John Howard in Kherson - Page 56
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| Journal editor | Editor 1 |
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| Page Number | 56 |
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Tllt' Rimiun medal ('ommciminning the 2001/1 tlIi/tit'erivurv (if John Hmvunl'A JUAN/1. i( umiii ( uiuiu/ I'lioiugm/ilm Uni/J John Howard in Kherson MIKIIAII. KHALIN ioiw ll()\\,\|{l) first visited Russia in 1761 when he went to St Petersburg. Kronstadt. Moscow. Tver and Vishny \'o|ochyok. He was already a European celebrity and Catherine [I invited him to meet her: he refused. saying ‘My aim is to visit prisons. not palaces'. Catherine was interested in his ideas and signed a number ofdecrees about the organisation of prison life. based on his works. At the Empress‘s imitation he made a second visit in July 178‘). He spent a short time in Moscow. where he reported that the hospitals were in ‘a very grievous eondition'. and then travelled south to visit sick and wounded soldiers involved in the Turko~Russ~ian war. He arrived at Kherson in the Ukraine. not far from the Black Sea. in October and stayed at 13 Su\orov Street. a house belonging to Dophin. one of Catherine‘s courtiers. He made friends with an Englishman. Captain Prestman. and with Rear—Admiral l\1ordvinov. who both lived in the town. He spent much time visiting the hospital and prison, treating the poor at his own expense. Later in the winter he was called to a sick woman in the village of Sadovo. a few miles from Kherson. He could do nothing for her and she died. He also caught typhus and knew he was dying. despite some of the best doctors in Russia being called to attend him. He said to Captain Prestman: ‘There is a place near here. on Dophin‘s estate. where 1 would like to be buried. Let me beg you not to erect any monuments to me. not to write any inscriptions. I would like you to put me down softly into the earth. make a sundial on the grave and let me be forgotten.‘ He died at about eight o‘clock in the morning of 30 January 1791!. He was buried where he had wished ~ Dophin‘s estate. about four miles from Kherson. is now the village of Stepanovka — and a small obelisk with a sundial and a portrait medallion were erected to mark the place. In 1813 Professor Digurov o1 Kharkov University. inspecting educational establishments in Kherson. visited Howard‘s grave. He reported that it was considerably dilapidated and proposed the erection of a new monument. His suggestion was accepted and the decision was approved in 1817 by the then Czar Alexander I, It was designed by the well-known architect V. P. Stasov. a member of the Imperial Academy of Arts and designer of the monument to Russian soldiers who died in the battle near l’oltava. i6 |
