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About Those for Whom Hunting is not Just Shooting

On December 15, 2017, Sholokhov-Centre of the National M.A.Sholokhov Museum-Reserve opens an exhibition “With Rifle and Lyre. Russian Literature and Hunting”. This is a big project showing the exhibits from the collections of 20 museums and libraries of Russia.

The exhibition will tell about Russian writers, whose works most brightly reflect a theme of hunting. Very often these artistic achievements were connected with the personal experience of this or that master of word in conversing with nature. The exhibition covers the period during the XVIII–XX centuries – from G.R.Derzhavin to M.A.Sholokhov and writers of the 1970–1980s.

The exposition is built on interpenetration of two worlds: the world of nature and the world of man. The aim of the exhibition is to show that hunting was a part of life and source of inspiration for many of Russian writers, who recreated in their books exciting pictures of hunting life. At the same time, it shows the role of hunting in the cultural life of Russia.

Among the exhibits there are books devoted to hunting, paintings, drawings, sculptures, items of arts and crafts, hunting weapons and attributes, stuffed animals, and others.

Separate sections of the exhibition are devoted to A.S.Pushkin, S.T.Aksakov, A.K.Tolstoy, N.A.Nekrasov, I.S.Turgenev, L.N.Tolstoy, M.A.Sholokhov, K.A.Fedin, and others. The writers fond of fishing make a special group.

There you will see corners of the wilds and views of the favourite hunting places of the writers, installations will recreate the interiors of the writers’ studies, where they trusted their hunting experience to the paper.

The exhibition halls show different hunting seasons (winter, spring, summer, autumn), which have their own hunting characteristics and their adherents.

Some writers preferred hunting (L.N.Tolstoy, I.S.Turgenev), others preferred fishing (S.T.Aksakov, A.P.Chekhov). But M.A.Sholokhov was both a hunter and a fisher. In the section representing his work you can see different editions of Sholokhov’s works, books about hunting from his library, numerous photographs of the writer at hunting and fishing, personal belongings and clothes.

All the sections of the exhibition are provided with a sound design corresponding to one hunting season or another: singing of birds, howling of

wolves, barking of dogs, sounds of shots, sounds of rain, creak of snow, and others. Film fragments about hunting based on the works of Russian writers are going to be shown.

The exhibition “With Rifle and Lyre. Russian Literature and Hunting” will run during December 15, 2017, – March 14, 2018, in Sholokhov-Centre of the Museum-Reserve of M.A.Sholokhov in: 125/69 Bolshaya Sadovaya, Rostov-on-Don. Visiting hours: 10.00–17.00 (Wednesday and Friday: 10.00–19.00), Monday is day off.

Tour service: +7(863)210-90-14 (tour order), 210-90-17 (cash desk), e-mail: rostov@sholokhov.ru

The project members:

• National M.A.Sholokhov Museum-Reserve
• State A.S.Pushkin Museum
• All-Russian A.S.Pushkin Museum
• State A.S.Pushkin Historical and Literary Museum-Reserve
• State L.N.Tolstoy Museum
• Memorial and Natural Reserve “Museum Estate of L.N.Tolstoy “Yasnaya Polyana”
• State Memorial and Natural Museum-Reserve of I.S.Turgenev “Spasskoye-Lutovinovo
• Orlov United State Literary Museum of I.S.Turgenev
• State Literary Memorial Museum-Reserve of N.A.Nekrasov “Karabikha”
• State Museum of K.A.Fedin
• State Historical Artistic and Literary Museum-Reserve “Abramtsevo”
• State Historical Museum
• State Darwin Museum
• Novgorod State United Museum-Reserve
• Rosokhotrybolovsoyuz Museum of Hunting and Fishing
• Rostov Region Local History Museum
• Taganrog State Literary and Historical Architectural Museum-Reserve
• State Public Historical library
• Don State Public Library
• I.S.Turgenev Library and Reading Hall