Museum departments. History of jewelry making in Krasny-on-Volga - the jewelry capital of Russia Krasnoselskoye School of Artistic Metalworking

Student years! It’s scary to think how long ago it was! How quickly time flies. But pleasant memories always remain with us. It seems that just recently, I, a fifteen-year-old girl who had just graduated from eight-year school, came to enroll in an art school.
It was the Krasnoselsk School of Artistic Metalworking (KUKHOM). It is located thirty kilometers from the ancient Russian city of Kostroma.

4th year, group A, our boys-engravers

The history of this school began even before the revolution, when in 1897 a teacher came from Moscow and opened technical drawing classes in an ordinary village hut. This was an initiative of the Kostroma district zemstvo and representatives from handicraftsmen. The decision came after the Nizhny Novgorod fair, held in 1892, where the products of Krasnoselsky craftsmen were not successful. Further, in 1904, these classes were transformed into an art and craft training workshop for gold and silversmithing. A new building was built especially for this educational institution according to Benoit’s design, aboutthe opening of which took place in the same year.

4th year, group A, our girls-jewelers

During the years of the revolution, the workshop failed to survive, and only in the thirties did its revival begin. On its basis, a vocational school was created, and in 1943, a secondary specialized art school. For a long timeAt that time, KUKHOM was the only educational institution that taught jewelry making. It was here that specialists were trained for all major jewelry factories. Many of them work there to this day.

Creative practice in the Vologda region

At the beginning of each school year we were sent to the collective farm. Those who studied in those years probably remember such trips! I don’t know if we provided much help to the collective farms, but the fact that we rested there with all our hearts is for sure!

Vladimir Denisov

My fellow students were mostly adults and serious. There weren't many schoolgirls like me from yesterday. Of course, everyone had a corresponding attitude towards studying - at the age of 16, you no longer want to think about studying. Perhaps if I had entered there five years later, the attitude would have been completely different. But, in general, this is, of course, a controversial issue. Yes, and to be honest, jewelry making didn’t really interest me. Apparently that’s why, unfortunately, I didn’t become a good specialist. But I really loved the drawing and painting lessons. In any case, studying at the school was not in vain for me.

Alexander Akhanov

Many of my fellow students worked at jewelry factories, and later organized their own jewelry workshops. Someone has their own jewelry salon. In general, well done! And I am pleased to see their names on the Internet; I am pleased that I once studied with them at KUKHOM.

Now our school is thriving, and, as far as I know, everything is also very popular. And the works of graduates are stored in the Krasnoselsky Museum. The museum is located in a building that until 1977 belonged to the school. And for some reason, I still have inexplicable feelings about this old building that cannot be expressed in words.

Read about folk crafts

Curiosities from the “jewelry capital” of Russia
Exhibition of works by students of the Krasnoselsky School of Artistic Metalworking
N.B. Fedotov

Pre-revolutionary Russia was a country in many ways unlike the states of Western Europe. One of the unique features of the empire was the proximity of tiny district towns with a rural way of life and large, rich commercial and industrial villages, which was typical for the Nizhny Novgorod region. The economic life of the province was seething not in Gorbatov, Knyaginin or Makaryev, but in Pavlov, Bogorodsky, Lyskov and Bolshoy Murashkin, which were formally subordinate to them.

Settlements similar to those listed above existed in other regions of Central Russia. In the neighboring Kostroma region, approximately forty kilometers southeast of the regional center, there is the working-class village of Krasnoe-on-Volga, a small (with a population of less than eight thousand people) regional center, often, and not without reason, referred to in the press as the “jewelry capital” Russia.

In May 2010, the Pavlovsk Historical Museum hosted the exhibition “Wonders of the “Jewelry Capital” of Russia.” She talked about one of the main attractions of Krasny - the Krasnoselsky School of Artistic Metalworking.

The Pavlovsk Museum has long been working with masters of folk arts and crafts from different regions of our country. In recent years, Seminsk and Semenovsk Khokhloma, Kazakov filigree and Balakhna lace, Rostov enamel and Mstera embroidery, Palekh and Kholuy lacquer miniatures have been exhibited in its halls. But this case is special.

The history of Krasny-on-Volga has much in common with the biography of Pavlov-on-Oka. They even arose almost at the same time. The first written mention of the village of Krasnoye, Kostroma district, dates back to 1569 - only four years later than Pavlov.

Like the residents of Lower Poochye, Krasnoselsky peasants have long suffered from the poor quality of local soils. It is not surprising that, like the Pavlovsk residents, back in the 17th century they almost completely abandoned agriculture and switched to handicrafts. The choice of a specific craft was determined by the district Kostroma. In the era of the first kings of the Romanov dynasty, this Volga region city was famous as one of the centers of jewelry production in Rus'. It was the jewelry business - fulfilling orders for local churches and making cheap silver jewelry for peasants and poor townspeople - that the residents of Krasny took up.

Gradually, by the middle of the 19th century, the Krasnosel artisans surpassed their Kostroma teachers. If only 12 jewelers worked in Kostroma in 1858, then 27 members of the Kostroma Silver Crafts Council lived in Krasnoye and its neighboring villages at that time.

By the end of the century before last, an entire artisanal jewelry district had formed around the village of Krasnoye, which included 51 villages in the Kostroma and Nerekhta districts of the Kostroma province. As in the Pavlovsk steelworks district, in different villages and hamlets of the Krasnoselsky handicraft region, various varieties of the general jewelry craft developed. For example, in Krasnoe itself they made earrings, rings, pectoral crosses, the village of Sidorovskoye was famous for the craftsmen who created silver icon frames and various church utensils, in the villages of Aferkovo, Varkino, Zdemirovo they collected chains for jewelry, in the village of Podolsk they made keychains and bracelets, and in the village Aleevo - table setting items.

Both Pooka and Volga artisanal metalworkers suffered at the end of the 19th century from common problems - growing competition from factory production and the dominance of buyers (in the Krasnoselsky district they were called prasols) who robbed the craftsmen. Attempts to solve these problems were also common - both in Pavlov and Krasny, attempts were made repeatedly to cooperate with handicraftsmen and unite them into artels.

In order to support the ancient jewelry craft and make it competitive in the conditions of rapidly developing Russian capitalism, technical drawing classes were opened in Krasnoye in 1897. Their task was to train competent specialists capable of not only copying old centuries-old types of jewelry, but also independently creating completely new designs.

The first director of the new educational institution was a graduate of the Moscow Stroganov School, Sergei Grigorievich Monastyrsky.

In the formation of technical drawing classes, which in 1904 were transformed into an artistic and craft training workshop for gold and silversmithing, a major role was played by the financial and methodological support of the administration and teachers of the Central School of Technical Drawing of Baron A.L. Stieglitz. The Krasnoselsk educational workshop received a significant amount of money thanks to the outstanding Russian artist V.D. Polenov, one of the executors of the Kostroma entrepreneur and philanthropist F.V. Chizhov, who left a substantial sum for the development of special educational institutions in his homeland.

In the first decades of Soviet power, the young educational institution experienced many misadventures. It was transferred to Kostroma, turned into an ordinary technical school that trained mechanics and turners, and only in 1934 it was transformed into a professional technical school for the artistic processing of metals. In 1943, the vocational school received the status of a technical school, and in 1957 it acquired its modern name - the Krasnoselsk School of Artistic Metalworking (KUKHOM).

Over the 113 years of its existence, the Krasnoselsk School has trained over 5,000 jewelry artists. Today, its graduates work not only at jewelry factories in Krasny and Kostroma, but also at enterprises in Yakutsk, Kaliningrad, Penza, Rostov the Great, Uglich, Alma-Ata, Tashkent, Odessa, Riga and other cities of the former USSR.

Students of the Krasnoselsky School played a significant role in the development of artistic metalworking in our area. For example, one of the first teachers of the Pavlovsk Art and Crafts School was Mikhail Fedorovich Averin, who even before the revolution studied at the Krasnoselsk educational workshop of gold and silversmithing.

The founder of the Cossack filigree craft, Olga Ivanovna Tarakanova, also graduated from the Krasnoselsk vocational school. And this is no coincidence. In the 1930s, Krasnoe-on-Volga became the site of the revival of Russian filigree - one of the oldest types of Russian jewelry art.

At the exhibition in the Pavlovsk Historical Museum, about a hundred diploma works of KUKHOM students were collected. The oldest of them was made more than half a century ago, and the newest is a little over a year old.

I was amazed by the variety of forms and techniques used by teenagers, practically children, when creating small masterpieces (by the way, initially, in the Middle Ages, a masterpiece was the work that a young artisan presented at the exam for the title of master). Filigree, artistic casting, cloisonne enamel, edging, metal inlay on wood: you can’t count everything.

Figures of people, animals, and fairy-tale characters frozen in the windows were cast in bronze or made of thin wire. A firebird made of filigree was next to a funny tiger cub, and as if coming from a Pushkin fairy tale, a cockerel was located in the company of steep-horned yaks and a greyhound frozen in its run.

A miniature copy of the main architectural symbol of the village, the Epiphany Church, a remarkable monument of Russian tent-roof architecture, built in 1592 with the money of the Godunov boyars, the first owners of Krasny, was also made using the filigree technique.

The women's jewelry presented at the exhibition was distinguished by an inexhaustible riot of imagination. Here, in their diploma works, young jewelers, not yet constrained by the rigid confines of mass production, were able to show everything they are capable of.

Some of the works almost immediately receive a passport for jewelry of high artistic value.

Girls at the Krasnoselsky school are taught not only to create beautiful earrings, necklaces and rings, but also to wear them beautifully. This is taught in a circle operating at the school.

An important place in the process of training future masters of artistic metalworking is occupied by the art of graphics. For many years now, a common task for KUKH students has been the development and creation of bookplates (owner's book signs), which were also presented at the exhibition in Pavlov.

In recent years, among the works of school graduates, items with church themes have appeared: panagias, icon frames, pectoral and body crosses.

The Krasnoselsk School of Artistic Metalworking actively promotes the work of its students. Every year, the products of young jewelers from Krasnoye can be found at exhibitions in Moscow, St. Petersburg and, of course, in Kostroma. KUKHOM had the opportunity to adequately represent his country at the international level, for example at the EXPO exhibitions in Osaka and Montreal.

It is all the more unfortunate that never before have works by Krasnoselsky masters been exhibited in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Our exhibition was designed to bridge this gap.

P.S. Following the results of the exhibition “Wonders of the “Jewelry Capital” of Russia” at the Pavlovsk Historical Museum, a trip of teachers from the Pavlovsk College of Folk Arts and Crafts to Krasnoe-on-Volga took place. Its goal was to establish business and creative cooperation between Pavlovsk specialists in the field of artistic metalworking and a related educational institution. One of the Nizhny Novgorod travel agencies also became interested in Krasny-on-Volga as a promising destination for excursion trips.

The Krasnoselskoye School of Artistic Metalworking dates back to 1897, when a technical drawing class was founded in the village of Krasnoye, Kostroma province, on the initiative of the villagers themselves and the district zemstvo. Such an undertaking was not accidental: jewelry crafting had been known in Krasnoye since the 16th century, and the goal of the new educational institution was to give Krasnoye Selo jewelry making a higher artistic level.

A graduate of the Stroganov School, S.G., was appointed head of the technical drawing class. Monastyrsky, and soon - after only seven years - an Arts and Crafts Training Workshop (HRUM) appeared on the basis of this class. Among the teachers here was another graduate of the Stroganov School, K.A. Apukhtin, as well as artist and master of filigree technique I.A. Deryabin, with whose name the birth of Krasnoselskaya filigree is associated. In the pre-revolutionary years, KRUM students repeatedly exhibited their works at international exhibitions, where they received well-deserved awards and high marks from connoisseurs. It was then that the workshop, and subsequently the school, became the true custodians of the traditions of artistic metal processing: enamel, engraving, filigree, embossing, casting, carving - all these techniques are still taught at the school.

And today, the works of KUKHOM students and graduates continue to become winners of numerous competitions and participants in jewelry exhibitions. Most of these works occupy a worthy place in the collection of the cabinet of art samples of the Krasnoselsky School. It must be said that the history of the existence of this educational institution, to some extent, began with a collection - the collection of an art and craft training workshop. Jewelry made of silver with natural inserts in the Art Nouveau style characteristic of the early 20th century is stored here. Tableware, stationery, items for the interior, created using the techniques of chasing, engraving and casting deserve careful study, and the true decoration of the collection are the exhibits made using the technique of “casting in the ground” and casting in “living nature”. Exhibits that combine the skill of the famous Krasnoselsky foundry workers and the high artistic training of KHRUM. Among them there are works of very fine workmanship: these are branches of rowan, pine, and fir trees; fir cones; frog, lizard and fish. In general, the collection of the cabinet of art samples of the Krasnoselsky School is extremely diverse and includes several sections.

The pride of the school is the collection of teaching aids, which was acquired during the formation of the arts and crafts training workshop. This includes gypsum reliefs, metal products, embossing, art ceramics from the collections of the Stroganov School, ornaments on vases, ornamental tables, works by students, copies of works by famous artists of the St. Petersburg School of Baron Stieglitz, Kasli casting, album-collection of A. Zvenigorodsky “Byzantine enamel", produced in 1892. In subsequent years, the methodological fund was replenished with collections of bone carvings, stone-cutting crafts, wood paintings, stitching and embroidery items, as well as filigree and enamel crafts. A special place in the collection is occupied by products of Krasnoselsky artisans - masters of jewelry making - made in the period from the 16th to the beginning of the 20th century. Among the exhibits: chests, caskets, castings, chasing, engraving and works related to Orthodox religious art, including carved wooden crowns. The museum's collection also includes products from the Vocational School, which was founded in 1934. Here, the traditions of folk crafts and the KHRUM school are continued in jewelry, interior items and tableware. Project of the Foundation for the Promotion of Education in the Field of Art and Design “Stroganov Foundation”

Christina Tsurtsumiya

2015-06-18 10:00:00

Church of the Epiphany, 16th century, Church of Peter and Paul

The production complex of the SOKOLOV company is located in the village of Krasnoe-on-Volga, Kostroma region - a truly unique place where the history of jewelry making goes back several centuries. The brand’s jewelry is created by professionals in their field, many of whom are jewelers for several generations.

The emergence of jewelry

There are many hypotheses about the origin of jewelry making in Krasnoye. It has been established that Krasnoselsky jewelers have been widely known in Rus' since ancient times.

Center of Krasnoye Selo, early 20th century

Thus, the list of craftsmen who worked in the Silver Chamber of Moscow (XVII century) included Krasnoselsky goldsmith Mikhail Savelyev. At the beginning of the 18th century, the names of silversmiths who took samples and letters of permission from the Armory were mentioned.

The flourishing of the fishery

Jewelry production received special development around 1830. Silver, bronze and brass items made in Krasnoe were distributed not only throughout Russia, but also in Persia and the Balkan states.

The jewelry business reached its greatest development in the 50-70s. XIX century At that time, almost the entire population of the village and nearby villages was engaged in the production of jewelry. Documents from that time say: “Its main center should be considered the village of Krasnoe, where out of six hundred peasant households, it is rare that one does not participate in the fishery in one way or another.”

In the second half of the 19th century. In Krasnoye and its environs, two thousand artisans were engaged in jewelry production, buyers appeared who organized their own equipped workshops. In 1912, the village already processed about 2.5 thousand pounds of silver, which was large-scale for that time.

Features of the assortment

The main feature of Krasnoselsky products was a well-established assortment of items, which was intended mainly for buyers from the common people. Inexpensive decorations, tableware and church items turned out to be in demand in Russia and abroad. The creativity of Krasnoselsky jewelers was also in close connection with folklore, beliefs, local customs and holidays.

Jeweler at work (pulling wire)

The specificity of the assortment, the main feature of which was “simplicity,” contributed to the widespread development of home-based jewelry not only in Krasnoye, but also in nearby villages and villages. Thus, the jewelry industry on Krasnoselskaya land acquired a “social” character and influenced the peculiarities of life and everyday life of the population.

It has long been considered the calling card of Krasnosel. Jewelers also used casting, embossing, and engraving techniques; they made jewelry and dishes from blackened silver, as well as items decorated with enamel.

Home-based jewelers, family at work

Krasnoselsk School of Artistic Metalworking

In order to preserve the craft and give it an artistic direction, on the initiative of the Kostroma Zemstvo with funds from the Ministry of Finance in 1897 in the village. A technical drawing class was opened in Krasny, and in 1904 - an art and craft workshop for gold and silversmithing, which later grew into the famous Krasnoselsk School of Artistic Metalworking.

Thanks to this, the artistic level of the jewelry of Krasnoselsky jewelers increased, their products were exhibited at Russian exhibitions and abroad.

In 1919, the Krasnoselsky labor production artel “Krasnoselsky Jeweler” was created, which in 1960 was reorganized into a factory, and then into the first jewelry plant.

Now Krasnoye-on-Volga has rightfully won the status of a major center of jewelry production thanks to the Krasnoselsky School of Artistic Metalworking - the only educational institution in Russia and neighboring countries for training jewelry artists, a member of the Association "Guild of Jewelers of Russia." A third of the country's jewelry artists are graduates of this educational institution. In addition, in the village of Krasnoe-on-Volge there is the only specialized museum of jewelry and decorative arts in the country.

Alexey 09/05/2019

What a production history rich in tradition. Today's jewelers are continuers of the work of ancient artisans. It is amazing! Answer

Olga 08/15/2019

I was amazed by the objects of work of jewelers of those distant years. If the photos weren’t signed, it wouldn’t even occur to you that these were jewelers at work))). I liked the photo of a family of homeworkers at work. In general, the article is very interesting, I was struck by the fact that the Krasnoselsk School of Artistic Metalworking is the only educational institution in Russia and neighboring countries for training jewelry artists. It’s strange that there is such a school and only 1 in our entire vast homeland. Answer

Inna Koval 07/22/2019

The emergence of jewelry is simply a wonderful event. The article is good and informative. Everyone should know history. Answer

Oksana Ivanova 07/08/2019

Great of course! The article is very interesting. I love reading history, especially about jewelry. I knew that there were a lot of factories in Kostroma. Answer

Ekaterina K 07/07/2019

An interesting history of the emergence of jewelry making in Russia. This is where the origins are - in the Kostroma region. Now I know where most of the jewelers in our country study. Answer

Roman Syardov 06/29/2019

After reading this article, I really wanted to visit this village in the Kostroma region. There are probably many residents who make jewelry and love jewelry. It’s great that our country has such a jewelry production with history. Answer

Albina Khasanova 27.05.2019

When I graduated from school I didn’t know where to go. And what a pity that they didn’t tell me about such establishments. I really wanted to be a jeweler. Interesting work and very creative. Answer

Nadezhda Lysenko 12/19/2018

Looking at the photo you plunge into the history of jewelry craftsmanship. Before reading the article, I didn’t even think about where jewelry production specialists are trained. It turns out that there are very few educational institutions with such a narrow focus, but they train real professionals in their field. It’s a pity that when I graduated from school, I didn’t even know how many interesting, creative professions there were. Answer

Svetlana Semenyuta 27.09.2018

The plant on the Volga is patriotic. Lifts our spirit. We came into contact with history. I really liked that it was black and white. Thanks to your magazine, I learned a lot about the history and creativity of our country. You can’t count how many talents there are Answer

Svetlana 08/09/2018

It was as if I had been in a museum. How I love black and white photos. What an interesting history the brand has. Our products were bought for export. And the plant on the Volga is very patriotic Answer

Alisa Diolog 07/09/2018

Interesting magazine and stories in it. I didn’t know about the capital of jewelry making, it was interesting to read. They say gold that was previously smelted is very valuable. Answer

Tatiana Ilyasova 25.06.2018

Check this out! And the children took part in the process! Entire family clans of jewelers were passed down from father to son... Answer

Tatiana Nistratova 21.06.2018

How I would like to have an antique gold jewelry, for example, from the village of Krasnoye. So that this decoration is passed on from generation to generation. I have a lot of jewelry, and I will definitely make some as a family piece. Answer Christina Tsurtsumiya