The National Museum of the Republic of Mari El houses the installation “Mari Intellectual’s Apartment”. It reproduces a fragment of an interior typical of the late 1930s: a desk with a lamp, a typewriter, a telephone, a sewing machine on a wooden stand, a bookcase, and an open suitcase. Woven striped rugs, in vogue at the time, are laid out on the floor.
All the furnishings in the installation are authentic. They used to belong to the famous Mari people: actor and poet Yvan Kyrla, artist Konstantin Egorov, writer Iossif Borisov, known under the pseudonym Tynysh Osyp.
The desk in the exhibition was donated to the museum collection from the possessions of Mari philologist Valerian Vasilyev, who also worked under the pseudonym Upymariy — Ufim Marian. Vasilyev was one of the publishers of the first Mari periodical magazine “The Marla Kalendar”. Moreover, he compiled several alphabet books and textbooks of the Mari language, created more than 250 scientific works on philology, translated into Mari fables by Ivan Krylov, poems by Alexander Pushkin and Nikolay Nekrasov, as well as revolutionary songs “Bravely Comrades, In Step” “Glory to the First of May”, and “The Internationale”.
There is a Soviet sewing machine included in the installation. It was created based on the models of the famous Singer Corporation, which had been making sewing machines since 1851. In the early 20th century, one of the Singer factories opened in Podolsk to manufacture products for Russia, Turkey, Persia, Japan, and China. After the revolution, Singer ceased production in Russia, and the plant in Podolsk remained idle for several years. It resumed operation in 1923: Soviet sewing machines, which only a little resembled the Singer ones, were now produced there. They were called “Podolsk” because of their production place.
The typewriter presented at the exhibition was made in Ufa. This city became the third producer of such devices in the USSR, after Kazan and Leningrad. Since there was no metallurgical industry in Ufa itself, steel and cast iron for its operation were delivered by rail from the neighboring plants — Minyar and Asha-Balashevsky.
All the furnishings in the installation are authentic. They used to belong to the famous Mari people: actor and poet Yvan Kyrla, artist Konstantin Egorov, writer Iossif Borisov, known under the pseudonym Tynysh Osyp.
The desk in the exhibition was donated to the museum collection from the possessions of Mari philologist Valerian Vasilyev, who also worked under the pseudonym Upymariy — Ufim Marian. Vasilyev was one of the publishers of the first Mari periodical magazine “The Marla Kalendar”. Moreover, he compiled several alphabet books and textbooks of the Mari language, created more than 250 scientific works on philology, translated into Mari fables by Ivan Krylov, poems by Alexander Pushkin and Nikolay Nekrasov, as well as revolutionary songs “Bravely Comrades, In Step” “Glory to the First of May”, and “The Internationale”.
There is a Soviet sewing machine included in the installation. It was created based on the models of the famous Singer Corporation, which had been making sewing machines since 1851. In the early 20th century, one of the Singer factories opened in Podolsk to manufacture products for Russia, Turkey, Persia, Japan, and China. After the revolution, Singer ceased production in Russia, and the plant in Podolsk remained idle for several years. It resumed operation in 1923: Soviet sewing machines, which only a little resembled the Singer ones, were now produced there. They were called “Podolsk” because of their production place.
The typewriter presented at the exhibition was made in Ufa. This city became the third producer of such devices in the USSR, after Kazan and Leningrad. Since there was no metallurgical industry in Ufa itself, steel and cast iron for its operation were delivered by rail from the neighboring plants — Minyar and Asha-Balashevsky.
