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There are many ways to get to know the Gagauzian culture: you can visit during a national holiday, for example, Hederlez or Kasim, or set off on a journey to Gagauzia landmarks, such as various wineries and fascinating steppe landscapes. On such trips, one cannot help but notice signs of the Gagauz culture, starting from facades of rural houses and finishing with casual acquaintances with very hospitable locals. Of course, such a trip would allow you to get to know Gagauzia, but if you want to get to know the culture more deeply, to know and to understand the region better, then the best choice is to visit a Gagauzian museum. There are quite a few museums in Gagauzia and all of them are interesting in their own way. In this article, we would like to tell you about the very first and the largest (in terms of both its size and relevance) Gagauz museum. This is undoubtedly the National Gagauzian Historical and Ethnographic Museum named after Dmitrii Caracioban, which is located in Besalma.
Dmitrii Caracioban – a Pioneer
In many respects the very existence of Gagauzian museums, not only in Besalma, became possible thanks to one outstanding individual – Dmitrii Caracioban. He was born in 1933, in Besalma, to a poor peasant family. As a young man, he left his native land, entered the Kharkov Civil Engineering College and after that he served in the army in the Far East. He worked as a teacher and as a librarian and studied at an art school. In 1959, he entered the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute (thus becoming the first professional Gagauz writer). In that same year, his poems were published in the book of poems “Budjactan Seslar” (‘The Voices of Budjac’), which opened the era of the professional Gagauz literature.
Upon returning to his native land, he began collecting ethnographic materials about his people. Caracioban was a genius and mastered various types of arts: he was involved in sculpture, painting, writing poetry and filming documentaries. He had a fine appreciation of people and the times in which he lived. Being engaged in parallel in various types of arts, he was very concerned about the fact that the Gagauzians were very few in number and that this unique people with interesting history might disappear unless something was done.
In order to avoid this, he decided to establish the world’s first historical and ethnographic museum of the Gagauz people. Before that of course, there existed small museums at schools and history teachers collected materials. But in 1966 the museum in Besalma opened its doors, thus becoming the very first organized large museum in Gagauzia. Of course, it did not happen overnight and it was not an easy thing to do. Dmitrii Caracioban very thoroughly studied museology and he approached this job with all seriousness. At that time he was familiar with Liudmila Alexandrovna Pokrovskaya – a specialist in Turkic philology, Orientalist scholar, Doctor of Philology, professor, researcher of the language and culture of the Gagauz. They helped each other in every possible way in their activities.
Dmitrii Caracioban designed a large museum himself. When the walls and the roof were raised, he, forgetting himself, his family and everything else, went all out for the museum. One day he went to the attic and said: “I am so happy that it seems that if I jump off now I will not fall, but will fly”.
His dream came true – to see tourists from all over world in these halls, to hear languages from all over the world in Besalma, so that the whole world would know about the Gagauzians.
Not only Dmitrii Caracioban collected exhibits himself but he also inspired others to do that. People from neighbouring villages began to bring him exhibits despite the lack of transport. He engaged in activities difficult for that time – he corresponded with European scientists, wrote to Bulgarians and Poles and he began to receive letters, the scientific community started to take interest in him.
He was greatly inspired by the writings of Valentin Mashkov – the Russian ethnographer, lieutenant general, and an associate member of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society. He photographed his books, entire volumes, to keep them in the museum.
Dmitrii Caracioban was very demanding of himself. He could work on a certain piece for years and then destroy it in five minutes because he looked at his work with new, more mature eyes. His wife Zinaida played an important role in the preservation of his works, paintings and sculptures. When she saw that he put something aside in order to destroy it later, she hid the piece in the old stove or in some corner in the attic.
During his lifetime, he made many films, which now could only be seen in the museum. The most often shown film is his documentary about wedding rites of the Gagauz. And even though the film lasts for only 12 minutes, it took him 5 years to make it. Nowadays, in the era of compact digital cameras, it is difficult even to imagine what a herculean task Dmitrii Caracioban performed. In the 1960’s, they used film and cameras were bulky and heavy. He had to carry all the equipment on foot across the Ialpug River to Congaz, where he collected materials.
As soon as he heard there was a wedding somewhere, he went there straight away. Quite often people were not happy about that and did not allow him to film. It was believed that if someone interfered with ceremonies, it could lead to trouble. People were very meticulous about their customs and did not want any outsiders. He returned from weddings hungry and tired but very happy: “When I think what value I bring! What this work will turn into”!
Dmitrii Caracioban devoted his entire soul to the museum. He had a tremendous influence on people around him; and he himself treated every person, be it a shepherd or a big boss, as a unique phenomenon. He said that every soul is an entire world, just talk to a person. After meeting him, a person was elated and felt his or her importance in this world. People kept coming to the museum to talk to him.
In 1986, Dmitrii Caracioban passed away. He lived a bright life; his legacy is his invaluable contribution to preservation and development of the Gagauz culture and Gagauz identity. There are people who look far into the future, who feel the time, who respond to it. Dmitrii Caracioban was exactly such a person. He set the trend for preservation of the Gagauz as an ethnic group and after that, museums began to appear in various towns and villages of Gagauzia. Any historical and ethnographic museum is a possibility to look into one’s own or someone else’s past, without which there can be no future.
The Museum Now
The museum named after Caracioban is located in the very centre of Besalma, literally a few meters from the church, so it is very easy to find it. If you walk around it, a wide panorama opens up to the valley of the Ialpug River, which sweeps from the village Ialpug in the North and flows into the lake Ialpug in Ukraine. If you look in the opposite direction, at the top of the hill you can notice a windmill that dates back to 1930’s, which is another landmark of Besalma. There is a monument to Caracioban in front of the museum.
All visitors to the museum who warned about their visit in advance are greeted, according to the local custom, at the doorstep with bread and salt. If you come to Besalma in summer, when it is very hot, you would be especially pleased to find yourself in the cosy coolness of a Gagauz house. There are four large rooms and a conference room where you can watch documentaries.
Each room has exhibits on a specific theme. Thus, in the first room there are artefacts that tell the story of the origin of the Gagauz. These are preserved documents, books, tools of a trade. The second room is the room of ethnography. A Gagauz courtyard is recreated there – household utensils, traditions and sculptures. By the way, despite the fact that it is the second room, one enters it immediately while entering through the front door of the museum. The third and the fourth rooms tell about the war, famine and formation of Gagauzia, about the emergence and formation of the Gagauz alphabet and writing. The museum tells us about creative activities of local poets, writers and artists, and their works can be seen in the fourth room. And of course, one can see paintings and sculptures by Dmitrii Caracioban. The fifth room is a conference room, where films are shown. In addition to films, there is an exhibition of artefacts that tell about traditions and customs, about the period of shamanism and about ancient festivities that people used to celebrate several centuries ago. There are about 20 thousand exhibits in the museum which tell us about different periods and important events in the history of Gagauzia.
The museum is designed in such a way that a visitor makes a circle from the first room to the fifth room and when leaving the fifth room one comes into a corridor where it all began. As a rule, an excursion lasts for about an hour, but it seems that you have just returned from an exciting journey.
Why are museums important?
The Caracioban museum is very popular and tourists from all over the world have visited it. What is no less important, is that the museum is interesting not only for foreign tourists but also for the people from the entire Gagauzia who visit it. Schoolchildren come here for excursions, adult Gagauzians who have not yet visited it, also yearn to come to this museum.
We talked to Maria Ivanovna Capacli, researcher of the Caracioban museum, in order to find out why this museum is so important. “It is often said that this is the Besalma museum, but this is far from the case. This is the national Gagauz historical and ethnographic museum named after Dmitrii Caracioban. Of course, if in some locality there is a cultural centre of such a level, with such a wealth of materials, it is of paramount importance.
Guests come to visit us from all over the world, they all want to see how our people live. Tourists are invited to houses of local residents, where the guests take pictures of how the Gagauzians work, how they celebrate their holidays. And all that is then disseminated all over the world.
Maria Ivanovna Capacli
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, Valentin Mashkov worked in Besalma. He compiled dictionaries and dialects of the Gagauz; all his materials were collected here. If people want to learn who the Gagauz are, they come to Besalma”.
“Students come here to prepare their graduation theses, and scientists come to collect materials for their scientific articles. Scientific conferences are held here. Liudmila Dmitrievna Caracioban-Marin, Dmitrii’s daughter, works here. Whenever she learns that somewhere there is some scientific work, some exhibits that are valuable for us, she does her best in order to enrich the collection of the museum. Each employee has to bring 10 exhibits to the museum a year. Local residents also bring exhibits, especially elderly people; they often have a lot of interesting things at their houses. We take pictures of them, put down data and replenish our collection”.
“Last year there was a lull, but even that summer people managed to find an opportunity to come and visit our museum. These were mostly people from Chisinau and from the North of Moldova. We even learned more about each other – the Moldovan people and the Gagauz people. It turns out that we have a lot in common, for example, we have a holiday of Pipiruda, and the Moldovans have Paparuda. There are certain differences in how we celebrate them, but they are really small”.
“The Baurci Gagauzians visited us. They live in Moscow and they said: “Being so far from our motherland we are tormented by the question – we do not know who we are. We do not know ourselves”. They set a goal for themselves, that as soon as they come to Gagauzia, the first thing they will do is visit our museum. They were very satisfied and said that they would definitely come back again. Even their lifestyle changed a little bit, because they live among people of a different culture; but here in the museum we touched on the most important thing – their Gagauziness”.
“We feel that the museum is needed. It unites all the people. No matter where our people go, they still strive to return home and to visit our museum at least once, as pilgrims”.
