Preparation for the opening ceremony of the museum is in full swing. It will be timed to the anniversary of Vasily Belov’s birth and will become one of the significant events of 2015 announced the Year of Literature in our country. Sergey Tikhomirov, historian, research officer of the memorial flat, told about the history of its foundation, its concept, functioning and directions of work to cultinfo.
- The idea to establish the Memorial Flat of Vasily Belov started up not at once… Many people gave birth to it. It gradually crystallized and got clear outlines in 2015, in the Year of Literature. Opening of such a museum in Vologda is natural, necessary and justified: it won’t be an exaggeration to say that Vasily Belov is a major name in the 20th-century literature of Vologda, the classic of Russian literature.
There were four museum exhibitions about Vasily Belov in Russia until the foundation of the memorial flat. Three of them are located in the Vologda region.
The first small private museum of Vasily Belov was established by Anatoly Panteleev, famous photographer of St. Petersburg, in the motion-picture and photo laboratory of Leningrad University – the writer used to stay there when he came to Leningrad. In general, I want to note that Anatoly Panteleev became a kind of a chronicler of Belov’s life. His archive contained hundreds of photographs, audio and video recordings. Many figures of Russian culture, including the author of “Business as Usual”, “The Carpenter’s Tales”, the trilogy “The Sixth Hour”, were their heroes. The documentary about Vasily Belov “Thoughts in the Homeland” was shot by the State TV and Radio Broadcasting Company “St. Petersburg” in 2007 thanks to Anatoly Panteleev.
The memorial room of Vasily Belov was opened in the Kharovsk district library named after the famous writer. A special tourist route “Way Home” was elaborated in the Kharovsk district on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Vasily Belov. It included an interesting tour of the places connected with him and ended near the family house of the writer in the village of Timonikha.
One more small museum – the Centre of Vasily Belov in the Central Library System of Vologda – was opened in 2005. It was housed in the Central Children’s Library. The 10th anniversary of its foundation has been celebrated this year.
There is a museum about Vasily Belov in the School ¹ 21 in Vologda. In late October, this educational institution will be named after the writer.
And soon the Memorial Flat of Vasily Belov will be opened in Vologda. The key figures in its establishment were writer’s widow Olga Belova, art critic Natalya Serova and Mikhail Sharomazov, director of the Kirillo-Belozersky Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve.
A letter was published on the pages of “Literaturnaya Gazeta” in early 2013. It was prepared by Stanislav Lesnevsky, Russian publisher, literary scholar and critic, and was signed by representatives of various creative professions – artists, musicians, writers (by the way, writers of different directions – both liberal and patriotic – that proves that Vasily Belov as the master of the pen was an incontestable authority for the whole writing community). The idea to found a memorial flat of the writer was stated in that letter.
Later a resolution of the Vologda Oblast Governor about memorialization of Vasily Belov was issued and a commission on the heritage and popularization of the writer’s creative heritage was established. This commission headed by Oleg Vasiliev, Deputy Governor of the Vologda region, decided to place a commemorate board on the house where the writer had lived and to erect a monument on his grave in the rural cemetery in Timonikha.
In 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the Ministry of Culture of the RF to establish a museum of Vasily Belov.
The Memorial Flat of Vasily Belov was founded thanks to the efforts of many people who were not indifferent: famous Russian writers, including Belov’s friends Valentin Rasputin, Valentin Kurbatov, Vladimir Krupin, Valery Ganichev, Mikhail Karachyov; deputies of the State Duma of the RF Anatoly Greshnevikov and Vyacheslav Pozgalev; deputies of the Vologda Region Legislative Assembly headed by Georgy Shevtsov; correspondent of “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” Dmitry Shevarov. Vladimir Tolstoy, adviser to the Russian President on Culture, and Vsevolod Popov, employee of the Presidential Executive Office, also made an important contribution to the museum establishment.
Vladimir Medinsky, Minister of Culture of the RF, endorsed the idea to open the Memorial Flat of Vasily Belov. He considers it to be one of the main events of the Year of Literature in Russia along with the opening of the Museum of Alexander Solzhenitsyn in Pyatigorsk and the Museum of Joseph Brodsky in St. Petersburg.
There is little time left till this significant event of the Year of Literature in Vologda. We would like to thank all people who have played their role in the establishment of the memorial museum of the classic of Russian literature for preservation of memory about Vasily Belov and popularization of his name and creative work in the Russian cultural consciousness.
There are two weeks left till the opening ceremony of the museum – please, tell about it and directions of its work.
- First of all, the task of the memorial flat is to recreate that atmosphere in which the writer lived and created. We preserve as much original things as possible – a huge library, a personal gallery, the archive of Vasily Belov. He knew a lot of composers, artists, actors, was a collector and took an active part in public work. Our goal is to reproduce that atmosphere in which his works were written, to tell about him as a writer and a person. He lived in this flat since 1987 and wrote the following novels there: “The Year of a Major Breakdown”, “The Sixth Hour”, “A Story about One Village”, “Vologda’s Buktinas”, the autobiographical novel “Water Over the Dam”, recollections about Vasily Shukshin “Weight of the Cross”, recollections about Valery Gavrilin “The Voice Born Near Vologda”, the plays “Alexander Nevsky” and “Family Holidays”, plenty of essays, poems, op-ed articles and short stories, including “The Soul is Immortal” that became a visiting card of Vasily Belov.
The museum will have to carry out large research and educational work. It will have two main directions – scientific and educational and memorial. Preparing the memorial part of the exhibition, the assistance and consultations of writer’s widow Olga Belova were inestimable. During long conversations with her, I wrote down legends of appearance of each thing in the house, each book in the writer’s library, each picture in his rather large art collection. Regarding the scientific direction, researchers will face a lot of tasks concerning various aspects of Vasily Belov’s creative activity: history of creation of each work, collection of all his op-ed pieces published in many newspapers and magazines, making of the data bank of all addresses of the writer who corresponded with plenty of cultural figures and, if possible, making of the data bank of these letters, and so on. Vasily Belov was not just the master of the pen; he was a person with an active life attitude who wrote articles about various hot issues for periodicals. In his autobiography written in 1990 and supplemented in 1998, there is a phrase that he began his career in literature working as a correspondent of the Gryazovets newspaper “Kommunar” and ended his writer’s fate with political op-ed pieces in his old age. It became especially topical for Vasily Belov after his work as a People’s Deputy of the USSR from 1989 to 1991. Thanks to his political essays, he wanted to oppose the wrong, as it seemed to him, way in the country’s life. He was eager to help his people. All his articles in the periodicals show his love for Russia. I can give you some interesting figures: Vasily Belov granted 132 interviews to different editions, his works were translated into 32 languages!
The work in seven volumes containing the writer’s fiction, op-ed pieces, letters, and serious erudite commentary was a great help and a base for the museum research. It was published on the initiative of the Vologda Region Government.
How will the museum function?
- The concept of the museum is being elaborated now. Taking into account that it will be the museum of the writer, we plan to closely cooperate with writing, museum and library communities. And as it is the memorial flat, so it will have a certain operating procedure – we will be able to receive not more than 10 people during one tour. We should also take into account that the museum is located in the apartment house and we shouldn’t create inconvenient situations for local residents. Tours will be conducted by prior request. You can leave an application by telephone.
The Memorial Flat of Vasily Belov will be opened on October 21. The flat is rather large, there are several rooms there. Olga Belova will conduct a tour of the museum on the first day. Visitors will be able to go to see the exhibition starting from October 22. We are already receiving a lot of applications.
The Memorial Flat of Vasily Belov is situated at 10 Oktyabrskaya Street, flat 4, in Vologda.
You can order a tour beforehand by telephone: +7 921 142 08 56.
The interview was conducted by Elena Legchanova, www.cultinfo.ru
