Seven separate rooms have been allocated under constant exposure, where relics of the noble family have been gathered, who had lived in the 19th century. There is authentic furniture, which has once decorated the drawing-room of the nobles, photos of their estates in the Osipovichi’s District Museum of Local Lore, History and Economy, museum of the Daraganovo agricultural settlement, named after the noble family. But, according to the words of the Head of the Osipovichi’s Museum, Antonina Stepanova, they have dreamed of a separate exposition for a long time. In due course the Daragan family made a lot for this land. In 1892, the State Counsellor Osip Daragan, who bought land not far from Osipovichi together with his brother and sister, built, in spite of estates, a railway together with them. It was recommended to extend the experience in the whole Russian Empire — to give private persons licenses on construction of railways at their own expense. Matvey Daragan, who had come from the Bobruisk’s District, gave people pieces of land. His sister cured them with herbs, made peasant children literate — she selected some rooms in the estate under the school. Thanks to the nobles, a saw-mill, a brandy kitchen, a steam powered mill, grocery shops appeared…
The descendant of the noble family Andrey Daragan and his wife have come to Osipovichi not for the first time. Last time he brought more than 300 family relics: a service on 72 persons, a rocking-chair, a carpet, snowshoes, in which his great-grandfather had gone hunting.
A lot of the things date from the 19th century. Old furniture and household items from the family collection have made a basis for the Exposition of the Daragan Family, the interior of which maximally conveys the atmosphere of that time. At the official opening of the exposition Andrey Daragan has promised to come here this summer. With presents again. And perhaps with other descendants of the noble family, who are living now in Saint-Petersburg, America and France.
By Olga Kislyakova
