Urban legends of Buzuluk

The "Widow" Kiselyov and Sons trading house used to be located in the building where the "Central" store is now located.

The Kiselevs were the most famous and respected merchant dynasty in Buzuluk, and they did more for the city than all other wealthy families. Their grandfathers had recently come from a peasant background where there was respect for an educated, intelligent man. They were religious people, and it was natural and even obligatory for them to help the poor and sick. The Kiselyovs took care of the good name of the family, tried to bring real benefits to the city and society.

The name of the founder of the dynasty, Gerasim Mikheevich Kiselyov, even became a kind of Buzuluk legend. Gerasim Kiselyov and his entire family were serfs of the landowner Morozov. When Gerasim was 9 years old, his father died, and in order to feed himself, he and his brother became peddlers. We saved every penny we traded. Having accumulated seven thousand rubles, they bought out the master. There was not enough money to buy out his mother, and Gerasim joined the wealthy peasant Osip Bogatov as a clerk. The matured and capable Gerasim conducted business very successfully, and Osip married his only daughter, Chionia. As a result, the whole family was assigned to the Buzuluk merchant class of the third guild. In 1860, the Kiselyovs built a house and a trading store in Buzuluk.

Gerasim's business acumen allowed him to turn around quickly and widely. He became a merchant of the second guild, opened the largest colonial goods store in Buzuluk, and built a large watermill in a nearby village. Kiselyov also used his own funds to build a chapel in the name of All Saints, in which he was laid to rest. Gerasim passed on his remarkable business skills, as well as considerable capital, to his children, who continued his business.

The Kiselyov dynasty store, which we are currently observing, has changed its original purpose for more than a century only for a short period of time during the war.

Now we are heading to the monument to Malyavin. You need to walk to the corner of Troitsky Park and turn left.

A statue more than five meters high, a monument to the great Russian artist Malyavin, was erected in Troitsk Buzuluk Park to celebrate the 280th anniversary of the city.

Philip Malyavin, the most prominent representative of the school of Russian Art Nouveau and Impressionism, was born in the Orenburg province in 1869. He studied with Ilya Repin at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. In 1900, his painting "Laughter" was exhibited at the World's Fair in Paris and was awarded a gold medal. A little later, the artist received the title of Academician of Russian painting.

Exhibitions of Malyavin's works are held annually in the cities of England and European countries. The artist painted works not only on traditional peasant themes, but also experimented with genres: painted marinas, winter landscapes.

Philip Malyavin gained fame as a salon painter. He painted portraits of representatives of the royal houses of Europe, as well as prominent figures of the Russian emigration.

Malyavin's artistic legacy is represented in the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, in the collections of leading European museums, and there is his work in the Buzuluk Museum of Local Lore. Malyavin's graphics are still in great demand among collectors.

The Trinity Chapel is also located in the park. Let's get closer to her.

Once upon a time, the main city church, the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, shone with domes on the site of the Trinity Chapel. The project of the Trinity Cathedral was approved personally by Emperor Nicholas I and the Governing Synod. The cathedral was built with church funds and donations from citizens, and was completed in the middle of the nineteenth century. The walls inside the temple were covered with murals, and in the dome there was an image of the Holy Trinity. There was also a Sunday school at the cathedral. Almost a century later, the temple was dismantled, and Lenin Park was laid out in its place. The first monument to V.I. Lenin in the city was also erected there. Buzuluchans still remember the old Lenin Park. In the late Soviet period, it was a well-groomed, bright and vibrant space. Residents of the city loved to sit on massive cast-iron benches in the shade of maples and mountain ash trees. Schoolchildren came to collect leaves at the herbarium. A certain atmosphere was created by the cast-iron fence, which has survived to our time. I remember there was an original flower calendar. There was also a dance floor. In the 1990s, paths with broken asphalt wound through large trees and thickets of shrubs. It was dim and mysterious in the evenings, but the greenery enlivened the city center. And what about the cathedral? The memory of him was alive among the Buzuluchans. In the summer of 2004, a Cross of Worship and a memorial stone with an information plaque were consecrated in the park. And in 2016, the Trinity Chapel was built on the territory of the park. The builders not only realized the wonderful beauty of the project, but also left a kind of spiritual message to the future residents and guests of the city. The Orthodox believers of Buzuluk received such a gift for the 280th anniversary of the city. The Pedagogical College building is located across the street from the chapel. We suggest we take a closer look at it.

Buzuluk at the beginning of the twentieth century, developing trade and industry, desperately needed educated people. They were invited from Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as from Samara. It couldn't go on like this for long. It was necessary to have at least a gymnasium and a real college. Construction began in the early twentieth century on the former Samarskaya Street, opposite Troitskaya Square, where the main city cathedral shone with white and gold domes. Piles of red bricks of excellent quality were brought in, and every day the peasants delivered a huge amount of eggs, which were mixed with mortar and milk. According to one version, the author of the project was the exiled revolutionary architect Jan Adamson. The blood of his ancestors spoke imperiously in his architecture: in a rectilinear steppe town, a building resembling a castle suddenly rose — pointed arches of windows and doors, pointed turrets. The proud and austere pseudo—gothic style in which the building is designed says a lot about the undoubtedly talented architect. A girls' gymnasium was opened in this building at the beginning of the 20th century. This educational institution provided secondary education with eight years of study, with a predominance of Latin and Greek. The graduates of the gymnasium then worked in schools and colleges. Tuition was paid, initially it cost 40 rubles a year, and this amount increased annually. The gymnasium was all-educational, girls from different families could enter here: noble, merchant, employees, rich peasants. The poor students were paid for by the trustees: nobles, merchants. After the revolution, the building housed the headquarters of the Turkestan Army. Then the pedagogical college was located here, which was later renamed the Buzuluk Pedagogical College. In the second half of the 20th century, a system of moral education of students developed. The faculties of public professions, lectures, contests, Olympiads, clubs, sections, and clubs served this purpose. This tradition lives on with success today. There is a water tower to the right of the school, which is our next stop.

The issue of water supply in Buzuluk is one of the main issues for the urban economy. At the end of the 19th century, a water supply system appeared in the city. The Buzuluk water supply project, in addition to a water intake, pumping station and other structures, also provided for the construction of a water tower. Octagonal at the base, faceted, made of red brick, the tower fits very seamlessly into the urban ensemble along with the newly erected building of the girls' gymnasium. The height of the tower is over 15 meters, the capacity of the tank, from which the water was subsequently distributed through the pipeline system, is 130 cubic meters. A deep concrete semicircular basement in the form of a bowl was equipped below ground level. The tower was built in the pseudo-Gothic style. The builders followed the style of this architectural trend in everything from the crenellated parapet at the top of the building and the lancet windows to the white "keystone" above the entrance to the tower. """""" And it is this stone, which "holds" the arch of the entrance, that carries not only the specific date of construction of the entire building, but also a certain mystery: in the inscription "G.U." the letter "O." is corrected to "U.". "What"these letters mean and why they were changed cannot be said with absolute certainty today, perhaps they mean "Urban Society" and "City Council." Old-timers said that there was an observation deck at the top of the tower, where a firefighter sat, who monitored fires in the city. And even before the revolution, there was a thermometer on the building, and high school girls from the girls' gymnasium on cold winter days came running to see what the temperature was, if it was very cold, classes were canceled. Numerous local history publications and Internet sites attribute the authorship of the projects of the girls' gymnasium and the water tower to the Polish architect Jan Adamson, but there are no supporting documents about him. And to this day, the exact name of the architect of the Buzuluk water tower building is unknown. The "water pumps" in Izhevsk and Staraya Russa are vaguely similar to our tower, but Buzulukskaya is certainly slimmer, more beautiful, and more stylish. The tower, once built for a utilitarian purpose, has become one of the main symbols of the city. Of course, in many ways this situation arose due to the complete destruction of the grandiose Trinity Cathedral, next to the bell tower of which the tower was not even "first among equals." But, anyway, now our tower is a genuine architectural monument in need of study and protection. From the tower, we will continue walking along Lenin Street to the registry office building on the left side of the road.

The current registry office building once belonged to merchant Ivan Dmitrievich Kamyazin. The basement still has steps and doors with more than a century of history. Kamyazin left a significant mark in the history of the city, he was a member of the Buzuluk City Council and a member of the Department of the Prison Board of Trustees. Ivan Dmitrievich had a fashion and manufactory store on Troitskaya Square. "This store" sold both expensive fabrics — silk, velvet, broadcloth, drape, cambric, and cheap fabrics — chintz, satin, "Swedish cloth" and "devil's leather." All the Buzuluk ladies and maidens, even the cooks and maids, were dressed in Kamyazin's manufactured goods. But the merchant was famous not for chintzes and sarpins, but for his ingenuity. He perfected the so-called "Buzuluk insolvency" system. The secret is very simple — the clerk buys a business from the owner, paying with promissory notes. At the same time, the owner, in order to escape from annoying creditors, goes somewhere for a long time "on business", so that he can return without having any more debts. Such a system was very popular, and success was guaranteed. Obviously, the merchant's income was decent, and he decided to invest money in other areas of activity. It was thanks to Kamyazin that Buzuluk first saw electric lighting on the streets. At the beginning of the 20th century, he built the first power plant in the city next to his house and founded the "Electric Light Society" together with his wife Vera. Initially, Kamyazin's power plant illuminated three central streets — Orenburgskaya, Dvoryanskaya and Ufimskaya. After the revolution, the power plant was nationalized. Continue to the intersection. On the right across the street you will see the building of the College of Industry and Transport.

The beginning of the 20th century was a time of economic recovery for Buzuluk. There was an opportunity for large investments, and in 1911 the Zemstvo council received a proposal to build a new building of the Zemstvo council in connection with the 50th anniversary of the Zemstvo. As a result, a project of a stone house worth 75 thousand rubles was provided. The new building of the Buzuluk district zemstvo board has rightfully become an ornament of the city. There is a legend that at the beginning of the construction, the Austrian prisoners of war who were building the building asked to be released at the end of the work and help them return to their homeland. We worked hard, and the building was built in two years. The local government fulfilled its promise: the chief architect and his assistant were buried as dead, and on the basis of false documents they were removed from the list of the living. Handing over forged passports and money, they helped to secretly cross the border and return to their homeland. Such information does not correspond to reality — Austrian prisoners of war were actually involved in the construction of this building, but the real authors of the project were Vladimir Gurylev, a senior technician at the Buzuluk regional council, and Nikolai Lebedev, a technician at the same council. There were a lot of rumors flying around the building during construction. Local historian and researcher Elizaveta Zhemchuzhnikova told how Buzuluchans were offended by the griffins sitting on the roof of the building. Supposedly, the Austrians showed us their contempt in this way — griffins look like you, dogs with predatory heads. Legend or not, it is unknown, but the griffins disappeared after some time, as did the royal crown that crowned the building. And the coat of arms of the city has been preserved to this day. The Zemstvo council was located here for a short time, after the events of the autumn of 1917, the building was given to the County Executive Committee. During the war, the headquarters of the Polish Army was located here. As a result, the building was occupied by an industrial and pedagogical college, which now has the status of a college. During its long life, the building has lost some details of the exterior decoration, but the original coat of arms on the pediment has been preserved, and the stuccoed mascarons on the walls remain. They've heard a lot of heated speeches and arguments, and seen a lot of good and bad things. Romantic, a little sad and very beautiful, they know how to keep their secrets. Turn right from Lenin Street and turn right again at the next intersection. You need to walk to a small wooden house in the Art Nouveau style.

The wooden building on the right side of the road is a vivid example of Buzuluk Art Nouveau. Few people know, but Buzuluk is a city of Art Nouveau, primarily wooden. Moreover, the uniqueness of the city lies in the fact that our wooden Art Nouveau has become typical, which is not typical for this style at all. Modern construction was carried out in quarters and persisted until the 50s. Partly because of this, in the early 90s Buzuluk was included in the program "The Club of Film Travelers", and later received the status of a historical settlement. Although Art Nouveau was typical, each building had its own characteristics. The doors were most often different — they are all unique and unrepeatable. Buzuluk modern is a mix of European style with an overlay on top of Russian traditions. But still, it's more European. The main feature of the Art Nouveau style is the rejection of right angles and lines and the imitation of natural plant forms. ""Take a closer look at the ornament under the windows — this is an interpretation of Hermann Obrist's "business card" of the Art Nouveau style, "The Blow of the Scourge." This pattern has sunk so deeply into the soul of Russian architects that it is found literally everywhere. There is little information about the house itself. It is known that in 1918 Nadezhda Porfirievna Medvedeva lived in the house. And the old-timers told us about Porfiry Medvedev, who lived here before the revolution. We also know that in the first half of the 20th century, a certain A. Medvedev was engaged in the tobacco and grocery trade. And in 1925, in Buzuluk, the industrial partnership "Bear" produced Smoking tobacco "Shag No. 5. Strong." The production was located on the same street, but at the other end of the block. Whether this is the same Medvedev or just a namesake remains to be seen. Go ahead to the intersection with Otakara Yarosh Street. Cross the road, turn left and continue to the first intersection. To your right will be the City Council building.

The Buzuluk City Duma was located in this building before the revolution. Taxes collected by the Duma were used for household needs, street cleaning and lighting, maintenance of the county police department, hospital, parish school, prison castle, etc. From year to year, the income of the Buzuluk City Duma grew, the number of officials and various services increased rapidly, and in 1880 it was decided to build a new spacious stone building. The new Buzuluk City Duma was not architecturally remarkable. But this building was built "for the ages" and it was quite bright and spacious. Elizaveta Zhemchuzhnikova in her book "People and Time" writes: "The City Council was in charge of the city administration …She singled out, so to speak, an executive body — the City Council, headed by the mayor... the Duma met once every two months and even less often. She decided matters on principle by entrusting their implementation to the City Council, which was in charge of all urban management, income generation, tax determination, cost estimates, urban improvement, development of education and culture, as well as the Zemstvo… The city bank was under the jurisdiction of the City Council. He was in the same house, across the hall...". The City Duma appeared in Buzuluk in 1870 and existed until November 1917, when it was replaced by the Revkom, chaired by Peter Bebin. Now consider a building located diagonally across the intersection.

On the opposite side of the street is the so-called Jewish house. On April 24, 1887, the Buzuluk Jewish Society sent a petition to the Governor of Samara for permission to establish a prayer school in the empty house of merchant Vanyakin. The petition was signed by 31 people. The Samara governor forwarded it to the Minister of the Interior, who in turn ordered him to provide information about the number of Jews living in the city of Buzuluk. He was informed of the following: "129 Jews live in the city of Buzuluk, of which only 14 could have the right to live. In total, 11 people had this right, two of whom have already left, and 9 are living temporarily. Of which, only 1 has its own house." The Minister of the Interior, having studied the merits of the case, put forward a resolution: "Due to the small number of Jews living in Buzuluk, the petition for the opening of a prayer house cannot be satisfied." Therefore, with the permission of the Buzuluk police officer, Jewish prayer services and rituals were held in the house of Joseph Grigorievich Tsapsky, the same one that we are currently examining. The house is built in the Moorish style, which is typical for stone buildings, but quite unusual for wooden houses. The Moorish style has not been without Art Nouveau — the sides of the building are decorated with modern decor above the windows. If you look at the wooden columns, you can see the six—pointed Jewish stars. Alas, the beautiful entrance group has been lost. Today, this building is a designated cultural heritage site.

This building once housed the Zemstvo school named "February 19, 1861". We learn about the day of its opening from the memoirs of Elizabeth Alexandrovna Zhemchuzhnikova: "... on February 19, 1911, the fiftieth anniversary of the abolition of serfdom was celebrated in the city. The commission was relieved, measures were worked out, and instructions were given on their implementation. Everything is in order, everything is strict and official. The school on the dam was given the name: "School on February 19th." The name was written in large type on the front entrance. The Secretary of the City Council, G. Vorfolomeev, mumbled a formal greeting. He was completely speechless. Then an old woman came forward, thanked him for his release, told him how she had been a serf, and then a free woman, and married a coachman, in a word, unconvincingly. An old man came out, smoothed his beard for a long time, began to speak, stammered on the third word and left. There was no closing speech, and the meeting was declared closed. After the solemn meeting, the authorities went to the restaurant for a party and lunch, and the performance began in the theater, a free universal one. There were a lot of people gathered, neither sitting, nor standing, nor breathing — it was crowded! I barely managed to get out. They said they were afraid of flyers, fights, and that two or three were injured, the trouble is not great, what's special!..."During the First World War, an infirmary was located in this building. During the Great Patriotic War, it was an evacuation hospital. In the post-war period and until 1971, the building housed secondary school No. 7. Currently, the children's and youth sports school No. 2 is located here. Now go right, then turn left at the first intersection. We are heading to the house of the four generals, and on the way we suggest listening to Pushkin Park, located nearby.

Pushkin Park is located behind the school building. It was once the only public garden in the city of Buzuluk. The decision to establish a city garden was made by the Buzuluk district zemstvo in 1865. And 11 years later, a city public garden with a summer theater was opened in the city on the banks of the Samara River. The garden was densely planted with lush lilac bushes, and the neat alleys were covered with river sand. In addition to lilacs, poplars and weeping birches grew in it. From May to September, touring theater troupes and various artists performed at the summer theater, as well as productions of the Orenburg musical Comedy. A brass band played in the rotunda, in front of which benches were set up for a large audience. In 1936, the city garden was renamed Pushkin Park. Along the way, the park saw many things: during the revolution, rallies attended by representatives of different parties; a gala dinner hosted for the White Russians who occupied Buzuluk in 1918. During the Great Patriotic War, the evacuated Ukrainian theater staged performances in the park theater, soldiers and commanders who were treated in Buzuluk hospitals rested here, and in the early days of the war, volunteers were registered in the garden to be sent to the front. The park experienced its rebirth in 1980, when carousels, a Ferris wheel, and rides were purchased, modern communications were carried out, and asphalt paths were laid. If you wish, you can visit the park after the tour.

The footprint left by historical figures of various scales becomes a security certificate for such buildings, which, in addition to their historical role in the past, are valuable architectural monuments of their era. In our city, the objects under federal protection include the "Ludvik Svoboda House", the house where the commander of the 1st Czechoslovak separate battalion in the USSR lived during the Great Patriotic War. A beautiful stone residential building of the late 19th century, representative of a typical merchant building of the old town. In the lines of the Order of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, which placed the house "under protection" as an object of cultural heritage of federal significance, we read the wonderful, ear-pleasing words: "Hip and seam roof, ribbon beam framing of window openings of the main volume with glasses in the form of triangular hangers on paneled brackets, arched edge above the opening of the gate, flat pilasters flanking the main volume and the eastern vestibule, a brick verandah of the entrance gate, a toothed cornice of the vestibule, a cornice with brackets of the main volume." Even a dry official document can sound beautiful when it comes to monuments of national importance. But, to be fair, it's still more correct to call this house the House of the Four Generals. The thing is that back in August 1941, this house was adapted for the residence of the commander of the Polish army in the USSR, General Vladislav Anders, long before Ludwik Svoboda appeared in the city. It was here that the Prime Minister of the Polish emigrant government and concurrently the commander-in-chief of the Polish armed forces, General of Armor Vladislav Sikorski, was stationed when he came to Buzuluk in early December of the first year of the war to inspect Anders' military formations. The next general who lived in the "Ludwik Svoboda house" was Sergei Jan Ingr, the Minister of National Defense of the Czechoslovak government in exile in London, who visited our city in June 1942. But Ludvik Svoboda himself became a general after leaving Buzuluk. Walk down the street and through the Central Square to the bust of cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko.

Yuri Romanenko is a pilot-cosmonaut of the USSR, twice Hero of the Soviet Union. """" In 1978, as a result of the successful completion of his first space flight aboard the Salyut-6–Soyuz orbital complex, Yuri Romanenko was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the title of "Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR." The second space flight took place in 1980, together with Cuban cosmonaut researcher Arnaldo Tamayo Mendes, who became the first Cuban cosmonaut, the first Latin American and the first person of African descent in space. Yuri Romanenko's third and last space flight took place in February 1987. During the astronauts' stay at the orbital complex, the "Quantum" module was launched. However, suddenly the system lost contact, and the astronauts could observe how the module flew 10 meters from the "Mir" orbital complex. It was decided to make a second attempt to dock "Kvant" with the station, while the module was already 400 km away. The module managed to dock with the station, but it turned out to be incomplete. For this reason, cosmonauts Romanenko and Laveikin had to go into outer space to carry out technical work. The reason for the discrepancy was a foreign object that remained between the spacecraft. It took the astronauts 3 hours and 40 minutes to fix the problem in zero gravity. As a result of this flight, Yuri Viktorovich was awarded the third Order of Lenin. Moreover, in the Guinness Book of Records for 1998, Yuri Romanenko was recognized as the most experienced space traveler, as he spent 430 days, 18 hours and 20 minutes in space during three flights. A birch tree planted by an astronaut grows next to the monument. The birch tree was planted by the famous countryman on September 25, 1981. The planting of the young tree was carried out in a solemn atmosphere, helped by the famous cosmonaut Buzuluk Komsomol member Alexander Kostychev. This birch tree is one of the elements of the memorial complex in honor of Yuri Viktorovich's first space feat. Now go to the red brick building, which is located to the right of the monument.

Before the revolution, the Rhine cellar was located in this building (wines and vodka were sold for bottling, stored in barrels in the cellar). In the evenings, it shone with lights. At the entrance to the building on the left there was a counter with wines of various brands, Russian and foreign, and von Wakanov beer. The wines cost from 25 kopecks to 1 ruble per bottle. Across the hall to the right is a buffet of cold snacks. There is also billiards here. In many sources, this building is referred to as Frolov's dining room. Severian Frolov ran a store in Buzuluk, selling tea, sugar, and manufactured goods. In Soviet times, the House of Pioneers was located in this building. Under the strict guidance of Iraida Yakovlevna Biryukova, who was the director of the House of Pioneers for 20 years, the network of circle work expanded: circles of tourists, buglers, drummers, drawing, film demonstrators, sports clubs, and international friendship clubs were opened. In 1981, the best senior pioneer leaders of the city came to the House of Pioneers for the position of methodologists. Later, the Municipal general Education budgetary Institution "Evening (shift) General education School" was located in this house. Currently, the building houses a cafe and a "Wine Cellar" store on the ground floor. Go further down the street. There will be a music college building at the second intersection on the right.