[club1543502|My Hometown: Stolyarny Pereyulok on Moskaliovka].9 photos

Stоляrny Perewolk is my home. It’s a very small alley—only 20 houses in total—located in the Moskalevka district, between Mariinskaya Street and Primakov Street, parallel to Octobrskaya Revolutsiya Street. It has never been renamed. Around 1950, some of the houses had their own names, usually named after the owners or residents. For example, in “House No. 6,” a cobbler lived; his “golden hands” were inherited by his grandson. In “House No. 8,” the veterinarian Mikhail Moskin practiced his medicine—his wife, whose surname was Neelenko, had relatives who used to make bombs in a house on Mariinskaya Street [1]. “House No. 9” was called “House of the Matrons”; “House No. 15” was either “House of the Borodins” or “House of the Shmatykos”; “House No. 17” belonged to the Raevskys. The other houses had apartments with separate entrances, usually from the backyard—they were what were called communal housing units. On May 29, 1914, my grandmother, M.S. Raevskaya (née Syromyatnikova), bought House No. 17 along with a large piece of land—the largest plot in the entire alley. According to V.N. Raevsky’s “Autobiography” [2]: “In 1914, we moved into our own house in a quiet alley near the city center and the university. The traditional atmosphere of the village of Andrianovka, which we visited every summer, had a strong influence on our family life. Although my grandparents had passed away, life had changed greatly, but both there in the village and here in Stоляrny Perewolk, I felt a connection to the past—not only to the previous generation but also to other distant eras. I sensed that there was something common that linked me, a person of the 20th century, with my ancient ancestors, and that this connection was reflected, albeit incompletely, in the family traditions and local customs that we cherished so much.” The reason my grandfather chose this particular location for our home was that he was a city doctor at that time and also practiced at the 4th Men’s Gymnasium on Mariinskaya Street [1]. Therefore, the additional room in the house was designed so that patients could enter the clinic directly from the entrance hall. My grandfather never refused to help anyone and often advised people to drink milk from his own cow in the morning and evening. As I mentioned earlier, the house had a large yard that was well separated from the street; one could only enter it from inside the house. There were a flower garden, a fruit tree orchard, and a swing in the yard. After my grandparents passed away in 1935, the house was renovated, and the entrance door was moved to a different location. During the war, the fruit trees were destroyed, and the porch was converted into a barn. In the 1950s, the yard became a passageway, and the flower garden and swing disappeared; the house also acquired some unsightly additions. House No. 15 on Stоляrny Perewolk is said to have been the residence of the prototype of Chekhov’s character Vanka Zhukov—Gavriil Alekseevich Kharchenko—and it is even claimed that Chekhov himself visited this house [3]. However, another theory suggests that Chekhov actually visited House No. 10 rather than No. 15. I cannot confirm either of these claims, as my elders never mentioned it. But looking at these two houses today and imagining how they might have looked 100 years ago, I would lean towards believing that House No. 15 is the correct one. I still remember it as having windows and a main entrance leading to a porch (I added those details in the photo I included). It was such a lovely, cozy home—precisely what one might imagine as “their own house.” In Chekhov’s will, he listed Kharchenko’s address as “Moskalevka, s.dom” [4]. In the late 1980s, the last residents left this house. They told us that in the 1940s, when they first moved there, there was a photo of “V. Zhukov’s” daughter on the wall left by the previous inhabitants. She lived on Kontorskaya Street at that time. Many people consider House No. 11 on Stоляrny Perewolk to be the best-maintained house in the entire alley. It has barely changed over the years—only new gates and a new roof have been added. This house belonged to nuns who were devotees of a female monastery. They engaged in handicrafts such as embroidery and quilt making, and also baked prosphoras for all the churches in Kharkov. In House No. 9, the nuns occupied the first floor and had a room with a large oven used for baking prosphoras. These houses shared a common yard, and during holidays, especially before Easter, cars would arrive early in the morning, and large woven baskets covered with white towels would be carried out of the house; the whole house would be filled with the fragrance of celebration. The nuns always greeted each other warmly and smiled—probably not just at me. Our “houses” were, in a way, friends. The last nun left this neighborhood five years ago to live in the Holy Mountains Monastery. House No. 6, “House of the Cougher,” has remained unchanged throughout all these years. Its gates and roof are still intact, and even the small gate with its latch is still there! The frames of the windows have not been changed either. These two houses, No. 6 and No. 9, are likely the oldest in the alley. House No. 15 also used to be one of the oldest, but it no longer looks that way anymore. The Okonevskys have lived in House No. 14 at Stоляrny Perewolk for at least since 1911. It is a fact that the trees in the photos cover up the entire front facade of the house. Unfortunately, in spring, these trees are covered with white flowers, and in summer, they bear delicious apricots. Only two of the two-story houses in this alley had balconies—the No. 14 and No. 16 houses—but the balcony on House No. 16 has since been removed. There is much more to tell about the houses and the people who lived in them. There were doctors, teachers, a veterinarian, a cobbler, a tailor, and even what one might call a “human rights activist” who helped neighbors resolve various issues with officials. There was also a widow of a persecuted writer; in the 1950s, her husband was rehabilitated, and she later received an apartment on Saltovka Street. Many everyday problems could be solved with the help of our neighbors. We even had our own “hooligans”—local kids who wouldn’t hurt anyone. After the war, the number of residents gradually decreased. First, some people moved to Pavlovo Pole, and then many more went to Saltovka. Eventually, there was a small wave of emigration. The list of families with these surnames includes the Mokshanskys, Gusevs, Karasy, Medvedevs, Domogayeva, Pleshivaya, Solovyova, Krivoruchko, Glod, Cherkasskyes, Kirichenkos, Sulimovskies, Sugrobovs, Dubovik, Godinas, Khramtsovy, Brazhnye, Bespalovys, Panaseviches... and many others. I couldn’t remember them all. This information was provided to me by N.M. Moskinova in a private conversation. Regarding the bomb makers on Mariinskaya Street (possibly Moskalevka?), please refer to Yuri Trifonov’s “Impatience” and Lev Sheinin’s “Three Provocators” – these are manuscripts held in personal archives. Also, information about the Raevskys can be found in the records of the 4th Men’s Gymnasium on Mariinskaya Street. The Raevskys kept a cow because their family was large, and only one grandfather worked. In summer, they would take the cow to graze in the Kvitkinsky or Karpovski gardens. In winter, they bought hay. I remember seeing a barn with a hayloft. In that house, the family of Evgeny Alexandrovich Shmatyko (Zhena’s uncle) and Olga Ivanovna Borodina (Talia’s aunt) lived. Before the war, the Shmatykos lived in House No. 13, and the Borodinins lived in House No. 10. Zhena’s brother, Leonid, was the author of the painting “Report by V.I. Lenin on the GOELRO Plan” that was often cited during the Soviet era. Source: ngeorgij.livejournal.com #Kharkov #Harkov #1stolica_history #Moskalevka