Pictures:
07.16.2013
Today we
went to Mikhailovskoye, a patrimony of Pushkin’s family, where we had a super
interesting tour about Pushkin’s life here and his relations with family. Our
tour guide was wonderful – she was describing everything so vividly and
brightly that you could imagine all events in reality. I almost saw myself how
Pushkin’s close friend Ivan Pushjin was coming through fir parkway to the house
and Alexander Pushkin was running on porch wearing only shirt and they were
hugging without noticing that it was freezing outside and one of them was
wearing a fur coat while the other one only shirt. Pushkin was in exile for two
years (because of some “freethinking” in his poems) and was obliged to live in
this estate far from Saint Petersburg where all of his friends were. That’s why
every coming of his friends here was a huge event for him, lonely and bored in
these desert places.
The most
interesting thing for me were Pushkin’s drafts with a lot of marks and
corrections, as well as a lot of marginal pictures (pretty good by the way!).
That is how a masterpiece was creating… In a Russian bathhouse we saw a heavy iron
walking stick which Pushkin always took with him for his walks to Trigorskoye
to train his right hand. The reason was serious: just before his exile he
called down the best duelist of his times Tolstoy “American” (he was called
“American” after he behaved so bad on the ship crossing the ocean that the
captain just put him ashore somewhere in Alaska). We also saw a tub with iced water that
Pushkin poured over himself every morning. He was a healthy man and if this
horrible duel with French immigrant Dantes he would live a long life…
This museum was
created long time ago, in the very beginning of 20th century, but it
was razed and burnt 4 times after it. When this territory was occupied by
Germans in 1941, they saved a museum and even sent a woman, professor of
history form Germany, to be a tour guide here. However, 3 years later, when
they were retreating, they mined a Pushkin’s tomb and burnt down all buildings
(even historic ones) here.
After
visiting house and bathhouse we continued our tour in a wonderful park around
with a lot of nice fancies: such as thorn coach, African pavilion in the
garden, a magic grotto (used just as a cellar), “a solitude island” and many
others. I was particularly impressed with the former house of Geichenko (a well-known
president of the museum for 50 years who did a lot to restore it after World
Second War): it was full of hand-made decorations and birdhouses so it looked
like a house of a kind magician.
After lunch
we went to town center of Pushkin Mountains where Max enjoyed an amazing
playground “Lukomorie” (a wonderland described by Pushkin in his fairy tales)
where every log revived and turned out into mermaids, dragons, a gold fish and
other magic creatures. Suddenly the rain came down in torrents and we hid in
our car. We decided to find a restaurant to have dinner, but the only
restaurant we found was in a hotel “Friendship” and wasn’t really good. On our
way back we met our local storks that live in a huge nest near our house and
made wonderful pictures at sunset light.
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