Chekmarev, Nikolai Ivanovich

Came from the hereditary nobles of the Tambov province. He graduated from the Vladimir Military Gymnasium (1865) in Kiev, the Nikolaev Engineering School (1868) and the Nikolaev Engineering Academy (1874) in St. Petersburg. For some time he was in the engineering department of the Kiev fortress .

In 1877-1878 he participated in the Russian-Turkish war in the Balkans as part of a combat engineer battalion and the 14th army corps. He distinguished himself in Dobrudja when taking the fortifications of Bazardzhik . He was awarded military awards up to the Order of St. Vladimir of the 4th degree with swords and bow.

Colonel engineer since 1891. He retired with the rank of major general.

In the years 1880-1898 he held the position of architect of the Kiev school district . The review of the trustee of the district noted “the many years of official activity of Colonel Chekmarev, expressed in a number of beautifully erected by him buildings of educational institutions of the District, in his honest and zealous attitude to the service, as well as outstanding abilities and serious knowledge of his work” ^[2] .

After leaving the service, N. I. Chekmarev lived in the town of Gostomel near Kiev, where he had the estate Chekmarev (not preserved). He actively participated in the life of the town, contributed to the construction of public buildings there. Thanks to this, the landowner Chekmarev enjoyed the sympathies of local peasants. In 1920, already an old man, widowed and left without a livelihood, he was admitted to the Gostomel society; later received a land allotment, which he leased. In 1925 he moved to the neighboring summer village of Buchu . The latest available information about N. I. Chekmarev is dated 1926.

As an architect of the school district, he built a number of buildings for various educational institutions (including the building of two gymnasiums in Kiev). Fulfilled also private orders for the construction of residential buildings. When designing the facades, he used the motives of the Neo-Renaissance, the “Russian style”, “brick style”, etc.

Selected Implemented Projects

• The building of the Kiev-Pechersk (5th) gymnasium in Kiev on the street. Suvorov, 1 (goes to the current square of Glory in the area of Pechersk ). The project was drawn up in 1884, construction was carried out in 1885-1886. The facade was decorated in the "Russian style". Originally two-story. In Soviet times, the Road Institute was located here, for which the building in the 1960s was built up to four floors and expanded, the original decor was destroyed.
• The building of the 4th gymnasium in Kiev on Bolshaya Vasilkovskaya street, 96 (formerly house 98); the main facade faces an alley perpendicular to the street. It was erected in 1897-1898 in the area of ​​the New Building ^[3] . Included the home church of St. Nicholas. The facades are decorated in the spirit of the Neo-Renaissance. In 1920, it was damaged by a fire, but was restored and used as a secondary school building, later - the departmental educational institution of the KGB and SBU .
• The extension to the building of the Real School in Kiev in the form of a two-story volume with an assembly hall to the right of the school building on the street. Bolshaya Zhytomyrskaya, 2. Completed in 1894-1895 (Y. V. Krivtsov participated in the design). Now the premises of the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine.
• Profitable House of General Pavlov in Kiev on the street. Pushkinskaya, 33. Built in 1895-1896. Originally three-story, subsequently built on.

In 1890, during the summer maneuvers, N.I. Chekmarev furnished the temporary apartment of Emperor Alexander III in Rivne , for which he was awarded a ring with a royal monogram decorated with diamonds.

• Architect general with outstretched hand

• Kalnitsky M. Architecture and architects. - K .: VARTO, 2012.
• Kiev Pechersk Gymnasium. Report on the state of the gymnasium over the seven-year period of its existence. - Kiev, 1892.