Prominent Muscovites. To coincide with celebration of the City Day

The celebration of the Moscow City Day was a big affair as usual. Residents and visitors had fun in the parks, squares and venues. The participants of the 41st Militia combined relay marched on Tverskaya street . In the park area of the theatre named after N. Sats, an international festival of street theatre 'Peace Caravan' took place. Museums and libraries were not left behind so on the 1st of September 2010 the Historical Museum opened an exhibition 'The Owner of Moscow', dedicated to the celebration of the 200 year anniversary of the birth of Prince Vladimir Andreevich Dolgorukov. Here are the items that belonged to the Moscow governor-general which are now stored in several state museums. And a special contribution was made by the Russian State Library: it provided the 1588 edition of a Bible which became one of the highlights of the collection. On September 4th, within the walls of the library itself, an exhibition opened, 'Ivan Yegorovich Zabelin. 190 years from the date of birth', dedicated to the famous historian and archaeologist, one of the founders of the Historical Museum, the Chairman of the History and Antiquity’s Society, an honorary member of Moscow and St. Petersburg University and the Russian Academy of Sciences.
 

'The Owner of Moscow'

Venue: The State Historical Museum
Date: September 1 — October 31, 2010

Vladimir Andreevich is famous, first of all, for his tender care for the prosperity of Moscow. The exhibits such as books presented to him, paintings and furnishings, testify to a sincere love of the citizens and public organizations for their own , to put it in modern terms, Mayor. But Dolgorukov reciprocated his 'ward'. The huge collection of half a thousand expensive items donated to the Governor-General by the appreciative Muscovites, was handed by him to the Moscow Public and Rumyantsev Museums. The exhibition could show only the fifth of that collection.

The Russian State Library has provided several pieces for the exhibition, the 1588 edition of the printed Bible, presented to Dolgorukov in 1879 to mark the 50 th anniversary of the service in the officer ranks by the Moscow Jewish community, and an album with photos of the beekeeping exhibition, presented to Vladimir Andreevich in 1890 on the occasion of the 25 anniversary of the governor-generalship by the Imperial Society of acclimatization and Izmailovskaya apiary.

'Ivan Yegorovich Zabelin. 190 years from the date of birth'

Venue: RSL, The Exhibit space on the Marble staircase
Date: 4—15 September 2010

The exhibition, organized by the Library for the City Day of Moscow, presents the lifetime editions of works by the historian as well as modern reprints of his works. Among them is one of the first works 'Historical Review of enamel and tile business in Russia', as well as the lifetime editions of books that brought fame to Ivan Yegorovich: 'Domestic life of Russian people', 'Domestic life of the Russian Tsars', 'Domestic life of the Russian Tzarinas', 'Minin and Pozharsky'. 'Straight and Crooked in the Time of Troubles', 'Kuntsovo and the ancient Setunsky camp', 'Big Boyar in it’s patrimonial household', 'History of Moscow', 'Album of the views of the ancient Kremlin'. No less interesting and one of the latest publications is 'The Notebooks' by Zabelin (The diary which the historian had kept for 60 years). The final section of the exhibition — 'Literature about the life and work of I. Y. Zabelin' represents the first attempts to comprehend the life and art of the historian, as well as a detailed study by Alexander Formozov 'The Historian of Moscow I. Y. Zabelin', published by the publishing house 'The Moscow Worker' in 1984.

The exhibition is accompanied by the works of The School of Watercolour students, led by Sergey Andriaki. Among them are the paintings by Maria Sereda 'Griffin in Kuzminki', 'House of Ostrovsky' and 'Window of apartment building on S. Basmannaya', Maria Gutnik’s 'Church. Yard', Alexei Pisarenko’s 'The Tower', Valentina Nartsissova’s 'House on N. Basmannaya' and watercolors by the other students.

Photo: Maria Kolosova