Gerasimov, Mikhail Ivanovich

Origin and childhood

Mikhail Ivanovich Gerasimov was born on October 14 (26), 1868 in Novorzhev . His father, Ivan Vasilyevich Gerasimov, kept a teahouse there, but soon after the birth of his son Mikhail, he went bankrupt and moved with his family to Pskov. Mother, Evdokia Nikolaevna Gerasimova, was the daughter of the Opochka merchant Nikolai Baryshnikov. In Pskov, the father of Mikhail Gerasimov got a job as a bell ringer in the Church of the New Ascension . The future photographer grew up in a gatehouse building adjacent to the northern part of the temple. In addition to the elder Mikhail, the family had three more children, Alexander, who later also became a photographer, Tatyana and Nikolai. After the death of her husband, Evdokia Nikolaevna Gerasimova returned with her children to her homeland .
Later, one of the relatives took Mikhail Ivanovich to St. Petersburg , attaching a merchant to work in the Gostiny Dvor . Gerasimov returned to Pskov only in the early 1890s.

Mature years

In September 1894, Gerasimov opened a photo studio together with the island merchant Sergei Ivanovich Sudoplatov, but at the beginning of the next century, Mikhail Gerasimov became the sole owner of the photo. The reverse side of the photographs of Mikhail Gerasimov was framed with the image of a camera, a palette with brushes, a flower, and the signature “Modern Photograph by M.I. Gerasimov in Pskov”.
The photograph was located in the center of Pskov along Sergievskaya Street in the house of Larionov ^[1] . The son of a photographer Nikolai Mikhailovich Gerasimov recalled:

“The photograph was in the back of the courtyard, overlooking the former Sergievskaya street against the Hotel Petersburg, and located next to the courtyard of the Church of Mikhail the Archangel . In the same courtyard was a small one-story building, facing the pediment on the street, next to the gate "

The wife of the photographer, Alexandra Nikolaevna, at the same address was a large store of ladies' and children's dresses ^[2] .
In 1903, Mikhail Ivanovich opened a store of children's toys, paintings, albums in Pskov ^[3] . Later, he opens the only children's toy store in the county town of Ostrov along Polotsk Street in Tyagunov’s house ^[4] . Gerasimov made acquaintance with many young and famous artists, including Roerich , Brodsky, Hagenmeister, Yuon , Protopopov , Meshkov , who visited him ^[5] .

Pskov photographer

Mikhail Ivanovich Gerasimov is famous for having issued the largest number of postcards with views of pre-revolutionary Pskov ^[6] . Photos and postcards were printed at the printing house of K.-A. Granberg in Stockholm. " Pictures were placed on cardboard mats (10.8 × 16.5 cm). Photography was not the main source of income for Gerasimov, but occupied an important role in his life. The imprinting of many ancient monuments and the urban environment in the pictures gave descendants the opportunity to look into Pskov at the beginning of the 20th century, which has been largely lost today, and restorers have a unique chance to study photographs of restored objects. Mikhail Ivanovich Gerasimov understood the significance of his work, as evidenced by his other hobby - collecting antiquities.

Antique

Mikhail Ivanovich collected antique household items. Traveling in the province, he was interested in Russian culture, history, tried to find, buy and preserve objects of antique value. Nikolai Mikhailovich Gerasimov recalled:

“When traveling around the provinces when photographing, he searched everywhere for antiques, questioned residents about them, rummaged around in the chests of old women, in junk trash, and brought home old“ ribbons ”, kokoshniks, soul cloaks, sarafans, oak painted iron caskets and chests with outlandish castles. Wooden buckets-brothers in the form of geese-swans, ancient icons, semi-decayed leather-bound books, cups, lamps. In a word, he was assembling a home museum for himself. ”

In January 1906, the Pskov Archaeological Society accepted Mikhail Gerasimov into the competing members of the society. The next year, he presented the society with 500 postcards with views of Pskov.

The last years of life

After the February Revolution, German troops approached Pskov, income from shops and photographs fell sharply, and the Gerasimov family left for Nizhny Novgorod . The eldest son Nikolai served in the army of Yudenich in 1917-1918, and later settled in Tallinn, where he died on April 20, 1978. Due to the famine in the Volga region , Alexandra Nikolaevna went to find out about the possibility of returning to Pskov, but on the way she became ill with typhus and died at the Dno station . In 1923, Mikhail Ivanovich Gerasimov committed suicide.

• Father - Ivan Vasilyevich Gerasimov;
• Mother - Evdokia Nikolaevna Gerasimova (Baryshnikova), daughter of the Opochka merchant Nikolai Baryshnikov;
• Brother - Alexander Ivanovich Gerasimov (1883-1933), photographer, repressed on April 12, 1933, died on August 25 of the same year in the camps, rehabilitated in 1959 ^{[7] [8]} ;
• Sister - Tatyana Ivanovna Gerasimova;
• Brother - Nikolai Ivanovich Gerasimov;
• Wife - Alexandra Nikolaevna Gerasimova (Varfalameeva), born in 1873;
• Son - Nikolai Mikhailovich Gerasimov, born on October 7 (19), 1898;
• Daughter - Zinaida Mikhailovna Gerasimova, born in September 1902;
• Son - Vladimir Mikhailovich Gerasimov, was born, presumably, in 1905.

• Levin N.F. Pskov photographer M.I. Gerasimov // Scientific-practical historical-local lore: journal / Ch. ed. Filimonov A.V .. - Pskov: Pskov State University, 2014. - No. 40 . - S. 127-135 . - ISSN 2219–7923 .