The Attempts at Establishing a "Revolution Museum" During the Time of Atatürk
Betül BatırDuring the beginning of preparations for the 10th anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye, political and intellectual circles proposed the idea of establishing a museum that would exhibit the 10-year course of the revolutions in Türkiye by taking advantage of the possibilities contemporary museology had brought to the agenda. Upon adopting this idea, attempts were initiated to establish a revolution museum, for which a Committee of Museums was formed. The committee was requested to have the Republic’s first 10 years of struggle depicted in the planned museum. The committee members were knowledgeable about history and museology but had different ways of viewing the idea of the revolution. The desire was to also have the Revolution Museum be created similar to the Ankara People’s House. This study discusses the efforts at establishing the Revolution Museum that had been designed to be established in 1933 based on its counterparts in Russia, Germany, and Italy as well as the various arguments and opinions concerning the museum and the reasons for why it had failed. The subject and focus of this study are the Revolution Museum. The article mainly used the archival documents of the period, newspaper and journal news, and the minutes from Parliament in its writing, while also examining other sources.
Atatürk Döneminde “İnkılâp Müzesi” Kurulması Girişimleri
Betül BatırCumhuriyet’in onuncu yıldönümü hazırlıklarının başladığı günlerde politik ve aydın çevreler tarafından ortaya bir fikir atılmıştı. Çağdaş müzeciliğin imkânlarından yararlanılarak, Türkiye’de gerçekleşen inkılâpların on yıllık seyrini gösteren bir müze kurulması fikri gündeme gelmişti. Bu fikir benimsenerek bir “İnkılâp Müzesi” kurulması için girişimlere başlanmış ve bir Müzeler Komitesi oluşturulmuştu. Komiteden istenen, kurulması planlanan müzede cumhuriyetin ilk on yıllık mücadelesinin tasvir edilmesiydi. Ancak tarih ve müzecilik konularında bilgi sahibi olan komite üyelerinin inkılâp düşüncesine bakışlarında farklılıklar vardı. Komite üyelerinin fikir ayrılıkları müzenin kurulmasını engelledi. “İnkılâp Müzesi” buna benzer şekliyle Ankara Halkevi tarafından da oluşturulmak istendi. Bu çalışmada 1933’te oluşturulması tasarlanan İnkılâp Müzesi’nin Rusya, Almanya ve İtalya’daki benzerleri örnek alınarak kurulma çabaları, çeşitli tartışmalar ve görüş farklılıkları ile müzenin kurulamamasının nedenleri ele alınmıştır. Çalışmanın konusu ve odak noktası İnkılâp Müzesi olup, müzelerin genel tarihine değinilmemiştir. Makalenin yazımında ağırlıklı olarak dönemin arşiv belgeleri, gazete-dergi haberleri ve meclis tutanakları kullanılmış ve ayrıca diğer kaynaklardan da yararlanılmıştır.
While beginning the preparations for the 10th anniversary of Türkiye, political and intellectual circles proposed the newly emerging idea to establish a museum exhibiting the 10-year course of the revolutions that had taken place in Türkiye by making use of the possibilities of contemporary museology. Upon adopting this idea, attempts were initiated to establish a revolution museum. In fact, the Istanbul Municipality had initiated some local activities regarding this issue in previous years. However, officials had a more comprehensive concept for the Revolution Museum in mind compared to these previous activities. Although all the necessary artifacts for the museum were available, these were understood to be insufficient for inaugurating what would be a well-established museum. Thus, the need to have experts who’d been trained according to the museum discipline clearly came before these artifacts.
As a result, the politicians and bureaucrats had no choice but to assign an authorized commission specifically for this job, upon which the Committee of Museums was formed to establish the Revolution Museum. The members of this committee consisted of names such as Kadro journal’s editor Şevket Süreyya Aydemir, Foreign Ministry Advisor and Secretary General of the Balkan Union Abdülhak Şinasi Hisar, historian Enver Behnan Şapolyo, Sami Çölgeçen, and Hamit Zübeyir Koşay. The missions the state officials expected from the museum were to keep the revolutionary movements alive, to revive their vital aspects, and to display the 10-year-old history using examples. The museum committee was requested to illustrate almost 10 years of flowing history in the museum. However, the committee members, who were the leading figures in terms of history and museology, had different views toward the idea of revolution. Another issue upon which they were unable to agree was whether to include the Tanzimat Reform Era or the Turkish National Struggle period as the historical starting point of the Revolution Museum. All these expectations and disagreements from the committee members prevented them from establishing the museum.
Revolution museums had emerged as products of the new states and ideologies established after the revolutions. Considered as places of promotion, history, memory, and evidence collection, revolution museums are definable as places built as archives,research centers, educational institutions, and propaganda tools in the world states that had undergone ideological and structural revolution at the beginning of the 20th century.
Revolution museums feature more their educational functions than their exhibiting and preserving ones. These museums reflect cultural and modern developments of a nation as well as its vital struggles against its enemies in history. Thus, they have made important contributions to the field of public education both in Türkiye and the world. Şevket Süreyya (Aydemir) Bey also expressed this feature of revolution museums in his report from August 27, 1933. The four-page report lists information, documents, maps, photographs, tables, materials etc. about the Battle of Sakarya exhibit planned in the museum, after which he stated how this hall would instruct visitors about the Battle of Sakarya.
The Revolution Museum would finally come into existence in 1939 after Atatürk’s death, when the house where Atatürk had lived in Şişli, Istanbul was opened to the public as a museum. In addition, the Institute of Turkish Revolution History in affiliation with Ankara University Faculty of Language, History, and Geography was opened during the time when Hasan Ali Yücel was the Minister of Education. The Revolution History Museum was also established in Ankara in 1942 within the body of the Turkish Revolution History Institute. The materials that had been collected for the Revolution Museum planned in Ankara before were given to the Turkish Revolution History Institute in 1943.
The Revolution Museum had been intended to be created similar to the Ankara People’s House. This study will address the efforts to establish a revolution museum whose idea had been put forward in 1933; the criticisms, different views, and discussions of the examples of revolution museums in Russia and Italy; the attempts to establish a similar model of revolution museum; and the reasons why the museum had failed to be established. As sources, this article utilized the archival materials, newspapers, journals and official reports of the period.
