One hundred kilometers from Moscow: Chilikin merchants and postcards of the early twentieth century.

Chilikin merchants and postcards of the early twentieth century.

To whom the Kashirians owe the opportunity to “see” the past.

In 2016, Kashira near Moscow celebrated the 660th anniversary. It was marked not only by the opening of the monument to Sagittarius on Sovetskaya Street, but also by the release of a set of 32 postcards “Kashira on postcards of the early twentieth century”. Thanks to the efforts of Kashir local historians, residents and guests received a wonderful gift on the anniversary birthday of the city.

Kashir local historian Alexander Gorelov was one of the co-authors of the kit, who recalled that in 2006 the Kashir Museum of Local Lore issued a set of postcards with views of pre-revolutionary Russia, which became a rarity. The new set almost does not repeat the previous one.

Alexander Nikolaevich, interested in the past, discovered in the old Kashir cemetery (which is located next to the Nikitsky monastery) a family burial of Chilikin merchants. There rests Ekaterina Nikolaevna Chilikina, who died on September 2, 1869, and her three children, including Vladimir Nikolaevich Chilikin. Thanks to him, in the early twentieth century, postcards with views of Kashira and its environs were issued.

Vladimir Nikolaevich owned a bookstore on Bolshaya Moskovskaya Street (now Soviet) in Kashira. He responded to the proposal of representatives of the Russian Society of the Universal Postal Union and the All-Russian Geographical Society to adopt publishing rights to prepare for the release of one hundred postcards with views of Kashira and its district and to implement them through his own outlet. He was assisted in the implementation of this project by amateur photographer Ivan Ivanovich Timofeev.

They chose the best views of the city and surroundings in 1910-1912. On one of the postcards captured "White Pine Bor". Today, residents of Kashira and the city of Stupino recognize the image of the so-called “drunken road” on it. There are postcards and views of the Oka, the Belopesotsky Monastery, buildings that, alas, no longer exist.

On the postcard "Noble and Pushkin Street" standing at the intersection of Engels Street and Pushkin House No. 5 - House of the mayor Nikolai Mikhailovich Chilikin. In Soviet times there was a sanitary-epidemic station, which was transferred to another part of the city, and the building became useless to anyone.

It is believed that this house was built at the end of the XIX century. It was owned by a representative of a rich local merchant family Nikolai Chilikin. In 1901 he served as the elected mayor of the city and did much useful for the city. Nikolai Mikhailovich’s father, Mikhail Andrianovich, was a provincial vowel in the Kashirsky district in 1868, as well as director of the Kashir City Public Bank in 1871.

Currently, the Chilikin House is in an abandoned, deplorable state. The house with the estate needs restoration work. While the building is still intact - come and see the masterpiece of wooden architecture. The house impresses with the skill of its creators.