Nikolai Alekseevich Zaburdaev (13 (26) November 1909, Kozmodemyansk — 19 February 1999, Nizhny Novgorod) — director of the Gorky State Museum from 1957 to 1974, local historian, writer, Honored Worker of Culture of the RSFSR, member of the Union of Journalists of the USSR.[2]

Biography and wartime service

He was born in the town of Kozmodemyansk (now the Mari El).[2] He served throughout the The Great Patriotic War; he was awarded the Order of the Red Star (1945), the medal "For Combat Merit" (1944), and later the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd class (1985).[2] After demobilization he graduated from the history faculty of the Pedagogical University and in 1952 took a position at the Kashirin House Museum.[1]

Museum work

At the Kashirin House museum Zaburdaev took up research into the ancestors of A. M. Gorky on his father's side — Maxim Savvatyevich Peshkov — as well as the Kashirin and Muratov families. He corresponded with Ekaterina Pavlovna Peshkova, who wrote back to him: "I still cannot get used to your discoveries, and I keep regretting that no one made them during Alexei Maximovich's lifetime…" This research resulted in the book "In the Kashirin Family".[1][3] The 1976 edition of the book has been digitized and is available in the electronic library of the centralized library system of the Leninsky district of Nizhny Novgorod.[3]

On 12 November 1957 the M. Gorky Literary Museum and the Kashirin House museum were merged into the State Museum of A. M. Gorky, and Zaburdaev was appointed its director.[1] In 1971, under his leadership, the N. A. Dobrolyubov Literary Memorial Museum was established within the museum's structure — its first branch.[2] In the early 1960s Zaburdaev initiated the creation, at the Literary Museum, of the Society of Old Nizhny Novgorod Residents[3], as well as the F. I. Chaliapin school museum at School No. 140 — opened on the site of a wooden school built in the early 20th century with funds from A. M. Gorky and F. I. Chaliapin.

The Chaliapin museum was founded in February 1965; annual Chaliapin Days have been held at the school ever since.[1] A circle of Nizhny Novgorod old-timers formed to assist the museum was created on his initiative in April 1960, and in 1964 it received the status of the "Society of Old Nizhny Novgorod-Gorky Residents at the A. M. Gorky Literary Museum".[3] Zaburdaev surveyed houses connected with the writer's life and work in Nizhny Novgorod, and took an active part in the work of the All-Russian Society for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments (VOOPIiK).[1] In 1970 he was awarded the title of Honored Worker of Culture of the RSFSR.[2] He held the post of director until 1974.[2]

Literary and local-history legacy

Zaburdaev was the author of several books about Gorky-related places and people from the writer's circle: "A. A. Vaneev", "The Kashirin House" (published in 1966, 1968, and 1978), "The A. M. Gorky Museum-Apartment" (1985). He also wrote a considerable number of articles on Gorky studies and Nizhny Novgorod local history.[1][2]

He is buried at the Nagorное (Vyazovskoe) cemetery in Nizhny Novgorod.[2]

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Zaburdaev Nikolai Alekseevich (archive)
  2. opentextnn.ru — Section 3. From the personal memoirs of old Nizhny Novgorod residents — OPEN TEXT (archive)
  3. cbs-nn.ru — Zaburdaev N. A. In the Kashirin Family (1976) — electronic library of the Leninsky District Centralized Library System of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)