The founding of first Russian Open-air Museum of Architecture in Kolomenskoye: The hard struggle of P.D.Baranovskiy

Abstract

This article considers the founding and first years of existence of museum in Kolomenskoye. The history of the museum in 1923–1930 is traced basing on a rich archive material from archive of Kolomenskoye museum-reserve, Central state archive of Moscow region and Department of Written sources of State Historic Museum. In this article, the condition of architectural monuments in Kolomenskoye during first years after the revolution and their use by different organizations is described in detail. The administrative struggle of Petr Dmitrievich Baranovskiy for transfer of monuments of former tsar’s estate of 16th–19th centuries to museum is in focus. The author considers difficult issue of museum — church relations at that period and their influence on the attitude of Kolomenskoye dwellers and dwellers of another nearest villages to the museum. The article also touches upon the problem of museum’s security and its existence in conditions of hard criminal situation of first post-revolutionary years. The article indirectly considers the issues of the formation of museum staff and restauration of the monuments. Above the frames of this article are the issues of the formation of the museum’s collection and biographies of its first employees, including the biography of P.D.Baranovskiy, about whom many works have already been written. The actuality of the theme of founding of the museum in Kolomenskoye is due to the forthcoming one hundred anniversary of the museum. At this moment, there are no researches in scientific literature, which could give a holistic view of the founding of the first open-air museum of architectural monuments in Russia in former summer residence of Russian tsars.