Kateryna Skarzhynska
Kateryna Mykolayivna Skarzhynska née von Reiser (
In 1869, von Reiser became acquainted with Nikolai Georgievich Skarzhynsky, a Ukrainian nobleman and soldier. Through his circle of friends, she decided to continue her education and passed her gymnasium studies, entering the Bestuzhev Courses. They married in 1874 and later would have five children together. Five years later, he was transferred from St. Petersburg back to Ukraine. Though she did not finish her studies, Skarzhynska had developed an interest in culture and moving back to her father's estate, Kruglik, inspired her to begin collecting folk art and other artifacts. Consulting with ethnographers, archaeologists and historians, she financed archaeological excavations and amassed a large collection of items. Failing to interest local authorities in establishing a museum to house them, she created the first private museum in Ukraine in 1880. Hiring professional curators, Skarzhynska assisted in developing the collection until 1905. One of the curators, Sergiy Kulzhynskiy , would become her partner, father of her youngest child, and her companion and caretaker in her old age. In 1906, she transferred her materials to the Museum of Natural History of Poltava Provincial Zemstvo.
In addition to her work with the museum, Skarzhynska was involved in creating schools in the
Mostly forgotten in the Soviet era, Skarzhynska is now recognized for her impact on the cultural and scientific development of Ukraine. In 1989 a street in Lubny was named after her. Her papers are housed at the Poltava Regional Studies Museum. The elementary school she founded on the Kruglik estate operated as a public school until 1943. The agricultural school she organized is now known as the Lubny Forestry College.
Early life
Kateryna Nikolaevna von Reiser, known as Katya, was born 19 February 1852
![1878 map in Russian showing the location of places in the Poltava Governorate](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4d/%D0%A5%D1%83%D1%82%D1%96%D1%80_%D0%9A%D1%80%D1%83%D0%B3%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8_%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%82%D1%96_1878_%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BA%D1%83.jpg/220px-%D0%A5%D1%83%D1%82%D1%96%D1%80_%D0%9A%D1%80%D1%83%D0%B3%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B8_%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%82%D1%96_1878_%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BA%D1%83.jpg)
Von Reiser's early education was at home, where she drew on her parents' extensive library. Her parents had many intellectual friends and they were often visited by the geologist Konstantin Feofilaktov , who became an early mentor to von Reiser. She mastered both French and German.[4] The family lived on the Kruglik estate purchased by her father in Lubny, until his death from typhus at the fortress of Novogeorgievsk in 1859. When von Reiser was 10, they moved to the Lodygyn/Lodigine family estates in the Tver province, but within a few years moved to Moscow and then St. Petersburg in search of the best tutors for her home studies. These pedagogues were selected by her uncle, Alexander Apukhtin, who was a trustee of the Warsaw School District, and included Aleksey N. Ostrogorsky and Pavel M. Shpilevsky .[2] Though her grandmother wanted Katya to become a maid of honour to the imperial court, at the age of 12, von Reiser decided she would dedicate her life to helping the poor.[2]
Career
Philanthropy 1866–1905
When she turned 14, von Reiser set up a school for the former serfs on her grandparents' estate in Nikolskoye in the
![Photograph of a single story wooden farmhouse](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/Old_wooden_home_on_Kruglik_estate.png/220px-Old_wooden_home_on_Kruglik_estate.png)
Skarzhynska returned to her family estate at Kruglik,[2] where she and her husband lived in separate houses. They had an open relationship, each able to have other relationships, without hostility between the couple.[10] She and Skarzhynsky would have five children: Kateryna, Volodymyr, Olga, Alexander, and Natalia.[8][11] Fascinated by the local folk art and handicrafts, she began collecting artifacts,[2] with the help of historian Grigory Kiryakov .[4] In 1880, Skarzhynska founded the first private museum in Ukraine,[12] collaborating with the noted archaeologist and curator Fyodor Kaminsky on its organization.[13] Kaminsky worked at the museum from 1881 to 1891 as the head curator.[14] The museum was originally housed in a room in the Skarzhynsky's home, but later expanded to a two-story structure with a lobby and six exhibit halls, adjacent to a park and greenhouse.[7] She corresponded with many scientists from throughout Russia and participated in archaeological seminars,[2] as well as fact-finding trips. In 1883, Skarzhynska traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg, visiting the Polytechnic Museum, Rumyantsev Museum and State Historical Museum to study materials and acquire knowledge and equipment for running her own museum. That year she also met with officials from the Moscow Archaeological Society and Kiev University Archaeological Museum.[11]
![Photograph of a large ornate estate house](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Newer_house_on_the_Kruglik_estate.png/220px-Newer_house_on_the_Kruglik_estate.png)
Skarzhynska made archaeological excavations in the mountains near Lubny
![Photograph of a seated man holding two toddlers. At his feet sits a child's rattan rocking chair and a young girl clutching a doll.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Sergiy_Kulzhynskiy%2C_Natalia%2C_Igor%2C_and_Olga_Skarzhynsky%2C_1895-1896.jpg/220px-Sergiy_Kulzhynskiy%2C_Natalia%2C_Igor%2C_and_Olga_Skarzhynsky%2C_1895-1896.jpg)
In 1891, Kaminsky left the museum, and died later that same year, after recommending hiring his assistant,
![Illustrations of designs of 16 Ukrainian Easter eggs](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/Pysanka_collected_by_Kateryna_Skarzhynska.png/220px-Pysanka_collected_by_Kateryna_Skarzhynska.png)
Skarzhynska offered evening adult education courses at the museum.[18] She continued collecting pysanky and by 1898, her collection contained more than 2,100 eggs.[12] These were catalogued by Skarzhynska and published in 1899 by Kulzhynskiy in a book Description of the Collection of Pysanky (Ukrainian: Описаніе коллекціи народныхъ писанокъ).[12] The collection attracted many visitors, both local people and visiting scientists. By 1901, there were up to 300 visitors a day.[1] In both 1903 and 1905, Skarzhynska offered the museum to the city of Lubny, but her offers were refused.[7] She began making plans to leave Russia in 1905, recognizing that a revolution would make maintaining it impossible.[11][22] She operated the museum until she left for Europe, finally giving her collections to the Poltava Zemstvo in 1906,[1] transferring over 37,000 objects in four railway boxcars.[23][24] That year, the Museum of Natural History of Poltava Provincial Zemstvo made a second edition of her collection of pysanky, which included over 3,000 drawings. In 1943, the museum was looted and burned and only 458 specimens of her eggs survived.[7]
Life abroad 1905–1914
The financial collapse and chaos preceding and during the
Skarzhynska's activities helped many political dissidents, drawing attention from the Swiss
Return to Ukraine 1914–1932
![Photograph of a plaque commemorating Skarzhynska's residence in Lubny](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Lubny%2C_Gogolya_10_Plaque.jpg/220px-Lubny%2C_Gogolya_10_Plaque.jpg)
With the outbreak of World War I, Skarzhynska and Kulzhynskiy returned to Ukraine. She initially went to Kiev and then moved to Poltava, before finally settling in Lubny in 1916.[2][22] She set about collecting books to establish children's libraries for Poltava and Lubny, but she had to abandon the project, when she lost her fortune during the chaos of World War I and the Russian Revolution.[2][11] In 1918, one of the military units occupied the coeducational gymnasium operated by Skarzhynska's daughter Olga, where Kulzhynskiy was teaching, and looted the premises, stealing the personal belongings and identity papers of the students and staff.[30] In July 1923, the employees of the museum which she had founded, then known as the Poltava Proletarian Museum, sent her a one-time donation of ₽1,000[Notes 4] while the employees of the Poltava Central Archive sent her a further ₽500. The head archivist wrote a letter to the Russian Academy of Sciences the following year, asking for the "government of the proletariat" to grant a pension to Skarzhynska, who had worked so long on behalf of common people.[2] The plea was successful as Lenin's Soviet government granted her a personal pension.[1] In the late 1920s, the death of Lenin and the curtailment of his influence, along with her former noble status, resulted in the pension's cancellation.[11][34] Kulzhynskiy, who was working as an assistant professor of physics and headed the physics and mathematics department at the Institute of Social Education in Lubny (Ukrainian: Інституту соціального виховання в Лубнах), provided for her care in her final years.[11][35][Notes 5]
Death and legacy
![Photograph of a Ukrainian building with ornate tile and brick work on the façade, columned window dressings, and multiple towers](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ac/%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%94%D0%B7%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%87%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%BC%D1%83%D0%B7%D0%B5%D0%B9.jpg/220px-%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%94%D0%B7%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%87%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D0%BC%D1%83%D0%B7%D0%B5%D0%B9.jpg)
Skarzhynska died in the summer of 1932, during the Holodomor, though accounts differ as to where she died or where she was buried.[Notes 6] There is a plaque located on the house at 10 Gogol Street in Lubny which marks her residence there during the 1920s and 1930s.[38] Her activities had a "significant impact on the development of cultural and scientific life in Ukraine in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries".[11] Her oldest daughter and namesake Kateryna Nikolaevna Skarzhynska died of starvation soon after her mother.[39] Many years after her death, in 1989, a street in the city of Lubny was named in her honor.[3][15] Her papers, including her books, historical documents, and manuscripts are housed at the Poltava Museum of Local History , in Poltava, Ukraine.[40]
![Photograph of a plaque commemorating Skarzhynska founding a school in Kruglik](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Plaque_at_Kruglik_School.jpg/220px-Plaque_at_Kruglik_School.jpg)
The elementary school Skarzhynska founded on the Kruglik estate, operated until 1943 and her daughter, Olga Skarzhynska (later Klimova), followed in her footsteps. Olga founded "one of the first Ukrainian-language high schools in Luben" (Lubny), open to students of any nationality or gender.[18] The agricultural school Skarzhynska founded in Terny became an agricultural and technical college in 1917. Students were trained in blacksmithing, coopering, and carpentry, in addition to studying farming techniques.[41] In 2005, the school was transformed into the Lubny Forestry College, a leading institution in Ukraine for training in forestry production.[15] Her daughter Natalia was a romantic interest of the English composer Arnold Bax and his May Night in the Ukraine was dedicated to her. He also wrote about her and her family in his memoir, "Farewell My Youth", published in 1943.[17]
Notes
- ^ Though other sources give other years for von Reiser's birth,[1] Astryab states Katya was 7 years old when her father died, i.e. born 1852. He was the head archivist at Lubny from 1921 to 1925 and wrote that his information on the Reisers came from old documents stored in the Poltava provincial museum, where he consulted them between 1917 and 1920. The records were destroyed in 1941, and his manuscript was found in the archives of Pushkin House in St. Petersburg, where it had been sent for publication in 1923.[2]
- ^ Numerous sources allude to the relationship between Skarzhynska and Kulzhynskiy and their parentage of Igor.[21] Кулатова and Сидоренко in their article edited by Suprunenko, state «Сергей Климентьевич Кульжинский приехал молодым студентом в дом Скаржинских в качестве учителя детей. Здесь он ув-лекся красивой и умной Екатериной Николаевной, попадает в фавориты, имеет от нее сына...»[19]
- ^ In Arnold Bax's memoirs, edited version by Foreman, note 62 explains that Bax used pseudonyms for Natalia "Skarginski", their companion Olga Antoniettі, and other family members.[26] He referred to Natalia as Loubya Korolenko; her mother as Madame Korolenko;[17][25] Antonietti as Fiammetta;[17][27] and Olga and Lvov Klimov, as Olga and Lev Kiriloff.[17][28]
- ^ In 1923, $1 US was the equivalent of over 2 million rubles.[31] Bread in the US averaged 9 to 12¢ per pound (loaf) in the 1920s.[32] The equivalent cost of bread in the Ukraine during the period was ₽25 per kilogram (2 loaves).[33]
- ^ Suprunenko notes that Skarzhynska's son Igor abandoned his children in 1924, and she and Kulzhynskiy took in Vsevolod Igorevich and Vadim Igorevich Skarzhynsky, their mother Natalia Georgevna, and Natalia's mother, Alexandra Silvestrovna Kasyanenko.[36] After Skarzhynska death, Kulzhynskiy devoted himself to their education and both of his grandchildren became noted geologists.[37]
- ^ Sergienko indicates she died and was buried in Kruglik,[11] which is confirmed by Obelets.[7] Belusko identifies her place of death as Lubny and her burial at the Lubny City Cemetery.[34] Ilchenko notes that sources are divided with some saying her place of burial is unknown and her death occurred in Lubny, while other sources indicate the death occurred in Kruglik.[15]
References
Citations
- ^ a b c d e Ільченко 2016, p. 27.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Астряб 1923.
- ^ a b Піскова 2012, p. 595.
- ^ a b c d e f g Сергієнко 2015, p. 152.
- ^ Русская старина 1915, p. 118.
- ^ Kiselev 2015.
- ^ a b c d e Обелець 2016.
- ^ a b Яловегіна 2018.
- ^ Ilchenko 2016, p. 153.
- ^ Тимофеев 2016, pp. 23–24.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Сергієнко 2015, p. 153.
- ^ a b c d e The Ukrainian History and Education Center 2013.
- ^ a b c Піскова 2012, p. 596.
- ^ Юренко 2007, p. 49.
- ^ a b c d Ilchenko 2016, p. 154.
- ^ Супруненко 2017, pp. 5, 8–9, 67.
- ^ a b c d e f g Сафронова 2020.
- ^ a b c d Ільченко 2016, p. 28.
- ^ a b Супруненко 2017, p. 41.
- ^ Тимофеев 2016, p. 24.
- ^ Супруненко 2017, pp. 10, 13, 16.
- ^ a b c d Супруненко 2017, p. 13.
- ^ Супруненко 2017, p. 83.
- ^ Супруненко 2018, p. 137.
- ^ a b c Bax 1992, p. 55.
- ^ Bax 1992, p. 175.
- ^ Bax 1992, p. 68.
- ^ Bax 1992, p. 66.
- ^ Levin 2013, pp. 43–44.
- ^ Супруненко 2017, p. 26.
- ^ Amos 2014.
- ^ United States Bureau of Labor Statistics 1922, pp. 77, 85–86.
- ^ Velychenko 2011, p. 314.
- ^ a b Білоусько 2009.
- ^ Супруненко 2017, p. 14.
- ^ Супруненко 2017, pp. 15, 33.
- ^ Супруненко 2017, p. 15.
- ^ Супруненко 2018, p. 135.
- ^ Супруненко 2017, p. 45.
- ^ Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine 2013.
- ^ Ilchenko 2016, pp. 153–154.
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- Піскова (Piskova), Е. М. (2012). "Скаржинська Катерина Миколаївна [Skarzhynska Kateryna Nikolaevna]". In Смолій, В. А. (ed.). Енциклопедія історії України [Encyclopedia of Ukrainian History] (PDF) (in Ukrainian). Vol. 9. Прил – С. Kiev, Ukraine: ISBN 978-966-00-1290-5. Archived from the original(PDF) on 29 June 2019.
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External links
- Кульжинский, С. К. (1899). Описание коллекции народных писанок (in Russian). Moscow: А. А. Левенсон. (Sketches of the pysanky in Skarzhynska's collection begin immediately following page 176).
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