Article

Name: Arkadiy Andreevich Mukhin and “The Holiday of the Constitution”

Authors: O. E. Rubinchik

Independent Researcher, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

In the section Literary Plot, Document and Biographical Fact

Abstract: Some unknown pictures of an outstanding person and teacher Arkadiy Mukhin (1867–1942) are published in the article. Two of the pictures were taken on December 6, 1936, when Mukhin took part in a demonstration in honour of a new constitution adopted in the USSR in the midst of Stulin's terror. The question is, if he shared a celebratory mood of the crowd. Mukhin taught ancient languages, Russian and literature at the Imperial gymnasium for boys in Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg, poet Nikolay Gumilyov was one of his pupils. From 1896 to 1905 Mukhin worked under the supervision of the poet Innokentiy Annenskiy, who served as the principal of this gymnasium back at the time. Annenskiy became a friend of the Mukhins. Letters written by Annenskiy to Mukhin’s wife are a valuable source for getting a vision of the unique poet's personal life and work. Mukhin wrote an obituary in memory of Annenskiy. The article contains information of the relationships between Mukhin and Annenskij, as well as a detailed biographical background of Mukhin, with the help of which one can trace his movement upwards from a peasant to an actual state councillor, which is equal to a general rank and grants the right to inherit the title of nobility. Also the article tells the readers about his life during Soviet times. After the revolution of 1905 during unrest among students, Mukhin was appointed as a principal at a “rebellious” Larinskaya gymnasium of Saint Petersburg. He served as the principal of this gymnasium until 1918 when it was closed. “The 1917 report on Larinskaya gymnasium of Petrograd” written by him to the People’s commissariat for education shows that at the end Mukhin worked in terrible conditions, keeping an amazing presence of mind and striving to maintain the quality of gymnasium training and education. The article contains some excerpts from this report and other archival documents. In future Mukhin had to be in charge of an orphanage, school, and later on he worked as an ordinary Russian language and literature teacher. Mukhin and his wife died in Leningrad in the first winter of the siege.Not a single statement by Mukhin about his attitude to the Soviet power is known, but according to the memories of his last students given in the article it is clear that he was not afraid of teaching them the poems of banned and semi-banned poets and even during Stalin’s time tried to keep pre-revolutionary quality of teaching.

Keywords: arkadiy mukhin, innokentiy annenskiy, the imperial nikolaevskaya gymnasium for boys in tsarskoye selo, larinskaya gymnasium, leningrad unified labor school no. 204 (no. 2), stalin’s terror, 1936 constitution of the ussr

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