"The people were impoverished." Mariinsky Children's Shelter in Kostroma

June 10, 1847 in Kostroma opened the Mariinsky orphanage.

It was a difficult time. Manufactures have gone bankrupt, and mechanical factories have not yet appeared.

“The people were impoverished. It would be different and for the cause, and the skill that he knows, but there is no business, no one needs ... And what, it used to be, boys and girls on the street, there is no passage, all “give, father” – described the situation by one of the contemporaries.

The fire of 1847, how to live?

But Platon Golubkov donated a huge sum at that time – 3,000 rubles – to establish a shelter for children of the “poorest condition”. First, the temporary premises at the Intercession Church were removed, and by the autumn of the next year the purchased house on Nikolskaya (now 26 Sverdlov Street) was repaired. In honor of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, the orphanage was named Mariinsky. In August 1858, it was visited by Tsar-liberator Alexander II.

Children were not taught abstract science. I should have given them the craft. Boys were taught shoemaking, gardening, girls - linen spinning, weaving, knitting. Older girls learned to wash and sew underwear, cassavas and collars, iron them.

The trustees bought “a long abandoned and almost destroyed theater in the house of the merchant Syromyatnikov”, and then built a new building for him. Yes, the same thing that still stands on the Avenue of Peace. And the proceeds from the performances went to the maintenance of children until 1875, when the theater gave way to the city - it was too troublesome to maintain it.

Over time, the orphanage became exclusively maiden. They were taught not only to read and write. The girls mastered history with geography, geometry and drawing. But they were ready for life. Graduates were able to paint porcelain and satin, sew linen and dress, knit stockings and lace, embroidery. They could be babysitters, maids, cooks.

In 1913, their brown dresses with white pelerins and checkered coats flashed before the eyes of the last emperor. Like the students of many educational institutions of the province, orphanage girls stood “in trellises” along the road.

In Soviet times, the shelter was closed.

The building of the Mariinsky Children's Shelter is included in the blue route of author's walking tours"Kostroma at 15:15.".

According to the materials of the scientific consultant of the project “Kostroma at 15:15” candidate of cultural studies Larisa Sizintseva.