Russia (bbabo.net), - There is only one panorama in Russia dedicated to the period of the Civil War. This monumental canvas is in the Khabarovsk Regional Museum named after N.I. Grodekov. It recreates a fragment of the famous Volochaev battle, the 100th anniversary of which we are celebrating these days. The 41-meter painting keeps its secrets. The correspondent was told about them in the museum.

From diorama to panorama

The idea to create a panorama "Battle of Volochaev" arose among Khabarovsk residents in the mid-1950s, and this idea was supported by the USSR Ministry of Culture. In two years, three battle painters from the famous Grekov studio painted an eight-meter diorama "Volochaevsky battle", which was installed in the main museum of Khabarovsk. Today it is stored in storerooms and requires restoration.

The creation of the panorama began only in 1967 at the initiative of the then director of the museum, Vsevolod Sysoev. Seeing the panorama of the Battle of Borodino in Moscow, he proposed to perpetuate the events of the legendary Volochaev days in February 1922 in Khabarovsk in the same way.

- There were plans to erect a panorama building right on the June-Koran hill, to create a grandiose Volochaevsky memorial with a ten-meter figure of a People's Army soldier for the 50th anniversary of the end of the Civil War in the Far East. But a very costly idea was abandoned in favor of a modern extension to the historical building of the local history museum in Khabarovsk, where there are many more visitors. Largely due to construction, the timing of the opening of the panorama was shifted, - says Alexei Shestakov, senior researcher at the Khabarovsk Regional Museum named after N. I. Grodekov.

Famous battle painters Anatoly Gorpenko from the Grekov Studio and Sergey Agapov took up the creation of the monumental canvas. Large-scale work required free space, so the painters were provided with a gym in one of the Moscow schools.

The commission did not accept the first sketch of the Greeks: there were too many critical comments from specialists. So, the canvas did not reflect the nature of the south of the Far East, and the trenches and dugouts corresponded to the period of the Great Patriotic War. Nevertheless, this version was made public - in 1972, a set of postcards "Volochaevka" with sketches of fragments of an unsuccessful panorama was published in Moscow.

At the second attempt

In the spring of 1971, artists Sergei Agapov and Anatoly Gorpenko arrived in the Khabarovsk Territory to work on the site of the battle. All February they drew sketches near Volochaevka. The command of the Far Eastern Military District allocated an engineering company, which recreated part of the defensive lines of the White Rebels of General Molchanov. Servicemen in the form of fighters of the People's Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Far Eastern Republic participated in a demonstrative assault on fortifications.

The second sketch - the result of four years of work - was accepted by the Minister of Culture of the USSR Ekaterina Furtseva. The legendary marshals Nikolai Krylov, Ivan Bagramyan, Vasily Chuikov, as well as the widow of NRA commander-in-chief Vasily Blucher acted as consultants. The approved sketch in the form of a diorama can be seen today in the Birobidzhan Museum.

The canvas of the Volochaevskaya panorama, wound on a large drum, was brought to Khabarovsk in a special wagon in the fall of 1974. The installation was carried out by a tandem of authors together with colleagues from Khabarovsk. During the installation, it turned out that for a full circle the panorama lacks about a meter of canvas. I had to urgently build up the canvas and finish the image. On April 30, 1975, the panorama was solemnly opened.

- Unlike the other three Russian panoramas, Volochaevskaya came out chamber. The foreground is directly in front of the viewer, and the distance to the painting is only about two meters. At the same time, the transition of the subject plan into the canvas is made so filigree that it amazes art historians and amazes the viewer, - says Alexey Shestakov.

View from above

To see the panorama, you need to climb the steep spiral staircase to the observation deck. The viewpoint is the western slope of the June-Koran hill.

- The artist needed to show as many events as possible in the picture, so such a place was chosen. From here you can see the village, the station with the pumping station, the attack of armored trains on the railway. And right in front of us, an offensive is unfolding. In the foreground are the trenches of the White Povstants, a dilapidated dugout dugout - the command post of one of the regiments, - says Alexei Shestakov.

When examining the panorama, you can see that the village of Volochaevka is already occupied by the People's Army. The hottest point in the western part of the panorama is the battle on the slope, hand-to-hand clashes over the hill, which in fact did not occur. A little to the north, an attack by the NRA cavalry and a separate scout battalion is depicted, and in the foreground are the abandoned guns of the Molchonovists.

In the east, the outlines of the Khekhtsir ridge are visible, at the spurs of which Khabarovsk is located. In that direction, strings of retreating columns of the White Guards stretch, in the distance the outgoing armored train "Kappelevets" is visible.Back to news For example, for some reason, the White Rebel in his hands turned out to be an imperial standard with a double-headed eagle, although the Molanovites were republicans. And the People's Army soldiers are depicted with a red banner, while the flag of the Far Eastern Republic has a blue rectangle with an abbreviation on a red background.

- The fighters of the opposing forces in reality were dressed in almost the same motley. They wore everything that came to hand: sheepskin coats, sheepskin coats, coats, hats, fur hats. The artists, on the other hand, had to use fiction so that the opponents on the canvas would at least somehow differ. This is how revolutionary sailors and fighters in Budyonovkas appeared, and golden epaulettes shone on the overcoats of the White Rebels. People's Army soldiers had blue and red sleeve chevrons, but they are almost invisible in the picture, - says Alexey Shestakov.

According to him, there could not be dugouts and well-fortified trenches in Volochaevka. There is no mention of hand-to-hand combat reports, which has become one of the main subjects of the panorama. And the village itself is depicted as it became only half a century after the battle. But in general, the Volochaev panorama perfectly conveys the scale of the battle.

It is interesting that initially Sergey Agapov and Anatoly Gorpenko did not clearly write out the characters in the picture. The portrait features of the faces of many heroes appeared after the restoration of 1985, with which the authors of the canvas were terribly unhappy. In addition, there were extra details on it. So, suddenly a fighter appeared, aiming point-blank at the viewer. There is an effect that he is following you relentlessly, no matter where you look at him from!

Over time, something from the subject foreground disappeared. To create the effect of smoldering firebrands of a dugout, the artists used parts of Christmas decorations with a phosphorus composition, which gave an amazing reddish-orange glow, which once stopped.

- The authors of the panorama are no longer alive, but their colleagues, Greek artists, are looking after the work. They are regularly engaged in the restoration of the canvas. Due to the fact that there is very little space between the viewer and the canvas, even human breathing has an impact on the picture, says Alexey Shestakov.

Back to news

- A small diorama is exhibited in the Civil War Hall in the exposition "These days glory will not cease." It immerses you in the atmosphere of those days when there were fierce battles throughout the Volochaev bridgehead, - said the museum curator, history teacher Alexei Zaitsev.

The museum, along with the expositions "Volochaevskaya Land", "Our school planet", "A medal for a battle, a medal for labor is poured from one metal ..." models of the June-Koran hill and the building of the monument-museum on its top are also presented.

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