Aleksey Ivanovich Khludov (23 August 1818–22 March 1882) was a Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n Old Believer merchant who amassed the richest private collection of early mediaeval manuscript

Manuscript

A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

s in Imperial Russia.

The son of a peasant, Khludov rose to become a man of considerable fortune and chairman of the Moscow stock exchange committee from 1859 to 1865. He specialized in early Russian, South Slavic, and Greek religious manuscripts, most of which he acquired from other Old Believer collectors. Unsurprisingly, his collection boasted the richest assortment of documents concerning the early history of the Raskol

Raskol

Raskol |schism]]') was the event of splitting of the Russian Orthodox Church into an official church and the Old Believers movement in mid-17th century, triggered by the reforms of Patriarch Nikon in 1653, aiming to establish uniformity between the Greek and Russian church practices.-The Raskol:...

. In 1866, he donated forty manuscripts to the Rumyantsev Museum

Rumyantsev Museum

The Rumyantsev Museum was Moscow's first public museum. It evolved from the personal art collection and library of Count Nikolay Rumyantsev , the last of his family.- History :...

. The rest passed upon his death to the Nikolsky Old Believer Monastery.

After the October Revolution

October Revolution

The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...

, the Bolsheviks expropriated the Khludov collection, including its gem—the 9th-century illuminated Khludov Psalter—and transferred 524 mediaeval manuscripts and 717 incunabula to the State Historical Museum

State Historical Museum

The State Historical Museum of Russia is a museum of Russian history wedged between Red Square and Manege Square in Moscow. Its exhibitions range from relics of the prehistoric tribes inhabiting present-day Russia, through priceless artworks acquired by members of the Romanov dynasty...

, in which they reside to this day.

External links

Biography of Khludov