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Useful Expedition

On October 2, 2020 employees of the restoration department of the Sholokhov Museum-Reserve made a research expedition to the ancient Cossack staitsa Elanskaya and the left-bank farms of Lebyazhensky, Bezborodovsky, Mokhovskoy, Gryaznovsky. 

The museum workers came to Elanskaya at the invitation of the spouses Soldatovs to see their house ownership. Ivan and Lyubov have a well-groomed house. Due to the efforts of its owners, the house still remains the decoration of the stanitsa. 

The house was built at the beginning of the 20th century. This is a typical Cossack kuren. Local building material, limestone, was used for laying the foundation, the walls of wooden plates are anointed and whitewashed, the roof is metal. Along the whole southern façade there is a veranda covered with profiled boards. The carved decorations add color to the kuren: carvings are made on the window frames, two porches are richly decorated with carved valances and balusters. The composition is complemented by curly funnels of drainpipes and a chimney head. 

A Russian stove with a subway stove has been preserved in the house, the furnishings of past years have been recreated with love and knowledge in the rooms. Antiques, simple utensils have been collected: a spinning wheel, an iron, dishes, etc. 

Ivan Soldatov is an expert on the history of the Cossacks and a very interesting storyteller. The museum employees were interested in a photo showing more than five hundred Cossacks on the steps of the Military Cathedral in Novocherkassk during the revolution or the Civil War. This is a copy of an old photo, which was carefully kept in a frame under glass by Tatyana Chizhova, a resident of the stanitsa Vyoshenskaya. In the photo, among the delegates of the Cossack "forum" there is her grandfather, our fellow countryman, Vasily Vaschaev. 

And the first to know about this photo there was none other than Ivan Soldatov. Alexey Kochetov has told about this photo in the newspaper "Tikhiy Don" in his article "To the Left of Kaledin". Here is a fragment from it: “- Here he is, - says Tatyana Chizhova, - in the photo to the left of Kaledin, or rather, to his left, a row below, the third from him in a row. Yes, he's circled here to make it easier to search. This is my grandfather, Vasily Vaschaev, he went through the whole First World War with dignity, and was elected a delegate to this Cossack Circle. After the revolution, he, as an elective, would have been unpleasant, and he was forced to leave for Turkey". 

Expeditionary field work on this day continued in three left-bank farms. Here, our guide was Peter Soldatov, brother of Ivan. In Lebyazhensky, a Cossack kuren was found in which during the years of collectivization Andrey Plotkin lived, the prototype of Semen Davydov from the novel by M. Sholokhov "Virgin Soil Upturned". 

An equally interesting and exciting excursion was given to us by Pyotr Soldatov in the Gryaznovsky farm, in his "touching" museum. Thanks to his efforts, the crumbling house turned into a real museum of Cossack life. He has gathered a large collection of antiques: dishes, furniture, tools. Among them there is a chest made in 1884 that belonged to Pimen Alyoshin, who served in the Life Guards Atamansky of His Imperial Highness the Heir to the Tsarevich regiment. This is a real rarity. Cossacks brought such chests with their "right" from service. The excursion lasted over two hours. 

During the expedition, by means of photographic recording and video filming, a large amount of material was collected on the study of the history, architecture and everyday culture of the Upper Don Cossacks. All this will be used in further research work of the department employees.

Natalia Shchebunyaeva
Vladimir Schebunyaev