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Issues of 2008
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Collection of the Likhachev noble family
The first note of the Likhachev family dates back to XV century. In 1618, Fedor Likhachev fought bravely against the Polish troops of Prince Vladislav near Moscow. In reward for the faithful service, he received a village of Ustinovo in the Kashinsky district ruined during the Time of Troubles. Married to the daughter of the former owner of the village Anastasia Bukhvostova, Fedor Likhachev founded the new family nest in Ustinovo. During the next centuries, the Likhachev family significantly extended their lands in the neighboring Poshekhonsky, Myshkin and Kashinsky districts of the Yaroslavl and Tver regions. Up to the reign of Alexander I (1801–1825), members of the family used to serve in elite military regiments of the Russian Empire. The Likhachevs took part in every war and military campaign that was conducted by Russia through that period. That included wars against Turkey, Prussia, and Sweden, conquest of Poland and Napoleonic wars. Though belonging to the upper middle class and being quite rich, the Lickhahevs still rarely occupied important positions in the civil or military service. The most successful careers were made by Ivan Vasylievich Likhachev (1720–1770) and his youngest son Yakov (1766–1821). By the beginning of the war with Prussia Ivan Likhachev served in the lifeguard Semenovsky regiment in the rank of noncommissioned officer. As the celebrated regiment did not take part in battles, Ivan volunteered infantry troops and left to front line. He distinguished himself in the battle at Kunersdorf and in capture of the fortress Kolberg and received officer’s rank. His went up in the world and in 1765 became the vice-governor of the city of Kazan. Unfortunately, an illness and quick death ended rapidly developing career of Ivan Likhachev. Yakov Likhachev participated in the war with Sweden (1788–1790) and in the Polish campaign of 1792. During fifteen years of military service, he managed to rise to the rank of general-major. At the turn of the centuries, he even commanded the lifeguard Semenovsky regiment for two years. Being seriously wounded in the battle at Austerlitz, Yakov was retired and moved to his estate. However, during the war with Napoleon the general commanded the Yaroslavl volunteer corps, pursued the enemy in Russia and in Europe, took part in the siege of Breslavl and Hamburg. For valour in combat Yakov was rewarded a golden saber, decorated with diamonds as well as Russian and Prussian orders.
Yakov’s elder brother Vasiliy (1761–1802) spent most of his time in his estate Ustinovo in the Yaroslavl region. Both brothers did their best to make the family prosper. They were the first to pay serious attention to modernization and improvement of their estates. As the main family manor — Ustinovo — belonged to the elder brother Vasiliy, in early 1800s Yakov founded his own residence Sosnovets in the northeastern part of the Yaroslavl region in the lands that were granted to the family in the late XVII – early XVIII centuries. In the village Sosnovets Yakov built a house with a mezzanine and a yard surrounded by Ionic columns. The wooden structures of the Likhachev’s estate were lost; only a handful of similar architectural monuments of XVIII and XIX centuries managed to survive up to now. However, the fate of the first wooden house in Sosnovets was not as tragic as the ones of many other manors, which were burned down, destroyed or decayed in Soviet times. In 1840s, the Likhachevs took the old house down and erected a new three-storey brick mansion. However, due to foresight of Yakov Likhachev and his descendants contemporary researchers are aware of the look of the first house. The picture of the manor’s facade became the initial showpiece of the family collection. The family members carefully recorded and collected various architectural plans, sketches and designs connected with construction and buildings activities and development of their estates. The majority of collected documents related to Sosnovets. The founder of the collection Yakov Likhachev died without issue and according to his will, Sosnovets was passed to his elder brother Vasiliy and his family. Vasiliy’s son Grigoriy (1799 – after 1858) decorated the mansion with a stairway with statues of lions and began putting up household outbuildings. Grigoriy Likhachev was a former student of the Moscow University, patron of arts and collector; he traveled a lot and moved in artistic circles of St. Petersburg and Moscow. His hobbies and aesthetic tastes affected building projects in Sosnovets. For example, he designed a poultry-house “for various Russian fowl” as a Gothic chapel. The well-known Petersburg architect L. Charlemagne-II (1784–1845) carried out a dozen of projects for Likhachev including a stable yard. He crowned the classical fa?ade of the main building with a crenellated tower and decorated the side entrances with a sort of rowlock doorways typical for medieval cathedrals. However, the new owner of the estate Ivan Likhachev (1801–1870) completely changed the design of the stable’s facade. In 1830s, Grigoriy moved to Ustinovo and passed Sosnovets to his brother Ivan. By the time, Grigoriy grew cold towards architectural experiments and was much more interested in economic potential of Ustinovo estate that counted eight hundred bondslaves. Interestingly, only two of more than two hundred plans of the Likhachev’s collection relate to Ustinovo. The brothers had different interests in life and thus, devoted themselves to quite different things. Ivan planned to spend all his time in Sosnovets and undertook construction of grand residence in the late Classical style. Ivan’s designs and projects made the bulk of the Likhachev’s collection of architectural plans. The large estate of Ivan Likhachev comprised a great number of household outbuildings, triumphal arches, watchtower with a clock, hospital and a palace-like mansion that was erected around 1850. Ivan built many greenhouses that provided Sosnovets dwellers with pineapples, peaches, pears, mulberry and walnut. Ivan replenished important collections of paintings, weapons and rare books started by his elder brother Grigoriy.
In general, the abolition of serfdom in Russia (1861) did not affect Sosnovets much, as the economic prosperity of the estate depended largely on industrial enterprises — cheese dairies and distilleries that practiced labor of wageworkers, rather than on agriculture. The Sosnovets peasants possessed modern agricultural equipment; managing of the estate was delegated to experienced land-stewards. The owners of Sosnovets did not build much by the time; thus, the gathering of architectural plans and sketches became merely the interesting and important family relic — the monument to the “golden age” of Russian nobility. Revolution of 1917 put an end to Likhachev’s prosperous and smoothly running estates. Cattle yards, cheese dairies, greenhouses and up¬to¬date agricultural equipment in Ustinovo and Sosnovets was nationalized and passed to the newly founded state farms (sovkhoz). For some time those state farms provided its workers with watermelons and melons in autumn and early cucumbers in spring, but soon they decayed and did not differ from their neighbors. In 1920s, the new Soviet owners even tried to keep cattle in the main hall of the mansion. In 1980s, the mansion housed a home for elderly people, and after its closure the locals nearly ransacked the building — they took away doors, window frames and even iron sheets from the roof. “Gothic” benches in the park and cobbled paths and alleys were lost as well. Nowadays the estate in Sonovets represents half a dozen brick carcasses that can hardly be restored. It seems that everything connected with the Likhachev family and their architectural projects is lost forever. However, researchers can still get acquainted with that glorious page in the history of Russian noble estates as Likhachev’s collection was saved by museum staff members of Rybinsk and Poshehonje. That is why there is a hope that the “golden age” of the Likhachev family will escape oblivion.
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