S.T. Aksakov Museum-Reserve

From the History of the Museum
By a special resolution of the regional executive committee in 1971, to mark the 180th anniversary of S. T. Aksakov's birth, a memorial complex was created on the grounds of the writer's former estate. It included all the buildings belonging to the Aksakovs—two outbuildings built in 1768 and 1910, several outbuildings built in 1802, workshops built with funds from the Samara nobility in the early 20th century, as well as a park and pond. In 1971, an exhibition was built in one of the old buildings—the "servants' quarters," where Aksakov's servants lived in the mid-18th century—in two small rooms, with a total area of ​​30 square meters.

The museum was a department of the Buguruslan Museum of Local History. To mark the writer's 185th birthday in 1976, a monument to S. T. Aksakov was erected on the estate grounds. The author was the Georgian sculptor R.G. Atyan. In 1982, after a major renovation, the "workers' quarters" building was completely converted into an exhibition space. The department was transformed into a branch of the aforementioned museum. Tamara Aleksandrovna Lazareva was the director of the local history museum at the time.

Two employees worked at the museum branch in the village of Aksakovo: Nadezhda Nikolaevna Kudasheva, a junior research fellow, and Antonina Stepanovna Maslova, a museum curator. In honor of the writer's 200th anniversary, 1991 was declared the Year of Aksakov by UNESCO. It was in that year that work began on the restoration of the manor house, on the surviving lower foundation.

The basic document for initiating the exhibition design was a scientific concept developed by N.A. Eremina, director of the Orenburg Regional Museum of Local History, and museum staff. In 1997, when the manor house was rebuilt, the exhibition team from the regional history museum and the Aksakov Museum began implementing an artistic exhibition project. By the fall of 1998, the Aksakov Memorial Museum welcomed its first visitors.

The museum has been a municipal budgetary cultural institution / MBUK "S.T. Aksakov Museum-Reserve" since 2003. As of January 1, 2020, the museum collection contains 1,845 items in the main collection and 799 in the scientific and auxiliary collection. Among the items are a collection of antique furniture from the 19th and 20th centuries (90 items), a collection of 19th-century Gardner and Kuznetsov tableware (253 items), and 239 items of peasant household items. A large collection of books, paintings, and old photographs from an album of the Aksakovs' direct and indirect relatives is also on display. The exhibition features memorabilia from the Aksakov house: an octagonal table on a massive oak leg (19th century), a table with a marble top in the form of a mosaic with floral and plant patterns (19th century), a table clock with a round white marble dial (19th century), and a wooden bed made of oak with mahogany elements (19th century). The overall exhibition of the house is based on the autobiographical works of S.T. Aksakov: "Family Chronicle," "The Childhood of Bagrov the Grandson," and "Memories." The exhibition solution combines an ensemble display method (interiors) with a chronologically consistent thematic display. To this end, a fragmentary reconstruction of the interiors has been constructed: the grandfather's room, the grandmother's room, the pantry, the servants' room, the parents' room, the nursery, and the living room. The windows of the Aksakov house overlook the park, where a large Linden Alley, planted by the writer's grandfather in the mid-18th century, has been preserved since the Aksakovs' time. Centuries-old pine trees delight visitors. Like girlfriends in a circle dance, willows and witnesses of history stand along the shore of the circular lake, popularly known as the "lake of love."

The museum's cultural and educational activities are diverse: lectures, tours, museum lessons, master classes, museum events, and festivals. Cultural and educational tourism is gaining momentum at the museum-reserve. Tours last several hours and include visits not only to museum exhibits but also to historical and natural landmarks—the park, the Buguruslan River, the "lake of love," the pond, and, in the future, the Barsky Spring and the Aksakov family crypt. Event tourism is practiced and has enjoyed incredible success.

Each year, the museum-reserve hosts the interregional festival "S.T. Aksakov's Golden Literary Ring" to commemorate the writer's birthday. This present-day village, Aksakovo (Novo-Aksakovo, Znamenskoye), was founded by the writer's grandfather, S. M. Aksakov, in the 1760s. Upon arriving in the new lands, the peasants built a manor house, and a little later, the house itself. Huts for the settlers were built almost simultaneously. Between 1762 and 1767, the estate park and pond with a mill were laid out. The forge, barns, stables, and poultry yard were built after 1767. The laundry, cellars with cellars, and the housekeeper's house were built between 1780 and 1782. In 1822, the writer's father, Timofey Stepanovich Aksakov, built the Znamenskaya family church within the compound, where members of the Aksakov family, including the writer's parents, are buried. After the death of the writer's father, Timofey Stepanovich, the second owner of the Novo-Aksakovo/Znamenskoye estate, the estate passed to Sergei Timofeevich's brother, Arkady (1837-1862). Then, for a short time, Sergei Timofeevich's second brother, Nikolay (1862-1871), ruled the estate. The last owner of the Aksakov family estate was the writer's nephew, Sergei Arkadyevich Aksakov (1871-1908), sold the estate at auction to the Samara nobility two months before his death. The latter built training workshops named after S.T. Aksakov on the site, where they taught carpentry, metalwork, and blacksmithing. The building of the training workshops remains intact today and is used for economic purposes. It is another element of the estate complex. S.T. Aksakov's literary work is associated with the Aksakovo estate (Novo-Aksakovo, Znamenskoye), where he spent his childhood, adolescence, and part of his adulthood.

Descriptions of the estate were included in the autobiographical stories "Family Chronicle" (1856) and "The Childhood of Bagrov the Grandson" (1858). Impressions of the natural surroundings of the Orenburg region were reflected in "Notes on Fishing" and "Notes of a Rifleman Hunter of the Orenburg Province." A tale told here in childhood by the housekeeper Pelageya formed the basis for Aksakov's most popular work, "The Scarlet Flower," first published in a supplement to "The Childhood Years of Bagrov the Grandson." He dedicated this tale to his only granddaughter, Olya—Olga Grigoryevna Aksakova. S.T. Aksakov, a married man, spent five years, from 1816 to 1821, at the family estate. Sergei Timofeevich and Olga Semyonovna had four children here: Konstantin (born in 1817), Maria (born in 1818, died in infancy), Vera (born in 1819), and Grigory (born in 1820). The Orenburg region can rightfully be called the main memorial site of the life and work of the great Russian writer and his famous sons: Konstantin, Grigory, and Ivan. The cultural and historical heritage of the village of Aksakovo brings glory not only to the Orenburg region, but to Russia as a whole. The significance of this place of life and work of the great writer, its role in cultural and educational activities, environmental education, and patriotic upbringing—all this forms a unique point on the cultural map of Russia.

References:

Mishanina, E.V., "History of the Aksakov Estate (Novo-Aksakovo, Znamenskoye) in the Orenburg Province," Orenburg State University Bulletin, No. 11 (130), Orenburg, 2011

Valery Kuznetsov, "I Visited the Places," Orenburg, 2013

Dmitrieva, M.G., "Problems of Preserving the Russian Estate: The Case of the S.T. Aksakov Estate Museum in the Village of Aksakov," Aksakovo, Buguruslan District, Orenburg Region. Orenburg, 2001