Models of wooden architecture of the Russian North to be donated to the Association of Private Museums of Russia

Dear friends, we continue to share with you the news and events important for us all. This time, we are eager to tell you that shortly, the Association of Private Museums of Russia will receive a donation of rather unusual exhibits — models of wooden churches — to display on our future exhibitions and to transfer to one of the museums of our Association. The models were created by the well-known woodworker, an award-winning participant of exhibitions at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre (VVC), Anatoly Fedorovich Litvinov.

Anatoly Fedorovich was born in 1933 on the Volga river. He was a child when he first got interested in wood as the most “living” material for all sorts of crafts. Since the Volga river was used for timber rafting, wood and bark were in abundance. He graduated from the Moscow Aviation Technological Institute, and from 1965 to 2005, he worked in rocket technology. In the difficult time of perestroika and the first cooperatives, he first set out to create exact models of real churches. It was a difficult and interesting challenge because first, he had to create a workbench and the necessary technical equipment, which was almost unprecedented. An even more difficult, almost scientific task was to solve the problem of blueprints, sizes, and scales — he had to analyze photographs and drawings of the churches, including those burned down or destroyed by the government, convert Old Russian units to modern, fry wood, analyze the behavior of wood during the drying process, and much more.

Unfortunately, Anatoly Fedorovich is no longer with us, and his family has kindly donated his unique works to the Association.

In recent years, the award-winning master has created about ten small 1:50 scale models, has participated in several departmental exhibitions, and has been awarded the medal “Laureate of VVC”. Anatoly Fedorovich was obsessed with an ambitious goal — to create a model of Kizhi as a monument of history and Russian culture, especially since wooden architecture is always under the threat of self-destruction, fires, and natural disasters. Now we have a rare opportunity to show you these incredible monuments.

Models of wooden architecture of the Russian North to be donated to the Association of Private Museums of Russia