Save and preserve: how museum exhibits were evacuated in the Kursk region
During the Ukrainian invasion of the Kursk region, the unique museum collections that had been forming for decades were under threat. The emergency evacuation and rescue of the exhibits fell on the shoulders of volunteers, restorers and cultural workers, who often operated under conditions of lack of time and resources. Some of the items were saved, but some of the losses were irreversible. The information about what was lost and what work needs to be done to restore the heritage is in the Izvestia article.
The calm before the storm
In the spring of 2024, a few months before the invasion, the Ministry of Culture of the Kursk region ordered the removal of the maximum number of museum exhibits from the border area to safety. The move was not spontaneous — according to the minister, the decision to prepare for the evacuation of the funds of the regional museum and its border branches was made at the end of 2022, the Minister of Culture of the Kursk region Alexey Konorev told Izvestia.
Until the spring of 2023, lists of the most valuable items were formed, packaging materials were purchased, and wooden boxes were made for particularly fragile and valuable items, so that exhibits of value and federal property — weapons, precious metals, and awards — would later be safe.
Archives, books, paintings, sculptures, and furniture items — museum items of the main fund included in the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation — were evacuated in June 2024.
Carried out on hand
Many employees of the regional and border museums of Sudzha, Rylsk, Lgov took part in the evacuation of museum objects, Alexey Konorev said. He stressed that in difficult conditions it was necessary to act quickly and using improvised means.
Denis Soldatov, Chief of Staff of the All-Russian Student Rescue Corps of Kursk, told Izvestia about how it happened.
— To ensure the safety of the sculptures, we used everything that was in the museum: carpets, blankets, blankets. We tried to keep everything intact and bring the exhibits to a new place so that they could continue their story," said Soldatov.
Volunteers from the Kursk branch of the Popular Front, with the participation of the All-Russian Student Rescue Corps and the military, helped remove heavy sculptures and furniture from the estate of the Baryatinsky princes, and customs officers packed and loaded cultural treasures in the Rila Museum of Local Lore.
— The team work was well-coordinated and efficient. All participants carried objects carefully and carefully. The museum director said, "Treat them like your girlfriend, gently and affectionately." In some cases, we had to quickly figure out how to lift or carry the sculpture through the doorway. We even thought about calling our colleagues for help and asking them to bring rescue lines or ropes, but in the end we managed on our own quite quickly," Denis Soldatov said.
When he first entered the museum building, knowing that his task was to save these unique objects from possible destruction, he wanted to act as quickly as possible.
— When we brought all the objects to the Kursk Museum, we were very relieved. We knew that the memory of the past remained, and now it will please people. This story that happened to us became another one in the piggy bank of values, making them even more expensive and meaningful," he recalls.
With excitement, all the staff of the regional museum were experiencing the moment when the marble sculptures from the collection of the Baryatinsky princes were moved from Rylsk. The transportation of objects from the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation was handled by the team of the Popular Front youth team and volunteers of the All-Russian Student Rescue Corps.
— Many people put their hands up to take out and take out very heavy sculptures to a safe place. And with a sense of dignity and complete reassurance, they said: "We did it! Our wealth has been saved!" One of the student volunteers said: "I'm proud that I took part in this. There will be something to tell your children later," Alexey Konorev shared.
The removal to a safe place from the Rila Museum of Local Lore of cultural values — sculptures, paintings, books, documentary fund — was carried out at the end of February 2025. The objects were part of the collection of the Baryatinsky princes at their family estate in Marino, but today they are the cultural heritage of Russia.
According to Sergey Shumakov, the head of the Popular Front in the Kursk region, paintings, icons and archival documents, as well as sculptures "Venus's Morning Toilet", "Garden Figure of a Girl" and "Venus Squatting" made of Italian marble, which were damaged during the Great Patriotic War, were saved from shelling and incessant attempts by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to attack border areas. wars. They have yet to be restored.
— It's hard to describe the feelings that I'm sure each of the guys had at that moment. This is the highest responsibility, at the same time, the pride that you are involved in saving them in difficult times, it is the need to mobilize all internal and physical forces in order to work without failures. And all this is accompanied by the potential danger of enemy raids at any moment," Sergei Shumakov shared with Izvestia.
According to Shumakov, they have already become accustomed to the difficult tasks performed by the humanitarian staff. Volunteer volunteers go out to clean up the territory after enemy attacks, take part in the aftermath of various emergencies, so they know the feeling of possible danger, and they know perfectly well how to act in a given situation.
For his team and himself, the most memorable moment was the evacuation of the "Morning Toilet of Venus", a sculpture made in height and weighing about 3 tons. Wearing body armor and armored helmets, the team got down to business under fire.
— She had to be lifted up, carefully loaded into the car, fixed so that she would not be damaged on the way, and taken out of the car at the place of arrival and taken indoors. Carrying a 300-kilogram Venus in your arms, which has already survived the road from Italy to Russia in the early 19th century, the revolution, the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War, is unforgettable," Sergei Shumakov emphasized.
The "Morning toilet of Venus" was carried by eight people, because the cables could not stand it — they picked it up, went to the doorway and realized that they would not pass through it together, and if they let go, the work of art would suffer. It took almost a quarter of an hour to get through one door. In the car, the sculpture of Venus was lined with other exhibits — paintings, books — so that it would not move along the road. The same applied to other sculptures wrapped in blankets, museum carpets and tied with ribbons for fixation.
— Everything that was taken out of the Rila Museum that day is part of the history of Russia. Now the phrase "To save cultural heritage" is taken literally by the Popular Front in the Kursk region.: save it from destruction so that it can be passed on to the next generations. Now the museum fund is safe, and in this story with its priceless exhibits, this is the most important thing," Shumakov added.
Scar restoration
Today, museum items from the border branch museums are housed in the exhibition halls and storages of the Kursk Regional Museum of Local Lore.
— According to the Uniform Rules for the organization of acquisition, accounting, storage and use of museum objects and museum collections, all relocated museum objects are issued for temporary storage according to the acts of the established pattern. Work on the registration of museum objects in the State Catalog of the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation has not stopped," said Alexey Konorev.
He stressed that the branch museums from the border region were able to complete this work, despite great difficulties, and all the relocated museum items were examined by specialists from the regional museum.
Several paintings were sent to GosNIIR for restoration, which was paid for by the A.S. State Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin.
According to Konorev, several items are being prepared to be sent for restoration in 2026 to the workshops of the International Restoration Center in the Leningrad Region. The restorers of the Russian Museum and the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art did not stand aside either.
— Paintings by the artist Pyotr Konstantinovich Likhin are being restored in the workshop of the Kursk Art Gallery named after Deineka, — said Konorev.
Saved from the fire
In 2025, the A. Deineka Restoration workshop received about 30 paintings by Pyotr Konstantinovich Likhin. Four works have already completed restoration and are presented at an exhibition dedicated to the artist, which is being held at the Kursk Museum of Local Lore. The rest are in the works. Mikhail Denisov, a restorer who was directly involved in the restoration of the paintings, told Izvestia about this.
According to him, the paintings were transferred from the Sudzha Museum to the Kursk Museum of Local Lore, where they were previously on permanent display. That is why their overall condition can be assessed as average — without critical damage, but with accumulated problems over the decades. The transfer of the collection to the main museum was the reason for a comprehensive inspection and passage of all works through the restoration workshop in order to improve their exhibition appearance.
— Since they were here in Kursk, it was decided to conduct an inspection and pass everything through the restoration workshop to improve the exhibition appearance. Some of the works have never been restored and were exhibited in old frames," said Denisov.
According to him, an individual restoration technique is being developed for each work, since the paintings vary in size, technique and the expected conditions for further exposure. The final decisions are made by the expanded restoration council of the museum with the participation of specialists from the Kursk Art Gallery named after A. Deineka.
The order of restoration, as Mikhail Denisov explains, is determined primarily by the condition of the works.
— Usually, the least successful works get to restoration, where the process of destruction is progressing, where emergency conservation measures are required. Such works are identified during scheduled restoration inspections. However, it happens that there are no threats of destruction, the condition of the paintings is stable. In this case, the decision is made based on the wishes of the expositioners and curators of the planned exhibitions," Mikhail Denisov said.
Answering the question about the significance of his work, the restorer emphasizes that professional museum restoration is initially aimed at resisting destruction. In this sense, each restoration process becomes an act of preserving cultural heritage, historical memory and the common cultural code, going far beyond the purely technical task.
Losses and hopes of frontier museums
Not all items from the collections of the Suji and Glushkovo museums were removed. Alexey Konorev said that as a result of the invasion of the military formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, part of the collection of Sudzhansky costumes, carpets, several paintings by Pyotr Konstantinovich Likhin, objects of peasant life and files of local newspapers were lost. The buildings of three branch museums were completely destroyed.
This is by no means a complete list — neither the figure nor the damage caused to the museums of the Kursk region can be named yet. There is no way to leave for Sudzha, Glushkovo, or Korenevo. The rest of the collections survived thanks to the efforts of volunteers and staff of the regional museum and affiliated museums, who disregarded time, fatigue, and danger.
— Everyone promptly fulfilled their task of "Save and preserve!". We had to preserve for future generations what we inherited from our fathers and grandfathers," said Konorev.
While retreating from Sudzha, Ukrainian militants launched a rocket attack on the building of the Sudzha Museum of Local Lore, a monument of the 19th century. The caretaker of the museum, Alla Andreeva, who until recently preserved priceless archaeological artifacts, evidence of the early Slavic civilization of the VI–VII centuries, was killed by volleys and shell explosions.
Sudzha, Glushkovo and the entire Kursk border region will come back to life, as well as the museums that will be restored, said Alexey Konorev, the regional governor. He explained that antique websites are being studied, the population is being interviewed about the availability of privately owned items of value for completing museum collections.
Alexander Khinshtein, Governor of the Kursk Region, said that many caring people responded to the disaster, raising funds for the restoration of World War II memorials, architectural monuments and museums. Believers also joined in helping to rebuild the destroyed churches. Because without saving the past, there is no salvation in the present.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
