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Vera Mukhina is a well-known sculptor of the Soviet era, whose work is still remembered today. She greatly influenced Russian culture. Her most famous work is the monument "Worker and Collective Farm Girl", she also became famous for the creation of a faceted glass.
Personal life
Vera Ignatievna Mukhina was born in 1889 in Riga. Her family belonged to a well-known merchant family. Father, Ignatius Mukhin, was a major merchant and patron of sciences and arts. The parental home of an outstanding artist can be seen today.
In 1891, at the age of two, the girl loses her mother - the woman dies of tuberculosis. The father begins to worry about his daughter and her health, so he transports her to Feodosia, where they live together until 1904 - this year her father dies. After that, Vera sister moved to Kursk to live with his relatives.
Already in childhood, Vera Mukhina begins to draw with enthusiasm and understands that art inspires her. She enters the gymnasium and graduates with honors. After Vera moves to Moscow. The girl gives all her time to her hobby: she becomes a student of such famous sculptors as Konstantin Fedorovich Yuon, Ivan Osipovich Dudin and Ilya Ivanovich Mashkov.
Since 1912, Vera has been actively studying painting, studying in France and Italy. Most of all she is interested in the direction of the Renaissance. The girl goes through such schools as the Colarossi studio, the Grand Chaumier Academy.
Vera returns home two years later, and Moscow does not welcome her at all: the First World War. The girl is not afraid of hard times, she quickly masters the profession of a nurse and works in a military hospital. It was at this tragic time in the life of Vera that a happy event occurs - she meets her future husband Alexei Zamkov, a military doctor. By the way, it was he who became for Bulgakov the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky in the story “ dog's heart". After that, the son Vsevolod will appear in the family, who will become a famous physicist.
In the future, until her death, Vera Ignatievna is engaged in sculpture and the disclosure of young talents. On October 6, 1953, Vera Mukhina died of angina pectoris, which is most often the result of hard physical work and great emotional stress. There were many first and second in the life of the sculptor. Takova short biography famous Soviet woman.
Creativity and work
At the same time, Mukhina Vera Ignatievna creates sketches of the following monuments:
- Vladimir Mikhailovich Zagorsky (revolutionary).
- Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov (political and statesman).
- Monument "Liberated Labor".
- Monument "Revolution".
In 1923, Vera Mukhina and Alexandra Alexandrovna Exter were invited to decorate the hall for the Izvestia newspaper at the Agricultural Exhibition. Women create a sensation with their work: they amaze the audience with their creativity and rich imagination.
Since 1926, the sculptor Vera Mukhina began to contribute not only to the development of art, but also to education, working as a teacher. The woman taught at the Art College and at the Higher Art and Technical Institute. Vera Mukhina gave impetus to the creative destiny of many Russian sculptors.
In 1927 the world famous sculpture"Peasant". After winning the first place at the exhibition dedicated to October, the monument's journey around the world begins: first, the sculpture goes to the Trieste Museum, and after the Second World War it “moves” to the Vatican.
Probably, we can say that at this time the flowering of the sculptor's creativity falls. Many people have a direct association: “Vera Mukhina -“ Worker and Collective Farm Girl ”- and this is not accidental. This is the most famous monument not only to Mukhina, but in principle in Russia. The French wrote that it is the greatest work of world sculpture of the 20th century.
In 1945, Vera Mukhina saved the Freedom Monument in Riga from demolition - her opinion was one of the decisive experts in the commission. In the post-war years, Vera is fond of creating portraits from clay and stone. She creates a whole gallery, which includes sculptures of the military, scientists, doctors, writers, ballerinas and composers. From 1947 until the end of her life, Vera Mukhina was a member of the presidium and an academician of the USSR Academy of Arts. Author: Ekaterina Lipatova
Exactly 60 years ago, the heart of the famous sculptor of the 20th century, the author of the main monument of the Soviet era - "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" stopped beating
The monument "Worker and Collective Farm Girl" by Vera Mukhina is on a par with Michelangelo's "David" and Rodin's "Thinker". The 24-meter sculpture was created for the world exhibition in Paris, held in 1937. A 75-ton work of art, disassembled into fragments, was delivered to the capital of France by railway 28 (!) wagons.
The success of the monument was triumphant. The French even wanted to buy it and keep it.
But the sculpture was returned to its homeland and installed in Moscow not far from the entrance to VDNH, where it is located to this day. And since 1947, "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" has become the emblem of the film studio "Mosfilm".
* Alexey Veselovsky: “Great-grandmother and great-grandfather met in the hospital, on the site of which there was later a maternity hospital, where my mother and I were born” (photo by the author)
The fate of Vera Mukhina is no less interesting than her work. Famous Soviet sculptor was born in Riga in the family of a wealthy merchant. When the girl was one and a half years old, her mother died of tuberculosis, and at the age of 14, Vera remained an orphan. The impetus for serious art was a facial injury she received at the age of 22 while sledding. And in 1930, Vera Ignatievna and her husband tried to escape from the USSR ...
All this "FACTS" was told by her great-grandson - typographer Alexei Veselovsky.
- Alexei, what in your house reminds you of the famous great-grandmother?
- The very house in which I live was built by Vera Ignatievna. She moved into him in 1947, but did not live long - six years: in 1953, Vera Ignatievna died. There are a lot of her things in the house. For example, the dishes that we have always used and still use.
The dacha in Abramtsevo, which my great-grandmother built before the war, in 1935, has also been preserved. In this house, she created sketches for the monument "Worker and Collective Farm Woman". We didn't rebuild anything. In the modern sense, this is not a fashionable house at all, but it is very expensive for a family. The furniture in it, created according to the sketches of Vera Ignatievna, is very concise and simple, but at the same time you will not see this anywhere else. This house has a special aura. For example, on the windowsill there is still a piece of melted rock crystal, which was touched by the hands of my great-grandmother.
- What was Vera Ignatievna according to the recollections of your loved ones?
- My mother, the granddaughter of Vera Ignatievna, was four years old when her great-grandmother died. Remained memories of her father - only son Vera Mukhina Vsevolod Zamkov. Who was Vera Mukhina? In public, she was quite strict, but at home she was very soft. She has been through many trials. At the age of one and a half years, my great-grandmother lost her mother, at the age of 14 - her father. 
But she did not have a tragic attitude. She was distinguished by her love of life, openness, sociability, and activity. Support meant a lot friendly family with a good income. Relatives took care of Vera.
* Vera Ignatievna, according to her great-grandson, was quite strict in public, and at home she was very soft
And when she was 22 years old, there was an accident. While sledding, she crashed into a tree and badly injured her nose. She was sent to Paris for plastic surgery. But they had to make several. Vera Ignatievna spent in Paris whole year. About secular life, which Vera Mukhina loved very much in her youth, the trauma forced her to forget. Interest switched to sculpture, she studied with the famous muralist Bourdelle. Later she visited Italy, where she met with world masterpieces of art. And in 1914 she returned to Moscow.
It was a difficult time - the First World War began. Vera Ignatievna decided to work as a nurse in a hospital, where she met her great love. The surgeon Alexei Zamkov, who became her husband, lay with typhus. Interestingly, my great-grandmother and great-grandfather met in the hospital, on the site of which later there was a maternity hospital, where my mother and I were born. Is it mystic? I think it's just a coincidence. I don’t know if my great-grandmother was a believer, but Christmas and Easter were and are celebrated in our house. Pies were always baked at Christmas, and Easter cakes at Easter.
- Is it true that in the 1920s the fame of your great-grandfather was much louder than the fame of Vera Mukhina?
- Yes it is. Vera Ignatievna at that time herself said that she was “second violin” in the family. Alexei Zamkov was a fashionable doctor in Moscow. And even, according to legend, he became the prototype of Professor Preobrazhensky in Bulgakov's story "Heart of a Dog". Among the patients of Alexei Andreevich was the Kremlin elite. He advised Ordzhonikidze, Gorky... While working at the Institute of Experimental Biology, my great-grandfather invented the drug "gravidan" based on the urine of pregnant women, which has a rejuvenating and mentally strengthening effect, increasing male potency. True, it was later discovered that "gravidan" can be addictive. Great-grandfather was accused of quackery and fired from the institute.
- In order to continue work on experimental medicine, he, together with Vera Mukhina, tried to escape from Soviet Union abroad?
- In 1930, they really decided to escape from the USSR, but in Kharkov they were taken off the train. Later it turned out that it was a planned provocation. An acquaintance suggested that his great-grandfather leave, promising to supply him with the necessary addresses abroad. In fact, this man turned out to be an agent of the NKVD. The family was sent into exile. Alexei Andreevich and Vera Ignatievna left for Voronezh and lived there for two years. Great-grandfather worked in the dispensary of the railway depot. But even there, the persecution continued. When they decided to fire Aleksey Andreevich, the workers of the depot held a meeting in his defense. According to one version, Alexei Zamkov and Vera Mukhina managed to return to Moscow thanks to the petition of Maxim Gorky. After all, Vera Mukhina already in 1927 was enough famous person received the Grand Prix at the Venice Biennale. Upon returning from exile, my great-grandfather was appointed scientific director of the Institute of Urogravid Therapy. Alexey Zamkov worked fruitfully for several years. And when the persecution of Nikolai Vavilov began, the institute was closed. Alexei Andreevich was broken and as a result fell seriously ill. He died in 1942 - his heart could not stand it. The great-grandmother had a hard time with the death of her husband, with whom she lived for 24 years and whom she loved very much.
- They say that your great-grandfather raised his son, who was doomed, to his feet.
- Yes. My grandfather Vsevolod had bone tuberculosis as a child. Doctors gave disappointing forecasts. And then Zamkov decided to perform an operation on his son himself. She passed successfully. Grandpa lived a long life.
— How was the Worker and Collective Farm Woman monument created?
— The idea belonged to the architect Boris Iofan. For its implementation, sculptors were selected on a competitive basis. The commission liked the variant of Vera Mukhina's plastic solution the most. Of course, creating a steel monument 24 meters high is not an easy task. And when he was already ready, suddenly someone noticed that in the outlines of the folds of the skirt of the collective farmer, it was as if one could guess ... the profile of Trotsky. 
They say that Voroshilov and Molotov came to inspect the statue at night by the light of searchlights. But nothing suspicious was found. Voroshilov and Molotov liked the monument very much. Well, then, as you know, there was a triumph in Paris.
*The monument "Worker and Collective Farm Girl" was installed in Moscow near the entrance to VDNKh
Was Vera Mukhina familiar with Stalin?
- As a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, she must have come across him in an official setting. But there were no personal meetings. When Vera Ignatievna had already become an honored master, the Stalinist retinue insisted that she make a sculptural portrait of the leader. But the great-grandmother did not burn with the desire to create it. Cunning, she explained that she likes to work only from nature. But Stalin did not have time to pose. I saw a note in the archives of the Academy of Arts, in which he wrote in blue pencil on an album sheet: they say, dear Vera Ignatievna, in response to your request to work, I can say that I am ready no earlier than in the spring. The letter is dated in the winter of 1951. However, as you know, nothing came of this. Apparently, neither she nor Stalin needed this. And both of them didn't have long to live.
- There are still disputes whether Vera Mukhina is the author of the faceted glass?
No, it's a legend. After the war, Vera Ignatievna became the artistic director of the Leningrad Experimental Art Glass Factory. She was interested in the plastic features of this material. She invented the famous “lotus” vase, “Kremlin” and “ruby” sets ... As for the faceted glass, about fifteen years ago, a journalist from one of the central newspapers let out a “duck” that it was invented by Mukhina and Malevich. Although the glass appeared 200 years before them! And Vera Ignatievna was not familiar with Malevich at all.
- Your famous great-grandmother received five Stalin Prizes. How did she manage them?
- She built a house-workshop in Moscow and a dacha near Moscow in Abramtsevo.
- What kind of person was Vera Mukhina in everyday life, how did she dress?
She had her own signature style. She loved to wear the so-called sculptural blouses and skirts - things are quite voluminous and very expressive. There was artistic thinking. Together with a fashion designer (who once dressed royal family) Nadezhda Lamanova, who was called Russian Chanel, they did exhibitions of Russian costume. By the way, Vera Ignatievna, coming from a merchant family, was a very practical person: she bought expensive things when they were sold cheaply. And it wasn't just clothes and jewelry. We also bought things for the house. My great-grandmother was a very down to earth person.
Did you manage to do everything around the house?
- After the marriage of the son, the mother of the daughter-in-law was mainly engaged in housekeeping, and, of course, there was a housekeeper. After all, the house was large, the table was often laid not only for family members, but also for those who worked with Vera Ignatievna in the workshop.
- Having become famous, did Vera Ignatievna travel a lot around the world?
- Not. Then they reluctantly let go. A significant trip to France was in 1937. When "Worker and Collective Farm Girl" was being edited, she spent several months in Paris. And after the war she visited Romania, Finland ...
- Vera Ignatievna died at the age of 64. What was the cause of death?
- Cardiac ischemia. Great-grandmother overstrained herself while working on the creation of a monument to Gorky. The commission did not want to accept this work, since the writer, in the interpretation of Vera Ignatievna, seemed to them too old and tragic. And since the opening of the monument was planned for the holiday - the next anniversary of the Great October Revolution, optimism was required. Usually, according to the technology of creating large monuments, a small model is first made, and then scaled by craftsmen under the author's supervision. In this case, due to the fact that the time was running out, it was necessary to redo Gorky's face on the erected monument.
Vera Ignatievna worked on the scaffolding. In order to evaluate each amendment made, it was necessary to go down, move a distance, look and again climb the scaffolding for work. The height was rather big - seven meters. And Vera Ignatievna at that time was already over sixty. After hard work, she fell ill and soon died. They buried her at Novodevichy cemetery next to her husband. The words of Alexei Zamkov are inscribed on the monument to the spouses: “I did everything I could for the people.” And below them are the words of Vera Mukhina: "Me too"...
Vera Mukhina was born on July 1, 1889 in Riga into a merchant family. As a child, she lived in Feodosia (1892-1904), where her father brought her after the death of her mother.
After moving to Moscow, Vera Mukhina studied at the private art studio of Konstantin Yuon and Ivan Dudin (1908-1911), worked in the sculptural workshop of Nina Sinitsina (1911). Then she moved to the studio of the painter Ilya Mashkov, one of the leaders of the group of innovative artists "Jack of Diamonds".
She continued her education in Paris in the private studio of F. Colarossi (1912-1914). She also attended the Grande Chaumire Academy (Acadmie de la Grande Chaumire), where she studied with the famous French muralist Emile-Antoine Bourdelle. At the same time, she attended an anatomy course at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1914 she made a trip to Italy, where she studied the art of the Renaissance.
In 1915-1917, during the First World War, she was a nurse in a hospital in Moscow. At the same time, since 1916, she worked as an assistant to the production designer Alexandra Exter at the Chamber Theater under the direction of Alexander Tairov.
After the October Revolution, the country adopted a plan for the so-called "monumental propaganda", under which sculptors received orders from the state for city monuments. Vera Mukhina in 1918 completed the project of the monument to Novikov - Russian public figure XVIII century, which was approved by the People's Commissariat of Education. However, the model made of clay, which was stored in an unheated workshop, cracked from the cold.
In 1919 she joined the "Monolith" association. In 1924 she became a member of the "4 Arts" association, and in 1926 - the Society of Russian Sculptors.
In 1923, she participated in the design of the pavilion of the Izvestia newspaper for the first All-Russian agricultural and handicraft exhibition in Moscow.
In 1926-27 she taught in the modeling class of the Art and Industrial College at the Toy Museum, from 1927 to 1930 - at the Higher Art and Technical Institute in Moscow.
By the end of the 1920s, easel sculptures "Julia", "Wind", "Peasant Woman" were created. In 1927, "Peasant Woman" at the exhibition dedicated to the 10th anniversary of October was awarded the first prize. In 1934, the sculpture was exhibited at the International Exhibition in Venice, after which it was bought by the Museum of Trieste (Italy). After World War II, it became the property of the Vatican Museum in Rome. The bronze casting of the sculpture was installed in the Tretyakov Gallery.
In 1937, at the World Exhibition in Paris, Vera Mukhina was awarded the Grand Prix gold medal for the composition "Worker and Collective Farm Girl". The sculpture crowned the Soviet pavilion, designed by the architect Boris Iofan. In 1939, the monument was erected in Moscow near the northern entrance to the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (now VDNKh). Since 1947, the sculpture has been the emblem of the Mosfilm film studio.
From 1938 to 1939, the artist worked on sculptures for the Moskvoretsky Bridge by architect Alexei Shchusev. However, the sketches remained unrealized. Only one of the compositions - "Bread" - was performed by the author in big size for the exhibition "Food Industry" in 1939.
In 1942 she was awarded the title of "Honored Artist of the RSFSR", in 1943 - People's Artist of the USSR.
In the years Patriotic War Mukhina created portraits of Colonel Khizhnyak, Colonel Yusupov, the sculpture "Partisan" (1942), as well as a number of sculptural portraits of civilians: Russian ballerina Galina Ulanova (1941), surgeon Nikolai Burdenko (1942-43), shipbuilder Alexei Krylov (1945).
Since 1947, Vera Mukhina has been a full member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, a member of the Presidium of the Academy.
Among famous works Vera Mukhina's sculptures "Revolution", "Julia", "Science" (installed near the building of Moscow State University), "Earth" and "Water" (in Luzhniki), monuments to the writer Maxim Gorky, composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky (installed near the Moscow Conservatory) and many others . The artist participated in the design of the Moscow metro station "Semenovskaya" (opened in 1944), was engaged in industrial graphics, clothing design, design work.
Vera Ignatievna Mukhina - winner of five Stalin Prizes (1941, 1943, 1946, 1951, 1952), awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, "Badge of Honor", "For Civil Merit".
The name of the sculptor was given to the Leningrad Higher School of Industrial Art. In Moscow, in the Novo-Peredelkino district, a street is named after her.
In era Mukhina, a student of the French sculptor Bourdelle, became famous thanks to the sculptural group "Worker and Collective Farm Girl". Against the backdrop of the everyday, illustrative understanding of realism that prevailed in the 1930s and 40s, the artist fought for the language of images and symbols in art. She was engaged not only in monumental projects, but also in applied art: she developed patterns for fabrics, sets and vases, and experimented a lot with glass. In the 1940s and 50s, Vera Mukhina won the Stalin Prize five times.
The successor of the "Riga Medici"
Vera Mukhina was born in Riga in 1889. Her grandfather Kuzma Mukhin made a multi-million dollar fortune by selling hemp, flax and bread. At his own expense, he built a gymnasium, a hospital, a real school and jokingly compared himself with Cosimo Medici, the founder of the famous Florentine dynasty of patrons. The son of Kuzma Mukhin, Ignatius, married for love the daughter of a pharmacist. The young wife died in 1891, when eldest daughter Masha was in her fifth year, and younger Faith was quite small. In 1904, the girls lost their father, and relatives from Kursk took the orphans into their home.
Three years later, the sisters moved to Moscow. Here Vera Mukhina began to study drawing and painting. It was the time of fashionable creative associations. Mukhina's first teacher was Konstantin Yuon, a member of the Union of Russian Artists.
Vera Mukhina. Photo: domochag.net
Vera Mukhina. Photo: vishegorod.ru
Vera Mukhina. Photo: russkiymir.ru
“Sometimes it was thought that he taught to combine the incompatible. On the one hand, a rational, almost arithmetic calculation of the elements of drawing and painting, on the other hand, the requirement of constant work of the imagination. Once a composition was given on the theme "Dream". Mukhina drew a janitor who fell asleep at the gate. Konstantin Fedorovich grimaced in displeasure: "There is no fantasy of sleep."
Art critic Olga Voronova
At some point, Vera Mukhina realized that she did not want to paint. In 1911, she first tried working with clay in the workshop of the sculptor Nina Sinitsyna. And almost immediately she got the idea to study sculpture in Paris - the artistic capital of the world. The guards didn't let me in. Then, in search of a new experience, Mukhina moved to the class of avant-garde artist Ilya Mashkov, one of the founders of the Jack of Diamonds association.
On the Christmas holidays of 1912, disaster struck. Riding down a hill on a sleigh in the estate near Smolensk, the young artist crashed into a tree. A branch cut off part of the nose. The bleeding girl was brought to the hospital - here she underwent nine plastic surgeries. “They live even worse,” Mukhina said, removing the bandages for the first time.
To distract her, relatives allowed a trip to Paris. Vera Mukhina settled in a boarding house and began to take lessons from Emile Antoine Bourdelle, the most famous sculptor of the era, a student of Rodin himself. From Bourdelle, she learned all the basics of the craft: “strongly grasp the form”, think about the object as a whole, but be able to highlight the necessary details.
Generalist artist
"Worker and Collective Farm Woman". Photo: voschod.ru
"Worker and Collective Farm Woman". Photo: mos.ru
"Worker and Collective Farm Woman". Photo: dreamtime.com
From Paris, Mukhina went to Italy with other young artists to study the art of the Renaissance. She stopped in Moscow, planning then to return to Paris, but the First World War broke out. The artist became a nurse in a hospital. In 1914, she met a young doctor, Alexei Zamkov, who was serving at the front. Soon fate brought them together again. Zamkov, dying of typhus, was brought to the hospital, Mukhina was leaving him. Soon the young people got married, their son Vsevolod was born.
In 1916, the artist began to collaborate with the Alexander Tairov Chamber Theater. First, she sculpted the sculptural parts of the scenery for the play "Famira-kifared", then she took up the modeling of stage costumes. In the 1920s, Vera Mukhina worked with Nadezhda Lamanova, a Russian fashion star who had previously dressed the royal family and now made outfits for Soviet women. In 1925, Lamanova and Mukhina published an album of models "Art in everyday life". In the same year they were invited to present canvas and linen dresses with wooden buttons at the World Exhibition in Paris, where the "peasant" collection received the Grand Prix.
How designer Mukhina designed the Soviet pavilions at the fur and book international exhibitions. But do not forget about the sculpture. In the 1920s, she created several well-known works: "The Flame of the Revolution", "Julia", "Wind". The "Peasant Woman" - a woman "made of black soil", "ingrown" with her feet into the ground, with male hands (Mukhina sculpted them from her husband's hands) received special delight. In 1934, the “Peasant Woman” was exhibited in Venice, after which it was sold to the Trieste Museum, and after the Second World War, the sculpture ended up in the Vatican. For the Tretyakov Gallery - the first place of storage of "Peasant Woman" - a copy was cast.
At the same time, Alexei Zamkov, Mukhina's husband, created the first industrial hormonal drug, Gravidan. The doctor appeared envious and opponents, persecution began. In the spring of 1930, Mukhina, Zamkov and their son were detained while trying to leave the Soviet Union. This fact was made public only in the 2000s, when a denunciation from Zamkov's former colleague fell into the hands of journalists. High-ranking patients and friends stood up for the doctor, among whom were Budyonny and Gorky. Zamkov "only" was sent to Voronezh for three years. Mukhina went into exile with her husband, although she was allowed to stay in the capital. The couple returned to Moscow ahead of schedule - in 1932.
"Don't be afraid to take risks in art"
In 1937, Vera Mukhina won a sculpture competition for a pavilion that was planned to be built at the World Exhibition in Paris. The original idea belonged to the architect Boris Iofan, who designed the Soviet pavilion:
“The Soviet Union is a state of workers and peasants, the coat of arms is based on this. The pavilion was supposed to be completed by a two-figure sculptural group: a worker and a peasant woman, crossing a sickle and a hammer - all my life I have been fascinated by the problem of the synthesis of architecture and sculpture.”
Mukhina proposed a solution in the ancient spirit: naked figures, looking up. The worker and collective farm woman were ordered to "dress". But the main ideas of the author - a lot of air between the figures to create lightness, and a fluttering scarf that emphasizes dynamism - remained unchanged. However, the approvals took a long time. As a result, the first steel plate statue in the USSR was created in emergency mode in just three weeks. Mukhina sculpted a reduced model in parts and immediately transferred it to the Institute of Mechanical Engineering (TsNIIMASH) for enlargement. Here fragments of the sculpture were carved from wood. Then the workers climbed inside the parts and tapped them, placing a sheet of metal only 0.5 millimeters thick. When the wooden "trough" was broken, a fragment of steel was obtained. After assembling the "Worker and Collective Farm Woman" they cut it up and, having loaded it into wagons, sent it to Paris. There, also in a hurry, the 24-meter statue was reassembled and placed on a 34-meter-high pedestal. The press vied with each other to publish pictures of the Soviet and German pavilions located opposite each other. Today, these photographs seem symbolic.
VDNH). The pedestal - "stump", as Mukhina called it - was made a little over 10 meters high. Because of this, the feeling of flying disappeared. Only in 2009, after the reconstruction, the Worker and Collective Farm Woman was installed on a specially erected pavilion, similar to Iofan's pavilion.
In 1942, Aleksey Zamkov died of a heart attack, who since the late 1930s was accused of quackery and unscientific methods of treatment. At the same time it was gone best friend Mukhina - Nadezhda Lamanova. Saved work and a new creative hobby - glass. Since 1940, the sculptor has collaborated with the experimental workshop at the mirror factory in Leningrad. According to her sketches and methods invented by her, the best glassblowers created vases, figurines and even sculptural portraits. Mukhina designed a half-liter beer mug for the Soviet public catering. The legend ascribes to her the authorship of the faceted glass created for the first dishwashers.
In 1941–1952, Mukhina won the Stalin Prize five times. One of her last works was a monument to Tchaikovsky in front of the Moscow Conservatory. It was installed after the death of the sculptor. Vera Mukhina died on October 6, 1953. After her death, Minister Vyacheslav Molotov was given a letter in which Mukhina asked:
"Do not forget art, it can give the people no less than cinema or literature. Do not be afraid to take risks in art: without continuous, often erroneous searches, we will not grow our new Soviet art.
Many intellectuals of his era could recognize themselves in Bulgakov's characters. But in the life of one of the artists of that time, "Bulgakovism" reaches an unprecedented concentration: friendship with the mighty of the world this, a grand opening, glory, persecution, an attempt to escape ... And somewhere at the end - peace, a piece of land in a quiet city. The name of the artist is Vera Mukhina, and the author of the discovery was her husband Dr. Alexei Zamkov.
Run
At first glance, this story looked like the truth. In any biography of Mukhina, it was said that her grandfather made a large fortune on the trade in flax, hemp and bread. In Riga, he owned the Kuzma Mukhin trading company, dozens of warehouses and a large part of Gostiny Dvor. He also had other large real estate - several estates, houses in Roslavl and Riga. His sons also turned a lot of money - they had factories, tenement houses. After the revolution, the descendants of Kuzma Mukhin continued to live in independent bourgeois Latvia. The factories that belonged to them worked and made a profit. BUT elder sister Mukhina left Russia forever in the early 1920s and lived in Hungary. So Mukhina had where and why to run.
On the other hand, in the 1920s, Mukhina was one of the most prominent members of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia. She created sketches of monuments to the Russian educator Nikolai Novikov and Zagorsky, secretary of the Moscow Party Committee, dedicated the sculpture Flame of Revolution to Yakov Sverdlov. Mukhina participated in the competition for a monument to "Liberated Labor", and by the tenth anniversary of October, Mukhina created "Peasant Woman", which made her a very famous sculptor. So there seemed to be no point in looking for good from good.
However, the most mysterious thing seemed to be that in the criminal case of the scientist there was no evidence of verification of information about the escape. Why was Lubyanka not interested in this story?
Diaboliad
It was not without difficulty that it was possible to find out that the case on the charges of Zamkov A.A. and Mukhina V.I. really exists, but access to it is closed by order of their son Vsevolod Zamkov. He also closed access to the parents' fund in one of the Moscow archives. I could not persuade him to change his anger to mercy. It remained to collect information bit by bit.
Mukhina's biographies mentioned that her husband worked at the Institute of Experimental Biology (IEB) of the People's Commissariat of Health. In the 1920s, the IEB, led by the outstanding biologist Professor Nikolai Konstantinovich Koltsov, was a real oasis for those who could not or did not want to reckon with the general line of the party. Among several dozen of his employees there was not a single member of the CPSU (b). Accordingly, the institute lacked not only a party organization, but even a trade union organization.
It all ended in the middle of 1929. As a result of regular purges, quite a few old Bolsheviks found themselves without leadership positions in the party. And some of them, remembering that in their youth they were considered students, moved into big science. The situation in the IEB has changed as if by magic. Judging by the minutes of the general meetings of the Institute, since then the topics of research have been discussed and approved with the participation of all employees, including stokers and janitors. Moreover, these events lasted for six or eight, and sometimes for ten hours. And then the representatives of the party at the institute began to eradicate social inequality. Professors were forced to give up part-time jobs, and Dr. Zamkov was forced to give up a very profitable private medical practice, as colleagues believed. They began to squeeze him out of the institute, discussed it several times at meetings. And on May 18, 1930, he wrote a letter of resignation.
The last paper in his case was a request from the Voronezh polyclinic named after the 10th anniversary of October with a request to send the work list of Dr. Zamkov A.A. dated December 13, 1930. There was not a word about the escape in the personal file. However, in the papers of the institute there was a mention of a certain petition of Professor Koltsov to the GPU.
doctor's note
I did not look for a petition in the FSB archive - a smart one will not go uphill. The right thought helped: usually copies of such letters were sent to the first persons of the country. According to the file of "complainants", the petition was found in a matter of days. More precisely - "Review of the work of Dr. A. A. Zamkov at the Institute of Experimental Biology of the NKZ in 1929-1930." Here is what Professor Koltsov wrote.
"In 1929, the German scientists Anheim and Sondek published a work in which they proved the presence in the urine of pregnant women of a substance (hormone) that, when injected under the skin of a mouse, can cause maturation of the genital organs in 4 days. They proposed using this method ... for accurate determination of pregnancy in women ...
When, in 1929, I suggested to Dr. Zamkow that he check the work of Anheim and Sondek, he quickly mastered the technique of exposing young mice to urine and immediately determined the pregnancy of women by this method. The urine of the patients was sent from clinics and hospitals to the IEB, and Dr. Zamkov, based on experiments with mice, diagnosed the presence or absence of pregnancy in 4 days. In almost all cases, without exception, the diagnosis was subsequently justified ...
The institute was able to put this diagnosis on a large scale only thanks to the kind assistance of A. M. Peshkov (Maxim Gorky), who treated the works of A. A. Zamkov with great interest. Thanks to A. M. Peshkov and M. F. Andreeva, a large number of white mice needed for diagnosis were quickly obtained from abroad.
In view of the clear action of the hormones of the urine of pregnant women on the reproductive organs of rodents, it was a natural transition for the physician to use this urine as a therapeutic agent in patients suffering from underactive gonads. But unlike the German researchers, A. A. Zamkov did not try to extract the hormone from the urine with alcohol and other reagents and decided to inject pregnant urine directly under the skin of patients, of course, sterile. This is the invention of Zamkov himself... We gave the drug the name "gravidan"...
The use of gravidan gives particularly striking results ... in mental disorders ... A brilliant example of such a healing effect of gravidan was observed a few months ago by the wife of an IEB employee, prof. Skladovsky. The patient after the operation, which entailed the cessation of menstruation, showed symptoms of violent insanity. Psychiatrists (Prof. Gannushkin) diagnosed her with an incurable mental illness... Prof. Skladovsky ... in a difficult moment for himself, he remembered gravidan, took out sterile urine of pregnant women and after three injections he achieved a complete "sudden" cure for the patient ...
Among scientists and doctors, envy of other people's successes often causes intrigues and squabbles. A real persecution arose against A. A. Zamkov ... The persecution ... affected him so strongly that it prompted him to a crazy attempt to go abroad without permission. But the insignificance of the punishment for such a serious crime - deportation to Voronezh - shows that the GPU took into account the presence of passion under the influence of unjust persecution.
With the departure of A. A. Zamkov, work on the preparation of gravidan at the IEB almost ceased ... In view of the great interest that is the possibility of the therapeutic use of gravidan and the diagnosis of pregnancy by urinalysis, I would consider it highly desirable to provide Dr. Zamkov with the opportunity to continue his research in the correct clinical setting...
Fatal eggs
Under the pressure of facts, Dr. Zamkov's son, Vsevolod Alekseevich, became a little more talkative. He confirmed that an escape attempt in May 1930 had taken place. Mukhina and her husband were going to cross the southern border of Azerbaijan to Iran, and then decide where to go - to Latvia, Hungary or Algeria, where Zamkov's teacher Dr. Aleksinsky lived. The decision to escape was made under the influence of a certain patient Zamkov, who turned out to be an agent provocateur of the OGPU. Mukhina, her husband and son were arrested on their way to the station.
Vsevolod Zamkov also said that Gorky played a significant role in the return of his parents from exile. But the main intercessors for Zamkov were his long-term patients - the head of the OGPU operations department, Karl Pauker, and the head of the Red Army intelligence, Yan Berzin. Zamkov Jr. believes that they needed his father as a brilliant diagnostician. But no less, apparently, the leading comrades needed a gravidan. Here is what Dr. Zamkov wrote in one of his reports:
"An emaciated 20-year-old stallion, who could hardly stand on his feet due to weakness and no longer took food, was injected 10 times with 50 cm 3 of gravidan. After the injections, the stallion began to eat, his diarrhea disappeared, muscle strength appeared. They began to work on him again - to harrow, plow and harness for riding. The stallion showed a vivid sexual desire. The feeling of attachment to one mare became so great that at her invocative call he rushed to her with all his might, even being in a harness, through all obstacles - canals, fences The stallion gave birth."
Viagra of that time was wildly popular. Demands to send gravidan went to all instances. Gorky's secretary, Kryuchkov, on whose opinion the return of Mukhina and Zamkov depended, now servilely asked the doctor to allocate a miraculous drug to this or that old Bolshevik. The "petrel of the revolution" himself also used Zamkov's services.
The wave of her husband's popularity raised Mukhina to the top of Soviet art. Gorky, in fact the Soviet Minister of Literature, whose audiences the most famous writers, scientists and artists have been waiting for many months, receives Mukhina along with other prominent sculptors at the first request. After this meeting, in July 1933, he wrote a letter to the Central Committee, Molotov, and petitioned for help to sculptors - to transfer closed churches to workshops, and to allocate huge scholarships to young sculptors. And he also conveys to Molotov the request of the sculptors to provide them with materials: "It would be possible to offer them the marble of monuments in the cemeteries of Moscow." In 1934, Mukhina received an order for the sculptural decoration of the Moskva Hotel under construction (although later Stalin approved the project without these excesses).
And Zamkov's affairs went uphill. By decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in May 1932, under the leadership of Zamkov, a research laboratory for gravidanotherapy began to work. In several Moscow hospitals, "gravidan points" are being created, where patients are treated with this drug. At first, the results exceed all expectations. For example, Professor Strelchuk, head physician of a neuropsychiatric hospital for acute alcoholism, informs Zamkov about the results of treatment of 11 drug addicts and 23 alcoholics: "None of the discharged patients have yet relapsed after treatment with gravidan." According to Zamkov's reports, "gravidan points" have opened in 250 hospitals in all parts of the country. In 1933, his laboratory was renamed into an institute. And two years later, he appears at the congress of Soviet endocrinologists, almost as the main speaker.
And here Zamkov began to feel dizzy from success. In the five-year plan of his institute, he makes a commitment to cure almost everything: epilepsy, schizophrenia, asthma, heart defects, typhus, syphilis, tuberculosis, stomach ulcers, cancer, etc., etc. However, gravidan failed his creator. Or perhaps high-ranking users simply have an addictive effect. Vsevolod Zamkov, however, believes that new wave persecution began because the father treated Gorky too well. Be that as it may, in 1938 the Institute of Gravidanotherapy was closed.
In principle, the history of this family should have ended at the same time - they simply had to be repressed, as they had previously been convicted of a counter-revolutionary crime. But Mukhina and her family, at Gorky's long-standing request, were taken under their wing by the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Vyacheslav Molotov. Not without the participation of the latter, in 1937, Vera Ignatievna was allowed to participate in the competition for decorating the Soviet pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris. Her project - the monument "Worker and Collective Farm Girl" - was recognized as the best.
Mukhina was not only released to Paris to mount the statue, she was released from the USSR along with her son. This was highest sign trust. Moreover, she was allowed to visit Latvia. As Vsevolod Zamkov said, the deadline for accepting the grandfather's inheritance was approaching, and Mukhina was recommended to abandon it.
Zoya's apartment
In Riga, Mukhina vociferously renounced her inheritance and returned to Moscow, where her husband continued to have troubles that ended in a heart attack. Back to active research work he could not (at the beginning of the war, Zamkov worked for free at the Sklifosovsky Institute). But in 1942 he was overtaken by another heart attack. A young female doctor who came on a call, not knowing the patient's name, recommended rest and, most importantly, "no nonsense like Zamkov's drugs." The founder shouted: "Out!" — and died.
His wife survived him by eleven years. She worked a lot and was considered the main official sculptor of the country. She received the Stalin Prize five times, she was not bypassed by other awards. Shortly before her death, she wrote a letter to Molotov, which she bequeathed to be sent after her death. On October 6, 1953, her son complied with her request.
"Dear Vyacheslav Mikhailovich,
You will receive this letter when I am no longer alive... My last requests for art.
1. Do not forget the fine arts, it can give the people no less than cinema or literature. Do not be afraid to take risks in art: without continuous, often erroneous searches, we will not grow our new Soviet art.
2. Clean out the apparatus of the arts administration - many of its leaders, instead of helping artists, drive them to death; sometimes they take bribes.
3. Stage my Tchaikovsky in Moscow... I guarantee you that this work of mine is worthy of Moscow, believe me, because in all my life I have never failed the trust of the party and government...
5. Give the order to cast in bronze the small things that remain after me; the main thing is to order the bronze to be released for this.
My last request: the studio apartment in which I lived, still, due to legal formalities, does not belong to either the Ministry of Culture, or the Moscow City Council, or me. I beg you to make it so that it remains with my guys ...
And in death, as in life, always yours,
V. Mukhina".
Already on October 8, Molotov sent copies of Mukhina's letter to members of the Presidium of the Central Committee with a proposal to discuss the note at the secretariat of the Central Committee. Tchaikovsky was installed, the apartment was left. It was not possible to clean the control apparatus.
Molotov never found out that Mukhina had deceived him. In 1937, she did not sign a single paper renouncing the inheritance. And after the return of independence to Latvia, her son sued the property now due to him. True, he received only one of the six hectares in the center of Riga. But this is quite enough for a comfortable old age.
EVGENY ZHIRNOV
With the assistance of the VAGRIUS publishing house, "Vlast" presents a series of historical materials under the heading ARCHIVE
