Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
An exhibition has opened in the palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in the Kolomenskoye Museum-Reserve “Northern Atlantis”Its idea is to show the diversity and integrity of the culture of the Russian North.
Atlantis is a myth and a metaphor, but there is a modern incarnation of it — the flooded village of Krokhino, to which a separate hall is dedicated at the exhibition. And the geography of the exhibition covers the former Olonetskaya, Arkhangelskaya, Vologda and Novgorod provinces. What to pay special attention to at the exhibition — in the material from mos.ru.
“Northern Atlantis”: a journey through the Russian North
What is the Russian North? The exhibition offers an answer in the form of a large artistic journey. The visitor goes along the path of merchants, pilgrims and explorers. The first hall introduces the context: here you can understand the main features and traditions of the Russian North. Then begins the movement through the provinces, built like a rafting trip along the northern rivers.
The exhibition brings together items from the museum’s collections, the Russkie Nachalo studio, and the Krokhino Cultural Heritage Revival Center charity foundation. They are connected with the lives of people who inhabited the northern lands — free peasants. “There was never serfdom in the north, and there are vast spaces there. People lived freely,” explains Antonina Onishko, curator of the Northern Atlantis exhibition.
Krokhino: where history is pieced together from fragments
At the bottom of the Sheksna River, among the marsh grasses and foundations washed away by the waves, lies a submerged memory of the Russian North – the village of Krokhino, once a thriving settlement on busy waterways. Such villages are our Atlantis. Krokhino was mentioned as early as 1426, and in the 18th century it received the status of a posad, that is, a city. In 1909, Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky, a pioneer of color photography, shot scenes of peasant life here. His works are given special attention at the exhibition.
In 1964, during the construction of the Volga-Baltic Waterway, the village was flooded. Now only the Church of the Nativity of Christ rises above the water. Vasily Shukshin filmed this church in Kalina Krasnaya, emphasizing the state of the film’s hero, who has lost the ground under his feet.
“There is a certain fairytale quality to Krokhino: artifacts lie underfoot. The earth itself returns history to us,” says Anor Tukaeva, director of the charitable foundation “Center for the Revival of Cultural Heritage “Krokhino”. The foundation has been preserving the Krokhino heritage for 15 years. Volunteers live in the marshy area next to the flooded village for several months at a time. They have no electricity, but they have solar panels, a campus they built themselves, and a great desire to return the memory washed away by the water.
“Spas Krokhinsky” – this is what volunteers call a mosaic icon assembled from fragments of frescoes of a church that stood in water for 60 years. “It could have been just construction waste, but the artist Bogdan Lavrinenko felt that they should form the face of the Savior,” says Anor Tukaeva. Nearby is a miraculously preserved artifact: a straw cutter from the late 19th century, brought from the Kingdom of Poland.
“It was found in the ruins under the roots of a tree that grew on the remains of the foundation of a dismantled house. Wealthy peasants ordered such machines from catalogues. Perhaps they used them to cut straw from krokhinka, local wheat,” Anor Tukaeva shares.
In Krokhino, they actually bred a variety of wheat, and it still exists. Why is it important to know this? “Preserving heritage is a basic need. The 20th century taught us to break with the past, but preserving memory is something very basic, very human,” Anor Tukaeva is sure. Thanks to the efforts of specialists, the past has also received a voice: at the exhibition, you can listen to recreated wedding songs of the village. The project to reconstruct the songs and costumes took more than two years.
Northern fairy tale in pearls and dresses
River pearls shimmer in the exhibition halls – this was a traditional craft, now, alas, lost: there are no more pearls in the northern rivers. Earrings from the mid-19th century were given to the studio “Russkie Nachalo” by a family from the Arkhangelsk village of Nenoksa. The jewelry is part of an amazing puzzle of traditional costumes of Pomorye. They have almost not survived in their entirety – the craftswomen of “Russkie Nachalo” have been restoring the outfits of northern women for more than 25 years.
“I came up with a game. I ask everyone who comes here a question: find a new costume,” says Tatyana Valkova, head of the Russkie Nachalo studio. It is really hard to guess – the fabrics, tools and techniques are the same as 150 years ago. Researchers do not just sew replicas of old outfits – they study museum collections, go on ethnographic expeditions, talk to villagers, and recreate the life in which the costume existed.
An unusual element of the northern costume is knitted gloves. They do not seem very practical for peasant life, but in the village of Nenoksa there is a special way of life. “They did not consider themselves peasants,” explains Tatyana Valkova. “The settlement of Nenoksa, known for its saltworks, was a rich place, which means that they adopted urban traditions, including fashion.” The gloves were literally recreated loop by loop according to an ethnographic model.
One of the most complex and beautiful is the girls’ festive costume of the Kargopol district of the Olonetsk province of the late 18th century. This costume was literally assembled from fragments: in one museum they saw a fragment of embroidery, in the second – a beautiful headdress (only five of these have survived).
For the costume of the Shenkursk district of the Arkhangelsk province, the pattern was taken from the originals in the Arkhangelsk Museum of Local History in January of this year. The crown (headdress) was made by the master Susanna Savinyukhova several years ago, it repeats the sample of the late 18th century. To achieve the effect of full correspondence to the original, the master worked with genuine sequins and glass decorations from the 19th century.
Red color of the North
The sky is grey, the nature is strict, and the dresses of northern women are bright, especially with a lot of red. “Even everyday sarafans were woven from red and white threads, as if charged with the energy of color,” notes Tatyana Valkova. This contrast, one might say, is the essence of the entire northern heritage: behind the external severity is an incredible life force.
How did our ancestors live? Hard and miserable or gilded and fabulous? The truth is somewhere in the middle, in the details. Weaving, sewing, embroidering – hard work. But when coming to a festivities in a neighboring village, a northern woman could take several dresses with her. “She went to church in one outfit, had lunch in another, and for the evening the girl changed into a third. She wanted to show herself, her skills,” says Tatyana Valkova.
“If you don’t embroider a peacock, you won’t get married”
Kargopolsky Uyezd is the cradle of Russian embroidery. Tambour embroidery was called “mouse trail” here. “Because the small stitches – tiny, tiny – resembled the tracks of mouse paws,” explains Olga Klimova, a teacher at the “Russian Beginnings” studio. The drawings were transferred in unusual ways: if they found an old pattern on fabric, they would put wet material on it and transfer the outlines. They also drew inspiration from nature. “We would go into the house and the frost would decorate the windows with patterns, we would immediately copy the drawing and embroider,” explains Olga Klimova. The ability to embroider was very important. “If you don’t embroider a peacock, you won’t get married,” as people used to say.
To forget is impossible to remember
The Earth is returning to the flooded Atlantis. The foundation’s volunteers built engineering fortifications to preserve the crumbling temple. And they noticed: the marshy area began to recover – the water washes away the earth. And recently, the light was turned on again on the bell tower, surrounded by water. The Russian North is not a disappearing past, but a part of the cultural code that cannot be lost. It is easy to put a comma: we must not forget, we must remember.
The exhibition “Northern Atlantis” is open until September 7. Buy tickets You can find it on mos.ru.
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