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Old Yekaterinburg
History of creation
The history of creation of the photo-gallery of the sights of Yekaterinburg of the end of the XIX century to the beginning of the XX century in our office is rather unusual. In 1998, your faithful servant has found an ancient photo with the sights of Yekaterinnburg where he was surprised to see that one building with in Gothic architecture located in the Square of 1905 (Lenina street, 25) early in the XX centuries crowned with the sign “Íîòàðèóñú Àðäàøåâú” (Notary Ardashev; the spelling of the pre-revolutionary period that was changed after 1917). This Fact kindled my interest as a namesake of the notary I knew nothing about for that moment.
The House of the Family of Merchants Korobkov ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
I soaked myself in the research and found out many interesting facts in records, museums and libraries of Yekaterinburg. In fact, beginning with 1911 a notary's office and the flat of the notary Alexandr Alexandrovitch Ardashev (1863-1933) was located in this house. It was an outstanding lawyer and a public figure, deputy of the City Duma, member of Kadet party and … cousin of V.I. Ulyanov-Lenin. A number of articles published in the local newspapers (in particular, the newspaper “Podrobnosti”, 1999) were dedicated to him, his family and the house where he lived and worked.
Afterwards this fact was hustled away to the backyards of memory, got rather “dusty”, but then something happened that made me look at the ancient photo anew. In September of 2002 one of our clients, apropos a professional photographer, Askar Kabzhan, came to our office and shared his idea with us: “You know, Vladimir, today I discovered a terrific photo of an ancient house with the note “Íîòàðèóñú Àðäàøåâú” (Notary Ardashev) in the Museum of Photography. Does he happen to be your relative?!” I answered that fortunately or unfortunately it was not my relative. Then Askar suggested: “What if you place a large photo of this house with the note with your namesake’s name in your office, which would emphasize time continuity?” I could not have accepted that offer negatively. Moreover, I exclaimed like Archimedes: “Eureka! We shall organize a gallery of the sites of the ancient streets, squares and historic buildings of Yekaterinburg”. No sooner said than done. Askar Kabzhan was so kind to agree to realize this ide
a. This is how did the work on creation of the historical photo-gallery begin.
As it turned out, it was not that easy. We could not even suppose that even the Museum History of the Ural in Yekaterinburg had no qualitative original photographs with the sites of old Yekaterinburg. We had to collect them literally by crumbs, however in the course of this exciting research we got acquainted with very interesting people and learnt much new on the history of the capital of the Ural.
As a result of the persistence of Askar Kabzhan, we received some part of the photos in the Museum of History of the Ural in Yekaterinburg and in the Museum of Photography “Dom Metenkova”. But most part of the photos, and more exactly post cards with photos made by the most famous photographer and chronicler of Yekaterinburg Veniamin Leontyevitch Metenkov (1857-1933) were given to us by Alexandr Idalyevitch Alexandrovsky, the head of Sverdlovsk regional association philatelists, who had addressed his colleagues and friends among collectors.
For the period of 3 months we made a large amount of work and now you can see its results. In winter of 2002-2003 the photo-collection was completed and placed on the walls of our office in snow-white frames. You can see it yourselves if you come to our office. It matched well our office emphasizing continuity of ages, time and generations, and made the atmosphere in our office comfortable and favourable for nostalgic memories of the history of Yekaterinburg, which celebrated its 280 anniversary in 2003! We must say that our clients and guests appreciated its originality and style. We believe that it will not leave you untouched either…
We thank heartily the photographer and photo-designer Askar Kabzhan, curator of the Museum of History of Yekaterinburg Natalya Alexandrovna Borovikova for their substantial contribution to creation of the photo-gallery. We express our specific gratitude to the head of Sverdlovsk regional association of philatelists Alexandr Idalyevitch Alexandrovsky for his inestimable help, advice and provision of collection photos.
But for these people, our idea would have never been realized, and we would not be able to admire splendid views of the old city every day.
Managing partner OOO “Law Firm “Ardashev&Partners’,
Ardashev V.L.
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History of creation