Chukin Merchant House (Askuly)

The Chukin Merchant House is an abandoned two-storey red-brick mansion from the late 19th or early 20th century in the village of Askuly, Stavropolsky District, Samara Region. It stands on Bolshaya Doroga Street within the Samarskaya Luka National Park and is one of the most striking old buildings in the village.

History

Askuly has been known since the early 17th century: it was founded by the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery of Zvenigorod and passed to the Orlov brothers in 1768. The Orenburg post road, the old "great road" from central Russia to the east, ran through the village, which made Askuly a busy trading place.

The house is said to have belonged to a second-guild merchant known locally as Chukin. According to local historians, his real surname may have been Krivov, with Chukin being a nickname; some documents list the building as the "house of the peasant Chukin". He is credited with owning a steam mill and warehouses on the Market Square. He is remembered as a shrewd and thrifty man who lived modestly and often sold goods on credit. He had no children and lived in the house with his sister.

His exact fate is unknown. One version says he was dispossessed during collectivisation and died in the Gulag; another says he was forced to leave for Kazakhstan. His sister is remembered to have lived on in Askuly for many years. The confiscated house held the collective farm office and a shop; by the late 1950s it had lost that role and gradually fell into neglect.

Legends

Legend has it that the whole village built the house: the merchant set up a small brickworks nearby and paid only for materials, while the craftsmen worked for free out of respect for him. There are also stories of treasure supposedly buried by the owner when he was dispossessed and could take nothing of value with him. None of this has been confirmed.

What to see

The building is in the brick eclectic style. Almost none of the floors survive inside, and the staircase to the upper storey is gone, but fragments of stucco remain on the ceiling, with a light blue eight-pointed star in the centre. Some bricks bear the mark "KS"; bricks with initials have also been found around the house, suggesting a change of owners. The most common reading of the mark is "Krivov Samoylov", though this is only a guess.

Good to know

The house is listed as a historical and cultural monument and is managed by the national park, but it is not being restored and there are no plans to restore it soon. The building is decaying, some of its bricks have been taken by local residents, and weeds and shrubs have overgrown the grounds. Going inside is dangerous.

The roads to Askuly are rough and potholed; in winter people also come by snowmobile. A national park permit is needed for trips off the public paved roads of the Samarskaya Luka.