In Yakutsk, the capital of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), nearly 8,500 kilometres from Warsaw, concrete buildings have been replaced by traditional wooden ones, but in the city centre, three brick buildings contrast with them. They were built at the beginning of the 20th century, in the Neo-Russian style, referring to the Byzantine tradition, using innovative technical solutions. Their creator was a Polish engineer-architect educated in St Petersburg, Klemens Leszewicz (1948-1921?). From 1907 to 1913 he served as regional architect in Yakutsk. Here he designed several edifices, including the former headquarters of the regional tax chamber, now housing an art museum. This was, apart from the Orthodox church, the first brick, two-storey public building in the city. It remains its architectural landmark to this day.

Poles in Yakutia

Exceptionally harsh climatic conditions and remoteness from the European part of Russia made Yakutia one of the hardest places for exile and forced settlement. Poles were sent to north-eastern Siberia as early as the 17th century as part of Cossack troops colonising the land and as prisoners of war in the Polish-Moscow wars. In the 19th century, lost independence uprisings resulted in successive waves of Polish exiles. Especially many compatriots found themselves in Yakutia after the January Uprising. It should be noted that there were also Poles settling there voluntarily, tsarist officials, engineers and even owners of gold mines. The best-known Polish exiles who made contributions to scientific research in Yakutia that are still valued today were: the linguist Edward Piekarski (1858-1934); the ethnographer Wacław Sieroszewski (1858-1945); and the geologists Aleksander Czekanowski (1833-1876) and Jan Czerski (1845-1892). A monument dedicated to them in the form of a set of boulders stands near the Salesian House in Yakutsk. It was unveiled on 9 September 2001 and disappeared from the city space in September 2023.

Klemens Leszewicz - engineer, architect, innovator

The architect who "changed the appearance of Yakutsk" was Klemens (Klementij) Leshsevich. He was born on 23 November 1848 in the Drysk district of Vitebsk province, to a family of noble origin, Adam Leshsevich and Izabella née Dobrovolsky. He was educated in St Petersburg, where he graduated from the classical gymnasium. He continued his education at the construction school at the Ministry of the Interior (1867-1872). He then combined his work as an architect's assistant with studies at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts as a free student. After completing these in 1874, he was promoted to engineer architect, with the rank of titular councillor. In St Petersburg he ran a technical and construction office. He specialised in heating and ventilation installations.

In the 1890s, he served as governorate architect successively in Akmolinsk (now Astana, Kazakhstan), Vyatka (now Kirov) and, from January 1902, in Sakhalin. In January 1907, at the request of Governor Ivan Kraft, Leshevich was transferred to Yakutsk, where he was entrusted with the position of regional architect. He worked there until August 1913, when he returned to St Petersburg at his own request due to his deteriorating health. He did not take up work again. He probably died in 1921 in unexplained circumstances.

Former headquarters of the Regional Tax Chamber

Leshkevich's first commission was to design a two-storey stone building for the new headquarters of the Regional Tax Chamber, located on Pravlenskaya Street (now Petrovskogo 4). The foundation stone was laid on 6 May 1909. The architect's son, Klemens Leshnevich jr. became the construction manager.

The project envisaged a basement, which was a great technical challenge at the time due to the permafrost. A stone footing was used, which was laid relatively deep (approx. 2 m), and thermal insulation in the form of logs with lime mortar. Local building materials were used. The building was built on a rectangular plan with an indentation in the left façade (side entrance). Construction took two years until the building was completed and ceremonially consecrated on 30 May 1911.

Leszewicz applied not only unique structural and technological solutions, but also an original form of the building - which was widespread in the early 20th century. - The composition of the façades was based on the style of the building. The composition of the facades referred to motifs characteristic of 17th-century Russian construction, and was a free interpretation of them with the use of many ornaments and details. The rich decoration consisted of three pairs of semicircular windows (a type of biforium), a richly profiled frieze, and a portal and gable in the form of a cochin. The turrets flanking the portal are topped with four-sided onion domes. The building, with its Neo-Russian aesthetics, was harmoniously integrated into the neighbouring wooden buildings. It represents the northern type of Russian eclecticism, of which the Polish architect Klemens Leshsevich turned out to be one of the most important creators.

Functions of the Yakutsk building

Built as the headquarters of the Regional Treasury Chamber, over the course of its more than 100-year history, the building has housed, among other things, a white guards' defence post (during the civil war), a state bank, the headquarters of the People's Commissariat of Finance or a radio station. In 1970, it became the home of the Museum of Western European Art of the 16th-19th centuries, opened by a decision of the Council of Ministers of the Yakutsk Autonomous SSR in connection with a gift from the family of Professor Mikhail Gabyshev - some 250 works by Western artists. In 1995, after a long-term major renovation, the reopened museum was renamed the M. F. Gabyshev Foreign Art Gallery - a branch of the National Art Museum of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). In 2005-2007, another major renovation, or rather reconstruction, was carried out. This time the edifice was founded on pillars, abandoning the basement. After the work was completed, it continued to serve as a museum. At present, the permanent exhibition presents painting, graphics, sculpture, industrial design, Italian, French, Dutch and Asian art: China, Japan, Tibet and Mongolia.

Other realisations by Klemens Leshsevich in Yakutsk

Klemens Leshsevich also designed and built other edifices of original architecture in Yakutsk, including: City Public Library and Regional Museum (now National Library of the Republic of Sakha, Yakutia), District Court (now Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha, Yakutia), Archirey House (now E. M. Yaroslavsky State Museum of History and Culture of the Northern Nations), headquarters of the Yakutsk branch of the Russian-Asian Bank (now Almazergiznbank office).

With the arrival of the Polish architect, a new era in the history of Yakutsk architecture began. He became known not only as an artistic architect, but also as an innovative engineer. He did not have an easy task, as he had to face the harsh nature, building on unstable ground, changing according to the season. Under such conditions, he developed and implemented special technologies, including permafrost protection and steam heating. He is still revered today. Buildings of his authorship have been included in the register of historical and cultural monuments of the Yakutsk ASSR. They were also recently included in the unified register of cultural heritage sites of the peoples of the Russian Federation.

In August 2018, on the occasion of the 170th anniversary of the architect's birth, a conference on 'The History of Poles in Yakutsk' was organised in the capital city of Sakha in large part dedicated to Klemens Leshevich and his architectural legacy.