Islands of Atlantis

Local historian Andrei Burglakov on how to open seven museums, starting with one spoon

Radio Liberty continues a series of essays about the Russians who make the lives of their compatriots and their country at least a little better. The local historian Andrei Burlakov opened seven museums in the Leningrad Region. The first of them-in the former estate of Pushkin’s great-grandfather Abram Gannibal-appeared after Andrei Burlakov in the mid-1980s actually captured the building of the former Hannibalovsky stable.

Andrei Burlakov was born in the village of Suid, in the Leningrad region. Once it belonged to Abram Petrovich Hannibal, but the state farm, which appeared in this place in Soviet times, was not before the memory of the former landowner. The church where Pushkin’s parents were married in the 1960s, and the Arap’s grave smelled under potatoes, for nothing that Hannibal was almost the first to grow this root crop for food in all of Russia.

From bird droppings to a spoon of Hannibal

Andrey Burlakov in Suid

Andrei Burlakov became interested in the story of a boy - under the impression of his grandfather's stories. After school, he went to the surrounding villages with a notebook - to record old women's stories. In the 70-80s, people were not too talkative, but they trusted the local guy-they even talked about how they saw the royal family. At school, they knew about the hobby of the boy and looked at him askance:

“It was strange, I was too passionate,” recalls Andrei Burlakov. - I even had a schedule: today I go to one village, tomorrow to another. I did not have any cultural workers in the family, but I found all my great -grandmothers. They remembered the era of the 19th century, interesting stories, traditions, and in the family I had not only peasants, but also nobles, and everyone had their own memories, kitchen conversations, ancient photographs. In the last classes of the school, I rushed to all my relatives - to take photos and documents from them - I understood that I was probably the only one who needed it. And people willingly gave their "archives", realizing that it was better than then no one would need it at all.

During service in the army, Andrei Burlakov learned from newspapers that in Gatchina, after restoration, the palace finally opens. For him, it was a long-awaited event, and he immediately wrote to the director of the Gatchina Museum-Reserve that he wants to work there. The director answered evasively - they say that the work is unquenchable and not prestigious, it is better to go to study. But, having returned from the army, Burlakov arose on the threshold of the Gatchina Palace. He was offered a worker’s bet, and he did not refuse: he scooped up and took his garbage on a horse, which remained after the factory, which was in the palace for many years, clenched a bird droppings from the cornices, and in every free minute he ran on excursions and for sincere conversations with the elderly caretakers. In parallel, Andrei Burlakov studied at the Krupskaya Institute of Culture and did not leave a dream of a museum in his native Suid.

- I found out that there is the so -called culture house, the rural club is in the former Gannibal stable. I thought - Oh, this is what I need, I can open the museum there, and expand local history activities - the main thing is to catch on. I came to Gatchina in the cultural department and said that I dream of a museum in the estate of Hannibal, that there is a house of culture. There was then a very good person, and he said - yes, because this is a chance. So I came to work in the club. Yes, the bet is small, but the main thing is to catch on, I study, everything coincides.

I realized that it's time to seize the house.

The 20-year-old plug expanded local history work immediately, gathered a powerful youth asset, the benefit of all the guys knew from school. The pace of work can be judged by the fact that Burlakov came to the club in April 1986, and already in June he opened the museum. Here, Pushkin's holiday also helped - the first in the Leningrad region. The dexterous plug suggested to the authorities: look, there we have a house, an elegant hut, just for the museum is suitable for the museum.

The first museum of Burlakov

- Then Valentina Ivanovna Filippova worked at the state farm - an engineer in aesthetics and everyday life, this is the improvement of playgrounds, squares - now there are no such posts close. And so she put this house in order - as if for me. In fact, they were going to transfer the library there - in order to expand the office of the director of the state farm at its expense. And I realized that it's time to capture the house. The state farm thought - well, a boy, he will open his exposition for one day, the holiday will pass, we will remove it all. It was not there. My house was solemnly opened, the belt was cut by the great -grandson of the poet - Grigory Grigoryevich Pushkin, who came from Moscow. And then the struggle began. The day goes away, but I am not leaving the house. And the tourists went - not one bus, as it is now, and sometimes eight a day - in the newspapers, probably read that the new museum was opened on the Pushkin Ring. Now I don’t understand how I worked there, without lunch, without tea party: the club is a museum, a club is a museum.

The state farm authorities crushed: you took the house temporarily - free up! Burlakov did not leave, then he was turned off the light. He was not embarrassed and continued to work without light. The complaints of tourists rained down, and then the bosses surrendered and even allocated six chairs and Palace from the state farm office to the invader - strangled, just leave me alone.

People gave unique things, and the museum began to grow quickly and replenish

From the first days of the museum, the collection of materials, campaigns in the villages for ancient things, landscaping and planting trees in the park, which the state farm had previously cut down and built up in the park, began. When Andrei went to the city to study, the 15–16-year-old guys were on duty at the museum instead of him, even conducted excursions, having learned simple texts on a piece of paper. And all this is free. Andrei Burlakov led a wise policy: who would do something for the museum for a week, will receive the right to free entrance to the disco on Saturday.

-I remember how, after work, I raced home at least something to eat, and on the trees and on the ditches I sat the boys, waited for the second, evening entry-to go through the villages, drag some chest or something else on the car. People then gave unique things, and the museum began to grow quickly and replenish.

Nevertheless, there were few exhibits collected in the villages. The museum in the Hannibal estate demanded genuine things related to the famous family. Soon Andrei Burlakov met with the famous Pushkin expert Nina Granovskaya and with the researcher of the genealogy family Hannibalov Anastasia Bessonova.

Gannibal spoon in the museum window

- These were people of the older generation, already pensioners, and they accepted me at first, one might say, with hostility. Think about it, I came and says-I want it, I want it, and give me the addresses of the descendants of Hannibal. The second meeting was better, and for the third time we were already best friends-apparently they realized that I was the same person who should create something here in this place. They gave me the addresses of the descendants of Hannibal, I started correspondence, went to Moscow. It was not easy to communicate-it was necessary to convince them that our museum is worthy of giving us any relics. It is for us, in a small folk museum without protection, and not to the more prestigious museums of Moscow, Leningrad, Pushkin Mountains. I wrote to them, reported our news, applied newspaper notes, and, finally, one family wrote to me: okay, the name Hannibalovskaya spoon with the monogram will be your most valuable thing, which visited many exhibitions. Come and buy. It is clear how I was delighted, but the price shocked me - 200 rubles.

This money is Andrei Burlakov, as a hubby received 93 rubles per month, he accumulated from his own salary. Like money for many other exhibits, as well as windows, furniture, booklets and generally everything that is required for the museum. But still, a young man with burning eyes, who came to Moscow from his distant Suida, touched the hearts of the owners of memorial objects-over time they began to give a museum. Thus, about 50 genuine things that belonged to people from the Gannibal clan and the closest encirclement of Pushkin gathered.

"Fascist" flag and new times

Landscape in Suid

Andrei Burlakov was engaged not only in the museum. He collected materials about repressed fellow villagers - he excavated the stories of about 30 injured families. It was approaching on November 7, 1987, the 70th anniversary of the October Revolution-and Andrei Burlakov decided that on this day we had to recall the dead, arrange an evening, invite survivors or at least their children and grandchildren.

No one knew what the Russian flag looked like, and the director of the state farm and party organizer shouted that the fascist flag

He rummaged at home and among his mother’s shreds found three pieces of matter - blue, white and red. He secretly sewed the Russian flag. The idea was simple - to hang it on the roof of the museum, attaching a black tape - as a sign of sorrow for the dead. The roof of the museum hut was very uncomfortable, only one guy agreed to climb there, swallowing vodka, and attached the flag. The rage of authorities, both state farm and party, had no bounds. The flag could not be removed for a very long time - and they threw sticks into it, and they clung with rope, and even shot.

- It was still a Soviet Union, I might not have a good greetings for this. But I knew that I was telling the truth, that all this was - and that you need to know and remember about it. Every day I told our youth about this, and they all understood me very well, supported the idea of the evening of memory. No one knew what the Russian flag looked like, and the director of the state farm and party organizer shouted that the flag is fascist. As a result, he was removed, and a month later they returned it to me - shot. Now give him to the museum.

Andrey Burlakov and historical reconstructors

Despite the dissatisfaction of the authorities, the tricolor over the museum continued to arise: on the Pushkin holiday he was hung with a white ribbon, on November 7 - with black. Burlakova was called to the Gatchinsk regional committee of the party, threatened to sting at the psychiatric hospital, at the Kashchenko clinic, or even in prison, shouted that he would disgrace the entire area. But the most interesting thing happened in 1991: the flag again soared above the museum, one of the officials shouted: “Hang it on this fascist flag!”, The villagers stood up and shouted that if Burlakov hangs this flag, then it is necessary, and that they were ready to curtain the whole area with such flags.

It was in June, and in August, after the coup, the tricolor flags had already fluttered throughout the country and the local authorities looked at Andrei almost with fear: "Are you a seer? Did you know in advance that it would turn out like that?" As a result, he was solemnly presented with the last red flag of the Soviet authorities - now he also waits for a museum window.

With the advent of the new authorities, the work of the museum continued in the same mode. Black days came in the winter of 1993. Due to the small number of tourists in Suid in cold weather, Andrei arranged exhibitions in the district center. While he was in Gatchina, heating pipes broke through in his museum. Hot water and steam destroyed the entire photo exposure, paintings, part of the furniture and a unique piano. By a happy coincidence, Andrei Burlakov took all the most valuable exhibits to the exhibition dedicated to Pushkin's ancestors. Now the local historian considers it a miracle.

Hannibal Manor in Suid

For several years, work in the museum was interrupted. At this time, Andrei went to schools with a suitcase, where his treasures were stored - the most valuable objects from the museum collection, and talked about them about the Hannibalsky estate. The chance to revive the museum - not in a small hut, but in the preserved part of the Lord’s house - appeared in 1999 with the approach of the Pushkin anniversary. Andrei developed rabid activities, offended thresholds, conducted stocks-he convinced that before Pushkin, Suid simply had no right to stay without his museum before Pushkin. He asked to free up at least two or three rooms in the state farm office, located in the former Lord outbuilding. Just a month before the anniversary, the state farm surrendered - apparently, the Gatchina authorities pressed - and allocated a place for the museum. It was urgent to make a separate entrance, cross the floors.

- I remember how the floors still dried up on the last night before opening - I did not understand how we would be able to open. It is clear that the question of who will be the director did not stand, they didn’t even ask me if I agreed. There were no windows or furniture, but still opened the museum - already state, the governor came to cut the ribbon, cultural figures - Kirill Lavrov, descendants of Hannibal. I put up my unique exhibits. And only then he realized that they deceived me: the museum was discovered, but they did not give bets. And the summer is coming, the tourists went, and again I am alone with my museum. Again - who dragged the table out of the house, some chair, some stool, this museum was born. True, here I was more humble: I acted, demanded, and in September they gave me a bet, then another, and so I struck 12 bets, along with the guard and employee of the park, - a real state.

Tested Way of self -capture

The most beloved museum of Andrei Burlakov is, of course, in Suid, his first brainchild, and the Hannibal Museum open after him. And he discovered seven museums. After Suida, the museum is the most expensive to his heart - in Siverskaya, he called him the "country capital", thereby inventing a tourist brand for the entire village. He was preceded by a school museum of summer house, opened there in a boarding school. And after Siverskaya, there were a museum in Gatchina, a museum of the history of educational institutions, open to the 200th anniversary of Gatchina, a school museum in Suid, a museum of summer house in profitkovo.

In the museum "Danim capital"

The Daching Capital Museum is located in one of the Siveric oldest cottages, in Soviet times this house served as a sleeping building for a boarding school. The building had to be demolished, but people from the school leadership, who were well related to Andrei, whispered to him - look, it seems, this is your chance. The building disappeared before our eyes, it had already begun to rob it, and the local authorities did not agree to arrange a museum there. And then Burlakov went tested - he settled the old house, and two months later the museum was already opened there.

Before at least somehow they helped, and now even my letters stopped answering

The school supported the initiative and transferred there the school museum of summer house, which was previously created by Andrei, which remained only to improve and expand. But the local authorities hid anger at the local historian - as it turned out later, they wanted to demolish the building and, having joined the neighboring section of the park to its territory, build up all the cottages.

Castle in Belogorka

- From the Red Street on which the museum stands, there is almost nothing left. There was a cottage of Alexei Tolstoy, the dacha of the merchant Zaikin, where Mayakovsky visited, and many other beautiful houses - they burned over the past twenty years, now nothing. People are horrified when I show them abandoned estates, the house in Kobrino, belonging to the mother of Pushkin, looks especially scary. And the famous castle in Belogorka, belonging to the daughter of the merchant Eliseev, is simply abandoned, and he is now robbed. This house was in the list of a hundred beautiful buildings in the Art Nouveau style in Russia. The same thing happens in a friendlier, in Thais, all my tourists are simply shocked, ask - where are your authorities, district, regional, why are they inactive? And I am terribly ashamed of people - why we all around are so mercilessly destroying, we cannot protect, without war we lose.

- Have you tried to reach the authorities?

- Certainly! And they received a lot of answers - about how good they are, how everything will be here. But for decades we cannot get a reserve for us to arrange a reserve, so that at least we have stopped barbarously cut down the forests and build cottages. Oredezzh dies because of this, almost nothing remains of the Suida River, because the policy of one day is being conducted-to capture, build, and there-the grass did not grow ... Previously, they helped at least somehow, at least half the amount is sometimes thrown away, and now even my letters were no longer responding, before there was no such disobedience attitude. It is as if they do not understand - everything that I do works for the image of our area.

Over time, Andrei Burlakov greatly expanded the horizons of his local history interests, now their sphere includes not only Suid, but also other places around Gatchina, as well as in neighboring areas - Volosovsky, Lomonosov and Kingisepp. Today, Andrei's main concern is cemeteries.

-I realized that no one had ever really engaged in the inventory of cemeteries. It is believed that if the plate is dilapidated, you can put it somewhere, it is necessary to give way to it. I am now in a hurry to travel to the rural cemeteries of our distant areas, try to find plates, clear, write down, then find in the archives - who is buried there. And I interview the inhabitants who remembers what. And there are unique discoveries - in the cemetery in Volosov, I found the graves of elegies, barons of corfs, the graves of priests, landowners, great people of the region, heroes of war, labor, well -known teachers - after all, all this is also history.

In Gatchina, Burlakov went around every grave, rewrote everything and published the book "Gatchinsky necropolis", immediately posted on the Internet. This is a list of all famous people buried in the local cemetery. And Burlakov opened the forgotten cemetery in Suid and restored the picture - who was resting there - with the help of archives and church books.

Recently, Andrei Burlakov started a series of books about the surrounding country villages and villages, the first book about Kartashevka was first published, a book about profitkov on the way. Residents of Veritsa ask him to open a museum from them, but he no longer wants self -seizure - he sets the condition: find the room, knock out the state - then you will have a museum.

Andrey Burlakov in Siverskaya

Музеи, открытые Андреем Бурлаковым, невелики. Но именно они являются островками Атлантиды – дореволюционной России, которую в упор не видят чиновники и богачи за высокими заборами местных коттеджей. Этих заборов очень много в окрестностях Гатчины. Вокруг богатых заборов – тишина, в которой угадывается молчание невидимой охраны и дыхание сторожевых собак. А вокруг бедненьких музеев Бурлакова кипит жизнь – там устраивают фестивали, концерты, туда съезжаются исторические реконструкторы, разыгрывают битвы времен Наполеона, Первой и Второй мировой. Недавно в Сиверской на народные деньги открыли памятник генерал-фельдмаршалу Петру Витгенштейну, у которого здесь были имения. Небогатым сельским жителям удалось собрать три миллиона рублей из любви к истории родного края. А любовь эта сформировалась не без помощи музеев Андрея Бурлакова.