Ventura, Soviet Museums Plan Rare Alliance : Culture: Officials of the institutions expect to trade exhibits by mid-1991. The agreement was reached in three days.

In an unusual coup for a relatively small museum, the Ventura County Museum of History & Art on Wednesday became the first institution in the Western world to form an exchange alliance with the much-larger State Museum of History in the Soviet city of Leningrad.

The agreement, signed Wednesday, was made possible by glasnost , the Soviet Union’s policy of cultural and artistic openness, said Eugeni G. Grishko, deputy director of the million-item Leningrad institution, and Ed Robings, executive director of the Ventura County museum, which is located on Main Street in downtown Ventura.

“It happened very fast,” Robings said. “I had dinner with Mr. Grishko and his wife, Helen, Monday night. By Wednesday morning, we were ready to sign.”

By mid-1991, Robings and Grishko announced, the first exchange of exhibits between the two museums will take place.

Leningrad, the second-largest city in the Soviet Union, has a population of 5 million--about nine times that of all of Ventura County.

Robings said he believed that the Soviet museum was willing to form an alliance with its smaller counterpart in Ventura County “because we can offer them flexibility. A larger museum such as the Getty takes years to arrive at such major decisions and to arrange for exhibit exchanges.”

The Ventura director said he expects to exhibit such Leningrad holdings as costumes of the Romanovs and other czars, a silver desk set given to Premier Josef Stalin by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and paintings by Soviet artists.

“After they have been exhibited here, we may help arrange tours of the collections to other parts of the United States,” Robings said.

Grishko said he is anxious to borrow such Ventura County holdings as a collection of costumed figures representing czars and other world leaders created by Ojai artist George Stuart.

Besides exchanging their own exhibits, the institutions agreed to help arrange loans from other museums in their countries and to arrange visits by artists, writers and historians.

Robings said he will seek funds for the program from, among other sources, “several Ventura County companies that are now entering into new business arrangements in the Soviet Union.” He said funds will also be sought from service clubs and the National Endowment for the Arts.

As an example of how quickly they plan to act, the two executives announced Wednesday that their institutions will exchange collections of rare historic photographs next year.

“We will probably include among those we send to Leningrad a group of photos we received last summer from the descendants of Adolfo Camarillo,” Robings said. “The pictures trace the development of Ventura County from its earliest agricultural days to the present.”

Grishko, whose wife served as his interpreter during a press conference at the Ventura museum Wednesday, said that, in return, he will probably send photos dating back to pre-revolutionary days. Robings said he expected the Soviet collection to include photographs of the 900-day Battle of Leningrad, one of the bloodiest episodes of World War II.

“We’re also anxious to borrow a collection of artifacts of California Chumash Indians that is currently housed in Leningrad,” Robings added. “It will be coming full circle, since it relates to people who lived here more than 200 years ago.”

The Leningrad museum is in the historic Peter and Paul Fortress, a former cathedral.

Also attending the press conference was Joanne Kubelka of Simi Valley, publisher of MotorSports International, who first brought Robings and Grishko together. Kubelka said she met Helen Grishko recently while visiting Leningrad to arrange to have an edition of her magazine published there.