within the limits of annual estimate appropriations, the Section advances the idea of creating a National Museum Fund which would enable us to obtain, on a large scale, individual works as well as complete collections, in full conformity with the needs of individual museums, as well as of the whole museum undertaking, thus putting an end to the mutual competition among the museums, so detrimental to the interests of the State.
In connection with this there also ought to function special exhibition places of the Museum Fund, wherein the Section's accessions might be subjected to a free valuation and criticism by the whole people.
There should be established an institute of "Correspondents," reporting to the Section on the condition of market, auctions, sales, possible accessions, and generally speaking, about everything pertaining to museum art; also there should be estab-50
