Poltava. The Ivan Kotliarevskyi Memorial Estate Museum. A Photo Tour and Video Review
The works of the writer and enlightener Ivan Petrovych Kotliarevskyi remain relevant and, in the 21st century, still find their way to the reader's heart. More than 200 years ago, in his much-criticised "Eneida", the Ukrainian playwright voiced a protest against the advance of the imperial forces of the northern neighbour and mocked the people's powerlessness to resist the enthronement of great-power ambition and the loss of Cossack autonomy. The classic of new Ukrainian literature was born, studied, worked and died in Poltava, and he wrote in the Poltava dialect of the Ukrainian language.
The Ivan Petrovych Kotliarevskyi Memorial Estate Museum
Preserving the memory of their outstanding countryman, in 1969 the people of Poltava opened an estate museum in the restored house of the Kotliarevskyi family on Ivanova Hora, the hill named in honour of the writer.
By the entrance to the museum stands a memorial marker of black labradorite bearing the inscription: "From this estate rang out the voice of the first classic of new Ukrainian literature, Ivan Petrovych Kotliarevskyi. 1769-1838".
The memorial complex stands on Cathedral Square, next to the Dormition Cathedral, which was rebuilt anew in 2004.
The Dormition Cathedral
Ivan's grandfather served as a deacon at the Dormition Church and in 1751 bought the dwelling for 27 roubles 50 kopecks "in eternal and hereditary use". The homestead was built in 1705, as attested by an inscription left by the craftsman on a wooden beam.
Poltava. The I. P. Kotliarevskyi Memorial Estate Museum
In 1709 the house withstood 20 assaults on Poltava by the army of the Swedish king Charles XII. Sixty years later, within these walls, the future founder of a new stage in the formation of the Ukrainian language was born, and here he died in 1838.
A bas-relief of the writer on the facade of the I. P. Kotliarevskyi Literary and Memorial Museum
The boy's father served in the Poltava Magistracy. Ivan Petrovych worked as a clerk and a teacher and took part in the Russo-Turkish war. The sculptural portrait of the writer was created by the artist Halyna Kalchenko.
The I. P. Kotliarevskyi Memorial Estate Museum. A bust of the writer
In 1845 Taras Shevchenko stayed as a guest in the house; he greatly valued Kotliarevskyi's work, his talent, his sensitivity and his nobility.
The Kobzar described Kotliarevskyi's home like this: "Imagine that he lives in a little house a hundred times worse than ours, simply a peasant hut." It was Taras Shevchenko's watercolour, the recollections of contemporaries and the archival data on the house's plan that served as the basis for its restoration.
The I. P. Kotliarevskyi estate in a drawing by Taras Shevchenko
After the writer's death the house changed owners many times; one of them, in 1881, substantially rebuilt the building.
The I. P. Kotliarevskyi estate. The storehouse
In 1969, by decision of UNESCO, the writer's 200th anniversary was widely celebrated all over the world. For this date, Ukrainian restorers had to work meticulously to recreate, with the greatest possible authenticity, the house, the yard and the interiors typical of the Poltava region of the 18th-19th centuries.
The I. P. Kotliarevskyi Memorial Estate Museum. The storehouse
The I. P. Kotliarevskyi Memorial Estate Museum. The shed
As recorded in the Rumyantsev Census of 1765, the Kotliarevskyi household had "two living chambers for the masters, two for the servants, one threshing barn, one shed". To this modest list the museum's founders added a sweep well.
Five rooms have been recreated in the house — the study, the sitting room, the drawing room, the housekeeper's room and the kitchen.
Of the writer's personal belongings, manuscripts, awards, a desk, a chest of drawers, a mirror and a painting have survived.
The other exhibits are objects of the gentry's everyday life of that time.
The cupboard holds books and journals in French, Latin and Russian.
In the kitchen are gathered ceramic tableware, embroidered rushnyky and household items.
At various times, well-known figures of culture and science visited Kotliarevskyi's house, among them T. H. Shevchenko, M. V. Gogol, Lesia Ukrainka, M. S. Shchepkin, Panas Myrnyi, M. L. Kropyvnytskyi and M. K. Zankovetska.
A memorial marker to the estate's guests
The estate museum is a branch of the I. P. Kotliarevskyi Literary and Memorial Museum, which is housed in an old mansion at 18 Pervomaiskyi Avenue.
Poltava. The I. P. Kotliarevskyi Literary and Memorial Museum
The museum is open every day except Monday, from 10:00 to 18:00. Admission is 20 hryvnias; photography and videography are chargeable.
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