Yakub Kolas State Literary Memorial Museum. Yakub Kolas Literary Museum

Work on the monument to Yakub Kolas, which is part of the famous architectural ensemble on the square named after the poet, Zair Azgur began in 1949.

In the photograph, in which Konstantin Mikhailovich poses for Zair Isaakovich, we see the writer's bust, which eventually remained in the sculptor's creative workshop. But this expression of Kolas's face is also immortalized on the monument, under which several generations of Minsk residents made appointments and appointments for each other.

Due to his age, it was difficult for Kolas to stand in one place when posing, but the sculptor found a way out. He built an impromptu pedestal from two benches, to which the writer reacted with irony: “You built me ​​a luxurious throne. Should I climb it?" Initially, the work of the sculptor looked like this: the writer leaned on a cane with one hand, holding a book in the other. But one element obscured the other, so they decided to abandon the cane, which Kolas did not part with in old age. And yet, the canes that helped Konstantin Mikhailovich move around also became part of history - they remained in the poet's museum. Kolas used to carve them out of wood himself.

This is not the first joint work of two talented Belarusians: for the first time Azgur was commissioned for a bust of Kolas back in 1924. When the still young sculptor set to work, the poet, who had already made a name for himself, began to recite excerpts from New Land. During the second session, Yanka Kupala came to the workshop. Azgur was worried that Kolas was getting older than he really is, to which Kupala said: “Yakube will live for more than a hundred years, it’s not scary that he looks a little older here. Later, he will become older himself, and the sculpture will be younger.” The monument-bust of Kupala himself later also appeared in Azgur's portfolio.

The relationship between the sculptor and the poet went beyond the "master-sitter". Kolas knew that Azgur, who studied in Leningrad from 1925 to 1927, constantly experienced financial difficulties, so he sent him 40 rubles a month. Once, having arrived in Minsk for the holidays, Azgur met with Kolas at the house of a writer uncle, and going home, Zair found pockets full of apples in his jacket. At home, another surprise awaited him: in the same jacket there was huge money for that time - 200 rubles. Kolas helped everyone who addressed him, and not a single letter remained unanswered. The peasants asked for money for a cow; once a girl wrote with a request to help buy a wedding dress - Kolas did not refuse.

On the third day after the death of Kolas, a resolution of the Central Committee of the CPB was issued to perpetuate the memory of the writer. The document included many points: to publish a collection of works, to open a museum, to name it after a street. Tribute to the memory of Uncle Yakub was paid not only by officials. For example, thanks to the Belarusian cosmonaut Pyotr Klimuk, a miniature edition of Kolas' poems even went into space: this is how the crew members brightened up their leisure time. Later, Klimuk brought this copy to the poet's museum, signed it and left it as a keepsake. And for the 90th anniversary of Kolas, a 5x4 cm book was published, the cover of which is made of silver and malachite.

Konstantin Mikhailovich Mitskevich is known not only in Belarus. In the Danube Shipping Company, the ship was named "Yakub Kolas". By the way, the captain of the ship personally came to Minsk for materials about Kolas, so that each passenger could not only enjoy the trip on the ship, but also get acquainted with the work of the Belarusian writer. Our compatriot is loved even in China: the poem "New Land" and the story "Drygva" were translated into Chinese. And in 2012, Chinese artist Ao Te depicted an elderly poet on rice paper. This canvas also took its rightful place in the museum of Yakub Kolas.

Yakub Kolas is a nominal classic of Belarusian literature of the 20th century. I will say right away that I do not like Kolas' books - all the problems raised in them have long crumbled and withered along with the system that gave birth to it. Or even earlier. Or even it did not exist at all, this problematic.

In short - all Kolas' books are about peasants and about the village. Even when he wrote about the city, it still turned out to be a villager's book about the village. He did not know how to write about anything else and did not want to. Endless dull wooden huts, a gray and uninteresting life, homespun shirts and rotten potatoes, endless misfortunes of honest working people "fall under the yoke of the pans". For you to understand, it's about as if the entire history of the United States is reduced to the life of African-American ghettos. Then the endless partisans began, speaking in quotations from the reference book of the young Chekist.

For this, he received a bunch of titles and awards and died in a warm bed. And this at a time when Kafka and Joyce, Thomas Mann and Bertrand Russell were creating. When sparks fell from under the literary anvil, forging a new understanding of what a person is.

However, let's not talk about sad things. Be that as it may, Kolas still remains a prominent figure in the culture of Belarus, the central square of the capital and the street on which the house with my Minsk apartment stands are named after him. Let's just see how "dzyadzka Yakub" lived in the fifties.

03. Kolas House is located in Minsk, near the Academy of Sciences. In the early fifties, it was the outskirts of the city, and now it is the most that neither is the center - the city has grown strongly in an easterly direction. The house was built by the architect Georgy Zaborsky; the same one that designed many buildings in Minsk in the fifties. The house looks quite recognizable and interesting.

05. Walk around the house. To the left of the entrance there is a cellar - "lyadounya".

07. To paraphrase a well-known aphorism - "You can take your grandfather out of the village, but you can never take the village out of your grandfather."

08. Behind the fence you can see a simpler building, where the children and relatives of Yakub Kolas were moved after his death, making a museum out of his house. For some reason, it seems to me that they began to design and build this house during the life of Yakub, right in front of the window of his office - but more on that later.

09. On the reverse side, the Kolas House looks like this.

11. Let's look inside. The house begins with a hanger (I recalled the proverb about the theater), on which the original copper hooks are still preserved. Unfortunately, this is one of the few original details left in the house - especially on the first floor.

12. This is the view from the hallway. On both sides of the shooting point - two walk-through rooms. Directly - something like a former kitchen. Now in the Kolas house there is an exposition of the museum, made in the best Soviet traditions - to throw away everything real and leave the ideologically correct. There was no bathroom or kitchen left in the house - as you know, Soviet writers do not pee or eat, but only constantly think about the fate of the people, the world revolution, and write and write.

13. Here, for example, the door. Personally, it is much more interesting to me than the endless collections of works by Yakub Kolas, exhibited around. What was behind her? What did real life look like in the house? I can look at the book in the store. Why did they throw out the old pen and screw on a Chinese gold-plated one, bought for $ 2 at the Household Goods on Logoisk Trakt?

14. Books under glass. On the right, by the way, is an excellent illustration in the traditions of Belarusian book graphics, but still, books do not belong here. Bring back the Kolas kitchen, I want to see where he had breakfast every day.

15. Let's look for more original parts. Here, for example, is a stucco plinth. I don't know if he was here in the fifties.

16. The door frame is definitely original. Maybe a little tinted during the renovation.

17. Let's go to the second floor, there are more interesting original pieces left. Ladder. Under the ceiling - a typical lamp of the fifties (I have the same one at home, left from the previous owners of the apartment), to the right - the doors to the large balcony-terrace, straight ahead - the doors to the office and Kolas's bedroom (we'll look there), to the left - the doors to the front part of the house. Let's go there.

18. On the second floor, the original parquet of the fifties has been preserved. Yes, just like that - not very high quality, uneven. The joints between the rooms "got" from the remains. When walking, the parquet creaks. By the way, on the ground floor, under the modern gray carpeting, the same parquet was left - old and creaky.

19. Living room. The original furniture remained here - Kolas brought it, it seems, from somewhere in the Baltic states, and already at that time it was antiques. The furniture, in my opinion, is rather tasteless.

20. Despite the rather presentable appearance, the house smells of a poor village - the smell of dampness and mice. I don't know why.

21. Under the ceiling in the living room - a lurid socket.

22. TV. I don't know if Kolas watched it. At present, only one frame remains from the original TV set of the fifties, inside of which there is a horizontal "cube" - already also old.

24. Modern double-glazed windows were inserted into the old window frames. It's good, they left the pens.

25. Dining room on the second floor. Reminds me of a typical Minsk apartment of the fifties.

26. The furniture here is nicer than in the living room.

28. Door handle. This is real life - a video with which the door was closed. Most often, it fell inward - and it was necessary to knock out an elastic band on the door frame so that the door closes tightly. The screws are also very remarkable - they often did not twist, but were hammered - once and for all.

30. Typewriter. This is still a pre-revolutionary model, to which the Belarusian letter "u is not warehouse" is added. An eloquent text was typed on paper - about the wise policy of the Communist Party, the Soviet people, blah blah blah. And this at a time when Elias Canetti... well, let's not talk about sad things.

24. Bookcase. I will not comment on the choice of the writer's books.

24. Clock on a bookcase. In general, there are quite a few clocks and several barometers left in the room - this produces a rather strange and mysterious impression. And I think I figured out this riddle. Sitting in the office of his new house and now and then looking at the clock, so quickly counting the time, the already very elderly Yakub Kolas realized that this house was not built for him at all - but for the future museum named after him. In which ideologically faithful guides will tell about his life.

25. I know what Kolas felt when he sat down at a new desk in his office every day. Books are no longer expected from him, poems are not expected; there is a kind of ban on transformations - he must remain a "Belarusian writer about the village." Nothing more needs to be written.

26. Life is lived. You live in a museum of your own caution, spinelessness, loyalty. Those who were different are lying in the ground with their heads laid out. You survived, you're better than them. Really, Jacob? asks the owl-press-weight.

27. I do not know what Kolas answered his conscience.

28. The last door remains. The door to the writer's bedroom is a small walk-through room from the office. It leaves an amazing impression - a small room lurks in the farthest corner of a huge house. The ceiling is lower than in the rest of the house. In the corner is a small, almost teenage bed. At the foot of the bed is the door to the lavatory, to the left of the door is the stove.

Everything is very reminiscent of a small room in a village house.

29. A portrait of a son and a barometer hang on the wall. It seems to me that it was in this room that Kolas felt comfortable. He recalled the days of "Nasha Niva" - when there was still neither the USSR, nor titles and regalia, nor the daily need to write about successes at the sowing field, nor the nervous duty to answer daily calls from a "benevolent organization."

He reminisced about life without the golden cage.

30. I woke up, looked at the ceiling and thought, thought.

30. And on the chair is the writer's briefcase...

Over the last four years of his life in the new house, Yakub Kolas did not write a single new book.

Museum of Yakub Kolas in Minsk open to the public since 1959, before that it was the house of Kolas, where he lived for the last 11 years of his life. Yakub Kolas (real name Konstantin Mikhailovich Mitskevich) is a famous writer, poet, public figure and scientist. During his lifetime, the house at 5 Akademicheskaya Street was a kind of spiritual center of the capital, in which a friendly and creative atmosphere reigned. Famous writers, artists, artists, scientists, political and civil figures were frequent guests of Kolas.

State Literary and Memorial Museum of Yakub Kolas includes the writer's house and the territory adjacent to the house, including trees planted by Kolasam himself.

On the first floor at home there are expositions telling about the life and work of Yakub Kolas, about his social and scientific activities. On the second floor, a bedroom, a study, a living room and a dining room have been preserved in the form they were during the life of the poet. In his personal account, since the day of the writer's death, his things have not yet been touched. Even the unfinished letter to Kolas has been lying on the desktop for 50 years. While writing this letter, Yakub Kolas died of a heart attack on August 13, 1956.

Yakub Kolas is rightly considered the founder of national prose, he author of poetic masterpieces - the poems "New Earth" and "Simon-Music". This man made an invaluable contribution to the Belarusian culture and literature, he opened the Belarusian written word to other countries of the world and sang the Belarusian people.

The works of Yakub Kolas were repeatedly translated into foreign languages, many of his novels and stories were staged on theater stages, and some were even filmed. Since 1972, the Yakub Kolas State Prize has been awarded every two years for the best prose and literary works. Libraries, squares, streets of cities and villages of Belarus are named after him. In many places there are monuments and memorial plaques to the people's poet.

The Yakub Kolas Museum in Minsk conducts general, thematic excursions and lectures. Among them: "The Great Patriotic War in the fate of Yakub Kolas", "Little-known facts of the biography of Yakub Kolas", "The poem "New Land": the history of the work, images and prototypes", "Yakub Kolas during the years of imprisonment: unknown facts (on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of liberation of Yakub Kolas from the Pishchalovsky Castle), etc. In addition, the museum holds events for preschoolers and children of primary school age, as well as various cultural and educational events. The most famous of them are "Kolasoviny" is a literary and musical holiday dedicated to the poet's birthday.

A visit to the Yakub Kolas Museum in Minsk contributes not only to a close acquaintance with the activities of the national poet, Belarusian literature and art, but also to the spiritual uplift of tourists who prefer holidays in Belarus. Many literary excursions in Belarus, educational tours in Belarus and weekend tours in Belarus include a visit to the Yakub Kolas Museum in Minsk.

In accordance with the decision of the Executive Committee of the Minsk Regional Council of Deputies dated May 22, 1969, protocol No. 10, a museum of Y. Kolas was created in the Verkhmenskaya school.

Museum features:

first feature our museum - showing exactly that period of time, which is associated with the activities of Yakub Kolas at the beginning of 1906;

second feature Museum - partially ensemble method of construction of the exposition was used. The interior of a teacher's room in a rural house, where children's classes were held, was created;

third feature b - a combination of museum and theater. During the tour, with the help of young artists, the museum becomes a stage platform, where episodes from the works of J. Kolas are shown.

By the opening of the museum, sculptor Sergei Ivanovich Selikhanov, People's Artist of Belarus, presented a plaster sculpture of Yakub Kolas, one of three options for creating a monument to the poet on Yakub Kolas Square in Minsk.

Section of the exposition "Childhood"

Akinchitsy… Rural house under birches with small windows. Here, on November 3, 1882, Konstantin Mikhailovich Mitskevich (Yakub Kolas) was born. Father, Mikhail Kazimirovich, served as a forester for Prince Radzivil. The first study was at home. My father hired a "dyrektar" (a rural boy who graduated from elementary school) for 3 rubles. Then - at the school of the village of Mikolaevichi.

Sections of the exposition "Years of study"

1898 - 1902 - years of study at the Nesvizh teacher's seminary. Here, the future poet devotes a lot of time to books. He writes himself, mostly in Russian.

Verkhmensky period

In 1902 - 1906 Konstantin Mikhailovich Mitskevich teaches in the village of Lyusina, Gantsevichi district, and the village of Pinkovichi, Pinsk district. For participation in "revolutionary" propaganda among the peasants, he is transferred as a "punishment" from the Pinsk region to the Verkhmensky public school in the Igumensky district of the Minsk province.
On January 18, 1906, Konstantin Mikhailovich Mitskevich (J. Kolas) takes over the Verkhmensky Folk School from the former teacher Trofim Nikitovich Sertun-Surchin.
At the school, despite a serious warning, he continues active political activity. He is in correspondence with teachers, his countrymen and friends, former seminarians. On June 9 - 10, 1906, he takes part in an illegal teacher's congress, for which he was fired from the Verkhmensky public school.
This period is described in the trilogy "On the Rostans" (part "Verkhan").

Nikolai Stepanovich Minich from the village of Prokhodka was the prototype of Grishka Minich from the trilogy.

Sections of the exposition "Where do I always live..."

In 1912, Yakub Kolas met a young teacher at the Pinsk railway school, Maria Dmitrievna Kamenskaya. On June 3, 1912, she became the wife of the poet. They had 3 sons: Danila, Yuri, Mikhail.

Yakub Kolas has always taken an active life position. He was a poet, writer, teacher, scientist. He lived an interesting, eventful and so necessary life for people.
In August 1956, Konstantin Mikhailovich Mitskevich died in his office at his desk.

Combination of museum and theater

The museum organizes thematic exhibitions of children's creativity, books dedicated to the writer, poet and teacher Yakub Kolas. It has become a tradition to hold a photo exhibition "Across the ears of corn".

Literary Museum of Yakub Kolas is rightfully one of the cultural centers of the Smolevichi land. This is a meeting place for creative people, writers, artists, journalists, teachers.

On the occasion of the 121st anniversary of the birth of Yakub Kolas, the museum was presented with a painting by Ales Tsyrkunov "Yakub Kolas near Verkhmeni".

Ethnographic corner

In order to preserve local folk traditions, the museum has created an ethnography section, the exhibits of which are also used as theatrical props in preparation for excursions, class hours, literary holidays, and school themed evenings.

Honorary guests of the museum

• Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko;
• Mikhail Konstantinovich Mitskevich, son of Yakub Kolas (2002, 2003, 2007);
• deputies of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus (2004);
• CIS Executive Secretary Vladimir Borisovich Rushailo (2006);
• Deputy Head of the Administration of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan U.E. Utambaev (2002);
• numerous foreign delegations from Poland, Holland, Russia, Japan, England, Italy, Germany (2000 - 2013).

Entries in the Book of Honored Guests

WE INVITE YOU TO VISIT THE LITERATURE MUSEUM

It is cozy in the house-museum of Yakub Kolas: it seems that footsteps on the stairs are about to sound, the armchair in the office will move away by itself, the sofa springs will bend, the typewriter will chirp. The spirit of the poet hovers here definitely. Tourists are slowly wandering through the halls, and the SB correspondent, together with the director of the State Literary and Memorial Museum of Yakub Kolas Zinaida Komarovskaya, is looking at the tasks for the future: two important dates are coming in 2018 - the 95th anniversary of the creation of the poem "New Land" and 100 years of lyrical epic poem "Simon-music".

The current staff of the museum is small, but it is amazing what work is carried out by only 5 researchers. The poet had close ties with Vilnius - today cooperation has been established with Lithuanian colleagues from the Literary Museum of A.S. Pushkin, a joint walking tour route “Kolas and Vilnius” has been developed along the places described in the poem “New Land” in the sections “Dzyadzka ў Vilni” , "Castle Gara" and "Pa Darose ў Vilnius". The Pushkin Literary Museum plans to create a separate exposition dedicated to Kolas. Its funds contain items from the house of Kamensky (relatives of the writer's wife): a table, a bed, a wall clock, an icon in a silver setting, a candlestick engraved in 1910.

In 2017, when the 135th anniversary of the classic was celebrated, in Vilnius, at the initiative of our embassy in Lithuania, a memorial plaque was installed on the house where Yakub Kolas worked for the Nasha Niva newspaper. The writer is not forgotten in Uzbekistan, where he lived in evacuation in 1942-1943: in Tashkent, a memorial plaque was restored on his house and a bas-relief by sculptor Marina Borodina was installed. And poets from St. Petersburg for the first time translated the entire “Symon-music” into Russian and published it in Northern Palmyra.

In a word, there is something to be proud of and there are long-established plans, which the museum is starting to implement in the new year, preparing to celebrate two significant dates at once. But the most serious problem and the biggest pain of Zinaida Komarovskaya for all the decades of work is the Lastok estate, part of the Nikolaevshchina branch, which unites 4 former foresters on the Radziwill lands, where the poet's parents lived. Lastok is a unique corner where a house built in 1890 has been preserved, and the only one of all the estates included in the branch, which requires serious restoration and conservation. The director does not hide sadness:

Zinaida Komarovskaya.

12 km from the city, forest road - places really remote from civilization. But... on 2 hectares of land next to Lastok, an agroestate could well appear, or even better - a writer's house like those that can be found in the corners of Poland or Estonia: a place where authors from all over the world come all year round to meet, get acquainted , work, and at the same time translate the Belarusian classic into their own languages ​​- so that the word of Kolas would continue to spread around the world.

Stolbtsovshchina pleases not only with natural beauties and historical details. In Akinchitsy, Albuti, Smolny and Lastok, an art-memorial complex “Way of Kolas” was created: wooden sculptures of folk craftsmen, rare in expressiveness, based on the works of Yakub Kolas, unite all the museums of the branch.

- We would like more visitors,- Zinaida Komarovskaya sincerely worries. - Many years ago, they considered the excursion route Minsk - Nesvizh - Mir, and I raised this issue: you can call in Akinchitsy, it's only 2 km from Stolbtsy. It is necessary to show not only castles, it is necessary to see the life and life of those who served the Radziwills. However, this topic has been omitted. We have developed both cycling and skiing routes, and walking tours, but there are not as many guests as we would like.

But the Kolas places could become a nature reserve, no less serious and visited than the Russian Pushkinogorye. Is it really such a great difficulty to slightly correct popular tourist routes?