Exhibits from the House of the Poet in Koktebel displayed for the first time in St. Petersburg at the Presidential Library

The Presidential Library hosted the grand opening of the exhibition “Cimmeria by Maximilian Voloshin. 1920”, dedicated to an important period in the life and career of a prominent representative of the Silver Age, cultural figure, poet, translator and artist. The exposition features paintings, photographs and archival documents, books and personal belongings of the writer from the collection of the Voloshin House-Museum (House of the Poet) in Koktebel.

As it was noted at the opening of the exhibition, the idea of ​​its creation appeared in the summer of 2019, during a visit by the delegation of the Presidential Library to the Crimea peninsula. In November 2019, within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum, the Presidential Library and the Historical, Cultural, Memorial Museum-Reserve "Cimmeria by Maximilian Voloshin" signed a cooperation agreement and the work on the preparation of this exposition started. In 2020, despite the difficult epidemiological conditions, the joint project was successfully implemented.

Natalia Miroshnichenko, Deputy Director General of the Museum-Reserve “Cimmeria by Maximilian Voloshin” and the head of the Voloshin House-Museum emphasized in her speech that the exposition had become special: serious documentary content, and not just pictorial series. The theme of the exhibition is the pages of the biography of Maximilian Voloshin after the revolution in Russia, and the main one is 1920, the year of the end of the Civil War in the Crimea and the exodus of the Russian army and the Black Sea Fleet from the Crimea. It seemed natural to us to tell how Maximilian Voloshin lived at this difficult time for the whole country".

The events of 1917, stirring up Russia, also affected Maximilian Voloshin. His poetic creativity sounded in a new way, the talent of a publicist and lecturer was revealed. During the Civil War in Crimea, the poet tried to protect human lives and cultural values. Voloshin became an employee of the Feodosia section of the Crimean department for the protection of monuments of art and antiquity and a member of the All-Russian Union of Art Workers, advocated the creation of a People's University in the region. It was thanks to him that a number of monuments of the peninsula were preserved, including the House of the Poet.

Natalia Miroshnichenko also added that many materials from the collections of the Voloshin House-Museum (House of the Poet), available at the exhibition in the Presidential Library, are presented in our city for the first time: “Many interesting pages of Voloshin's life are associated with St. Petersburg, as many of his friends lived in this city. Especially for this exposition, we brought one of the artist's most famous works - the painting "Koktebel" (the second name is "Heavenly Well"), which the author himself placed in the center of the Workshop - the focus of the Poet's House, and which never left the walls of the museum".

The exposition in the Presidential Library is open until March 10. In the spring of 2021, a virtual tour of this exhibition will be presented free on the Presidential Library’s portal.

Exhibition “Cimmeria by Maximilian Voloshin. 1920” has been organized by the Historical-Cultural, Memorial Museum-Reserve “Cimmeria by M. A. Voloshin” and the Presidential Library with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Crimea. The general sponsor is VTB Bank, the partner is the M. Gorky Scientific Library of St. Petersburg State University.