The Museum of the Nizhny Novgorod Intelligentsia is a memorial museum located at 127 Gorky Street in Nizhny Novgorod. The exhibition is dedicated to recreating the domestic environment of the Nizhny Novgorod intelligentsia of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Museum of the Nizhny Novgorod Intelligentsia is the only museum in Russia devoted to the life and everyday world of the intelligentsia of that period.[1][1]

The Building and Exhibition

The museum occupies a historic building that forms part of an 1833 city block on Gorky Street. The building is officially described as "a house with a recreated memorial interior reflecting the life of the Nizhny Novgorod intelligentsia of the late 19th and early 20th centuries." The building is a listed cultural heritage site: when a metro tunnel was laid near the block, it was necessary to first reinforce the adjacent buildings at nos. 123 and 127.

The Museum in the Cultural Life of the City

In 2001, the museum's halls hosted the solo art exhibition "The Image of the Surroundings" by Nizhny Novgorod architect and artist Mikhail Viktorovich Dutsev. The museum-apartment's exhibition comprises a drawing room–dining room, a study, and a young woman's room; they contain authentic 19th-century objects — a parlour suite, Viennese chairs, small tables, a sideboard, a bureau with a secretaire, and a Walther armchair.[1] The museum is listed among the city's cultural communities and venues under the collective name "The Nizhny Novgorod Intelligentsia." On the last Thursday of every month the museum holds themed evenings with the participation of figures from science and the arts; in addition, it organises exhibitions with cultural and educational programmes for schoolchildren.[1]

The building housing the museum was constructed in 1842; throughout the second half of the 19th century it changed hands several times: in the 1860s–1870s it belonged to the official D. T. Petrov, then to the physician M. M. Fiveysky, and from 1890 to 1902 to the merchant B. F. Pyatov. The merchant Viktor Feofilaktovich Pyatov rented the house to his relatives — the Nevzorov family. The Nevzorov sisters were active participants in the Social Democratic movement: Sofya graduated with a gold medal from the Nizhny Novgorod Institute for Noble Maidens, taught at a gymnasium where she met exiled revolutionaries, and in 1896 was arrested and banished to Nizhny Novgorod; Zinaida was involved in producing leaflets.[2][2][1]

The museum was opened in 1967, on the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, as a museum-apartment of the Nevzorovy sisters — it was in this apartment that a 1900 meeting took place regarding the publication of the newspaper Iskra, attended by V. I. Lenin. At the meeting, Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin) was present together with his mother Maria Alexandrovna and his sister Anna Ilyinichna; the meeting discussed the question of publishing a party newspaper abroad.[2] In 1993 the museum received its current name. Around 60 articles and reports subsequently printed in Iskra came from Nizhny Novgorod; some of them were prepared directly in the Nevzorovy house.[2][3] In 2014, in connection with plans to widen Gorky Street, the exhibition moved to the exhibition hall "Pokrovka, 8".[3]

The museum was opened in 1967, on the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, as a museum-apartment of the Nevzorovy sisters — it was in this apartment that a 1900 meeting took place regarding the publication of the newspaper Iskra, attended by V. I. Lenin, and in 1993 the museum received its current name.[3] In 2014, in connection with plans to widen Gorky Street, the exhibition moved to the exhibition hall "Pokrovka, 8".[3]

Sources

  1. idemvmuzei.ru — The Museum of the Nizhny Novgorod Intelligentsia is the only museum in Russia dedicated to the life and daily existence of the intelligentsia of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. (archive)
  2. nizhny800.ru — The owner of the house from 1890 to 1902, merchant Viktor Feofilaktovich Pyatov, rented it to his relatives — the Nevzorovy family. (archive)
  3. intelligentsia-museum.ru — "Back Home": the exhibition and history of the Museum of the Nizhny Novgorod Intelligentsia (archive)
Materials from the following articles were used (3)

Intelligentism, Dutsev Mikhail Viktorovich, Tunnel boring shield "Yevdokiya"