The Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve has been collecting articles connected with the life and activity of famous fellow-townsmen – natives of the Kirillov district – for many years. Materials about the Heroes of the Soviet Union, the Full Cavaliers of the Order of Glory, the Cavaliers of the Cross of Saint George, and military leaders – generals and admirals – occupy a special place. One of the most outstanding commanders of the present is army general Yuri Nikolaevich Baluyevsky who studied in the Kirillov Secondary School. Though the military leader was born in Truskavets (Ukraine), he spent his childhood and youth in the Vologda region.
Yuri Baluyevsky’s father, Nikolay Semyonovich, worked as an elementary school teacher in the Saraevskaya School of the Kichmengsky-Gorodok dictrict. He participated in two wars. After the end of the Great Patriotic War, he obtained the rank of senior lieutenant and served in various garrisons. His son Yuri was born on January 9, 1947. In the middle of the 1950s, the Baluyevskys settled down in the village of Novostroyka of the Kirillov district. Yuri left the seven-year school in Kovarzino and then continued his study in the Kirillov Secondary School. Later he worked as a teacher of PE and drawing at school in Kovarzino and served in the army. The further life of Yuri Baluyevsky wasn’t directly connected with the Vologda region, but he never forgot about this region that became native for him. He doesn’t forget about it up to now. Yuri Baluyevsky admits, “Coming to Kirillov, I return to my youth”.
Last year the museum began to cooperate with the Regional Public Organization “Vologda Friendly Association” in Moscow. Thanks to the members of this organization, the museum employees managed to establish a contact with Yuri Baluyevsky and asked him to hand over some personal materials to the museum. The army general agreed to do it.
Arriving in Kirillov in July 2015, the army general handed over the following articles to the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve: the full-dress uniform with a medal ribbon (a jacket with high collar, trousers, a shirt and a tie); the diploma of the Collective Security Treaty Organization; the congratulations on the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War from the Russian President and the RF Minister of Defence; the booklet of the Victory Day parade in Red Square in 2015; 4 magazines with his articles; 15 colour photographs; 3 postcards about the researches of the Arctic; soil sample of the submarine ridge taken by the expedition of A.N. Chilingarov in 2007; the newspaper “Krasny Sever” issued on March 12, 2005, containing Yuri Baluyevsky’s article with his autograph; several copies of the Decrees of the Russian President about his operational assignments, documents about his education, awarding with medals and orders, the invention patent, the reference about awards, the list of publications of Y.N. Baluyevsky. He also handed over the printed variant of his poem dedicated to the memory of lieutenant-general K.K. Fateev with his autograph.
All these materials will be kept in the holdings of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve and used in scientific and exhibition work. There is no permanent exhibition about the 20th century in the museum at present. Therefore the above-mentioned materials will be presented at some displays about the heroic past of our country. They will be also applied in the work aimed at patriotic education together with the earlier collected materials about military leaders who were natives of the Kirillov district. The original materials handed over by Y.N. Baluyevsky will be included into the state museum holding and will be preserved perpetually.
Photos of Alexey Kuzmin and the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve
