Effects of merchant and educator Petr I. Makushin on the architectural character and cultural environment of Tomsk
The paper bases on various historical sources and for the first time ever sets and interprets facts that influenced on the architectural urban planning aspect and cultural potential of Tomsk city owing to the vigorous activity of a merchant educator P.I. Makushin (second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries). Professional evaluation is given to buildings and institutions erected on his own initiative or with his participation. A correlation of his actions with the historical logic of educational activities is described. The multi-faceted real activity of P.I. Makushin in Tomsk and in Siberia has been extensively studied previously and has been particularly active in recent years. However, in the author's opinion, his contribution as an initiator and the ordering customer of objects significant not only for cultural but also for architectural and urban planning development of Tomsk has not been the subject of a special study. This paper presents a reconstruction of the ideological origin and implementation technology of projects for the construction of several buildings in Tomsk and, above all, the crown of this aspect of his activity - the House of Science. P.I. Makushin's House of Science is one of the essential objects of the urban environment that has historical, memorial, architecture and urban planning, ideological and artistic value. The construction of the House of Science is an example of an ideological conception and its modern (at the time) implementation. Thus, it is most important to consider this unique act. This view is part of an interesting and fruitful study of Siberian scientists who undertook the study of the historical role of merchants and entrepreneurs in the social, domestic, professional and mental life of Siberian cities and their architecture. Sources of research were the known publications about P.I. Makushin, periodicals, several archive files, including plan sketches, full-scale measurements and expert observations. The influence of P.I. Ma-kushin on the cultural potential of Tomsk, its architectural and urban planning component is represented in the following forms: 1) he was the initiator of the construction of a number of buildings in the city, his authority helped to promote it; 2) he was a sophisticated organizer of collecting donations for a number of objects, his being a member of the City Duma for 40 years helped in it; 3) his family and he were donors themselves as patrons; 4) as a newspaper editor he provided information support of his and other initiatives. The most important influence of Makushin was from his gift as an entrepreneur: he was able to see trends in the socio- cultural life and market relations, to take risks, to be creative and insatiable in his desire to innovate, and, of course, he had enough will power to achieve the noble goal which he formulated as the motto of his life: "Not a single illiterate person". Together with other merchants P.I. Makushin managed to make a considerable beneficial contribution to the creation of small architectural cultural zones in the city. As a competent public figure, being well treated by the intellectual elite of the city, he used his influence and capital as well as much of his life to implement his ideas on the cultural potential of the city, mobilizing well-known city architects, professionals, entrepreneurs and general public for this. His descendants should be grateful to him for his educational activities, for the buildings and small urban areas around them that he built.
Keywords
people's university, Petr I. Makushin, Tomsk, merchants, enlightenment, culture, architecture, П.И. Макушин, народный университет, купечество, культура, просветительство, Томск, архитектураAuthors
Name | Organization | |
Zalesov Valeriy G. | Tomsk State University of Architecture and Building | vzal@mail.tomsknet.ru |
Zalesov Gennadiy M. | Tomsk State University of Architecture and Building | gmzalesov@gmail.com |
References

Effects of merchant and educator Petr I. Makushin on the architectural character and cultural environment of Tomsk | Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta – Tomsk State University Journal. 2014. № 388. DOI: 10.17223/15617793/388/19