Metadata: S. B. Iudovin (Yudovin)
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- Russian Museum of Ethnography
- Holding institution (official language):
- Российский этнографический музей
- Postal address:
- Inzhenernaya St, 4/1, Sankt-Peterburg, Russia, 191011
- Phone number:
- (812) 313-45-74
- Web address:
- http://www.ethnomuseum.ru/
- Email:
- info@ethnomuseum.ru
- Reference number:
- Collection 6412
- Title:
- S. B. Iudovin (Yudovin)
- Title (official language):
- Юдовин С. Б.
- Creator/accumulator:
- S. B. Iudovin (Yudovin)
- Date(s):
- 1913/1939
- Language:
- Russian
- Hebrew
- Extent:
- 48 storage units
- Type of material:
- Graphic material
- Scope and content:
- The collection includes sketches and engravings showing traditional Jewish ornaments, presumably made by S. B. Iudovin from tombstones (1924-35) and from the title pages of pinkasim of the Jewish communities of the cities and towns of Liubar (undated), Berestechko (1782), Olyka (1794), Starokonstantinov (1897), Kremenchug (1815), Kremenets (1826), and others.
- Archival history:
-
The standalone Department of Ethnography of Ukraine, Belorussia, and Foreign Slavs was opened in June 1923 (headed by B. G. Kryzhanovskii) within the structure of the State Russian Museum. The department housed museum collections previously assembled by specialists in Slavic and Romance ethnography: F. K. Volkov, I. A. Zaretskii, A. A. Miller, N. M. Mogilianskii, K. K. Romanov, A. K. Serzhputovskii, and others. As early as 1921, the State Russian Museum had organised exhibits with materials on the ethnography of Ukrainians, Belorussians, and foreign Slavs. Exhibition operations in the 1930s were characterised by the search for new ways of showing not only prerevolutionary but also modern life. Thus in 1931 the exhibit “The Ukrainian village, before and after October” was opened (section head: B. G. Kryzhanovskii; research associates: M. A. Fride, A. I. Zarembskii, A. Ia. Duisburg, and A. M. Kolakovskaia). In 1932, the exhibit “Belorussia and the Belorussian SSR” was set up (section head: A. K. Supinskii; research associates: A. Ia. Duisburg and I. F. Freiberg).
The history of the development of the State Museum of Ethnography as an independent institution begins in 1934. In 1937, on the initiative of D. M. Pozdneev, S. O. Gruzenberg, and A. K. Supinskii, a Jewish section was established within the Belorussian department of the State Museum of Ethnography. It was initially tasked with constructing the “Jews in Tsarist Russia and in the USSR” exhibit, which would operate from March 1939 to June 1941 (head of the Jewish Section: I. M. Pul’ner; research associates: M. O. Shakhnovich, E. I. Bril’; artists: G. N. Traugot, S. B. Iudovin, I. A. Korotkov, and others). After the war, the Jewish Section was eliminated, and Jewish subjects were tacitly barred from the museum’s exhibit activities for several decades. After perestroika, thanks to the efforts of L. B. Uritskaia, chief curator of the State Museum of Ethnography, as well as museum staff members T. Emel’ianenko, V. Dmitriev, N. Prokop’eva, and others, several exhibits were organised featuring materials from Jewish collections, and in particular, items collected during the expeditions of S. An-skii; these exhibits included “Images of a People: Jewish Collections of the Russian Museum of Ethnography” (Russian Museum of Ethnography, 2004), “Following An-skii’s Trail: The Life of the Jewish Town in Tsarist Russia” (Jewish Historical Museum [Amsterdam], 1992); “Back to the Shtetl: An-skii and the Jewish Ethnographic Expeditions of 1912-14” (Israel Museum [Jerusalem], 1994); “Facing West. The Jews of Central Asia and the Caucasus” (Jewish Historical Museum [Amsterdam], 1998); etc. The Russian Museum of Ethnography currently features the permanent exhibit “Jews in the Russian Empire,” which was opened in 2004 (authors: L. B. Uritskaia and S. M. Iakerson).
- Administrative/biographical history:
- This collection was acquired in 1939 by I. M. Pul’ner from the graphic artist and ethnographer Solomon Borisovich (Shloyme Borukhovich) Iudovin (1892-1954). S. B. Iudovin was born in the town of Beshenkovichi (Lepel’ county, Vitebsk province) to the family of a Jewish artisan. In 1906 he began studying at the Vitebsk School of Drawing and Painting of Yehudah Pen. In 1910, through the efforts of his uncle S. An-skii, he moved to St. Petersburg, where he studied at the School of the Society for Encouragement of the Arts; concurrently, from 1911 to 1913, he took lessons in the private Petersburg art studios of E. Zvantseva, M. Bernshtein, and M. Dobuzhinskii. He worked in the photography and zincography studio “Union.” In 1912-14, he served as a photographer and artist in the historical-ethnographic expeditions led by S. A. An-skii. In 1916-18, his works were shown at exhibits of the Jewish Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. From 1918 to 1925, he lived in Vitebsk, where he taught at the art school and the Jewish Pedagogical Technicum. In 1920, he co-published, with the artist M. Malkin, an album of linocuts titled Jewish Folk Ornament [Yidisher Folks-Ornament] (published by the Vitebsk Yitskhok Leybush Peretz Society). In 1923, after a conflict with the art school’s director K. Malevich over new methods of teaching, S. B. Iudovin and Yehudah Pen left the school. In 1924, Iudovin moved to Leningrad, where he worked as the head curator in the Museum of the Jewish Historical-Ethnographic Society until its closure in 1929. From 1925-30, he illustrated works by Sholem Aleichem, Mendele Moykher-Sforim, Dovid Bergelson, A. Svirskii, S. Rosenfel’d, Doyvber Levin, L. Rakovskii, Egon Erwin Kisch, and others. In the late 1930s, he worked with I. M. Pul’ner and the staff of the Jewish Section of the State Museum of Ethnography to construct the “Jews in Tsarist Russia and in the USSR” exhibit; he executed sketches of Jewish ornaments for stucco panels in the exhibition hall, took part in designing the scenes “The prerevolutionary Jewish town” and “Purimspiel,” and was a member of the museum commission in charge of acquiring items for display in the exhibit. In 1939, he made a trip to the Belorussian SSR, where he sketched the costumes of participants in Purimspiels in the town of Kalinkovichi; these would also be displayed in the exhibit. In 1941-42, he was in Leningrad during the Siege; in this period he worked on a cycle of engravings titled Leningrad in the Days of the Great Patriotic War. He was subsequently evacuated to the village of Karabikha near Iaroslavl’. In 1944, he returned to Leningrad, where he worked as an illustrator of classic works of Russian and foreign literature. S. B. Iudovin’s works were exhibited in the USSR and abroad.
- Access points: locations:
- Berestechko
- Kremenchug
- Kremenets
- Liubar
- Olyka
- Russia
- Starokonstantinov
- Access points: persons/families:
- Iudovin, S.
- System of arrangement:
- The collection includes an inventory without any apparent systematisation.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
