Saving the Tsars Palaces Loo
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© Christopher Morgan & Irina Orlova 2005 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The right of Christopher Morgan and Irina Orlova to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by his in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. ISBN 09549137-1-X Published by Polperro Heritage Press Clifton-upon-Teme Worcestershire WR6 6EN United Kingdom [email protected] Cover design by Steve Bogen Printed in Great Britain by Orphans Press Leominster Herefordshire HR6 8JT PREFACE The story of the Tsars’ country palaces, of their destruction in World War II and of their faithful rebuilding in the years that followed has been told before. We welcome this book however because its aim is to celebrate the ordinary Russians without whose courage, skill and devotion this resurrection from the ruins could not have taken place. We would like every visitor to the palaces, be they Russian or from overseas, to take away with them some awareness of what these people did. It contains a story of some drama and, at moments, high adventure, but above all, it introduces the reader to the men and women who played key roles in the saving of the palaces. It would not, of course, be possible for it to cover in detail all the contributions of all the many talented curators and restorers who devoted their lives to these projects but it does bring home to the reader the amount of talent, of persistence and of love which so many willingly and for little material reward gave to save their country’s heritage. They were our comrades and we are proud to contribute to this book about them. Adolf Zabrovsky Valeria Belanina Galina Khodasevich CONTENTS Introduction Chapter 1 Revolution Chapter 2 Civil War Chapter 3 On The Ropes Chapter 4 Gathering Clouds Chapter 5 The Siege Chapter 6 The Breakout Chapter 7 What Can We Do? Chapter 8 Clearing Up The Mess Chapter 9 The Treasure Hunt Chapter 10 Peterhof’s Fountains Chapter 11 The Leningrad Affair Chapter 12 Pavlovsk Chapter 13 Peterhof Chapter 14 Pushkin Chapter 15 Gatchina Chapter 16 Other Palaces Chapter 17 Restoration Under Capitalism Chapter 18 Was It Worthwhile? INTRODUCTION The aim of this book is to tell the story of the small multitude of ordinary, but talented, dedicated and brave Russians, who between them retrieved the necklace of Tsarist palaces around St Petersburg from all the horrors of the twentieth century, starting with the revolution and climaxing with the destruction of the second world war. One problem with such an aim is that it can result in what is sometimes called an ‘excess of Oblomovs’.* Our policy has been to avoid first names, nicknames and patronymics, which are second nature to Russians but confusing in the west, although we do use first names for those characters in the book [eg Irina Benois or Valeria Belanina] who had also become our friends. Even so, over the course of the 80 years it covers, a great many people cavalcade through the story. We have wished to name them all, because they are the very people we want to celebrate. The vast majority have short walk-on parts, explained by the context, but a few keep reappearing and form the central core about which the kaleidoscope revolves. To help readers get to know these, we have provided a dramatis personae at the start. And for the smaller parts, we indicate each person’s contribution in the index; unless, of course, to do so would insult the reader’s intelligence. We do not feel we should explain who Lenin or Stalin were. Another problem we have faced is the Russian habit of renaming places. During the course of the twentieth century, the city at the heart of our story was called successively St. Petersburg, then Petrograd [to make it sound less German in the same spirit that caused English dachshunds such trouble in the first world war], then Leningrad and at the end St Petersburg again. We have referred to it by whatever name was current at the time we are writing about. For less well known places [eg Gatchina > Trotsk > Krasnoyeguardesk > Gatchina again] we explain the changes in the text. When we started to work on this book, we found that we were universally welcomed in St. Petersburg. It was as though all the city was waiting for someone to retell the story of how the palaces were saved and by whom. There had been books about it, notably a beautifully illustrated * The original Oblomov dates from a book by Goncharov published in 1859. Its hero suffers from lassitude, giving rise to a noun oblomovschina describing the disease of boredom to which the Russian country aristocracy was prone. In English, however, the word became associated with the bewilderment English readers can suffer, trying to cope with Russian names. Risen from the Ashes by a group of curators, but everyone wanted to help and no-one wanted any compensation other than the chance to contribute to a book they wanted written. Sadly, not all are still alive to see the results but we hope that those who are will feel that their efforts were worthwhile. It is with great gratitude that we list our many helpers;- Ivan Alexeev, painter/restorer Julia Bakareva,, Archive of the Inspectorate for Art and History Monuments Valeria Belanina, former Deputy Director of Pavlovsk Irina Benois, architect Michael Bobrov, former mountain climber Adia Bonitenko, Central State Archive of the art and literature documents Valery David, Museum of the Defence of Leningrad Tatiana Emilianova, Committee of International Affairs Elena Felixovna, State Archive of film and photo documents Natalia Fomichiova, gilder Alexander Kedrinsky, architect Galina Khodasevich, archive keeper of Tsarskoye Selo Tatiana Kishlashko, Switchback pavilion curator Vladimir Klementiev, senior curator of Chinese palace Constantine Kochuev, wood carver Nichola1 Lancere, architect Boris Lebedev, painter/restorer Leonid Lubimov, painter/restorer Nadezhda Ode, moulder/restorer Lilia Shvedskaya, sculptor Valentina Soldatova, ceramics restorer and sculptor Lidia Strizhova, modeler and sculptor Anna Studeynikova, photographer Tatiana Telukova, gilder Anastasia Vasilieva, painter/restorer Andrey Waitens, architect Adelaida Yolkina, curator of Gatchina Adolf Zabrovsky, wood-carver Vitaly Zhuravliov, painter/restorer DRAMATIS PERSONAE Belaeva, Seraphima, Gatchina’s curator during the war. Belanina, Valeria, Art historian, close collaborator of Anna Zelenova in Pavlovsk who has overseen events there since Anna’s death. Belekhov, Nikolai, Head of the Inspectorate of Monuments throughout and after the siege. Benois, Irina, architect involved in the restoration of the palaces, notably the Cottage Palace. Bernstam, Feodor, art historian, appointed first curator of Peterhof in 1917. Grabar, Igor, artist and art administrator, curator of the Tretiakov Gallery. Kazanskaya, Evgennia, architect mainly active in Peterhof. Kedrinsky, Alexander, architect, extremely influential in all palaces but mainly associated with the restoration of Catherinehof. Kuchumov, Anatoly, expert on treasures contained in palaces. Keeper of Storages. Lubimov, Leonid, artist, leader of a team active everywhere but most of all in Pavlovsk after the death of Treskin. Lukomski, George, aesthete, appointed first curator of Tsarskoye Selo in 1917 by Kerensky. Lunacharski, Anatoly, friend of Lenin and first Commissar for the Enlightenment in 1917. Makarov, V. N., influential academic, succeeded Zubov as curator of Gatchina. Maria Feodorovna, tsarina, wife of Tsar Paul. Her aesthetic influence is detectable in all palaces but notably, Pavlovsk, her creation. Ode, Nadezhda, moulder, responsible for restored panels in Peter I’s study in Peterhof. Oleinik, Feodor, architect, responsible for rebuilding Pavlovsk. Polovtsov, Alexander, aristocrat who, in 1917, first sprang to the defence of the Tsar’s country palaces. Popova-Gunich, Sophia, architect, active in several locations but mainly as Oleinik’s successor in Pavlovsk. Rosenberg, Alfred, Head of the Kunstkommission which organised Nazi looting during war. Shvedskaya, Lilia, sculptress and moulder. Her son Roma was the model for most of the putti in the palaces. Tikhomirova, Marina, curator of Peterhof during and after the siege. Treskin, Anatoly, gifted artist responsible for most of the paintings restored at Pavlovsk. Turova, Evgenia, curator of Tsarskoye Selo during and after the siege. Vasilieva, Anastasia, painter notable for developing silk painting and, among other things, for her work at Mon Repos. Weiss, Nikolai, junior curator of Pavlovsk during the siege. Zelenova, Anna, curator of Pavlovsk during and after the siege. Zubov, Count Valentin, Aristocrat and first curator of Gatchina in 1917. Map showing the location of the main tsars’ palaces in relation to St. Petersburg. Chapter 1 REVOLUTION Sometimes when we read about doomed historical characters about to take some fatal step, we want to call out to them across the years: “Stop! Don’t do it!” Of no-one is this more true than the hapless Tsar Nicholas II on 2nd March 1917. Trapped in his carriage by mutinous railwaymen, his armies crumbling, shaken by ever more panicky messages from his capital, surrounded by gloomy counsellors and, worst of all, cut off from his strong if foolish wife, he was not the man for such a moment. In the Stroganov Palace just off the Nevski Prospekt, there is a tableau of waxworks of the Romanov tsars. Starting with the towering Peter the Great, they stand in a circle of formidable women and inadequate men until returning to where the nervous little figure of Nicholas nestles under the sorrowing gaze of his massive ancestor. Looking at him, one feels that perhaps whatever he did would have been wrong. As absolute Tsar and in the field as commander-in-chief of his disintegrating armies, he had still insisted that he should not be disturbed in the afternoon when he walked his dogs or in the evening when he liked to watch films.