D.I. Budayev
Ivan Makaraovich Khozerau [21.01(2.02). according to other data, 24.01 (5.02). 1889, Smolensk - 21.03.1947, Minsk], artist, researcher of ancient Russian architecture, museum figure.
Born into a working-class family (his father I.M., Makara Dmitrievich Khozerau, worked as a bondman at a tannery). In 1907, I. Khozerau graduated from the Smolensk Alexander Real School, and from 1908 to 1910, he was a student at the St. Petersburg Psychoneurological Institute (he attended the “higher general education course”). He continued his education at the St. Petersburg School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts (1910) and at the Warsaw Polytechnic Institute (1914-1916), which he did not complete due to the difficult financial situation of his family. From 1916 to 1919, he studied at the Smolensk branch of the Moscow Archaeological Institute (according to other sources, from September 1, 1918, at the Faculty of History of Arts).
Until February 1917, he worked as a lithographer in a printing house, earning a living also through private lessons and fulfilling small artistic orders. In 1918, he was the secretary of the artistic-archaeological department of the All-Russian Executive Committee of the Council of Workers’ and Peasants’ Deputies of the Western Region. In October 1920, due to his failure to conduct proper technical supervision over the execution of orders and the use of materials received by the department, Khozerau was brought to court “on charges of forgery, bribery, and official crimes,” ultimately receiving “a severe reprimand and warning.” Subsequently, he continued to work in the provincial ANO as a technician.
In January 1925, he headed the Smolensk Provincial Museum and the SDAM (the latter initially only temporarily, as Khozerau’s candidacy was not approved by Glavvuz). In February 1927, he was relieved of his position as director of the SDAM, and since the provincial museum was abolished that same year, he was appointed inspector for museum affairs (under the provincial ANO). From July 8, 1929, he was the head of the art gallery of the SDAM, and from September 9 of that year, he again temporarily performed the duties of director of the Smolensk State Museum. In January 1930, with the appointment of A.I. Amosenko as inspector for museum affairs and director of the Western Regional State Museum (ZADM), Khozerau became his deputy (at ZADM). In May 1931, as a result of a purge conducted in the ZADM by the city control commission of the VKP(b) and the Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspection, Khozerau was dismissed from the museum and again brought “to judicial responsibility.” This occurred despite the fact that Khozerau was a very obedient conduit of state policy in the museum affairs of the province. His tenure as head of the provincial museum and inspector for museum affairs marked the first step towards transforming the museums of Smolensk into political and educational institutions. At the same time, being a specialist of quite a high level, Khozerau did much to study the architecture of Smolensk (the bell tower of the Assumption Cathedral, the churches of Peter and Paul, John the Baptist, John the Theologian, Michael the Archangel, the fortress wall) and Belarus (the St. Sophia Cathedral and the Spassky Church in Polotsk; the Annunciation Church in Vitebsk).
I.M. Khozerau (2nd row, on the right) with the staff of the Smolensk Museum
Khozerau combined historical-architectural research with archaeological searches for “lost parts of ancient buildings.” His scientific interests also included the study of icon-painting monuments from the collection of the former museum “Russian Antiquity.” In 1922, Khozerau became a member of the management of the Museum of Old Smolensk, as well as of the society of the same name established by the provincial museum. Later, he was also in the management of the Smolensk Society of Local Lore.
Khozerau actively participated in the artistic life of Smolensk: his works were exhibited at various exhibitions, including the 1st and 2nd exhibitions of the Society of Smolensk Artists (1918, 1919), and in 1926 he became a member of the Smolensk branch of the AHRR. In the late 1930s, Khozerau served as the chairman of the Smolensk Society “Artist” (as of February 1940). Until the very beginning of the war, he covered scientific and cultural events occurring in the region in the provincial periodicals. In 1941, Khozerau presented a report at the plenary session of the Institute of History of Material Culture named after N.Ya. Mara, where he summarized the results of archaeological research on the architectural monuments of Smolensk.
In the summer of 1941, during the German bombing of Smolensk (according to other sources, Minsk), Khozerau’s property was destroyed, including his library and scientific archive. Among the lost were unpublished works by Khozerau, including “Monuments of the Architecture of the Polotsk Borisoglebsky Monastery of the 12th Century,” “Ruins of the Monomakh Temple of 1101 in Smolensk,” and several other manuscripts. From 1944, Khozerau worked at the Academy of Architecture of the USSR, and from 1946, at the Department of Architecture under the Council of Ministers of the BSSR. The last years of his life were spent in Minsk.
In the post-war period, despite serious illness, he managed to participate in new research on the Spaso-Euphrosynus Monastery in Polotsk and wrote several works: “The Smolensk Kremlin,” “New Information on the Architectural Monuments of the 11th-12th Centuries in Polotsk,” “More on Master Peter,” “Architecture and Painting of Western Russia in the 11th-12th Centuries,” and others. Khozerau’s scientific legacy consists of published works in separate editions and periodicals, mainly on the history of architecture in Smolensk and Belarus.
Works:
Archaeological Study of the Monuments of Architecture of Ancient Smolensk // Brief Reports of the Institute of History of Material Culture. – Issue XI. – Moscow; Leningrad, 1945. – pp. 20-26;
Belarusian and Smolensk Architecture of the 11th-12th Centuries. – Minsk, 1994; The City of Smolensk at the Beginning of the 17th Century // Smolensk Defense. 1609-1611. – Smolensk, 1939. – pp. 227-258;
Marks and Stamps of Bricks of Smolensk Architectural Monuments of the Ancient Period // Scientific News of Smolensk State University. – Vol. V. – Issue 3. – Smolensk, 1929. – pp. 167-184;
On the Study of the Structure of the Spassky Church in Polotsk. – Smolensk, 1927;
New Information on the Monuments of Ancient Smolensk // New Information on the Smolensk City Wall. – Smolensk, 1930;
New Documents on the Work of D. Zhilyardi // Architecture of the USSR, 1941, No. 2, p. 63;
Unknown Projects of M.F. Kazakov and D. Zhilyardi Discovered // Rabochy Put, 1941, February 2;
To Protect the Monuments of Antiquity // Rabochy Put, 1940, November 29;
A Monument of Early Italian Renaissance of the 13th Century from the Collection of the Smolensk State Historical and Ethnographic Museum // Works of Smolensk State Museums. – Issue 1. – Smolensk, 1924. – pp. 89-102.
NASHA SLOVA No. 7 (1158) February 12, 2014.