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Pushkin in the Don Country

On October, 16, an opening ceremony of the exhibition “A.S.Pushkin.The Life and Lyre” took place in Sholokhov-Centre in Rostov-on-Don. This is an inter-museum joint project made up by the State A.S.Pushkin Museum (Moscow), the All-Russian A.S.Pushkin Museum (S.-Petersburg), the State Memorial Historical, Literary and Natural Landscape Museum-Reserve of A.S.Pushkin “Mikhailovskoye”, the State Historical and Literary Museum-Reserve of A.S.Pushkin (Zakharovo and Bolshiye Vyazyomy) and the National M.A.Sholokhov Museum-Reserve.

The main purpose of the exhibition is to tell about the life and work of the poet based on the submissions from the major Pushkin museums of Russia, to recall the most significant moments of Pushkin’s biography, his main works, a circle of his friends and the places he visited.

At the exhibition opening ceremony the visitors were welcomed by I.A.Guskov, Deputy Governor of the Rostov Region, A.M.Sholokhov, Director of the Museum-Reserve of M.A.Sholokhov, E.A.Bogatyryov, Director of the State Museum of A.S.Pushkin, S.M.Nekrasov, Director of the All-Russian Museum of A.S.Pushkin, G.N.Vasilevich, Director of the State Memorial Historical, Literary and Natural Landscape Museum-Reserve of A.S.Pushkin “Mikhailovskoye”, A.M.Ryazanov, Director of the State Historical and Literary Museum-Reserve of A.S.Pushkin. They stressed the relevance of the project taking place in the Year of Literature in Russia, its uniqueness and importance for spiritual culture of the Don country and the neighbouring regions.

Most of the exhibits are authentic materials of Pushkin’s era. A special place is occupied by memorial things: a ball dance shoe of N.N.Pushkina and a vest belonged to the poet.

Of great interest were the portraits of the poet’s parents, the first editions of A.S.Pushkin’s works, engravings with views of Moscow, the native city of the poet, lithographies with a view of Bolshiye Vyazyomy Village, a watercolour by an unknown artist of Pushkin’s time with a view of a Lyceum garden, drawings by the Lyceum students, memorial items – a candlestick and extinguishing cap, which belonged to Yekaterina Bakunina, whom the poet was in love with in his Lyceum years.

A picture with a view of Novocherkassk and watercolours showing the scenes from the life of the Don Cossacks remind of the places visited by the poet on his way to the Caucasus.

The exhibited vintage furniture is a kind of reconstruction of a cozy lounge of the XIX century. The theme of ballroom parties, which found their place in many of the works by A.S.Pushkin, is reflected by a suit of a young man and a dress of a young lady.

Not only little visitors find interest in the section devoted to the fairy tales by A.S.Pushkin. Here you can perceive in a new way the fairytale poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, the fairy tales about Tsar Saltan, a dead princess, a fisherman and a fish, a gold cockerel, a priest and his worker Balda. The books of fairy tales and costumes of Prince Guidon, Swan Princess, Babarikha together with the illustrations by I.L.Bruni, V.M.Konashevich, V.A.Milashevsky and other artists take the visitors into a magic world created by the great poet.

The interest of A.S.Pushkin for oral folklore is shown by the poet’s manuscripts with his drawings of Arina Rodionovna, his nanny, on the margins. From her words he wrote down the plots of Russian fairy tales in Mikhailovskoye. The exposition is added with articles of peasant everyday life and clothing details.

It is symbolic that the exhibition started on the eve of the Day of Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, where Alexander Pushkin studied, and the All-Russian Day of Lyceum Student. On the first days it was visited by schoolchildren and Lyceum students of Rostov-on-Don.

The exhibition “A.S.Pushkin.The Life and Lyre” will run until December, 7, 2015.

The Museum-Reserve of M.A.Sholokhov invites everyone to Sholokhov- Centre located in: 125/69, Bolshaya Sadovaya Str.

Opening hours: 10.00–18.00, Monday is Day Off.

The telephones in Rostov: 210-90-14 (excursions), 210-90-17 (cash office).

E-mail: rostov@sholokhov.ru .

Yelena Tolstopyatenko
Olga Bakhtiyarova