Onegin, Alexander Fedorovich

He was born in 1845 in Tsarskoye Selo, according to his passport - “ St. Petersburg tradesman”, perhaps he was the illegitimate offspring of a dynastic family . From his teacher and godmother, he received the name Otto, although he was not adopted by her. Since 1866, he began to call himself Onegin in honor of the Pushkin hero, and in 1890, by decree of Emperor Alexander III, he received the right to officially bear the name Onegin.

In 1879 he left for Paris , where he then lived all his life and was engaged in collecting Pushkin relics.

In the early 1880s, in three rooms of his apartment on ul. Marignan, 25 created a museum based on his collection. Friendship with P.V. Zhukovsky , the son of the poet V.A. Zhukovsky , with I.S. Turgenev and communication with large antique and second-hand firms in Europe and Russia were of particular importance in replenishing the museum's collection.

In 1887, in Paris, he met with Dantes .

In 1909, he entered into an agreement according to which, after his death, the entire collection should go into the possession of the Russian Academy of Sciences .

He died on March 24, 1925 in Paris.

A.F. Onegin actually created the prototype of the Pushkin House : in the Paris Museum there were manuscript, museum and book branches.

In the 1880s, P.V. Zhukovsky handed over to the collection of 60 manuscripts of Pushkin, his father’s documents regarding the duel and the last days of the poet, a plan of the apartment on the Moika , a death mask , drawings by Zhukovsky and F. Bruni depicting Pushkin’s body during parting, notes of Dr. V. I. Dahl and I. T. Spassky and other subjects.

Subsequently, the collection was replenished with the gifts of artists A. N. Benois and I. Yu. Krachkovsky, sculptors M. M. Antokolsky , S. D. Merkurov and P. Trubetskoy ; heirlooms were obtained from the descendants of A.O. Smirnova and E.P. Rostopchina .

The museum’s literary collection included more than 800 titles: all lifetime editions of Pushkin’s works, an almost complete collection of literature about Pushkin, published in the 19th century, almanacs from the time of Pushkin, translations of his works, albums with clippings of journal and newspaper articles.

Later, P.V. Zhukovsky gave Onegin part of his father’s library, about 400 volumes, and his own archive, which contained such values ​​as the poet’s correspondence (about 2000 letters), manuscripts, albums with drawings by V. A. Zhukovsky , A. P Elagina , A. A. Voyeykova and M. A. Moyer . Portraits of Pushkin’s friends and acquaintances, the works of K.P. Bryullov , A.P. Bryullov , G. von Reitern , F.A. Moller , E. Bouchardi, V. Gau, and drawings by N. A. Bestuzhev , passed from Zhukovsky to Onegin. M. Yu. Lermontov , A. A. Ivanov , O. A. Kiprensky , T. G. Shevchenko . Letters from Onegin from I. S. Turgenev were preserved, the writer handed over to Alexander Fedorovich about 40 photographs, a collection of essays with dedicatory inscriptions, portraits. Gradually, the apartment on the street. Marignan turned into a museum dedicated to Russian literature as a whole, the volume of the library increased to more than 3,500 volumes. Autographed books by I. S. Aksakov , J. P. Polonsky , F. N. Glinka , A. A. Delvig , M. M. Speransky , A. K. Tolstoy , and J. Byron were purchased from antique dealers and second-hand book dealers . , L. Beethoven , R. Wagner , P. Merimee , G. Heine , A. Mitskevich , R. Schumann , F. Liszt , E. Zola .

The Onegin Museum was popular in Paris, but enjoyed the greatest popularity among Russian travelers and scientists, although the owner at first was reluctant to allow classes in his museum, the collection of which was always kept in perfect order. In 1908, the museum was visited by a literary historian, the famous Pushkinist B. L. Modzalevsky , seconded by the Commission for the construction of the monument to A. S. Pushkin in St. Petersburg. The scientist made a description of the materials of the museum, which was published upon his return to Russia. ^[one]

In the first years after the revolution of 1917, the collector’s apartment began to serve as a symbol of Russia and a spiritual refuge for emigrants. Onegin’s special album contains autographs of the time - I. A. Bunin , K. D. Balmont , T. P. Karsavina , A. F. Kerensky , V.N. Kokovtsov , P.N. Milyukov , N.K. Roerich .

With age, the passion for collecting did not fade away from A.F. Onegin, but he began to look for a way to preserve the collection for posterity. He did not want this museum, created for decades in a foreign land and Russian in content, to remain outside of Russia, therefore he was increasingly inclined to the idea of ​​handing it over to Russian state institutions.

In 1907, Russian Minister of Finance Count V. N. Kokovtsov raised the question of acquiring a collection for the Pushkin House in St. Petersburg, which was established two years earlier. On May 15, 1909, an agreement was concluded with Onegin, according to which the collection passed into the state ownership of Russia with the condition of life-long use of it by Onegin. He, in turn, was obliged to admit to the museum staff sent by the Commission on the publication of the works of A.S. Pushkin to the Academy of Sciences and provide photocopies of manuscripts at the request of the Commission. The collector was paid 10,000 rubles at a time and a lifetime pension of 6,000 rubles was assigned annually to replenish the collection. Payments were made until 1918, until communication with Paris was interrupted.

After the revolution in Russia, Onegin’s decision did not change. In 1920, he wrote a will confirming the right of the Russian Academy of Sciences to assembly, bequeathed to the Academy and the capital that would remain after his death. The will also provided for all the precautions necessary when transporting property to Russia. After the Soviet government established relations with France, Onegin was paid 100,000 francs on December 7, 1922, and the collection became the property of the RSFSR . The act of the final transfer of the Onegin collection to the representative of the USSR Academy of Sciences took place on October 26, 1927 in Paris, the following year all property was transferred to Leningrad. An exhibition of the most remarkable exhibits was arranged at the Pushkin House.

Subsequently, the once united collection was divided, now some of the exhibits are in the All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin in St. Petersburg, the library of the Academy of Sciences , the State Hermitage Museum . In 1995-1997, the exhibition "The Shadow of Pushkin adopted me ..." was organized at the Pushkin House, dedicated to the anniversary of the Pushkin House and the 150th anniversary of the birth of A.F. Onegin. Museum collections were temporarily reunited at the exhibition.

• Pushkin House. History of creation
• Diary of B. L. Modzalevsky, 1908 - The fundamental electronic library “Russian literature and folklore”
• OTTO-ONEGIN Al-dr Fed. (unavailable link) (unavailable link from 06/14/2016 [1147 days]) Article in the Russian Humanitarian Encyclopedic Dictionary

• Rybakov M. A. Anniversary of Pushkin in Kiev // head of Paris - Kiev (following the traces of archival finds). - Kiev: "Cue", 1999. - S. 176—197. - ISBN 966-7161-23-4 .
• “The shadow of Pushkin adopted me ...” : Manuscripts, books, visual materials, memorabilia from the museum of A.F. Onegin: Exhibition catalog / rev. ed. S. M. Nekrasov. - SPb. 1997. - ISBN 88-7794-077-8 .