Ivan Nikitin house-museum

Voronezh Oblast
19, Nikitinskaya Street, Voronezh
Web site: muzeinikitin.vzh.ru

In the recreated memorial room of the poet, the Central place is occupied by a card table and an armchair, things that belonged to I. S. Nikitin. They became part of the collection of the Voronezh provincial Museum in 1912. (they were presented by a relative of the poet-A. N. Tyurina). These items have always been presented to visitors throughout the history of the Voronezh literary Museum from its opening in 1924 to the present day.
The exposition of the house-Museum combines the exhibition space and the recreated memorial room of the famous Voronezh poet of the XIX century. Among the items presented, authentic personal belongings and lifetime editions of I. S. Nikitin, a collection of rarities belonging to the outstanding local historian N. I. Vtorov, objects of fine art (painting, graphics, sculpture) dedicated to the biography and work of the poet are particularly valuable. The theme of the history of preserving the memory of the poet is highlighted separately, illustrated by rare archival documents and photographic materials, including those related to the history of the literary Museum in Voronezh.

Ivan Savvich Nikitin is remembered in history of Russian literature as a poet-patriot and lyric poet.
In 1844 the Nikitins sold their house and some existing equipment for manufacturing candels and bought an inn on Kirochnaya Street (Nikitinskaya). Living in a wooden hut together with lodgers, it took the Nikitins two years to build a new house (in 1846). Under the house there is a basement, where there were warehouses and a spacious kitchen.

Ivan Savvich lived in this house till his last lying day, most of his poems were created there. The poet bequeathed the house to his father. His father sold the house to relatives after son’s death for 2 thousand rubles. The new owners covered the wooden walls with brick in one row and changed the layout of the rooms.

In 1911, on the front of the house there was erected a memorial plaque with the inscription: «Here lived and died on the 16th of October, 1861, the poet I.S. Nikitin.» In 1922 the house and manor of the Nikitins were nationalized. By the 100th anniversary of Ivan Savvich birth, the house was restored to its original form and here on the 4th of October, 1924 the Voronezh Regional Literature Museum named after I.S. Nikitin was opened.

During the Great Patriotic War, the building of the museum was partially destroyed. Funds of the museum, mostly valuable manuscripts, photographs, memorial items were evacuated to Yelabuga in Tatarstan. Some of the materials remained in Voronezh and many of them disappeared without leaving a trace.

After the liberation of Voronezh, the building of the museum was one of the first reconstructed in the city. On the 10th of October, 1944 in the house-museum an exhibition dedicated to the poets Ivan Nikitin and Alexei Koltsov was opened. At the exhibition about a hundred exhibits that had survived in Voronezh were presented. In 1945, the basic funds returned from the evacuation, and the museum’s expositions were recreated. Since 1953 the museum has become known as the House Museum of I.S. Nikitin, with the preservation of the status of a literary museum. In 1955 detailed reconstruction and restoration were carried out there. In the process, not only the drawings of the house, but also photographs of parts of the building, materials of periodicals and memoirs of contemporaries about I.S. Nikitin were used.The original size and layout of rooms, a four-slope roof, simple architectural elements of the house were restored there. The front entrance began to have a wooden porch with handrails, as it was during Nikitin’s lifetime. In early 1956, on the facade of the building a marble memorial plaque with the former inscription was attached instead of the one that was lost during the war. The last restoration work in the museum was held during the period from October 2013 to December 2014.

The Museum was founded by the historian, ethnographer Putintsev Alexey Mikhailovich.
The territory of the Museum includes a small square, in which in 1964 a monument to I. S. Nikitin was erected from gray granite on a pedestal, made by A. S. Meshcheryakov and B. S. Shchedrin.
The exposition of the" I. S. Nikitin House-Museum " is dedicated to one of the outstanding poets of the mid – XIX century-I. S. Nikitin (1824-1861) and his cultural environment.