V.P. Kochubey, grand master of ceremonies under Nicholas II, had arranged a special room in his mansion in Tsarskoe Selo as a photograph studio. He had taken numerous photos of the interior rooms and although the furniture and collections had been moved in 1918 to the second and third floors of the Paley palace in TS, subsequently lost, these photos were used in the 1960s to recreate the state rooms. The second floor, three story kitchen and service buildings were redesigned. It would be fascinating to one day see these photographs that survived!
Along with the Kochubey collections, others that were also moved to the Paley palace in 1918 were Vavelberga, Osten-Saken, Stebok-Fermor, Ridger, Belyaeva, Maltsev, etc.
An interesting footnote is that V.I. Yakovlev as head of Detskoe Selo Palace Museums testified in London against the court case brought by Princess Paley in 1926.
Joanna
