One hundred and thirty years ago, our beloved city found itself at the center of attention for the entire empire at that time. The reasons for this were by no means a scandal or a tragedy, but rather an exceptionally remarkable event. For 20 days—from September 23 to October 12, 1887—Kharkiv hosted the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition. Regional (provincial) exhibitions had already been successfully held in our city prior to that. The first and second All-Russian Agricultural Exhibitions were held in St. Petersburg in 1850 and 1860, followed by one in Moscow in 1864. They emerged as a result of a general upswing in agriculture, the need to modernize crop farming and animal husbandry, and so on. Initially, the Kharkiv Agricultural Society planned to open a regional livestock exhibition in 1886. However, in response, the Ministry of State Property proposed holding not a regional but an All-Russian exhibition, significantly expanding its program. For this purpose, the government allocated a grant of 16,000 rubles. Thus, the Kharkiv exhibition became the first event of its kind held in the provinces. To this end, 51 pavilions were erected not far from the city center on an area of more than 20 hectares in the University Garden and on the adjacent vacant lot of the Veterinary Institute (now Shevchenko Park and Freedom Square). All the buildings were wooden and covered with roofing felt. For the convenience of the public, wooden walkways were installed on the exhibition grounds in case of inclement weather. In addition to the pavilions where exhibits were displayed, the exhibition grounds featured a special structure for ceremonial meetings and receptions for distinguished guests, a bandstand for musicians, two restaurants, kiosks selling newspapers, magazines and scientific literature, as well as kiosks selling soft drinks, tobacco, and food.
In the interest of the exhibitors, the organizing committee secured agreements from several railway administrations to provide free or half-price return travel for participants and the transport of exhibits. A special housing bureau was set up for the exhibition to provide visitors with affordable accommodations. After all, there were 3,654 participants alone. Renowned experts were invited to evaluate the exhibits. There were a total of 83 expert commissions across the exhibition’s various sections, comprising 304 experts. One of the distinctive features of the Kharkiv Exhibition was the presentation of so-called “economic overviews”—that is, displays providing information on the economic condition of individual production units. This “innovation” by the Kharkiv Agricultural Society was subsequently widely adopted in later exhibitions held throughout the empire. In addition, all visitors could not only view the exhibits but also purchase them, which at times turned the exhibition into nothing more than a marketplace.
The entire exhibition—which, without exaggeration, was enormous—was divided into nine thematic sections:
The first section, devoted to livestock farming, consisted of:
The Equine Division, which featured riding, draft, and work horses.
A total of 235 horses were brought to Kharkiv. This figure exceeded the number of horses at all previous exhibitions held over the past ten years, with the exception of the 1882 Moscow exhibition, which featured 300 horses. Four stables were built in the park to accommodate such a large number of animals. A public parade was held daily. Although the General Directorate of State Horse Breeding did not participate in the exhibition and no cash prizes were awarded to the winners, a significant number of the exhibited horses were successfully sold. This success was due primarily to the fact that breeders sought to establish direct contact with consumers. A total of 73 horses were awarded gold, large and small silver, and bronze medals, as well as certificates of merit.
Three pavilions were built for the cattle section. Students from the Veterinary Institute (located nearby) took an active part in both housing the animals and running the exhibition—in other words, to use modern terminology, they served as volunteers. They were on duty, examined sick animals, and so on. Student V. Chosnovsky, who worked tirelessly until the very end of the exhibition, distinguished himself through his exceptional diligence and earned high praise. In total, 193 head of cattle from 15 provinces were presented at the exhibition. Most of the animals—41—came from the Kharkiv province. However, toward the end of the exhibition, a problem arose: it turned out that the animals were infected with foot-and-mouth disease. The staff tried their best to conceal this fact from the veterinarians. When the disease was finally detected, the infected animals were immediately placed in quarantine. Thanks to this, fatalities were avoided.
In the sericulture section, the main focus was on compiling special collections, tables, and illustrations so that visitors could learn about the current state of sericulture in the empire. During the exhibition, cocoons were unwrapped in public every day, accompanied by detailed explanations of the displayed collections. Such events always drew large crowds.
Visitors were simply dazzled by the vast variety of beehives of all kinds, as well as the honey, wax, and the bees themselves, on display in the beekeeping section. A crowd gathered around the Dolinovsky-style horizontal hive, painted white with the words in red letters on the lid: “Feed me until Ivan’s Day, and I’ll make a lord out of you,” drew quite a crowd, who listened with interest as beekeepers shared their knowledge. Twenty-seven exhibitors from nine provinces took part in the exhibition, 14 of whom were from the Kharkiv region.
The exhibits in the sheep breeding section were divided into three sections, which were further subdivided into a number of subsections. A barn, a wash area, and an inspection area were built for 232 sheep (115 rams and 117 ewes).
Despite the large number of invitations sent out by the exhibition organizers, there weren’t very many exhibits or exhibitors in the poultry section. The specially constructed pavilion for birds was an extremely inconvenient, elongated shelter that offered no protection from the weather. Furthermore, the exhibition committee had completely failed to provide separate cages for the animals. For this reason, pigeons, chickens, geese, and ducks were displayed in the very same cages in which they had been brought to the exhibition—cages that were often quite primitive. However, despite the apparent failure of the poultry section, virtually all of its exhibits were sold out.
A total of just 200 pigs (126 of which were piglets), brought from various provinces of the empire, filled the University Garden with their charming grunts. Many exhibits in the pig breeding section were awarded various medals. The highest award—a small gold medal—was won by a sow from the estate of Count Georgy Ivanovich Ribopier of Kharkiv, nicknamed “Opryatnaya.”
The second section of the exhibition featured a vast array of delicious cheeses and dairy products (butter, kefir, milk) from various cheese factories, as well as smoked and dried meats, lard, and canned goods. A total of 148 exhibitors, including international ones, displayed their products, many of which were awarded medals for their high quality. And N. V. Vereshchagin, the inventor of Vologda butter, set up a model workshop for dairy farming equipment, where visitors were treated to demonstrations of how butter and cheese are made.
Cereal, fodder, and industrial crops were successfully showcased in the third section, dedicated to agricultural products. There were 1,822 exhibitors alone, of whom about 1,500 were peasants and small landowners who had sent in collections of their grain through provincial statistical committees, district zemstvo administrations, and other such bodies.
The fourth section was devoted to forestry, horticulture, vegetable gardening, and winemaking, and was just as large as the first section of the exhibition. The first section of this section featured a wide variety of seedlings and seeds of deciduous, coniferous, and shrub species, tree specimens, soil from nurseries, tools, forest maps and plans, herbariums, and printed works on dendrology from 55 exhibitors representing 23 provinces.
The Second Department of Fruit and Ornamental Horticulture delighted its many visitors with seedlings and saplings of fruit and ornamental plants, as well as their seeds, greenhouse and hothouse plants, fresh fruit and bunches of grapes, gardening tools, garden plans and designs, printed and handwritten works on fruit and ornamental horticulture, scientific instruments, and collections from 127 exhibitors who had come to Kharkiv.
Everything related to vegetable and melon gardening—including fresh produce, seeds, tubers, and bulbs—as well as gardening tools from 51 exhibitors awaited and delighted visitors in the third section.
And what delicacies awaited everyone who came to the exhibition in the fourth section! Words cannot describe it.
Various dried fruits and vegetables, jams (including canned pineapples), candy, candied fruit, fruit leather, fruit and berry jellies, pickled plums, and capers—all brought by 39 exhibitors from 19 provinces.
However, the section that attracted the most interest from visitors was the fifth one, which featured drinks made from fruits and berries. At that time, the exhibition in Kharkiv featured a veritable flood of all kinds of wines, fruit liqueurs, infusions, and other alcoholic beverages, presented by 112 exhibitors from 28 provinces. Wines from Prince Lev Sergeyevich Golitsyn, the renowned founder of winemaking in Crimea, were also on display. The winemaker himself was awarded a large silver medal and a diploma inscribed “for excellent examples of white and red Crimean wines and champagnes” in recognition of their high quality.
Various types of flour, bran, all kinds of grains, starch, vegetable oils, sugar, alcohols, beer, and honey were on display in abundance in the agricultural and industrial products section.
The sixth section always displayed agricultural implements and machinery—including foreign ones—that were essential to everyone. The leading manufacturers of all kinds of threshing machines, seeders, winnowers, and other equipment were, of course, awarded medals and certificates of recognition.
The seventh section of the exhibition, which showcased handicrafts, was striking for its variety and diversity. Glassware, jewelry, pottery, firearms and bladed weapons, baskets, shoes, watches, wool, yarn, broadcloth, children’s toys, and musical instruments—this is by no means a complete list of the exhibits in this section. A separate pavilion demonstrated the production of clay roof tiles. Here, visitors could observe the entire manufacturing process for this roofing material on a daily basis.
Mining products (peat, coal, iron ore) and soil amendments were displayed in the eighth section.
The objectives of the ninth research department were:
- to clearly illustrate the recent advances made in the field of scientific agriculture
- to provide an overview of the resources used in the demonstration-based teaching of agricultural subjects (essays, plans, models, collections, and teaching aids in general).
In total, the competitions resulted in the awarding of 97 gold, 162 large silver, 274 small silver, 368 bronze medals, and 320 certificates of merit. The exhibition itself not only paid for itself but also generated a significant profit. Admission tickets alone brought in 28,000 rubles. According to contemporaries, “The Kharkiv exhibition served as further proof that exhibitions can pay for themselves without requiring significant expenditures from the state treasury.”
Summing up the exhibition, V. I. Veshnyakov, Deputy Minister of State Property, said:
Honor and glory to the Kharkiv Agricultural Society, which, though still young compared to other societies and despite its limited resources, managed—thanks to the energy of its members—to successfully organize the first provincial All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition.
Over the course of the event, more than 100,000 people visited the Kharkiv exhibition. Of course, organizing such a massive event wasn’t without its mishaps and mistakes. I’ll be sure to write about them—as well as the successes of the Kharkiv exhibits—in an article two weeks from now. So the best is yet to come—after all, there’s definitely more to come.
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