Vasily Pavlovich Engelhardt – creator of the "Suvorov Collection" (sketch of biography)

The personality of Vasily Pavlovich Engelhardt (1828–1915) is known in various fields: he is known to astronomers (he donated his observatory to Kazan University), musicologists (his work has compiled a collection of M. I. Glinka’s scores, stored in the Russian National Library), and fans of A. V. Suvorov (his collection of Suvorov relics formed the basis of the collection of the Suvorov Museum in Saint-Petersburg). To date, no full biography of V. P. Engelhardt has been written. Researchers who turned to his figure, focused on various aspects of his life, thereby covering it from different angles, but not in a comprehensive manner. The lack of significant factual material led to an appeal to unpublished heritage, concentrated in various archives, libraries, and museum collections. Based on the epistolary of V. P. Engelhardt outlines the life path of the famous astronomer, musician and collector. Turning to the ego-text made it possible to revive the figure of the hero, to present him in the context of the time of the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries, and among interlocutors and correspondents. Among them are both private individuals and government institutions. Considerable attention is paid to collecting and philanthropic activities.