THE OLGINSKY ORPHANAGES OF THE VYATKA PROVINCE AT THE TURN OF THE 19TH-20TH CENTURIES AS IN THE MATERIALS OF THE CENTRAL STATE ARCHIVE OF THE KIROV REGION. HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL ASPECT

Abstract

A special place in the system of children’s care in the Russian Empire at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries belonged to the Olginsky orphanages, named in honor of Princess Olga — the daughter of the Emperor Nikolai II. They were the smallest type of children’s institutions in Russia, which appeared in a similar way to the charity institutions for adults: working buildings and shelters for the homeless. The idea of educating and raising children in an orphanage, supervising them, and most importantly introducing them to work and craft should have saved them in the future from poverty, unemployment, and marginalization. This paper analyzes the Olginsky orphanages of the Vyatka Province, at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, the features of their exterior, development, organization, structure, construction, and functioning. The author relies on the documents identified for the first time during the research work of the Central State Archive of the Kirov Region. The results show that there were three Olginsky shelters in the Vyatka Province — they were founded in the Izhevsk factory, in the town Mozhga, and the town of Slobodsky. The author notes that those who initiated the opening of orphanages and financed their construction, were in most cases individuals: at the Izhevsk factory they were Izhevsk workers, in Mozhga it was the chief of the Yelabuga District, Ivan Mikhailovich Poyarkov, and in Slobodsky they were merchants. In general, such orphanages had a positive impact on orphans and street children, because there, they received the necessary education and craft training, which later allowed them to lead an independent life and earn a living. In this article, the author confirms the authorship of the constructed orphanage buildings: in Mozhga, it was the famous architect of the Vyatka Province M. A. Buchholz, a contemporary of an equally famous architect I. A. Charushin; at the Izhevsk factory it was A. Grebenshchikov (later with the participation of I. A. Charushin); and the architect Andreev in Slobodsky. The author has established that from an architectural point of view, the buildings of the orphanages were quite diverse, but modest in their design, they did not have signs of monumentality, did not solve significant urban planning problems and, in general, did not contradict the existing artistic and aesthetic ideals of the period.