The National Museum of the Republic of Karelia exhibits a model of the Kizhi historical and architectural ensemble. Its exhibition was dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Transfiguration Church on Kizhi Island in 2014. So it happened that the members of the Department of Museum Funds could not but take an interest in the personality of one of the authors of the model, Viktor Petrovich Moseyev (1933 - 1976).
The Kindasovo native, he showed his ability to music and singing since childhood, drawing well. After graduation of the Construction college, he continued his studies at the Leningrad Engineering and Construction Institute (LECI), at the architectural faculty. It was in his student years in Leningrad that he had the idea of creating a model of the Kizhi ensemble. Victor Petrovich was able to implement it a few years later, returning to Petrozavodsk after his graduation of the institute as a specialist architect.
Working with his fellow student, colleague and like-minded Igor Ilyich Mednikov for several years, from 1958 to 1963 they created their masterpiece. Mednikov made a model of the Church of the Intercession (The Pokrov Church), and Moiseev made a model of the Transfiguration Church, bell tower and fence.
Viktor Petrovich’s main workplace was Komunzhilproject (municipal housing project) , where he worked as an architect and participated in the creation of the projects of the Boxing Center, livestock breeding complexes, apartment buildings and other constructions for the city and the republic. He also participated in a competition to create a new coat of arms for the city of Petrozavodsk.
Even before the model of the Kizhi Ensemble was finally completed, the project had already gained public recognition: as a part of the «Soviet section» exhibition it was exhibited in 1967 in Montreal (Canada), later many times presented at city exhibitions.
In 1969, the Kizhi Ensemble model became the property of the National Museum of the Republic of Karelia.
The accounting documents contain an extract from the protocol No. 18 of the Artistic Council of the Production and Art Workshops of the Karelian department of the Art Fund dated September 25, 1969. The members of the Council highly praised the work of the masters: «The model of the Kizhi historical and architectural ensemble made by architects V.P. Moiseev and I. I. Mednikov on a scale of 1:50 on a high artistic level, exactly corresponds to the original».
It is admirable for the thoroughness and accuracy in the creation of every minor detail, and there are hundreds of them in the model. In each of them - warmth and desire to reproduce the beauty seen once on the island of Kizhi.
In addition to the Kizh ensemble, the museum contains models of the Assumption (Dormition) Church in Kondopoga and the house of the peasant Yakovlev, which are also made by Viktor Petrovich Moiseev.
We invite everyone to visit the National Museum of republic of Karelia and see with your own eyes the reduced exact image of the Kizhi Ensemble.