News

News

New Exhibits in the Estate of M.A.Sholokhov

The exhibition section “Matches Collection of M.A.Sholokhov” is added with new exhibits given by the writer’s family. The entered matchboxes are unique with their labels. Among them there is a set of matchboxes with pictures of bugs brought from Finland; a set of matchboxes with pictures of European castles purchased while travelling about the German Democratic Republic; a set of matchboxes with pictures of different roses made in Sweden. There are unique matchboxes brought from Japanese hotels “Gifu” and “Nara” in 1966.

Mikhail Alexandrovich is known to have made many foreign trips and brought from them mainly souvenirs and necessary things for hunting and fishing. They were different knives, fish-tackle, copper utensils, kerosene heaters and lamps and, of course, matches, which Mikhail Alexandrovich preferred to use.

The showcase with the collection of matches is a kind of a geographical map, where on the matchbox labels you can see all the provinces of Sweden, the most beautiful castles of Europe, admire the works of Italian painters in miniature, pictures of residents wearing national costumes of different peoples, pictures of animals and plants registered in the Red List of Threatened Species. Many of the matchboxes advertise hotels, where Mikhail Alexandrovich and Mariya Petrovna stayed while travelling – “Sheraton” (the USA, Washington, 1959), “Swea” (Sweden, the 60s), “Shido”,”Gifu”, “Kyoto” (Japan, 1966).

At present, the exhibition “Matches Collection of M.A.Sholokhov” has 328 items.

Valentina Sholokhova
Lidiya Slyusarenko
Yelena Popova