Ivan Nezhelsky, a Borisoglebsk-born photographer, is an author of the photo of the First Ivanov’s City Theatre. Nezhelsky came from the peasant family. In 1888 he founded his own photographic studio. He became famous for his portrait photography and various city views. It’s notable that the wooden house where the photographer used to live survived to this day.
A two-storey building from the photo was constructed in the late 19th century at the expense of the merchant Nikolay Ivanov. The house was situated on Dvoryanskaya street (now Sovetskaya street). On the ground floor there were the shops selling groceries, tobacco, music instruments etc. The first flood had the apartments and the first theatre stage in Borisoglebsk opened by Nikolay Ivanov.
In his book named The People of Theatre the Russian journalist Vladimir Gilyarovsky (1855-1935) described the merchant as a ‘dashing old man’, tall and fancy. Ivanov was a frequent guest in Tambov, where he attended theatre and horseracing with the horses grown with his participation. The writer noted that Ivanov used to spend money on his favourite occupation in secret from his Old Ritualist mother, that’s why the theatre expenses were officially registered as the stud farm ones. In his work Vladimir Gilyarovsky described one case from the merchant’s live when one of the bills had twelve thousand roubles written in it. At the same time only two thousand were spent on horses. The rest was the fee for the acting company invited by Ivanov to Borisoglebsk. Nikolay Ivanov passionately loved theatre and went out of his way for it.
In 1884 the article about the merchant’s creation was published in one of the issues of Tambov Provincial Journal. It was noted that the theatre had appeared in Borisoglebsk only recently as an element of aesthetic enjoyment. Before that theatre attendance was regarded sinful and was judged by the society. Further the author underlined that theatrical art had become respected by the citizens of different age. If there had been a small acting company at Borisoglebsk theatre in winter, people wouldn’t have killed time playing cards. The note finished with the information that in 1884 the Ivanov’s theatre made good profits.
