Gbuk ro Taganrog State Literary Museum. Literary and historical-architectural museum-reserve

The Taganrog Literary, Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve (TGLIAMZ) is one of the largest museum complexes in the Rostov Region. It consists of 7 different museums that are dedicated to the history and culture of the city of Taganrog, the life and work of the great Russian writer A.P. Chekhov.

The history of the museum-reserve began in 1981, when a government decree was issued on the merger of the Taganrog Museum of Local Lore and the Taganrog Literary Museum of A.P. Chekhov. The current museum complex was formed in the early 2000s, and includes 7 museums and 30 historical objects related to the city of Taganrog and the life of A.P. Chekhov.

Currently, the museum-reserves contain unique stock collections - historical monuments, photographic materials and documents, handwritten books and antique publications, household items and much more. Scientific conferences, various seminars, Russian and international symposiums are held on the territory of the reserve.

The Taganrog Museum of Local Lore is one of the oldest museums in the south of Russia. Today it is part of the museum association "Taganrog State Literary and Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve", formed in 1983 and including seven museums.

Before turning to the history of the creation of the local history museum in the city, it is necessary to say about Taganrog itself. Founded by Peter I in 1698, the first Russian sea harbor with the original name of the Trinity Fortress on Tagan-Rog (from the Turkic “Noticeable Cape”) by 1709 already had 10 thousand inhabitants. However, unsuccessful battles with the Turks forced the Russian Tsar to return the Trinity Fortress on Tagan-Rog to Turkey. Peter I ordered "to destroy the city as widely as possible, but without spoiling its foundation, for God will turn otherwise." In February 1712, the last Russian soldier left the fortress. Restoration of the returned citadel began in the middle of the 18th century. Under Catherine II, Taganrog, having lost the status of a military fortress, gained fame as one of the largest trading ports in southern Russia.

The history of museum construction in the city is connected with the name of Emperor Alexander I. The mysterious and unexpected death of the Tsar-Liberator of Europe in Taganrog on November 19, 1825 still attracts the keen interest of historians.

The house in which the emperor died was bought from the city by Elizaveta Alekseevna, the widow of Alexander I, and since 1826 became the first memorial museum in Russia. The caretaker of the Palace in Taganrog, provided for by the "staffing" of the Ministry of the Imperial Court, preserved and maintained the atmosphere of the memorial.

Alferaki A. I.,
Mayor of Taganrog
in 1880-1888 1882

Chekhov A.P.,
early 1900s

Rapidly growing and developing in the 19th century, the city has its own theater since 1827, becoming the second city in Russia in which an Italian opera troupe constantly existed. By the end of the century, a whole network of educational institutions with free and universal primary education was formed in Taganrog. There was an idea to create a pedagogical museum. Mayor A.N. Alferaki and his successor P.F. Yordanov, taking into account the positive attitude of the townspeople to this idea and the approaching 200th anniversary of the city, managed (with the support of A.P. Chekhov) on June 22, 1898 to achieve the desired decision in the City Duma . This day is considered to be the founding date of the Taganrog Museum of Local Lore. The profile, direction and structure of the emerging museum was determined by A.P. Chekhov. He also proposed to place it in a majestic building belonging to the city and call it Petrovsky.

After the revolution, all the museums of the city repeatedly tried to unite. The memorial museum of Alexander I was destroyed, some of the exhibits of which were saved in the funds of the museum of local lore. In the early 1920s, museums received art objects from estates and mansions, later from the State Museum Fund, the Russian Museum and the State Museum of Ceramics. In 1930, the City Museum was renamed the Taganrog Museum of Local Lore. By the end of the 1930s, his collections, which included prominent figures in literature, art and science (A.P. Chekhov, K.A. Savitsky, the Miller brothers, I.Ya. Pavlovsky and many others), numbered nineteen half a thousand items of storage, taking into account the book fund.

Central street of Taganrog
during the days of the German occupation,
summer 1942

Bench in the city garden
with the inscription "Only for the Germans",
1942-1943

Fragment of the exposition of local history
museum during the years of occupation,
1942-1943

Order of the burgomaster of Taganrog
on the provision of paintings from the museum
at the disposal of the general
November 26, 1941

Hood. N. P. Bogdanov-Belsky.
Dying peasant. 1893

The war, which began on June 22, 1941, from the first days affected the life of the seaside city, whose economy since the end of the 30s was mainly focused on defense orders. The city smelted steel, built airplanes, produced heavy motorcycles, and sewed uniforms. And from the first days of the war, civilian enterprises also switched to the production of military products. When the front began to rapidly approach the city, the local leadership, naturally, was concerned about the speedy evacuation of industrial enterprises. By October 15, 1941, up to 75% of equipment, products, factories and valuables were taken out of Taganrog, most of the workers were evacuated. To send museums to the east, the city authorities have no options left.

A desperate attempt to save objects from precious metals was made by the director of the museum, K. I. Chistoserdov. A week before the arrival of the invaders, he took with him a collection of valuable items for evacuation and officially handed them over to the Kabardino-Balkarian Museum of Local Lore in Nalchik. A year later, Nalchik was occupied by the Germans, the museum was severely plundered. (In response to a request from the Taganrog Museum about the fate of their exhibits from Nalchik in June 1944, they reported that they had been stolen during the German occupation.)

October 17, 1941 German tanks broke into Taganrog. Its occupation lasted 683 days.

The "new order" of the German authorities in the occupied "Eastern" territories is widely known. The Burgomistrat organizes the management of the city economy, the Ortskomendatura controls all events, special structures levy taxes (on dogs, bicycles, skis, handcarts and spectacles). Employees of the Burgomistrat carefully check textbooks for schools, books of libraries and shops. The library of the museum is also subjected to censorship, from which “Bolshevik” literature was confiscated. The monument to Peter the Great by M. Antokolsky, removed in 1924 and saved from being melted down by the museum workers, was returned to the city. According to available documents, in the first days of the occupation, museums were robbed by local residents and German soldiers. Along with paintings, icons, porcelain, an archaeological collection and numismatics, items from the consumer goods exhibition were stolen.

The acting director of the museum V. M. Bazilevich reported to the new authorities: “... during the days of the flight of the Bolsheviks and the occupation of the city by the German army, the museum remained without official protection for several days. Taking advantage of this, persons outside the museum repeatedly, by breaking the locks, entered the museum, scattered and damaged its exhibits and stole a number of items. During this period, the collection of paintings suffered especially: “up to 30 paintings were torn off the stretchers, 25 of them were stolen.” Among the stolen works, paintings by I. N. Kramskoy, E. F. Krendovsky, I. A. Pelevin, A. P. Bogolyubov, Ya. Ya. Weber and others were found.

On November 20, 1941, the German authorities issued a safe-conduct to the museum in order to prevent theft. The Germans knew that Professor Bazilevich was fruitfully engaged in scientific activities, published 45 books, including the well-known works "Griboyedov in Ukraine" and "Honoré de Balzac in Ukraine", which in 1927 was subjected to repression. In 1939, after a second five-year stay in the Far Eastern camps, he settled at the direction of the authorities in Taganrog.

With great difficulty, he, a world-famous scientist, managed to get a job as an employee of the local history museum. In just one year of service in the museum, he prepared twenty works. Among them: "Pushkin and Taganrog", "Decembrists and Taganrog".

The director of the museum, Chistoserdov, who was leaving for the evacuation, recommended Bazilevich for the role of the person responsible for the preservation of funds. In November 1941, the German authorities appointed him director of the museum. Mayor of Taganrog Kulik issued stern recommendations to the new leader: “You are obliged to strictly follow all orders of the city government or its departments and not allow any activities that would run counter to the interests of the urban population and the German armed forces.”

Bazilevich served as director for eight months, until June 1942. In his report addressed to the burgomaster, he reported that the museum premises had been put in order and the main losses of the exhibits had been identified. The art gallery, the memorial room of Emperor Alexander I and the department "Old Taganrog" underwent a radical reorganization. A detailed check of the availability and condition of the exhibits was carried out, and a scientific inventory was started. The museum has been replenished with a number of art exhibits, including works by local artists. The report notes that the museum remains closed to the general public in accordance with the instructions of the burgomaster and commandant's office. It was visited daily by members of the German and Romanian armies.

In winter, the museum premises were not heated, so some of the exhibits had to be moved to the storage facility. But on June 22, 1942, on the anniversary of the start of the war with Russia, the invaders held a reception for officers in the museum. Theater actors and a German brass band gave concerts in the Museum's Double-height Hall, famous for its excellent acoustics. A cafe "only for Germans" was opened on the courtyard terrace. Other residents were admitted later. Increasingly, the German command began to use the halls of the museum for ceremonial entertainment. In the city there were headquarters of quartered German units and intelligence services, hospitals, rest homes for soldiers and officers. The German command obliged the city authorities to organize appropriate leisure for the valiant soldiers of the Wehrmacht.

The museum was ordered to organize a number of exhibitions, including those of local artists. The Novoye Slovo newspaper wrote about one of these exhibitions: “Eleven Taganrog artists responded to the call of the propaganda department of the German army and city government to participate in the exhibition that opened in the halls of the city museum ... The exhibition met with a warm welcome from the public. On the first day it was visited by up to 700 people. A number of paintings were purchased by the German command and administration of the city for placement in the halls of the museum. Persons of the German command visited the exhibition and gave very flattering reviews about it and ordered a number of portraits from the artists Skorciletti and Ryasnyansky. The venerable artist Ms. Blonskaya-Leontovskaya, who visited the exhibition on the day of its opening, presented the city with two of her best canvases: "Girls" ("Palm Sunday") and a portrait of the notary Blonsky - the father of the artist by her husband Leontovsky - a famous portrait painter of the aristocratic circles of St. Petersburg of the period 1900-1914". If this exhibition presented works of different genres, then in the exposition, which opened on August 1, 1943, portraits of Hitler occupied an exceptional place. The museum gradually turned into a free “antiquities shop” for high-ranking occupiers. Increasingly, the museum management begins to receive cynical orders and instructions from the burgomaster: - to provide several paintings to decorate the general's apartment (seven paintings were provided); - to transfer four paintings for the headquarters of the Gestapo; - two pictures for the security police and the SD; - two paintings for Special Team No. 10 ... Among the paintings that have left the museum are the works of Bogolyubov, Vasilkovsky, Krylov, Makovsky, copies of unknown artists of the 19th century from paintings by Correggio, Rafael Santi. In mid-June 1942, when General Recknagel was honored, the hero of the day was presented with an old pistol from the museum's collection as a souvenir. The passion for "collecting" ancient weapons from the museum's funds was shown by the chief of police, Kirsanov. During 1942, the personal collection of the “new order” guard was replenished with: “pistol No. 137 (flintlock, dilapidated); blade number 118, (hilt with bone); blade No. 114 (forged, silver)."

Items were also withdrawn from the museum's funds for the practice of Orthodox rituals permitted for propaganda purposes. In particular, in January 1942, seven icons, gonfalons, and other church accessories were confiscated for the St. Nicholas Church. Later, icons, chandeliers, icon cases, banners and other church utensils were sent to the same church. For the arrangement of an Orthodox house on the street. Chekhov, 101 priest Suslenkov received from the museum: “1. Two pair of copper candlesticks for two candles each (Inv. No. 277, 278). 2. The censer is copper, only the lid and part of the chain, damaged, have survived (Inv. No. 339). 3. Metal glasses, fragé, 2 pcs. (Inventory No. 134,135). 4. Frame with glass from the icon. 5. A piece of red satin fabric with a gilded fringe (No. 569)." The fact of receipt is certified by the corresponding receipt of the priest Suslenkov.

On August 1, 1942, the museum building was occupied by the headquarters of the German command. The entire exhibition was urgently curtailed within eight hours. After the staff officers left, the museum staff discovered that “some items from the collection have disappeared. The archaeological department, Durov's corner, etc., suffered.

Museum staff, risking their lives, tried to preserve the most valuable items in the collection, providing works of little art at the request of the authorities. Unfortunately, this didn't always work out. The burgomaster was adamant in his zeal to please the German authorities, he returned things of little value and demanded that they be replaced with more “worthy” ones. The passion for embellishment at the expense of the museum's funds from the "fathers" of the city and their owners no longer knew boundaries. Commandant Captain Alberti tried by his order to stop the rampant lovers of "beautiful" art. The consequences of this step do not lend themselves to archival verification. According to a denunciation, items belonging to the museum were found in the house of V. M. Bazilevich, which served as a basis to accuse the former director of theft and sentence him to death. It was most likely a demonstrative and intimidating act of the invaders. According to the act signed by the director of the museum, supply manager, accountant and curator, two silver icons, 26 different coins, rubles of the reign of Paul I, Nicholas I and Alexander I, a purse for silver coins, 25 library books, 10 seals, were found and confiscated from Bazilevich. an act on the delivery of valuables during the evacuation, an inventory of numismatics, seals and other items.

In February 1943, after the victory of the Soviet troops at Stalingrad, the front began to rapidly approach Taganrog. The Propaganda Department of the VI Panzer Regiment, ahead of the special services of the Operational Headquarters of the Reichsleiter Rosenberg, began to "rescue" and confiscate the cultural property of the Taganrog Museum.

Senior Lieutenant of the 691st Tank Propaganda Company Ernst Moritz Arndt took out of Taganrog "over forty icons and church utensils, about eighty pieces of porcelain, glass and bronze, samples of collectible weapons, five paintings." In the Central State Archive of the Supreme Authorities and Administration of Ukraine (TSGAVOU), where an extensive archive of the so-called "activities" is stored. Headquarters of Rosenberg, official correspondence was found in connection with the search for the exhibits of the Taganrog Museum of Local Lore exported by Arndt. The curator of the Sonderkommando "Rostov" of the Headquarters of Rosenberg Rekk, who accidentally received information about the removal of museum property by the Wehrmacht, showed extreme concern about this. According to Rekka, subordination was allegedly violated. The right to export should be dealt with by the services of the Headquarters, and not by the Wehrmacht. Moreover, the Headquarters does not know anything about the location of the cargo taken out of Taganrog by Senior Lieutenant Arndt. Meticulous Rekk checked the chain of advancement of the tank propaganda company with the values ​​of the museum. Checking the initial information that part of the cargo could be at the Berlin assembly point of the Wehrmacht High Command was not successful. In the end, a list of 125 items was obtained. However, the Headquarters treated this information with distrust. The list of the Wehrmacht included items of dubious, according to the staff of the Headquarters, origin. As an employee of the museum S. Malikova testifies, during the years of occupation, the museum acquired some exhibits with funds allocated by the mayor. The same burgomaster withdrew from the funds the most valuable things for his leadership and for gifts to the German command. The museum staff, taking into account the “extortions” of the local authorities, did not seek to promptly register new acquisitions and were in no hurry to play the role of a cover for the authorities to identify and seize antiques from the population. Assertive employees of the main working group "Ukraine" from the Rosenberg Headquarters did find Senior Lieutenant Arndt in Breslau (now Polish Wroclaw). Arndt, with the knowledge of his leadership, informed Rosenberg's Headquarters that art objects from the Taganrog Museum were in the Breslau command of the 691st propaganda tank company among other trophy property. By prior agreement with the leadership of the Wehrmacht, Arndt receives a clear instruction: to mark the boxes with items from the Taganrog Museum with the code “RMOZ” and send them to the address: “State Station Buxheim near Memmingen / Swabia, recipient Otto Letner, Zalezian Monastery”. This was the way of the first stage of export of the cultural values ​​of our museum outside the country.

Bazilevich V. M.,
director of the local history museum
in the courtyard of the museum
winter 1941

And in Taganrog, at that time, the German headquarters and units were preparing for the second evacuation. On August 27, 1943, the invaders carried out another large-scale raid on museum funds. Among the seized exhibits are paintings by Aivazovsky, Bogdanov-Velsky, Polenov, Leontovsky, Shishkin and others.

S. Malikova in her “Spravka” dated 1943 writes: “The Germans took away from the museum and took mainly old Russian things for personal use.”

On August 30, 1943, Taganrog was liberated by the troops of the Southern Front under the command of General Tolbukhin. The city began to count the losses during the years of occupation. The Izvestia newspaper wrote on September 4, 1943: “In the twelve departments of the Taganrog Museum, the rarest exhibits relating to the history of our Motherland and the Russian people were collected. The museum kept original canvases painted by Russian artists Makovsky, Shishkin, Pryanishnikov and others, as well as samples of ancient weapons, porcelain dishes, etc. Now the museum is empty - all the most ancient things have been plundered and taken to Germany.”

By October 1, 1944, an inventory was carried out in the museum according to the inventories of 13 funds and the library collection. As a result, it was possible to establish that 4624 items were stolen from the Taganrog Museum during the occupation. The collection that remained in the funds amounted to 9369 items and 5550 books. That is, during the war the museum lost more than a third of its subject fund.

Archival evidence does not yet allow us to restore the full picture of the search for and return to the country of the cultural values ​​of the Taganrog Museum.

On September 8, 1945, the Rostov regional department of cultural enlightenment demanded to provide an inventory of museum exhibits that were killed or taken away by the Nazi invaders. At the same time, it was proposed to list the groups of property to be returned from Germany. The information available in the museum about those who carried out the export and when carried out the search and return of the stolen property could help. In December 1947, 73 exhibits stolen by the occupiers were returned to the museum, which arrived in box No. 21. Unfortunately, neither notification of receipt, nor an inventory of the items found in the materials of the city archive, the party archive and the archive of the local KGB could be found.

The situation with the items returned in box No. 21 has become clearer recently. Employees of the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography are actively involved in the search for documents relating to the "military" fate of the cultural values ​​of the Taganrog Museum. It was from them that the materials of the State Archive of the Russian Federation, the archive of the Rosenberg Headquarters, stored in the Central State Archive of the Supreme Authorities and Administration of Ukraine (Kiev) and other central archives were received. Employees of the Federal Agency, in addition to assisting in the preparation for the publication of this volume, carried out a search for "traces" of the mentioned box. Its contents ended up at the end of the war on the territory of that part of Germany that was occupied by US troops. Found in German vaults (there were about 1.5 thousand of them), the cultural values ​​robbed by the Nazis were processed by the Americans at collection points organized by them and then transferred to their countries of origin. Taganrog items were among those transferred to the Berlin warehouse "Derutra" and in November 1947 were sent with the returned exhibits of Peterhof, Gatchina, Catherine's, Pavlovsk palace-museums, the archeology of Kerch, the icons of Pskov and Novgorod. A train of 4 railway cars and one platform arrived at the Central Storage of Museum Funds in Pushkin, near Leningrad, organized specifically for processing the brought valuables. Received museum items were taken into account very approximately: not by availability, but by accompanying passports. The absence of specialists and the small number of employees of the storage facility only made it possible to open the boxes that had arrived from Berlin, to reveal the general nature of the packed valuables and their belonging. Then they were sent to the recipients. But for a number of reasons, valuables did not always reach their rightful owners.

The “Passport for box No. R-21” found in the State Archive of the Russian Federation indicates that the museum valuables contained in it (icons, paintings - including Makovsky’s “Portrait of a Boy”, plaster masks, antique vessels, etc.) belong to the Taganrog City Museum.

Already in the process of preparing materials for the publication of this volume, employees of the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography established that the painting “The Dying Peasant” by N. P. Bogdanov-Belsky, lost by our museum during the occupation, was sold in 2001 by the Christie Auction House. I would like to hope that the picture will take its rightful place in our museum. Employees consider this discovery a good sign of the possible search for and return of other cultural property stolen by the occupiers more than 60 years ago.

The museum community of Taganrog has always been aware of the need to establish the losses incurred by the museum during the war. But the authorities did not consider this task urgent for a long time. Therefore, the initiative of the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography to prepare for publication this volume of the Consolidated Catalog of Lost Values ​​was perceived by the museum staff as a long overdue and fundamentally important matter. The Museum expresses its gratitude to the specialists of the Agency, especially N.I. Nikandrov, for their significant methodological assistance, as well as for a number of kindly provided archival documents, without which the compilation of the catalog would have been a very difficult undertaking.

Galina Krupnitskaya,
Head local history museum

Museums.

History of the Museum

Created in 1981 . The total area of ​​education is more than 5000 square meters. m. Funds have more than 280 thousand units of storage. Each of the museums included in the association was created at different times and has its own history.

Museum structure

The literary part of the association

• The Literary Museum of A.P. Chekhov is located in the building of the former male classical gymnasium. The writer A.P. Chekhov studied here. The museum was opened on May 29, 1935. The exposition of the museum presents materials about the life and work of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. The exposition includes about 1600 exhibits.
• Memorial Museum "Chekhov's House" - the house where A.P. Chekhov was born. In 1926, the first museum exposition dedicated to the writer's life was opened here.
• Museum "Chekhov's Shop". The museum is located in a house that the Chekhov family rented from 1869 to 1874. The Chekhov family shop was on the first floor, and the family lived on the second. A.P. Chekhov lived here from 9 to 14 years old. The museum in the house was opened on November 3, 1977.
• Museum I. D. Vasilenko located in the house in which from 1923 to 1966 the writer, Stalin Prize laureate Ivan Dmitrievich Vasilenko lived. Transferred to the Taganrog State Literary and Historical-Architectural Museum-Reserve in 1988.

Historical part

• Exhibits of the Historical Museum of Local Lore

Photo: Taganrog Literary and Historical-Architectural Museum-Reserve