Azov Historical, Archaeological and Paleontological Museum-Reserve

The first museum in Azov appeared at a very difficult time. Fourth year of war, revolution, instability, economic decline. The history of the museum is closely connected with the society "People's Education", established in Azov in March 1917. Mikhail Aronovich Makarovsky was elected chairman of the society, who graduated from the Azov male gymnasium with a gold medal. Shortly before the revolution, he returned to Azov after graduating from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Petrograd University. The man is active, charming, cheerful, he became the initiator of many things, the soul of the society "People's Education". At the suggestion of M. Makarovsky, "People's Education" decided to open a museum in the city. We appealed to the population with a request to help in collecting exhibits, transfer antiquities for the museum. Misha Makarovsky went to Rostov "Society of Antiquities" and agreed to transfer some exhibits to the museum. In the summer he organized a paleontological expedition on the coast of Taganrog Bay to the area of Margaritovka and Port Katona. The first exposition was opened in the evening school (female gymnasium). In the future, it was planned to allocate a room for a museum in the People's House. Mikhail Makarovsky had another idea - to create a museum for schoolchildren and teachers in the city, which would be used in the educational process. This was very specific. Most of the exhibits for this museum were made by the students themselves. But there was simply no time left to implement the plan - there was another revolution - the October 1917, and after it - a civil war, a change of power. About the fate of the museum in the first period of Soviet power in Azov - from late January to July 1918 - nothing is known. At the end of 1918, the Azov Board made a loan for the needs of the city in the Rostov City Credit Society in the amount of 600,000 rubles. Of these funds, which were used for military expenditures, for the repair of a water supply and power plant, for the maintenance of a sanitary ferry and sanitary measures, etc., 2000 rubles were allocated for the purchase of collections for the city museum. At the end of September 1919, the acting curator of the city museum, D.M. Shipshin, appealed to the government with an "estimate of expenses for the education and maintenance of the city museum in 1919". The museum soon ceased to operate. In March 1920, the government changed again. The museum in Azov, like a phoenix bird, has been revived more than once. In the prewar period, the question of such an institution apparently arose from time to time, but no documents have survived, except for one of the minutes of the conference held at the museum on April 6, 1929. What the museum represented at that time, where it was located, has not yet been established. The later period of our museum, which began in 1935, is better known. This year, by the decision of the regional museum conference, held in November 1935, a network of local lore organizations was created in the Azov-Black Sea Territory. This work was headed by the Azov-Black Sea Bureau of Local History (Az.ChBK). The centuries-old history of Azov and its surroundings has long attracted the attention of archaeologists and historians. In Soviet times, members of the North Caucasus expedition GAIMK (1923-1928; 1935-1936) conducted research here. I was fascinated by the history of Azov and one of its residents, a man of amazing erudition and very hardworking. It was Izmail Dmitrievich Tiunov. The scientific archive of our museum contains an invitation to his name: Izmail Dmitrievich was asked to "arrive on November 16, 35 by 5 p.m. in the premises of the House of Mountain Education Workers." Azov on Leningradskaya street Dom. 40 (now anti-tuberculosis dispensary - T.F.) to the organizing meeting of the society of local historians in the Azov mountains, as well as to come to a meeting with those people who are "interested in this issue". Society was supposed to be created at the museum. The decision to establish the latter in Azov was made in 1935. The museum is located in the house on the street. 36 Leningradskaya. Simultaneously with the revival of the museum, archaeological research continued on the territory of Azov. These works were conducted under the guidance of Rostov archaeologist S.A.Vyazigin. Some of the finds remained in the museum. It was not possible to establish the number and nature of the items found. It is known only about the numismatic collection, for the definition of which contact with a certain A. A. Krotkov from Saratov and with the Zograf from Leningrad was supposed. I.D. Tiunov, who became a researcher at the museum, maintained contacts with Don scientists: B.Y. Kokenai, M. Poltoratskaya, B. Lunin; with Don historian M. Miller, Moscow linguist and linguist B.A. Larin. Together with Vyazigin, Izmail Dmitrievich prepared for publication in 1939 a collection of articles on the history of Azov. However, his further fate is unknown. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, I.D. Tiunov had to leave his worries about the museum (he worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature in the village of Alexandrovka, in a secondary school). The museum was looted during the occupation. Only in April 1948 the Azov Executive Committee decided to restore the Azov Historical Museum. I.D. Tiunov, despite his 72 years, actively participates in the fate of the museum, but on January 14, 1952 it disappeared. On December 7, 1953, the Azov City Executive Committee again heard the question "about the organization of a historical museum in Azov". The City Council unanimously decided to open the museum on January 1, 1954. However, if we take into account that in February 1959 the Executive Committee is again considering the issue "On the opening of the museum in the city of Azov", then we can conclude that his decision of 1953 was never implemented. In the same year, 1959, another decision was made to transfer the premises intended for the store to the museum, as well as the apartment next to it in a 28-apartment building built by the KPA plant on 11th Square III International. And while the preparatory work was underway, it was decided to open the museum in the "Powder Cellar". Soon the executive committee approved the estimate and the council of the museum. The latter included E.P. Chumakova, history teachers in schools and technical schools of the city: K.N. Ivanov, V.T. Kiryushkin, V.I. Kharchenko, L.V. Fastovets, A.P. Litvinenko, N.I. Gursky, instructor of the CPSU GC S.P. Strizhak, pensioners P.M. Koryagin, I.A. Suyarov, K.P. Cherkasova. For the post of Director of the Executive Committee approved Evdokia Petrovna Chumakova. The atmosphere and enthusiasm of those who took up the revival of the museum in Azov prompted: this time it will turn out and the museum will be in the city. The exposition of the museum is located in a residential building (Z-x room apartment, connected to a large hall and several rooms intended for a store). Employees of the museum after working in the archives of the country, museums of Moscow (including the Kremlin) received interesting material on the history of Azov - about the campaigns of Peter I and the powder cellars of the fortress of Azov. Scientific staff of the museum and a group of artists from Rostov under the leadership of Krasnevsky worked on the creation of expositions of the main museum on the III International Square and in the Powder Cellar. In May 1961 the museum was opened to visitors. Gradually, the museum grew, its halls were replenished with the most valuable finds. Funds of the museum were created, books of accounting of exhibits appeared. For the creation of new exposition departments, placement of museum funds and employees, premises were required. Museum staff were placed in the basement, where in addition to them there was another part of the exposition on the development of life and man. In the 60s, the museum and its public council began to seek the transfer of the building of the Executive Committee to the museum. With the construction of a new building for the city authorities, this issue was resolved. In 1975, the Azov Museum of Local Lore moved to a restored building built for the City Council in 1892. This building is one of the most beautiful, not only an architectural monument of the city, but also a historical one. Located in the center of the city, it witnessed all the most important events that took place in Azov in the turbulent XX century. During the revolution, the first Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies worked in the building, in the 20-60s - the City Committee of the Communist Party, the City Executive Committee. In 1999, the main fund of the museum - about 167,000 units. storage. Scientific and auxiliary fund - 103,000 units of storage. Library fund - 22466 units. storage. The total area of the museum is 5600 sq.m. Exposition and exhibition area - 1713 sq.m. The area of the fund storage - 1626 sq.m. The annual attendance is 150,000-160,000 people. Since 1981, the museum has been engaged in publishing activities. Since that time, there have been published: 15 issues of "Historical and Archaeological Studies in Azov and the Lower Don", the collection "Don Antiquities" - 7 issues, the collection "Essays on the History of Azov" - 4 issues. The main exposition of the museum is located in the building, which is a historical and architectural monument of the city (built in 1892 for the City Council). Branches of the museum: "Powder Cellar" - a monument of military engineering art of the early XVIII century, which houses the diorama of the artist A.M. Chernyshov "The capture of the Turkish fortress of Azov by the troops of Peter I." 1696; memorial museum of polar explorer R.L. Samoilovich; exhibition hall "Patron". The Azov Museum of Local History is one of the most interesting museums in the South of Russia, which has great potential both in terms of expanding the areas of exposition and fund storage facilities (the museum is being built), and in scientific terms. A unique part of the fund: the skeleton of the Trogonterium elephant (geological age of 600 thousand years, the height of the skeleton is 4 m 20 cm, the age is 45-50 years). There are several known skeletons of the Trogonterian elephant. The Azov specimen is one of the largest mounted elephant skeletons in the world and the only skeleton with the preserved elephant skull of this species. The Azov Museum of Local History has another unique paleontological exhibit - the skeleton of the elephant dinoterium (geological age - 5 million years, the height of the skeleton - 4.2-4.5 m). Collection of jewelry from II thousand BC to XIV century. Collection of horse harnesses of the era of antiquity. Collection of weapons from the Bronze Age to the developed Middle Ages. The Azov Museum has the largest collection of irrigated ceramics of the XIV century. Interesting collections of copper, samovars (the largest collection in the South of Russia), clothing of the 1890s - 1950s, needlework, numismatics, efragistics, weapons and weapons, photo and written sources, porcelain, stuffed animals, etc.