Description of the attraction
Museum of Local Lore named after S. N. Porshnyakov, located in the town of Borovichi, is one of the oldest museums in the Novgorod region. In May 1918, it was decided to organize it during the work of the Board of the district department of public education. The museum was established in 1919. At that moment, the main part of the collection was represented by the collection of the real school museum in Borovichi. Initially, the museum was called the "Borovichi Museum of Proletarian Art, Industry and Science named after Comrade Reppo."
The exposition of the museum was opened in 1921. The basis for its creation was the collection of the Gogol and Zhukovsky Museum, which was organized in 1910. The museum exposition literally reproduced the gradually disappearing noble life, presenting books, furniture, painting, as well as various local industries: woodworking, leather, knitwear, ceramic; the department of nature was also presented in the exposition.
In the period from 1927 to 1952 the director of the museum was S. N. Porshnyakov. - the grandson of a privy councilor from St. Petersburg, the son of a famous professor of medicine. In 1929 Porshnyakov became the author of the first local history exposition. During the Great Patriotic War, a small part of the museum funds were transported to the Kirov region. The museum exposition was recreated at the end of 1942. Since 1975, the museum has become a branch of the Novgorod State United Museum-Reserve. In 1989, the opening of the second exposition took place, the authors of which were L. V. Podobed, G. A. Alexandrova and M. N. Petri. In addition, in the same year the museum received the name of S. N. Porshnyakov.
During the 1990s, new items and stands were added to the museum exposition, in which the theme of the history of the camp №270 for internees and prisoners of war during 1942-1951 was consecrated. Here you can find documents and photographs of the camp departments during the 1940-1950s, layouts of burials for prisoners of war, as well as acts on the closure of the camp departments. All documents available at the exposition, or rather their copies, were taken from the State Archives in the Novgorod Region. In addition, there were exhibited photographs dedicated to the opening in 1993 of a memorial complex in the small village of Egla. The permanent exhibition also contains documentary sources telling about the process of collectivization, as well as about the persecution of the church in the period 1920-1930s. To date, all materials are stored in museum funds.
In the first years of its existence, the local history museum occupied a variety of premises. For example, after its next opening in 1928, the museum received a permanent premises for its needs, located on October Revolution Street. In the period from 1973 to 1978, the building for the museum was rebuilt in its original place. Another building was given to the museum in 1984, located on Dzerzhinsky Street, where the museum's exhibition halls are located. After the reconstruction was completed, the main museum exposition was also located here. In the former building, immediately after the renovation, it was planned to make an art gallery, as well as exhibition halls. Since 2004, the head of the museum is Stolbova I. A.
At the present time, namely since 2010, the Borovichi Museum of Local Lore named after S. N. Porshnyakova is located and conducts its cultural activities in a new building on Dzerzhinsky Street. Today the museum has an exposition that tells in detail about the historical development of the region, which lasted until 1917. Today, museum staff are planning to create a new exhibition that tells about the historical development of the Soviet period. In 2011, the museum fund amounted to more than 20850 items.
During 2010-2011, the local history museum took an active part in various international conferences. In addition, the museum has developed a methodological plan for conducting local history and history lessons in several schools remote from the city of Borovichi.
