Engels, the museum of local lore: the mode of work, photos and reviews

On the left bank of the Volga there is a small but very cozy and green town - Engels (until 1931 - Pokrovsk). It is the second largest population in the Saratov region. The city has a long and interesting history, a lot of interesting places and places to visit. But it is better to get acquainted with the city from the local history museum, which contains interesting exhibits, photos, documents telling about the history and development of Engels.

History of the museum

The Museum of Local Lore (Engels) was founded in July 1925, after the official decision to create a republican museum of the Germans of the Volga region. The first director of the museum, the talented and well-known linguistic scientist, professor of the Saratov University, ethnographer G. G. Dinges, initiated the establishment of this institution.

Already in the first years of the museum's existence, a collection of clothes, household items of the German population of the republic, invaluable manuscripts related to the history of foreign colonies, documents on archeology and ethnography was collected. The staff of the museum conducted an active scientific research activity.

In August 1941, as is known, the Republic of Germans in the Volga region was liquidated, and the museum was closed. The exhibits were transferred to various organizations for storage and, unfortunately, many of them were irretrievably lost. The museum was rebuilt after the war, but it received a different status - the museum of local lore. Engels gradually recovered after the war, and the museum was replenished with new exhibits.

In 1960, the museum was headed by Evdokia Alexandrovna Bozhenko, who in the course of her work took a course to create a museum that would be based on local history work. But to fully engage in classical museum work and the construction of an institution of a historical type, which he was in the 1920s. Last century, it was possible only in the early 90's. XX century.

At this time the museum in the next, already the seventh, was transferred to a new spacious and bright building in the center of the city (Engels). The Local Lore Museum under the leadership of the new director S. I. Spiridonova entered a new period of its development. Today it is one of the most popular and visited cultural institutions of the city.

Engels: Local History Museum in our days

As we have already said, the museum is located in the very center of the city, at: ul. M. Gorky, 4. The modern building is located on the bank of the Volga River near the picturesque park, embankment and city square. The modern interior, which is devoid of architectural excesses, the bright spacious halls of the museum give the opportunity to feel the freedom of movement, to concentrate attention on the exposition.

Having extensive exposition and exhibition areas, the museum of local lore (Engels) does not limit itself to conditional restrictions and builds a model of a new museum, which is adapted to modern life. In addition to traditional for museums of this type of exhibitions on the history of the city and the region, there are held thematic exhibitions of contemporary art, literary unions, conferences and festivals.

The museum is open to visitors daily from 10:00 to 17:00. Wednesday from 10:00 to 21:00. Monday is a day off.

Collections of the museum

Currently, the local history museum (Engels) has several fairly large collections of exhibits, which are grouped together. We will describe some of them in more detail.

Archaeological

This is the largest collection of the museum, which unites more than eight thousand exhibits. It tells of all periods of ancient history. The materials collected here show the existence of different cultures and civilizations of antiquity, which left a notable mark in the history. Among them, the first stone tools relating to the Paleolithic era, bronze cauldrons and spears.

Particularly proud of the staff of the museum is a gold collection of Huns, which included jewelry made in various jewelry techniques. Not less valuable are exhibits of the early Middle Ages.

Art collection

A feature of the city museum is its artistic direction. Collected here for many years, the collection reflects all the stages in the development of artistic life in the city of Engels. The Museum of Local Lore has the most valuable and largest collection of works by J. Weber in our country. The magnificent master of the Volga landscape and the unsurpassed painter of the first half of the last century left to descendants real masterpieces.

In addition to the paintings of Jacob Weber, the museum presents collections of many German artists - M. Hyde, V. Michaelis, R. Fink, E. Dorsch, Erlich and others. In the museum you can see the works of recognized masters - A. Kravchenko, A. Mylnikov, V. Zotov, R. Merzlin, A. Vasiliev, A. Govorov.

Collection of books

To the great regret, the library, as well as the scientific archive of the museum of the Germans of the Volga region, is partially lost: only a small part of it has survived to this day. The collection of the book collection today contains no more than three hundred copies: educational and scientific literature on history, archeology, ethnography, almanacs, rare editions of Russian writers and journals. Here you can see books from the libraries of many famous people of the past.

Weapons

This collection is the youngest in the museum. It began to be collected in the middle of the twentieth century, when several copies of weapons of the WWII times were donated to the museum. Today this collection is still small - no more than 100 units, but it includes noteworthy specimens - the weapons of the war of 1812, the Great Patriotic War and the First World War.

On these samples one can judge the development of weapons business in our country, admire the skills of well-known and unnamed authors who have captured their knowledge and talent in metal. In addition to firearms, the collection also includes a blade weapon.

Photographic materials

The city of Engels has a long and interesting history. The Museum of Local Lore has a large collection of photographic materials. It shows the features of the life of the Volga city from the XIX century to our days. Of particular value are materials that capture the peculiarities of the culture of the Germans in the Volga region.

Exhibitions

In the museum you can visit exhibitions that work on an ongoing basis. Among them:

1. "Bridge of friendship. Engels-Wuppertal ", dedicated to the cultural cooperation of cities.
2. Many interesting materials were collected by the century of the First World War Museum of Local Lore (Engels). The exhibition "Faces of the Forgotten War" is of great interest for fans of the history of our country.
3. "Return to life" - an exhibition devoted to the history of the Missile School of the city.

In addition, exhibitions of works by young artists are regularly held here, creative meetings with authors are held. In February of this year, schoolchildren began to actively visit the Museum of Local Lore (Engels). Robots-transformers, presented here as part of the opening Moscow show-exhibition "The Rise of Machines", attracted the general attention of youth.

In an unusual exhibition there are seventeen two-meter robots that are heroes of fantastic films and computer games. In order that children could look at them, excursions of schoolchildren to Engels were organized from neighboring cities. The museum of local lore (the phone where applications are accepted, you will be prompted by the administration) will arrange excursions to all expositions and exhibitions by prior arrangement.

Reviews

Many visitors to the museum note its convenient location: in the city center, on the river bank. The museum today is in excellent condition, it is well-groomed, the employees are very attentive and polite, and the guides are real professionals, who love and know their business. That's why on excursions no one has to be bored.