Zakia Merz, the head of Pavel Vasilyev memorial house located in Pavlodar
About the museum
The museum is built in Pavlodar, at the same place where a small house of 1868 was erected. Pavel Vasilyev's maternal grandfather moved to Pavlodar in the late 19th century during Stolypin’s reforms. There were rich merchants who mined salt here. This street was called Tserkovnaya and ended up by a small church. Vasilyev’s grandfather bought this house, started the ironmongery shop and started selling and dreamt of getting rich.
Pavel Vasilyev is an outstanding poet of the twentieth century. His talent was highly valued by Alexey Tolstoy, he called Vasilyev a "Soviet Pushkin
We have some copies of manuscripts, the originals of which are kept in Moscow. There’s Pavel’s diary as well, written by him while he traveled being a child. Vasilyev was 10 when he wrote his first poems. Of course, these poems are very simple and raw, though there are words and lines proving the poet’s original style.
The poet loved Pushkin’s works. Vasilyev carried his volume all the time and knew almost all Pushkin’s poems by heart
Pavel Vasilyev came from an educated family. His parents’ friends who were teachers and photographers usually gathered in their house. Their close friends called tamyry often came here too. A rug was laid, bauyrsaks were roasted, samovar was set and guests were always welcomed to this house. The guests spoke Kazakh only. They made cultures interpermeate. So Vasilyev knew Kazakh well, he had many Kazakh words in the poems.
The one examining his biography or reading his poems can see many city names of Kazakhstan and Russia. They are not just mentioned, Pavel Vasilyev wrote poems about them. Semipalatinsk is called the "city of seven houses", while Pavlodar is “a hawk city
Pavel and his parents, two grandfathers, two grandmothers, Vasilyev’s brothers called Boris, Leo and Victor were all living here. The house was spacious, there were outbuildings. When Matvei grandpa died, the house was sold and divided into two. During the renovation the house was completely dismantled. Now there’s a memorial house. Among the founders were literary association of Pavel Vasilyev and his wife Elena Vyalova. It was a long way to turn this house into the museum. Firstly there was a literary Department, which turned into the Museum named after Bukhar Zhyrau. It had a special department which was engaged in the work of Pavel Vasilyev, which moved here in 1986. In 1987 the first Vasilyev’s readings were held here. Then it was decided to reconstruct the house. In 1994, the bust of Pavel Vasilyev and the memorial house were opened due to his 85th anniversary.
Pavel Vasilyev traveled a lot: Vladivostok, then Novosibirsk, Khabarovsk, Omsk, Moscow and Ryazan. But the home was in Pavlodar.
28 years since he was gone. But 10 years of his work are 10 years of activity: 14 poems and over 200 poems
Here is the furniture of that time. We recreated the atmosphere step by step according to the memoirs of contemporaries, while some of them were alive. There is a card table which was always used by Pavel Vasilyev. Sitting in a chair at this table he drank tea and wrote poetry. The furniture was transferred from Moscow.
In 1937, Vasilyev was charged with a terrorist act against Stalin. Vasilyev’s trial lasted 20 minutes only
Typewriter of the late 50-ies belonged to his wife, Elena Valovoya. She was arrested as the national traitor’s wife. After being released from the camp, she returned to Moscow.
Many of the exhibits were presented Vasilyev’s daughter and his widow. A knife for cutting paper and an ashtray were found under the porch of the old house. This house was bought by the Alexeyev family. By the way, Alexeyev was Satpaev’s teacher. They found that ashtray and kept the act of sale. Then they gave it all to the museum. All have helped fill this Museum.
Pavel Vasiliev was posthumously rehabilitated and reinstated in the writers ' Union. 20 years after Vasilyev’s death the volume collected by his wife was released. She collected the poet’s poems traveling around the libraries and people all the world.
Pavel Vasilyev’s first editions are "The First Sign of Schlock", "The same sin, in the same year", "Songs of the Kirghiz-Kazakhs". It is the only Museum dedicated to Pavel Vasilyev. In Omsk there is a small exhibition dedicated to him in the Museum after Dostoevsky, in Ryazan there is a room in the library after Pavel Vasilyev. Dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Pavel Vasilyev, we have published two volumes of his poetry. We published his early lyrics, poems, prose and letters as well.