The creation of a virtual Museum of Slavic Cultures as an essential task for modern Slavistics

The article highlights the need to create a virtual Museum of Slavic Cultures. In our time of rapid digitalization of various spheres of life, this need seems to be obvious. The Museum’s materials concerning cultures of Eastern and Southern Slavs from ancient times to the present day are to be posted on the websites of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Ghent University not only in Russian, but also in English as it is the most common language in the world, with about 1,5 bln speakers. This will allow for a breakthrough in the dissemination of knowledge about Slavic cultures in non-Slavic environments. The Museum’s collections will not duplicate the materials available in numerous specialized encyclopedias, handbooks and on Wikipedia. Articles for the Museum will be written by the finest specialists working today, who will be able to build an accurate cultural landscape of the Slavic world, without overloading the visitors with secondary and unnecessary facts. The author proposes as optimal a three-part structure for the Museum’s articles, which, accompanied by visual materials, will be able to satisfy a wide variety of interests and tastes of visitors to the future Museum.