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Museum of Orenburg Town History
Museum of Orenburg Town History is a municipal local history museum in Orenburg. It is located in a historical building of the mid XIX century, which is a monument of federal importance [⇨]. The museum was opened in 1983 as a department of the pre-Soviet period of Russian history of the Orenburg Regional Museum. In 1989 it was transformed into an independent Museum of the History of Orenburg [⇨]. The main exposition of the museum features exhibits that tell about the founding of the city, Pugachev's rebellion, the stay of Alexander Pushkin in Orenburg, the life of the Orenburgers in the XIX - early XX century [⇨].

Museum of Orenburg Town History has a network of branches in the city, preeminently memorial in nature. These are Memorial museum-guardhouse of Taras Shevchenko[⇨], Yuriy and Valentina Gagarins' Memorial Museum Apartment [⇨], Museum "House of Memory". [⇨], the Museum of Cosmonautics [⇨] and the National Museum of Defenders of the Fatherland [⇨]. Previously, the Museum-apartment of Leopold and Mstislav Rostropovich [⇨] was a subdivision of the Museum of History of Orenburg.

Building
The main building of the Museum of History of Orenburg is located within the boundaries of the historic district Belovka, on the high bank of the. It was built in the middle of the 19th century and today is a monument of urban planning and architecture of federal significance.

In 1853, during his second governorship in Orenburg, Governor-General of Orenburg Governorate V. A. Perovsky appealed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a request to build a new pantry for the Orenburg treasury. It was decided to build a stone pantry with a guardroom for non-commissioned officers using the funds collected from the townspeople through a special levy "for the arrangement of public places and prisons". The construction was contracted by a self-taught serf architect Ivan Petrovich Skalochkin, the native of Vakhrushovo Yaroslavsky uyezd of the Yaroslavl Governorate, the estate of count Kutaisov.

In 1856, three years after the effort and hassle began, the construction of the building was completed. The treasury was built in the original pseudo-Gothic (Gothic Revival architecture) style and resembles a small medieval fortress. The building has the shape of letter "G". Its two flat-roofed wings, facing west and north, are connected by an octagonal tower with double narrow Arrowslits. The tower is divided into four tiers by horizontal bands and topped by merlons. It features Zvonnitsa with bells on crossbeams. The tower completes the perspective of one of the central streets in the old part of Orenburg - Dmitrievsky (former Atamansky) Lane.

The main entrance to the building is located on the west cIn 1856, three years after the effort and hassle began, the construction of the building was completed. The treasury was built in the original pseudo-Gothic (Gothic Revival architecture) style and resembles a small medieval fortress. The building has the shape of letter "G". Its two flat-roofed wings, facing west and north, are connected by an octagonal tower with double narrow Arrowslits. The tower is divided into four tiers by horizontal bands and topped by merlons. It features Zvonnitsa with bells on crossbeams. The tower completes the perspective of one of the central streets in the old part of Orenburg - Dmitrievsky (former Atamansky) Lane.

The color solution of the building is based on the contrast of white stone elements (Socle, porches, inter-floor cornices, window cornices with pebbles, window piers, lintels, "eyebrows") and red face brick with light brown and pink shades. Pokes (ends) and spoons (sides) of bricks are covered with glaze. The inner premises have an Enfilade layout. The type of ceiling you'll see here is the Vault with stripping. Particularly striking elements of the interior feature the staircase with cast stands and shod lattice, and the tiled floors colored in light yellow and brown with a meander on the border.

On the tower of the building were installed the clocks of "customs office", previously placed in the Gostiny Dvor in Orenburg. Since 1857 by the decision of the general-governor A. A. Katenin the building was given to the guardhouse. Its western part housed a guard service, while in the northern wing there were cells for prisoners. The building of the guardhouse was depicted in one of the paintings of Orenburg artist Lukian Popov called "City Landscape" (now in the collection of the Orenburg Regional Museum of Fine Arts). In the foreground of the picture is the stone ground of the Transfiguration Cathedral (later destroyed), and in the distance, behind an unsightly fence of blackened planks, you can see the top of the guardhouse.

The appearance of the guardhouse remained relatively unchanged until the early 1930s. In 1931 the clock-chimes were dismantled from its tower and transported to Samara, to the newly built Red Army House of Volga Military District. In the 1970s a palisade with retaining walls of Limestone improvised fence in the form of metal balls with chains was arranged in front of the main entrance to the building. In 1977 a monument to Alexander Pushkin by sculptor V. Stepanyan was installed in the front garden. For its intended purpose the building of the guardroom was used in the era of the Russian Empire and in Soviet times until the end of the 1970s.

History
According to some sources, negotiations on the transfer of the guardroom for museum purposes to the Orenburg Regional Museum had been going on since 1970. In 1978, thanks to the efforts of Yury Garenkin, representative of the Orenburg City Executive Committee, the building was handed over by the Volga Military District to the city, and its restoration began. The museum was opened on April 30, 1983, the 240th anniversary of the founding of Orenburg. Initially it housed a department of pre-Soviet period of Russian history of Orenburg local history museum.

According to some sources, negotiations on the transfer of the guardroom for museum purposes to the Orenburg Regional Museum had been going on since 1970. In 1978, thanks to the efforts of Yury Garenkin, representative of the Orenburg City Executive Committee, the building was handed over by the Volga Military District to the city, and its restoration began. The museum was opened on April 30, 1983, the 240th anniversary of the founding of Orenburg. Initially it housed a department of pre-Soviet period of Russian history of Orenburg local history museum.

In the early 1980s, at the initiative of Yuri Garankin, a new pendulum clock was manufactured for the museum tower. The bronze and cast-iron parts were made according to the design of watchmaker N.S. Kuznetsov at the hardware and machine building plants, and 7 bells were cast at the Orenburg Locomotive Repair Plant. The assembly of the mechanism was performed by "Metalist" plant employees. The bells chime the time, while the melody of "The Orenburg steppes are in bloom" by the Soviet composer G. F. Ponomarenko is played.

Initially, the 6 halls of the museum featured exhibitions, the themes of which were:


 * The ancient history of Orenburg;
 * History of the city;
 * Pugachev's Rebellion: Peasant revolt against Empress Catherine II of Russia
 * A. S. Pushkin's stay in Orenburg;
 * ethnography, way of life, the system of management of Orenburg in the XIX century, significant attention was paid to the inhabitants of the region (Bashkirs, Tatars, Ukrainians, Germans, Jews, Cossacks); famous citizens (for example, Nikolay Karamzin and Ivan Krylov are sometimes referred to as the natives of this region, Gavrila Derzhavin lived in the city as a child) and explorers of Orenburg oblast (A. von Humboldt, I.I. Lepyokhin, P. S. Pallas, P. I. Rychkov, E. A. Eversmann).

In 1989, the department of pre-Soviet history of local history museum was transformed into an independent Museum of Orenburg town history.

In 1992, three more museum halls were added to the existing six. In 1995 by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation the building received the status of a cultural monument of federal importance. In 2003, on the 260-th anniversary of the city, new expositions were opened: the architecture of Orenburg, the interior room of a city resident of late XIX - early XX century, and the exposition "Farewell to XX century '' . Over the years, the Museum of Orenburg town history acquired 6 branches (one in 1989, two in 2001, others in 2003, 2007 and 2014). By 2016 the museum was visited by more than 1.5 million people. Among the guests of honor are Mikhail Gluzsky, Mikhail Ulyanov, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Lyubov Tolkalina and others.

The Rostropovich Family's Museum Apartment
In 2001-2008,the Memorial Museum-apartment of Leopold and Mstislav Rostropovich was a structural subdivision of the Museum of Orenburg town history. It was located in the house number 25, Ziminskaya Street, where Mstislav Rostropovich lived with his parents, Leopold Rostropovich and Sofya Fedotova, and his sister Veronika during the period of 1941-1943. The Museum was opened in November 2001 with the assistance of Yury Mishcheriakov, Head of the city Administration: a part of the building was bought into municipal ownership to organize these areas for museum exhibitions. Mstislav Rostropovich himself was present at the opening ceremony.

The second half of the house remained in private ownership. In the early 2000s there was a conflict between the owners and the municipality, which ended with the forced eviction from the rooms intended for the museum, with the participation of bailiffs. In the House-Museum of the Rostropovich family the memorial interior was reconstructed, featuring family pictures, things from the times of the Great Patriotic War, and concert costumes of Mstislav Rostropovich. The museum held musical soirees and concerts, festivities, and educational activities (classes, lectures).

The owners of the second half of the house organized a private museum of the Rostropovich family. In 2012, they put the premises they owned up for sale. In 2018, by decision of Orenburg Oblast Governor Yuri Berg, the regional authorities bought half of the structure from the private owners, together with the exhibits, and the rooms housing "municipal" exhibition became the regional property. The United Museum was transferred to the Orenburg Regional Museum of Fine Arts.

Expositions
The exhibition area of the museum comprises 1,225 m², the area of the storerooms is 150 m², the area of green spaces under the museum's jurisdiction is 0.4 ha. The funds number 8.7 thousand items. The main museum fund in particular includes items of Bashkir, Kazakh, Mordovian national clothing, personal belongings and photographs of the poet Y.S.Entin, the opera singer L.P. Filatova, the actor V.A.Bortsov, photographs of Heroes of the Soviet Union and Heroes of the Russian Federation and much more.

As of 2018, the following permanent expositions are featured in the main building of the Museum of Orenburg Town History:


 * The exposition in the lobby of the museum. The central place is taken by the painting "Orenburg in Three Centuries", created by Orenburg artists A. A. Vlasenko and V. M. Eremenko during the reconstruction of the guardhouse for museum purposes. Divided into three parts, the canvas, created using, among other things, views of the city of XIX century by B. F. Zaleski and A. F. Chernyshev, old prints and drawings, tells about the history of Orenburg in the XVIII, XIX and XX centuries. Also here is one of the most valuable exhibits of the museum - a copy of a lifetime portrait of Catherine II (chest version) painted by Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder, donated to the city in 1998, for the 255th anniversary of the founding of Orenburg, by artist I. S. Glazunov.
 * "History of the founding of Orenburg". The main element of the exposition is a layout of the Orenburg fortress from the mid - second half of the XVIII century. A typical shop of a Central Asian merchant of that period has been restored (represented goods included: clothes, dishes, household items, as well as ancient coins). Among the exhibits are: a bronze cannon of 1703, a fragment of the first city water supply system, fragments of the triumphal Elizabethan gate, engravings, documents and items of the XVIII century, telling about statesmen like I. Kirillov, I. Neplyuev, P. Rychkov, V. Tatishchev.
 * "The Peasant War of 1773-1775 led by E. I. Pugachev.The main exhibits of this room are the diorama "Storm of Orenburg city fortress by E. I. Pugachev's rebellious army", map of Peasant war, cannon balls and signal cannon of that period, a replica of the cage where Pugachev was held for some time. The exposition was further supplemented with the props from the historical film "Russian rebellion", shoot in 1998-1999 in the Orenburg region. The movie is based on "The Captain's Daughter " by Alexander Pushkin and tells about the events of Pugachev's rebellion
 * "Аlexander. Pushkin and Orenburg". The exposition is dedicated to Pushkin's stay in Orenburg on September 18-20, 1833 and his journey in the Orenburg province, where he was accompanied by Vladimir Dal in order to collect information about the Pugachev's rebellion, first of all - eyewitness accounts used to write the "History of Pugachev" and his later work "The Captain's Daughter". The hall is decorated with canvases by Orenburg artist N. P. Eryshev "Alexander Pushkin and V. I. Dal on the shore of the Ural", "Conversation between Pushkin and Bunty Cossack in the Berdy", here is presented the interior of the noble living rooms of the first half of the 19th century. Another notable exhibit is the bust of Pushkin, kasil iron sculpture made in 1899. This sculpture was created at the Kaslinsky casting factory in resemblance to a marble bust by I. P. Vitali, made with the participation of P. V. Nashchokin after Alexander Sergeyevich's death.
 * "Interior of an Orenburg resident's room of the late 19th - early 20th century". The interior, given to the museum by the heirs of Orenburg horse breeder Ivanov, includes a Polish Art Nouveau buffet, an Austrian Rococo piano, Rococo armchairs by "Gumbs", Bentwood by Tonet brothers, a table and a drawer of local manufacturing, forms the basis of the exposition. The tableware collection includes porcelain from the "Porcelain and faience manufactory of M. S. Kuznetsov", silver tableware, pseudo-Russian faience, and glass from the Maltsovs' factories. Items of closet of this era are also exhibited (handmade openwork women's jacket, corset, men's lapels, silk handkerchiefs, shoes, etc.).

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