Translating V.I. Yakovlev's 1928 "The Alexander Palace-Museum in Detskoye Selo"

[PLEASE, if you take part in the translation, LEAVE A MESSAGE HERE to indicate which section you're working on so we don't duplicate our efforts.]

I'm very happy to tell you that Joanna has been generous enough to share digital copies of V.I. Yakovlev's extremely rare Russian book The Alexander Palace-Museum in Detskoye Selo, published in 1928. All she's asking in return is help in translating the text. Joanna's forwarded a number of images to me, and I'll post them here a few at a time for anyone with Russian/English skills to assist with. Each section contains a description of one room, often accompanied by a list of the pictures and artwork on the walls and tabletops. There are also photos of some of the rooms and/or the artwork and objects they housed.

Each section of text is numbered to correspond with these floorplans:


 


At my request, we'll start with the children's wing. Beginning in the upper left corner of the second floor plan, this is room No. 12, "The Playroom of the Heir."

pgs 396-397:


pgs 398-399:



I'll add more pages as we progress, and/or as we gain translators.

PLEASE, if you take part in the translation, LEAVE A MESSAGE HERE to indicate which section you're working on so we don't duplicate our efforts.


I am very, very excited about this, and grateful to Joanna for her generosity! As you'll soon see, this book is a treasure trove.

Sarah,

HOW WONDERFUL OF YOU ALL! I'll make you guys a deal.  When you get the book finished, I will put it up under the Books section of the main ATPM site, and will of course give credit to all who helped out.

I think this way it can be made available to a wider interested audience

You guys are too cool.

Thanks

Rob

Thanks Rob!

The book is LONG -- 500+ pages -- so we'll need a tremendous group effort to pull this off. I'm committed to helping with NAOTMAA's private wing, but beyond that I simply don't have the time.

I truly hope anyone with interest will help out. Some of us who translated the AP floorplans a couple years ago were novices, relying solely on dictionaries and online translators, so please, don't feel intimidated. Help is welcome. If your local library has a Russian-English dictionary, come aboard!

We have two copies of Yakovlev here (one original one later reprint).   I know its a huge volume.  Anything you guys do, I'll put up, as some is better than none.

I can work on p. 398-399

Here is page 398:

...a plush dog made from white wool, with red ears and spots all over its body, on wheels, with a mechanism which makes noise - given as a gift by the German Emperor Wilhelm. A model of the cossack village. The fable of Krylov 'Quartet', cut out of wood, model of the dock, etc.
 
Besides this there are various children's games and man different toys and small knickknacks.
 
Paintings:
 
Zembinsky, L. 

769     In the mountains under Alupka (signed on bottom left Louizet 1909).
           Size  0,505 x 0,32. Pastel.

 769    Rocky shore of the Crimea.
          (signed lower right Louizet)
          Size  0,262 x 0,36. Pastel.
 
Kravchenko, N.I. (artist, belletrist and art critic)
 
770    Portrait of Nicholas II.
         (signed in upper right N.Kravchenko 1910)
         Size 0,535 x 0,442, Pastel.
 
Kramskaya-Yunker, S. (born 1870)  Russian school.

771   (signed lower right S. Kramskaya-Yunker).
        Size 0,35 x 0,29  Oval. Pastel and watercolor.

The digitalized disc of V.I. Yakolov’s 1928 Alexander Palace book was a very special gift from a dear friend whose time and effort in producing this version is beyond words to convey my thanks. With the help of so many here, we will be able to share and thus honor the incredible work of V.I. Yakolov in both Russian and now English translations amongst us and future members.

My many thanks to Sarushka.
Joanna   

[N 13. Bedroom of the Heir.]

P. 399

Skryagin, A.
 
The Yacht Standart.
(signed lower right A. Skryagin).
Size 0,355 x 0,505 M. x.
 
Reproduction as heliogravure from the paitings of artists and photograph of Nicholas II after a hunt next to a deer holding game, the latter again in the park in the summer, Alexandra Fedorovna in Transund with daughter in 1905, and baptismal portrait of their son in Peterhof August 11, 1904, finishing the decorations.
 

N 13. Bedroom of the Heir.

The walls are painted with white oil paint, just as the ceiling connected with a flat [board?]. There are four curtains on the windows - the first is [sheer?] white connected to the second satin blue one through the lining, the third - made from cloth and floor length, and last one chintz.

On the left side wall - a [?] fireplace in the emperial style; this is the sole source of heat in this room, if you don't count the electric heaters; although the latter were in the previous room too, but beside them there was also central heating. By the same wall, near the fireplace, - a sink made from white marble. Here, by the fireplace, on the...

[gauze]

Additions to Helen_A's translatiuon

There are four curtains on the windows - the first is white gauze connected to the second satin blue one through the lining, the third - made from cloth and floor length, and last one chintz.

On the left side wall - a tile fireplace in the emperial style;

[gauze]

Additions to Helen_A's translatiuon

There are four curtains on the windows - the first is white gauze connected to the second satin blue one through the lining, the third - made from cloth and floor length, and last one chintz.

On the left side wall - a tile fireplace in the emperial style;

Thank you!

Thank you Helen!

I've had some family crap come up in addition to a project to finish, so I probably won't be able to help out for another week or two.

In the meantime, here's the adjoining page on Aleksei's bedroom:

Ok, I will start working on this one today...

P. 400

"Here, by the fireplace, is a special core from which small canes with rubber ends, which the boy used when his leg pained him, are hung.

Modern red wood furniture made to resemble wax, with seats covered with English chintz with pictures of roses. Sliding window curtains are made from the same chintz.  A child's bed made from maplewood, is perpendicular to the right side wall, instead of the one which was taken to Tobolsk, it is covered with a hand-knitted blanket.

In the back corner - a kiot (type of iconostasis) with six parts, with closed small shutters on the bottom, painted with ivory oil paint. The entire kiot is filled with modern icons with carvings or [...?], small images, crosses, mainly of St Alexei - the Metropolit of Moscow; most of the icons are gifts from various organizations, monasteries, nobility and private persons.

Easter eggs - porcelain and wooden - hang along the columns of the kiot. On the shelf of the kiot - a bible, presented on 27 March, 1905 (during the Japanese War) by the wounded soldiers [...?] at the Morozov Infirmary in Moscow. The drawers of the kiot are all equally full of icons, wooden and laquer Easter eggs, presented by old-ceremony community (?), etc.

Among the icons, one - a gift to the heir... "

The entire kiot is filled with modern icons with riza or oklad, small images, crosses, mainly of St Alexei

From Wikipedia:
A riza (Russian: риза, "robe") or oklad (оклад) is a metal cover protecting an icon.

by the wounded god father soldiers at the Morozov Infirmary in Moscow

"God father soldiers" isn't a very good translation, but don't know how else to say it :-)

The entire kiot is filled with modern icons with riza or oklad, small images, crosses, mainly of St Alexei

From Wikipedia:
A riza (Russian: риза, "robe") or oklad (оклад) is a metal cover protecting an icon.

Thanks, I think I read "риза" as "рeза" and I had no idea what "оклад" was!

"God father soldiers" isn't a very good translation, but don't know how else to say it :-)

Yeah, that sounds kind of weird. Wikipedia is not always the best source...