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- Threads and hopes: the college in Sudzha, destroyed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, was revived in Kursk
Threads and hopes: the college in Sudzha, destroyed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, was revived in Kursk
Sudzhansky College of Arts is one of the cultural pride of the Kursk region. For decades, the ancient traditions of local song, pottery and unique handmade carpet weaving, which are about 400 years old, have been preserved here. After the attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, students and teachers had to leave the border town, and the training base was abandoned. A year later, the college gained new walls in Kursk. Together with him, rare crafts were also preserved. Locals simply call the new college house "little Suja."
The thread didn't break
The center of Kursk. The building of the former electrical equipment factory, floor No. 3. The inscription at the entrance is "N. Plevitskaya Sudzhan College of Arts" (singer of Russian folk songs and romances of the early 20th century. — Ed.). There are handmade carpets on the walls of the long corridor. Chants and piano sounds can be heard outside the auditorium doors. Somewhere there is a concentrated silence, characteristic of workshops where tapestries are created and molded from clay.
The stories of the people who come here to study and teach add up to one big college story. In 2024— there will be an evacuation. After a year of wandering — without their own premises in Kursk — classes were held at different venues: in the regional library, in a boarding school for the blind, in a secondary school, in the House of Pioneers.
In such conditions, the college's continued existence was under threat, no one really cared about it, and the region that had survived the attack was full of problems. By hook or by crook, the management managed to resolve the issue. In the summer of 2025, the college was allocated a room in the city center. Along with him, new first-year students appeared, and the ground was underfoot.
"We have several departments, including instrumental performance, folk and academic choirs, artistic ceramics, carpet weaving," says director Alexander Sergeevich Fesenko, who has been in this position since 1988. — In the College itself, the number of students averaged 120. It's 90 now, which is also good.
The peculiarity of the college is the preservation of traditions characteristic of the region, song and craft, explains the director. The art of carpet weaving, which has its roots in the Petrine era, deserves special attention. A UNESCO delegation came to Suju 10 years ago to meet him.
A carpet factory has been operating in the city for many years. In the late 1980s, it burned down, and there was a threat of the loss of a unique fishery. In the early 2000s, they decided to revive it on the basis of the college - they opened a new department. So the tradition got a second life. And even today, in turbulent times, the thread has not been broken.
Alexander Fesenko, Director of the Sudzhan College of Arts
Alexander Fesenko himself was in his village of Kurilovka during the attack of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, there were holidays. I went out with my wife through forests — 12 km, fording the Psel River. The Ukrainian terrorists, as it later became known, lived in a college cafeteria in Cambodia.
In the spring of 2025, after the complete liberation of the city, the volunteers managed to take out the carpets, ceramic products, a kiln, a potter's wheel that had been preserved there and transfer them to Kursk.
—Great luck,— Alexander Sergeevich repeats several times in conversation with me. — These are the works of our craftsmen, as well as graduate diplomas. Our heritage. It's a good thing that no one has coveted them.
7-8 hours a day at the machine
The Department of artistic carpet Weaving currently has 12 students in four courses. The workshop is headed by Alexander Pavlovich Savchenko, formerly the main artist of the carpet factory. After the fire, he moved to Moscow, and years later returned to his native Cambodia, when he was invited to head a new department.
"I realized that we're losing the fishery, and just a little more and there won't be any people or knowledge left," he says.
Katerina, weaves a tapestry depicting her native village of Belitsa
In a short time, we managed to assemble the teaching staff and create the necessary technical base.
The uniqueness of Sujan carpet weaving is that it is completely handmade. It takes from three to five months to create one canvas. Unlike automatic machines, where only seven colors are used, here the palette is practically unlimited — dozens of shades and the possibility of free improvisation. Floral ornaments have become the trademark of the Sujan style: roses, peonies, lilies.
Art graduates have many prospects, from teaching in clubs and art schools to working in theaters or creating their own workshops.
Among the students is fourth—year student Katerina, she hails from the border village of Belitsa, which also came under attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. She weaves a tapestry depicting her village, with a temple in the center of the composition. She started in December and plans to finish in April. Next to her is Elvina, the laboratory assistant. In the hall hangs her graduation work, "Storks," taken from the liberated city. She is currently making a souvenir rug with an inscription on the border — "Suja", size 15 by 60 cm. He spends 7-8 hours a day at the machine.
"Cornflowers and roses will bloom here soon," Elvina points to the stretched threads that form the basis of the canvas. — In a month and a half, I think I can manage.
Ivan learned about the attack on his hometown while serving in the army
The workshop manager is 22—year-old Ivan. He completed four courses, served in the army and returned to his native penates. He is currently creating a technical drawing fund, transferring weaving patterns of carpets exported from Suji to a computer (there are real rarities among them).
The attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces took place during his military service.
— It was a difficult time. You understand that trouble has come, but there is nothing you can do. And there's really no information," the guy recalls. "I only have my mom." And, fortunately, she was able to get out on the very last day. We had an apartment and a house. According to the available information, they are no longer there. We have not been to the city even once since the attack, entry there is prohibited.
Bugayets, sudzhansky rooster, makitras, tiles
It's hot in the ceramic workshop: the oven has just been loaded with roasting toys. There are paints, stacks, glazes, bags of red and white clay on the tables. At the potter's wheel, a student in an apron centers a piece of clay — an elegant plate will soon appear from it. Someone is sketching out term papers in a notebook, someone is making cups.
There are finished products on the shelves: they exactly repeat the dishes, vessels and toys that were made on Kursk land hundreds of years ago. Thousands of people were engaged in ceramics at that time, as indicated by the name of the Goncharovka settlement on the outskirts of Sudzha. Fighting broke out for her when our fighters exited the gas pipe on March 8, 2025. One of the local legends is also connected with the pottery business: in the old days, a snake came to the Pottery Mountain, turned into a handsome lad and abducted Sudjan girls. He was defeated by a kind fellow who fought off the villain with a pot: this plot is depicted on a clay panel hanging in the workshop.
— Here is the famous Sudzha vase in the form of a rooster, on Whitsunday our ancestors dried flowers and inserted them into the holes in place of the wings, it turned out very aesthetically pleasing, — says the teacher of the department, Nonna Leonidovna Kipot, with special care sorting through each object in her hands. — And this is a vessel in the form of a bugaytsa — a mythological animal with the body of a bull and the tail of a fish, intoxicating drinks were poured into it. There are printing stamps, they were used to make tiles to cover stoves and fireplaces. Here are the Cossacks, ladies. And these are makitras — pots for food.
When Nonna Leonidovna got out of the Suja, she had to break away from the drone. It is still impossible to say anything definite about returning to her hometown, and, according to her and colleagues, in such a situation it is easier and more correct to focus on the present, in particular on the job she loves.
Students of the choral department
On March 12, the college will host a concert "In Memory Forever", which will feature songs and personal stories of students and teachers who survived the military attack.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
