by Daniel C. Waugh
Vyatka (once Khlynov, now Kirov, with a population approaching half a
million) has the misfortune of being known as a place of exile and the
archetypal provincial backwater of Russia. The historian Kostomarov
commented that there was "nothing in Russian History more obscure than the
fate of Vyatka and its lands." If we know of the town, 830 km NE by E
from Moscow and 330 km directly north of Kazan, it is from the literary
portraits by two of its most famous unwilling visitors, M.E.
Saltykov-Shchedrin and Alexander Herzen, both of whom served in the local
government there in the middle of the nineteenth century. Until very
recently, Western scholars would not have been able to visit Vyatka and
learn about it first-hand, since the city was closed on account of its
concentration of military-related industry.
My recent opportunity to make the acquaintance of what is in fact a culturally and historically fascinating region came in an invitation to participate in a conference on religion and culture in the Russian North, held on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the birth of St. Trifon, the founder of the major monastery in Vyatka. Getting there today in some ways seems no easier than it might have been in the nineteenth century. The scheduled planes do not fly, as one sometimes learns only when showing up at the airport at 6 AM in Moscow. The trains, on the other hand, run on schedule and are comfortable, even if the Moscow-Vyatka trip takes 14 hours.
Vyatka in late October may greet the visitor with rain, mist, even some snow and ice, but the warmth of the welcome makes one forget the weather. As one of five foreign visitors participating in a conference that expected more than 200 participants, I began to feel as though my reception rivaled that of the future Tsar Alexander II when he visited the city in the 1830s (and helped to arrange that poor Herzen be transferred to a more propitious place of exile, Vladimir). Within hours of arriving, we were whisked off to the service at the Monastery of St. Trifon, presided over by Archbishop Khrisanf. In short succession came the opening plenary session of the conference, where, with some trepidation, I found myself on the platform with all the local dignitaries, including none other than the Archbishop himself. At least that way my paper presentation was behind me quickly, and I could more readily enjoy the concert that evening by several of the wonderful church choirs. One of the striking impressions was the beauty of the choral music, which is experiencing a major revival along with the revived fortunes of the Orthodox Church. A few years ago, a conference on the church and religion, with the active participation of clergy as well as lay scholars, would have been unthinkable in Vyatka.
The revival of the fortunes of the Church can be seen in the ongoing restoration of the Monastery of St. Trifon. The cathedral church (1689), with its very interesting frescoes depicting the life of the saint, has been returned to its former glory, and the adjoining bell tower is being re-built. The archdiocese is again publishing its own newspaper, whose pre-1917 predecessor is one of the major sources of material for historians of the region. As in so many old Russian towns, the spires of churches dominated the skyline of old Vyatka; wholesale destruction of many of them in the 1930s has left a void in the architectural and broader cultural history of the city. Most of those which remain still await restoration. Yet the older center of town preserves much of the flavor of a nineteenth-century provincial center--many log houses remain, alongside interesting masonry residences and commercial buildings of that earlier era.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to nearby towns along the highway that in earlier times was the main road to Siberia. It crosses the Vyatka river, passing the village of Dymkovo, where the local craftsmen (actually most of them women) became famous for their painted clay figurines, now being produced in workshops located in the city. Beyond Dymkovo is the village of Makar'e, where the excellent acoustics of the cathedral church rendered the more ethereal the voice of the choir's soprano soloist during the Sunday service I attended.
Some 35 km. from Vyatka, is Slobodskoi, whose external appearance is little changed from its days as a significant, if small, commercial and industrial center. It was known for industries ranging from leather processing to bell casting and samovar manufacture. One of its citizens, Ksenfont Anfilatov, founded the first Russian private bank in 1809 and was the first Russian merchant to engage in trade with the United States carried in his own ships. The Slobodskoi museum, located in a former church on the central square, is a gem, providing in a small space an excellent overview of the history, life and arts of the region. Not the least of its surprises is a small art collection that includes paintings by the futurist artist Ol'ga Rozanova.
My visit to Slobodskoi and the nearby village of Karino, was greatly enhanced by my guides, Irina Trushkova and Elvira Kasimova, ethnographers who work in the regional museum in Vyatka. As part of their work, they travel to remote villages to record the folklore, collect costumes, and document the traditional culture which is gradually disappearing. Elvira is a Tatar, whose family comes from Karino, a still largely Tatar village that is somewhat isolated from the major areas of Tatar settlement to the south in Kirov oblast. Visiting her grandparents and great aunt and learning first-hand about the unique culture of Karino was a great privilege. In her work, Elvira has written about the history and culture of the Muslims in the region, relying in part on oral histories from her family. While much of traditional Islam can no longer be found (for example, Karino no longer has a mosque, although there are still Friday prayers, led by a mullah who moved there from Bashkiria), burial traditions have been maintained, and the sense of a distinct Muslim cultural identity is still evident. The revival of Islamic traditions and practice in Kazan may eventually have some impact even in isolated Karino.
My days after the conference were largely taken up with library and archival work. The regional history collection in the Herzen Library (Kirovskaia oblastnaia nauchnaia biblioteka imeni A. I. Gertsena) is one of the best anywhere in Russia and offers a scholar from outside a unique opportunity to accomplish much in a short period. In the United States, one has to search far through inter- library loan to come up with even a fraction of some of the old Vyatka publications, but in Vyatka itself, volumes from the full runs of the Eparkhial'nye vedomosti, Gubernskie vedomosti, and Trudy of the regional historical-archival commission appear on one's desk within minutes of the asking. The library also has two important rare book collections--one of old Slavic books, many of which were formerly in the regional church libraries, and one of rare foreign books, including the libraries of many individuals who were exiled to Vyatka beginning back as early as the time of Tsar Peter the Great. While indexes of many of the nineteenth-early twentieth century serials are available (in some cases, yet unpublished), the proper descriptive cataloguing of the rare books is still some ways from completion.
Other scholarly resources in the city include an excellent regional archive (Gosudarsvennyi arkhiv Kirovskoi oblasti), which is a rich source of information for almost any subject for the period from the eighteenth century to the present (there are some earlier materials, but they are fragmentary; the most important ones have been published). The archive allows the readers to search the unpublished opisi and does provide photocopying services. Additional material for the scholar can be found in the regional museum of history and culture (Kirovskii ob"edinennyi istoriko-arkhitekturnyi i literaturnyi muzei) , which has a wonderful collection of "material culture" (among other things, traditional costumes of the Slavs and the many non-Slavic peoples in the region), as well as a small but valuable collection of old imprints and manuscripts, many of which have been collected among the Old Believers.
My evenings were not idle, as I was hosted by the local artists' circle, attended a meeting of the local literary circle, visited two artists' studios, and attended a polished production of Moliere's Tartuffe in the main theater, which was packed with school children (presumably because the play was one of their assignments). When I went with other conference participants to a lecture/concert in the now restored early 20th-century Roman Catholic Church (many Poles were in exile in Vyatka), I had not expected to find there wonderful new German tracker organ which someone in the local government had the vision to purchase a few years ago. Bach's Toccata in D minor played on the kind of instrument for which it had been written was a real treat.
Vyatka has an interesting connection with the larger history of Russian art, through two of the local boys who made good, Viktor and Apollinarii Vasnetsov. They were instrumental in the founding of the local art museum, which was enriched in the Soviet period thanks to the fact that another former Vyatka resident was making decisions in Moscow concerning the distribution of "extra" paintings from the central museums in the late 1920s. The Vyatka museum, named for the Vasnetsovs, now has a fine new building, housing an excellent collection that ranges from icons down to modern works by local artists. Most of the famous Russian painters of the nineteenth and early 20th century are represented in the collection.
The art museum was fortunate to receive its new building before the Soviet economy collapsed. The visitor privileged to use the fine collections of the regional library and the history museum can only pray that those institutions will not have to wait long for the equivalent support they desperately need. The library no longer has an adequate acquisitions budget, it badly needs funding for the computer equipment to develop a modern system of record keeping and establish Internet connections, and its patrons have to wait in line to find space in the reading rooms. In the face of such problems, the response of the newly- elected regional administration has been to cut the budget, a move that will require laying off 20 librarians. The history museum is now the possessor of more than a dozen historic buildings that could provide wonderful opportunities for preservation and display of the collections. Yet there is no money for restoration, and the rare books, costumes and other artifacts are currently are stored where there is no guarantee they will not suffer from leaky roofs or be consumed by fire.
The rich cultural legacy of Vyatka deserves a better fate, and it certainly deserves to be better known by all those who are interested in the multicultural past and present of Russia.
A specialist on Russian History at the University of Washington, Daniel Waugh is now developing a new course on Central Asian history and culture. His interest in the mountains has taken him to the Caucasus and Central Asia. His trip to Vyatka was supported in part by the Keller Fund in the UW History Department.