Khabarovsk Regional Lore Museum. P.7

Panorama " The Volochaevskaya battle"

Panorama «The Volotchaevskaya Battle» is a logical completion of the exposition «The military conflicts and Civil War in the Russian Far East» (the end of the XIX - beginning of the XX centuries) . The crucial moment of the military operation of Volotchaevka is painted on the canvas whose whole area consists 96 square meters. On the 12th of February at 11.30. the troops of the People’s Revolutionary Army occupied the military fortification of the White Insurrectionists. The village of Volotchaevka is placed at the slope of the hill lyun-Koran approximately 30 km from Khabarovsk. At the end of January 1921 - beginning of February 1922 the People’s Revolutionary Army concentrated its forces near Volotchaevka. The soldiers were bad-dressed and their food was terrible. Often they were forced to eat frozen bread, salty dog-salmon and even snow. The fortification of the White Insurrectional Army of the general Moltchanov was made according to all the rules of military art. There were: dug outs, well equipped mashine-gun nests and artillery emplacement made of logs, sacks with ground covered with snow. For better firmness the entrenchment was poured with water. The hill was 6-8 rows wired with «hedgehogs» (obstructions of barbed wire entangled with stakes of iron bars). The Volotchaevskaya hill lyun-Koran towering the surroundings was the best place for observation and the command post of the White Insurrectional Army. The observers of the White Army took cover in the deep trenches on the top of the hill where the telephone wires were extended from. The manpower losses of the People’s Revolutionary Army were huge: 550 killed and 1250 wounded and frost-bitten. It was the third of this army whole complement. The White Army lost 1200 men. The painters of battle-pieces tried to show the huge fortitude of soldiers of the People’s Revolutionary Army, the tragedy of the Civil War when the fathers had to fight against their sons on different sides of barricades. The history of the making of this panorama is very interesting. The former director of the Khabarovsk lore museum, honorary citizen of Khabarovsk, writer, an active participant of this panorama making V.P. Sisoev remembered that the necessity to make it appeared in 1967.The first outline sketch was made in 1970. At the same time the contract between the museum and the painters of battle-pieces was signed. Two painters from Moscow S.D. Agapov and A.A. Gorpenko were invited to the museum by its director and by the section of veterans of the Civil War. They came to Khabarovsk in winter of 1971.The authors of panorama lived in the museum building by the village Volotchaevka. The museum was situated on the hill. At first it was planned to place the panorama there. The painters made sketches of the village and the snow-covered plains where in February of 1922 the heated battle was broken out. One of the episodes of the storm of fortification was shown with help of one subdivision of the Red Banner Far Eastern military district. The research workers of the museum history department, the military specialists (including the colonel A.S. Sisoev), the participators of the battle consulted the painters during their work. The panorama authors Sergey Agapov and Anatoliy Gorpenko the famous painters of battle-pieces live in Moscow. A.A.Gorpenko is a former student and follower of professor N.S. Samokish. In the co-authorship with painters G.I Martchenko and P.I. Geghemont he painted a cycle of paintings which glorify the heroic deeds of russuan and soviet soldiers: «Crossing the Dnepr river», «The Battle of Stalingrad», «The Poltavskaya Battle at the Peter’s the First time» and others. The cooperation with the sculptor E.V. Vutchetitch in the making of the all over the world known memorial in the Treptov park in Berlin brought the fame to the painter Gorpenko. He was awarded a State prize of the I and II degrees. Another painter is S.D. Agapov. In the years of the Great Patriotic War he served in the Pacific Navy. He fell in love with the Far East and dreamt to imprint the heroic history and rich nature of this region in his paintings. The hard work on the canvas had been lasted for 4 years. In this connection the huge canvas which is 46m long and 6m high was placed in the gymnasium of one secondary school in Moscow. When the work was over the canvas was reeled in the special steel drum and brought to Khabarovsk at the end of 1974. The Ministry for Culture of Russian Federation beard all the delivery and installation expenses ( more than 200.000 roubles). On the 8th of March 1975 the painters began to install the panorama in the special room at the Khabarovsk lore museum. The work was finished to the 25th of April of the same year. The ceremonial opening of the panorama took place on the 30th of April 1975. It was the important event in the cultural life of the Territory and the whole Russian Far East. There are only three panoramas in Russia like this. One of them is in Khabarovsk. It is a documentary work of art which reproduces the atmosphere of the battle and the resistance of two armies. Art and sound values give an excellent possibility to use all these advantages in the educational work with pupils and students of the humanitarian faculties of high and secondary schools. The documentalism of the panorama «The Volotchaevskaya Battle» shows the events of the Civil War and intervention in this region objectively and clearly.

Go to page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Russian

P. 7