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First Tourists on the “Literary Trail”

On April 24, 2018, the first tourists walked by the itinerary “Literary Trail «Genius Loci»” of the forest park “Pearl of Eurasia”. They were the members of the XIX Rally of the Children and Youth Environmental Movement “Sholokhov Source”.

They came from the South, Privolzhsky and North-Caucasian federal districts of Russia, the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Lugansk People’s Republic, learned about the life and work of the great Russian writers of the “golden age” in the living structure of the environmental and literary exposition.

The environmental and literary forest park “Pearl of Eurasia” is designed to create and show different species expositions and memorial decorations telling about the outstanding writers and poets, who were born and lived in certain places which were shown in the forest park. This trend is realized by the environmental and literary exposition “Literary Trail «Genius Loci»” which continues developing and improving. There are nominal writers’ exposition areas. The name of the author is closely associated with a certain place on the geographical map, which was the source of his creative energy and which became significant due to his literary work.

The areas are designed in the land-art style taking into account the literary landscape and environmental literary content of the writers’ work.

For example, at the personal area of the Orlov Region, where Ivan Alexeyevich Bunin, a writer, the Nobel Prize winner, spent his childhood and youth, his well-known story “Antonov Apples” is illustrated by a wickerwork imitation of an apple cut in half. Here some apple trees are planted and a carved leaf of a tree bears a quotation from the story. In the area of the Pskov Region, a home country of A.S.Pushkin, an elm was planted. By figured tree-cutting it has a form of a “spade” suggesting the poet’s story “The Queen of Spades”.

This spring the personal writers’ areas were added with new exhibits. In the area of the Bryansk Region presented by F.I.Tyutchev, the famous Russian poet, there appeared a gazebo like the one in his ancestral estate in Ovstug. Though it is only a small copy of the real one, it, like many other works of land-art visualizing the life and work of the writers, arouses interest in the visitors. Thus, a sundial with a quote “Happy hours are not watched” in the area of the Smolensk Region presented in our park by A.S.Griboyedov, a talented and many-sided personality: a

poet and composer, a playwright and brilliant diplomat, “made” the children check their watches.

The members of the children and youth environmental movement “Sholokhov Source” make their contribution in designing the expositions in the land-art style. At the “Literary Trail” there are objects made by them. For example, in the area of the Penza Region there is a ship with a white sail symbolizing the poetry work “Sail” by M.Y.Lermontov. It was made by the team of the Vyoshenskaya gymnasium. The Orlov Region at the “Literary Trail” is represented by I.S.Turgenev. The personal area of the writer shows an object of land-art: a hut for an ambush on black grouse; and here is a black grouse made by one of the teams. In this way Turgenev’s hobby of hunting and his short stories from the book “Hunter's Notes” are visualized.

Love is what L.N.Tolstoy, the literary genius, lived with and called for. He was presented to us by the Tula Region. For long years the “Tree of Love” has been a living symbol of Yasnaya Polyana, his estate: a birch and an oak accreted together. Now two such trees grow in our area.

The Ryazan Region was one of the oldest centres of ancient Rus, a birth place of S.A.Yesenin, the great Russian poet. The most favourite image of his poetry was a tree. The trees growing in the area are added with a stylized birch and an open book made by the school teams of Stanitsa Bazkovskaya and Kolundayev Village. In this and in other personal writers’s areas there are not only young trees, but also bright articles in the land-art style. They show moments of life and work of the literary geniuses. Thus, in the area of Omsk you can be attracted by “Convict Notebook” of F.M.Dostoyevsky, in that of the Volgograd Region you will see a stylized picture of the “Iron Flow” of A.S.Serafimovich and an eagle floating in the sky to symbolize the connection of A.S.Serafimovich and M.A.Sholokhov.

The routes of the “Literary Trail «Genius Loci»” are laid in stages. The areas arranged, in the future, the visitors will be able to learn not only about the literary classics of Russia, but also about foreign literary classics.

Tatyana Balak
Oksana Turchina