Naum Shafer ^People

Musicologist Naum Shafer, who is also a professor, literary critic, writer and composer, has assembled the world's largest collection of gramophone records (not to be confused with vinyl ones) in Pavlodar. The story began before Shafer was born when his parents received a gramophone and 30 records as a wedding gift in 1930. At the time, the family was living in Bessarabia. As a child, he was more interested in the gramophone and records than toys. To this day, Shafer is grateful to the officer, as those 30 records became the basis of the collection. He also discovered the composerwithin himself. His archive of 1930's Kazakh music recorded on gramophone discs is the largest in the country. tI also includes more than 10,000 vinyl records, in excess of 1,500 tape reels and compact cassettes. Shafer has written more than half a millioncards, one for every song, allowing him to easily find each record. With the help of local authorities, the Shafer house-museum was opened in Pavlodar in 2002. In addi- tion to the recordings, it consists of more than 17,000 books and 64,000 newspapers and magazines since the 1930s. In excess of 100 issues by Russian writers and poets,printed in the 19th century, are themost valuable among the books. Collectors around the world have repeatedly appealed to Shafer to sell his collection, offering quite a bit of money for it, and high-level representatives from many Russian cities have offered the best conditions for movingt h e museum.