City and regional museums play an important role in preserving the
history and traditions of the population of East Kazakhstan. Each of them has
original collections and expositions reflecting features, nature, history and
economy, ethnic structure of the population, other aspects of life of the
region.
In 1951 a graduate of the St. Petersburg (at that time Leningrad)
University Vitaliy Anissimov (a native of the Vologda region) arrived in the
village of Vydrikha of Shemonaikhinsky district of the East Kazakhstan region;
he came there by the post-graduation work assignment to teach geography in
school. He stayed in the village and became the School Principal. He liked to
go hiking with children. Also, he initiated the creation of a museum. In this
museum, he made an exhibition of various relics depicting a complex
250-year-oldhistory of an Old Believer village. More than a hundred years ago, writer-ethnographer
Alexander Novosse-lov noted that Vydrikha in terms of population is not
inferior to Shemonaikha. Vydrikha, he wrote, is the center of the old believers
of the Austrian persuasion. During a trip to the Ubariver, another famous
writer – Georgiy Grebenshchikov singled out among the Vydrikha leaders: Old Believers
Sukhorukov, Yegorov, but most importantly Alexander Firsov, who later became a
prototype of Firs Churayev, the hero of his famous novel-epic “Churayev”. The
Museum has preserved Firsov’ wardrobe. Vitaly Anissimov made a record in the
old inventory book: «The wardrobe from the house of the merchant Firsov".
This gorgeous vintage wardrobe decorates today the Museum of Anatoly Ivanov’s Vydrihinskaya school. The Museum itself began with this wardrobe. The museum
also stored and exhibited the first findings that the students brought from
their summer trips [1, p. 3].
In 1955, the opening of Zyryanovsky mine took place. In the third
year of work they went down to the foot of the mountain Rudny. Here they
discovered friable rocks – loams. Upon removing one layer, they would discover
another. Some-where at the depth of 20 meters, the excavator unearthed some white subjects - bones, vertebra, and mammoth tusks. The further the work
progressed, the more bones of different animals were collected. The Director of
the lead plant then was Yury Voronenkov. He immediately ordered to collect
findings to organize a Museum corner. It was created at the end of 1958.Thus,
the history of the future Zyryanovsky local history Museum began with
paleontological finds placed in the Museum corner of one of the departments of
the Zyryanovsky lead plant. In 1985 the public museum in the city of Zyryanovsk received a status of “national” and became a Department of the East Kazakhstan regional historical Museum. In 1992, the Department of the regional Museum
was included into the local budget. It became independent in a very difficult,
critical time. But, judging by some publications of the second half of the 90s
of the XX century, it didn’t just survive, but also actively worked, especially
in the field of education. In 1996, the Director of the Museum of those years,
L. Yakimchuk, and the researcher Z. Gordiyenko, were among the organizers of a
very tough city competition among young local historians. The competition
consisted of five rounds and demanded from children erudition, deep knowledge
of history, geography and nature of the Bukhtarma region. Young local
historians told a lot of interesting things about the old believers and the cossacks,
read the poems of the East Kazakhstan poets- M. Chistyakov, F. Karbushev [2, p.
6; 3].
The history of the city Museum of local lore in Ridder (at that time
the city of Leninogorsk) began in 1961 with paintings by Yuri Khabarovsky and a
collection of minerals by Vladimir Klink. At the end of the twentieth century
in the exposition of the Museum there were about eight hundred exhibits, and in
the funds – “more than twenty-four thousand exhibits” [4, 9].
The Leninogorsk and Zyryanovsk museums collected rich materials
related to the history of geology, mining and non-ferrous metallurgy, as well
as to the history of the development of these territories for three centuries
[5, 150].
On September 17, 1964 there was the “Order of the Ministry of
Culture” of the Kazakh Republic, and in 1965 there appeared a "Department
of Museum of historical monuments under “Management of cultural educational
institutions of the Ministry of Culture of the Kazakh SSR” [6, p. 1].
Since the mid-60s of the XX century, the establishment of museums in
the country significantly intensified, both at the state level and due to the
growth of public initiative. This is evidenced by specific examples from the
museum practice related to East Kazakhstan.
In 1967 in the village of Rulikha of Shemonaikhinsky district of
East Kazakhstan region the teacher of history at the local school Klavdiya
Kozmina set the purpose-to make the chronicle of the village. With that began
the history of the school museum, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in
2017.
Vera Kalinina, the class teacher of ZoyaIsmagulova – the third head
of the school museum in the village of Rulikha became the successor of Kozmina.
V. Kalinina collected the rich material about the Great Patriotic War [7, p. 4],
and Z. Ismagulova was the first to receive the right for the publication of
work with data on local history activity at her native school in Alma-Ata [8].
In the school museum of the village of Rulikha the material is
organized by different periods of the local history. Here, for example, there
is data on the history of its being a collective farm “Aurora”. Everything
began with the organization in the village of Saranchevo (it isn't on the map
of Shemonaikhinsky district any more) of the commune “Aurora” by a Moscow worker Aleksey Chervyakov. He didn’t live here long, but wrote the book
"Far-close «about those times. He also corresponded with Rulikhinsky
school students [7, p. 4].
Children collected household items for a long time and now in the
school Museum of the village of Rulikha you can find all household items of a
Russian house (izba). These items were recreated using the books and the
stories of grandfathers and grandmothers. There are also original preserved
items they managed to find in their homes. Here you can even see the bats
shoes. It was considered that people didn’t wear sandals in these parts [7, p.
4].
The collection of minerals from the fields of Shemonaikhinsky
district was presented to the school museum of the village of Rulikha by geologist Valerian Grishin.
There are no random materials in this museum, because all of them
are somehow connected with the history of the district, village or school.
Not every school is at the foot of a volcano. The building was built
in the early seventies; when the hills were leveled there were fossilized tree
branches and stone balls found. Unexpected finds were sent to the regional
museum; from there they were sent to Leningrad. Scientists have determined that
this is the result of the volcano, which erupted 20-30 million years ago. In
the school museum there were small fossilized branches, rocks with imprints of
the needles. And all this -presenting far and near, past and present-
intertwined in a small room of the Museum.
In the second half of the 90s of the past century the school of the village of Rulikha “became obsessed with a new idea” - paying attention to a slogan “All
people are brothers”. Within the native village, they easily confirmed it “by
the example of only one class”. All 32 students of the class tried to make a
“family tree”. It turned out that in spite of the fact that a class was
multinational, 30 people found close or distant relatives among themselves. Out
of24 teachers of the school 17 were relatives. And like in Rulikha all immigrants
began to look for their roots. They took the world map; found out that
communications of Rulikha citizens were not only with Russia, Ukraine, but also with America, Germany, Egypt and other countries [7, page 4].
In 1971, four well-known museums were created in the region almost
simultaneously: local history museums in Zaissan, Kurchumsky, Shemonaikhinsky
regions and F. M. Dostoyevsky literary-memorial Museum in Semipalatinsk.
In 1971, the museum in Shemnaik-ha started forming other collections.
In 1973 another exhibit was added to the museum –“the building of 1911”–“the
building of former volost justice”. In April, 1975 the opening of the first
exposition of the Shemonaikhinsky “national” museum took place. In 1979 it was
transformed into Shemonaikhinsky “regional museum of local lore” with the
status of a branch of the East Kazakhstan regional local history museum. The
museum expenses were included into the regional budget in 16 years, in 1995.
Then it was included into the structure of Shemonaikhinsky department of
culture, and in 1998 the museum was registered as the public budget-supported
company [9, p. 159-162].
Today the Shemonaikhinsky local history museum has more than 12 thousand
units of storage, it hosts 200 events a year (by efforts of two employees, and,
not only in the museum, but also in villages of the area), and there are
constant publications in the local and regional newspapers telling about
various events: about traditions of the people inhabiting this area. It has 6
thousand visitors annually. The staff of the museum repeatedly participated in
the international conferences on ethnography, in the national and international
folklore festivals. In the showroom of the museum the old friends meet, the new
names are discovered [9, page 162].
By richness of its funds and quality of work Shemonaikhinsky local
history museum for many years has been receiving the title of the best regional
museum. The staff of this museum created a fine exposition dedicated to the
nature of the area collected the rich material on culture and life of the
Russian immigrants, a collection of Old Russian painting [5, page 150].
There was a necessity to open the second of the above-mentioned four
museums - the museum in Zaissan. The first petition in this respect ("Executive
committee of the East Kazakhstan village regional council of deputies of
workers") was issued on November 26, 1964 [10].
Opening of the museum in Zaissan in the sixties of the XX century
didn't take place (the issue “with the room to host it” wasn't resolved). The
museum in Zaissan was not opens until the next decade. In modern publications
about it, in particular, it is told: “magnificent samples of the Kazakh
ethnography of XIX - early XX centuries are stored in funds of the Zaissan and
Kurchumsky museums” [5, page 150].
The impetus for the creation of the Museum in the city of Semipalatinsk was a “Literaturnaya Gazeta” newspaper of May 20, 1965, signed by the writers
and scientists K. Fedin, L. Leonov, V. Lidin, V. Kirpotin and G. Kogan, the Director
of the Moscow Dostoevsky Museum-apart-ment. It talked about the need to keep
the house associated with the memory of the writer, in Semipalatinsk and Novokuz-netsk,
and think about their future. In October 1965, by the decision of the Executive
Committee the first floor of the house on 118, Dostoevsky Street (former home
of the postman Lapukhin on Krepostnaya street) was released of the tenants. The
space was given to the city library, which received the name of F. M. Dostoevsky
the following year. The collector and custodian of valuable materials in the
library was the head of the library, Zinaida Furtseva. She addressed famous
writers and literary critics, the largest libraries and archives with the
request to help in shaping the future of the Museum Fund. In 1968, the city
celebrated its 250th anniversary. The grandson of the great writer Andrey
Dostoevsky was invited to the anniversary celebration. He visited the library
of the Museum, took a picture with the staff. By 1968, significant materials were
collected from the archives, where documents of Dostoevsky are stored. The
Library - Museum began to work as a branch of the regional Museum of local
history. The same year people living on the second floor of the house-memorial
where in 1857-59 Dostoevsky’s family lived wearer housed and the house was
completely transformed into the Museum. In this house, M. Dostoevsky wrote the
stories: “Dyadyushkin Son” (The uncle's dream), “Derevnya Stepanchikovo i ee obitateli”
(Stepanchikovo Village and its Inhabitants). Here he worked on “Zapiskiiz Myortvogo
Doma” (Notes from the Dead house), started working on “Unizhennye I Oskorblennye”
(Humiliated and Offended). In 1971, when the world community celebrated the
150th anniversary of the birth of F. Dostoyevsky, the independent Semipa-latinsk
regional literary Museum of Dos-toevsky was opened by the Resolution of the
Council of Ministers of the Kazakh SSR ¹261 of May 7, 1971. The museum funds
began to grow rapidly, the role of the Museum increased. And it became clear
that the area of the Museum of 114 square meters is quite small and needed extension. This two-story building, which has the shape
of a half-opened book, pages of which are the painting "Writer's Cabinet",
"Petersburg of Dostoevsky", a bronze sculpture of "F. M.
Dostoevsky and Ch. Valikhanov" by D. Elbakidze erected near the house in
1976, is a tribute to Semipalatinsk glorious sons of Russian and Kazakh people,
whose destinies were bound by this land. The literary composition is located in
a new building on the second floor. It depicts the life and creative activity,
the fate of Dostoevsky's heritage. Exposition exhibitions are held on the
ground floor. The house - memorial contains household items of the middle of
the XIX century [11, p. 43-49].
More than fifty cities are connected with the name of Dostoevsky – Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Dresden. In some of them he stayed for a long time, the others
he just passed through, to dome of them he returned again and again. In Semipala-tinsk,
the writer was not at his own will. But according to his confession, it was he-re
that he came back to life after the “melancholy prison” in Omsk stockade town.
The publications devoted to East Kazakhstan emphasize that the Museum of Dostoevsky in Semipalatinsk is one of the best museums telling about the life and
creative work of the great writer. There is a great review about this Museum of
the famous writer Daniil Granin; the review is very emotional and, somewhat
exaggerated: "I personally have not seen anything similar in the capital,
in the central museums. Everything - scope, affection, design, and artistic
innovation – all are admirable" [5, p. 242].
The fourth year of the XXI century is marked by the 150th
anniversary of the arrival in Semipalatinsk of Fyodor Dos-toyevsky. Employees
of the Semipalatinsk Museum, preparing for the anniversary, turned to their
archive folders, looked though the interesting pages of the life of the great
writer. The contents of some of them are discussed in the article of the chief
custodian of the funds of the Museum Natalya Barbarat. “The fate of the
drummer”, the title of the articles accompanied by a photo of the “drummer”
(but in adulthood, with “daughter Yelena”).
The circle of acquaintances of Fedor Dostoyeskyin Semipalatinsk was
extensive: officers, officials, people from simple, exiled groups, - it is told
in article by N. Barbarat. - With some of them Dostoevsky was genuinely
friendly, with others he was connected by his military service. There were
people he only met a few times. A friend of the writer, the young Baron, said
about this: "He found an apology to the worst sides of the person: explaining
all the shortcomings of education, the influence of the environment in which
they grew up and lived, and often even nature and temperament. “But, probably,
not only indulgence forced the writer to tolerate some people, but also his
extreme professional interest indifferent human natures” [12, p. 4].
In conclusion, there is information related to Semipalatinsky F. M.
Dostoevsky literary - memorial Museum: the date of its foundation is rather
1971, not 1965 [5, p. 149], but 1971 [11, p. 46-47]. In 1965, the director of
the Museum, I. F. Melnikovmade the first steps to create the Museum, thanks to
the opening of the city library in the house where in 1857-1859 in Semipalatinsk M. Dostoevsky lived. The foundation of the Museum, as already mentioned, took
place on May 7, 1971 [11, p. 44-47].
Since the 70s of XX century in Kurchum started its work a school
Museum, organized by the initiative and under the direct leadership of Mstislav
Kushnikov – a secondary school teacher [13, p.7]. In 1976, the Kurchum school
Museum became a Museum “on a voluntary basis”. It was placed in a “small room,
in the children's library” [13, p.7]. In 1979, remaining in the same
conditions, the Museum received the status of the branch of the state Museum – East Kazakhstan regional Museum of local history [14, p. 30]. However, the actual discovery
in village Kurchum district of the Museum, many relate to 1986 when the branch
moved into a new building [4]. In 1992, as Zyryanov branch, was put “on a local
budget”. Since 1992, the Kurchum district Museum of local history has become an
independent Museum in the region.
In 1974, a Museum was open in the village of Sugatovka, which is
located in the Shemonaikhinsky district of East Kazakhstan region. Like many
other museums of the region, it is a museum of history and local lore. Its
materials, exhibition reflects mainly the history of the village, which was
founded by the Germans [15, p. 3]. The Museum founded by the initiative of the
Y. Starozhilovwas originally called a historical museum. Currently, it is a
museum of local lore. The Museum consists of two rooms: local history and
ethnographic. The Museum has about 500 exhibits. Many interesting exhibits were
collected by children: a passport book, an open letter, a certificate of
injury, bread cards and many more.
The history of the presented museums of the cities and the areas of East Kazakhstan region is in its own way fascinating and unique. The role of museums in East Kazakhstan is undeniable, as they have preserved the historical and cultural heritage
of the past of our native land.
REFERENCES
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2000. – July 8.
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