| Ambivalence towards Soviet history has led to museums taking a cautious approach to tackling the centenary head-on.
Tsar Nicholas II and his son, Alexei. A show about the ill-fated family will take place at the Hermitage (Image: © GARF; the State Archive of the Russian Federation)
The centenary of the Russian Revolution is being commemorated this year by major museums in Europe and the US. The Royal Academy of Arts in London, for example, is hosting a show (until 17 April), with loans from Russia, which examines the extraordinary creativity that followed the revolution and lasted until Stalin’s brutal regime clamped down on all forms of creative expression. Meanwhile, the Museum of Modern Art in New York has drawn on its collection to tell the story of the Russian avant-garde (until 12 March).