From the history of relations between the Tambov Regional Museum of Local History and the Tambov Diocese. 1879 — 2014

Abstract

The history of relations between the Tambov Provincial Historical Museum and the Tambov Diocese goes back more than 130 years. On September 27, 1879, in the "Proposal of the Tambov Governor to the Tambov Provincial Government" it was noted that the best monument to the anniversary date - the 100th anniversary of the Tambov viceroyalty "would be the establishment of a provincial historical and ethnographic museum in Tambov... The foundation of the museum can bring enormous benefits. to the number of students in Tambov, which increases from year to year. and to the local population. To develop a project for the "establishment of this museum", a Commission was created under the chairmanship of Privy Councilor, Chief Chamberlain of the Imperial Court E.D. Naryshkin. It included the rector of the Tambov Theological Seminary, Archimandrite Dimitry, as well as a teacher of the Ekaterininsky Teachers' Institute, a graduate and teacher of the seminary, historian and local historian I.I. Dubasov and S.N. Chicherin. In the journal on the organization of the museum in Tambov from November 2, 1879, we read: “. the museum will be opened at the Tambov Scientific Archival Commission. The general meeting. of the commission. decided: . the museum should be called the Tambov Provincial Museum”. From 1879 to 1917, along with prominent public figures and scientists, representatives of the Tambov clergy took an active part in the work of the TUAK and the museum created under it. The minutes of the TUAK meetings and the first museum catalogs of P.A. Dyakonova (1889) and A.I. Samotsvetova (1916) testify to the collections of church utensils, icons, copper art casting, handwritten and early printed books. To a large extent, they were formed and replenished by the Tambov clergy. Of course, the interaction of the TUAK museum and the Tambov diocese was much broader than replenishing the museum collections. The most important area of ​​joint work was the examination and photographic recording of the oldest Tambov Orthodox shrines, churches and monasteries, the study of archival documents, the publication of materials on the history of the Tambov church in the TUAK News, Tambov Diocesan News, the magazine "Russian Antiquity", and the resolution of issues of restoration of churches and icons. With the creation of the Church Archaeological Committee in 1912, the joint activities of the museum and the Tambov diocese acquired a new quality. Bishop Kirill of Tambov and Shatsk emphasized the importance of the "great work of preserving Tambov's antiquity for posterity." In the 1920s, the provincial folk museum accepted for safekeeping the alienated items of church art, liturgical use, including precious relics of the Tambov diocese - the reliquary with the relics of Saint Pitirim, his phelonion, panagia, shroud, and a number of icons. Thus, these relics and other church valuables were saved from loss, merciless barbaric destruction, and cynical sale abroad. In 1929, by decision of the Okrug Executive Committee, the "empty" building of the Pitirim Cathedral was transferred to the Tambov District Scientific and Art Museum. The new stage of relations between the museum and the Tambov diocese dates back to 1944-1946, the period of stay of the outstanding church hierarch Archbishop Luka (V.F. Voyno-Yasenetsky) at the Tambov cathedra. The end of the 1980s - beginning of the 1990s became a period of misunderstanding, mutual reproaches and confrontation for the museum and the diocese. The 2000s became a time of reconsideration of relations, entering into dialogue, defining ways of mutual cooperation. Today the museum and the diocese participate in joint exhibition, publishing, research projects, scientific and practical conferences and local history readings. We are united by the understanding of "the most poetic and most instructive task" associated with the spiritual life of society, the awareness that culture is "the germination of the grain of religion, a mustard tree that has grown from the seed of Faith."