Sophia Kovalevskaya Estate Museum description and photos - Russia - Northwest: Velikiye Luki (Topic)

Museum-Estate of Sophia Kovalevskaya description and photos - Russia - North-West: Velikiye Luki. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photos and a map showing the nearest significant objects.

Photo and description

Sofya Vasilievna Kovalevskaya is an outstanding scientist and the first Russian woman who became famous in the field of mathematics, as well as a respected correspondent of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, an outstanding writer, professor at the University of Stockholm and an active social and political activist. The Memorial Museum named after Sofia Vasilyevna is located in the village of Polibino, which is 25 km from the city of Velikiye Luki in the previously existing estate of her father, General Vasily Vasilyevich Korvin-Krukovsky.

Kovalevskaya spent her youth and adolescence in her native village Polibino, which is located on the shore of a beautiful lake not far from the highway, which is a connecting link between Nevel and Velikiye Luki. The initial documentary information about the village dates back to the 18th century - at that time it was part of the vast estate of Mikhelson I.I. In the village there was a manor house of ordinary architecture, built of wood. After Mikhelson died, in 1807 the estate began to belong to his son Gregory. A distillery adobe factory, built before 1812, worked at the estate. Part of the estate went to his widow Charlotte Ivanovna, and after 1824 it completely passed into her hands. In 1841, the estate was sold due to large debts to V.V. Krukovsky. - to the father of Sophia Vasilievna. The new owner built here a large brick house with wings and a tower, the architect of which was A. Bryullov.

In 1858, the entire Krukovsky family moved to a new house. In addition to Sofya Vasilievna, the family had two more children - Anna and Fedor. Zhaklar Anna Vasilievna became a very close friend of young Sophia and helped her in everything. For 18 years Sophia lived in Polybino, until she married V.O. Kovalevsky, after which she left for St. Petersburg. Soon Sofya Mikhailovna went to study in Germany and several times during this time came to her native Polibino: in 1874 - after defending her thesis, then in 1875 - for her father's funeral, and four years later - for her mother's funeral. After the death of his father, the estate passed to F.V. Korvin-Krukovsky - Sophia's younger brother. From the 1880s to the revolution, the Polybinsky estate had many owners. In the 1920s, it housed a children's labor colony, later an orphanage. In 1980, the family house went to the Pskov Museum-Reserve, after which it was decided to open the memorial museum of S.V. Kovalevskaya, which became one of a kind, dedicated to a woman academician.

The main part of the future collection was based on memorial documents and things, among which were Kovalevskaya's personal letters to her friends and relatives, as well as their reply letters. In addition, the exhibition presents various books from her personal library, handwritten sheets of the novel "Nihilist", some albums for photographs, the story "Memories of childhood" published during the life of the academician woman with her signature, her father's seal, a cape made of eider down and ball shoes worn by Sofya Vasilievna, objects of applied art, a rug embroidered by Kovalevskaya's hands, intended as a gift to the Swedish astronomer Hugo Gulden, as well as various furniture.

Since 1989, with long interruptions, repair and restoration work is being carried out at the Kovalevskaya estate, suspended due to a lack of funds. The original layout of the estate is visible, although it has undergone some changes. In the central part of the estate, in a park zone, on a somewhat elevated place, there is an outbuilding and a spacious stone house. From the northern part, an old road, strewn with fragmentary casing, adjoins the house. At the same place, there are also free standing oaks and poplars, which are two centuries old; trees serve as a frame for the front entrance to the house. On the south side there is a terrace with a park parterre. The linden alley, which separates the park from the orchard, has also survived to this day.

The house was built in a pseudo-gothic style and has two floors and a small light on the third floor. There is a hall on the ground floor. The rooms in the left wing of the house are square and are separated by solid walls. One of the windows was once laid. The second floor is planned in the same way as the first. The preserved interior decoration is rather modest, but the buttresses look especially interesting. The floors in the house are wooden, the roof is metal.

Today the museum has an outbuilding, the main house and a memorial park.

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Topic: Sophia Kovalevskaya Estate Museum description and photos - Russia - Northwest: Velikiye Luki.