Museum of Nikol Duman

Date of foundation: 2004
Subject: Biography
Visitors per year: 1000 people.
Working days: Tue-Sun
Opening hours: 10:00-17:00

Nikol Duman is one of the organizers of the Khanasor campaign of 1897, in which he took part as a detachment commander. Returning to the Caucasus, Nikol lived in Baku. In 1905, during the Armenian-Tatar (Azerbaijani) clashes, Nikol Duman organized and successfully led the self-defense of the Armenians in a number of places.

On the issue of the liberation of Western Armenia, he was a supporter of a general uprising. He took part in the congresses of the Dashnaktsutyun party, and in 1910 in the Copenhagen Congress of the Second International. Then he carried out revolutionary work in Western Armenia – in Van, Karin, Trebizond.

In the summer of 1914, seriously ill with tuberculosis, Nikol Duman was in Kislovodsk. He realized the severity of his condition. Knowing that volunteer detachments are being formed and that eminent fidayi have gathered inTiflis: Andranik, Kery, Dro, Amazasp, Sepukh and others, and realizing that he cannot join his comrades in arms, he sees no point in his future life and at 9 o’clock in the evening on September 23, 1914, he shot himself in the temple. The funeral took place in Tiflis on September 28th. An unprecedented number of people attended the funeral. Numerous telegrams of condolences came from everywhere about the death of the great Fighter. He was buried in Khoshivanka, near the grave of Simon Zavarian (the pantheon with the graves of the Danshaks was destroyed by the government of the Georgian SSR in the 1930s).

The Ethnographic Memorial Museum of Nikol Duman was created in2004,on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the death of the outstanding figure of the national liberation movement of the Armenian people, in his native village ofGshlagin the Askeran region of the NKR.

The organizers of the memorial museum also saw their main task as the most complete and reliable reconstruction of the life and way of life of the Karabakh family as they were at the end of the 19th century. Visitors to the museum, breaking away from modernity, are completely immersed in the world and life of the Karabakh people of that time.

The memorial museum consists of four sections: Nikola Duman Hall, a traditional living room from the late 19th century, a utility room, and outbuildings.

The museum’s exposition is constantly replenished due to donations and newly discovered exhibits in the village.

The Nikola Duman Hall occupies the first floor of the house-museum. There are exhibits and stands describing the life and work of Nikola Duman. Five photo stands give visitors a visual representation of the main stages of his life. The hall presents the following thematic photo stands: Battle of the Derik Monastery (1894), Battle of the Khanasor Field (1897), Military expeditions to Western Armenia (189), Armenian-Tatar clashes in Transcaucasia (1905-1906) and Armenian participation in Persian revolution (1911).

Of particular interest is the display case, which displays examples of edged weapons and gun barrels from the late 19th century found during renovation work in the attic and in wall hiding places. In the display case, visitors can also see an officer’s tablet, a cartridge belt with cartridges for a Mosin rifle, a restored copy of the Mosin rifle itself, daggers with scabbards used during close combat, a wooden holster for a Mauser, a Nagan pistol, a travel mug and other items related to life fidayeen.