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Meeting in Yasnaya Polyana

The workers of the State M.A. Sholokhov Museum-Reserve visited Tula country last December for exchanging experience with the colleagues from the State Memorial and Natural Reserve “Museum Estate of L.N. Tolstoy “Yasnaya Polyana”.

We visited a unique memorial and natural reserve “Yasnaya Polyana”, the estate of L.N. Tolstoy. The area of 412 ha is occupied by the House – Museum of L.N. Tolstoy, a wing of the Kuzminskys, a house of Volkonsky, offices, stable, other outbuidings surrounded by the picturesque parks, gardens, forests. We could feel the world of the Russian gentry of the XIX century and the Tolstoy’s living traditions.

We joined an interactive excursion in the Coachman’s Izba to learn about customs and traditions of the Russian country life. The hostess wearing a Russian folk dress treated us with samovar tea, pies after the recipe of Sofiya Andreyevna Tolstaya, rasstegais and nalivka. The izba wooden interior renders an authentic air of the Russian peasant everyday life.

The literary exposition housed in the wing of the Kuzminskys tells about the literary work of L.N. Tolstoy within the period of 1851-1869 (the year of finishing the novel “War and Peace”).

The House-Museum of L.N. Tolstoy is unique by the authenticity of the interior pieces, works of art, book collection belonged to the writer’s family. The furniture and its arrangement in the house is kept after the model of 1910, the last year of the life of L.N. Tolstoy.

It was interesting to attend the exhibition “The Railroad of Leo Tolstoy” at the station complex of Kozlov Zaseka, and the Kochakov Necropolis, where the family and the nearest people of the Tolstoys were buried.

While sightseeing about Tula we visited the historic centre of the city, the Tula Kremlin, an architectural monument of the XVI century, the Museum of Arms telling about the evolution of the weapons from the end of the XVI century till the present, the Samovar Museum with a unique collection of samovars, the arts and crafts exhibition of the Tula masters.

The workers of the people’s art department gave us master-classes on painting clay souvenirs, making pottery, floristics, making traditional dolls-amulets. The workers of this department study, revive and master the forgotten traditional arts and crafts, and the articles are widely demonstrated the exhibitions, talks and lessons for children.

The Scientific Cultural Centre “Yasnaya Polyana” in Tula comprises a Book Shop, a salon “All the Arts”, exhibition gallery, a publishing house, Cultural Tourism Agency and Resource Centre of the Museum Workers Association. The workers of the information and education department of “Yasnaya Polyana” shared their experience in developing tour projects in the advertising and exhibitional activity in tourist work.  The workers of the editorial and publishing department fold us about the way they organize artistic and literary editing, prepress work of the polygraphic production, the use of computer technologies.

The meetings with our colleagues in the Tula country were fruitful in acquiring new experience in using new forms and techniques of the museum work, and were very impressive and bright.

Elena Iliyichova
Tatiyana Zarubina