Exhibition dedicated to the 190th anniversary of Leo Tolstoy Automatic translate

Kazan took a special place in the life of Leo Tolstoy, and this happened in addition to his desire, by order of the fate of the boy, who was only embarking on the path of independent growth. Here the very formation of the personality of the future writer took place, when everything is important: a read book, a city landscape, a circle of friends, a choice of a faculty… These are the little things of earthly existence that were brightly deposited in a young memory and were so struck that the emotions experienced will be to emerge in various works of an already mature writer.

The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts presents an art, historical, literary, educational project that has no analogues today.

The first part of the project is the exhibition “About Tolstoy without Tolstoy”. The embodiment of the original exhibition idea of ​​Tolstoy’s indirect presence in the Kazan environment of the 1840s, combined with the view of the contemporary on the Kazan life of those years, certainly required the use of a wide variety of material.

The graphic series is represented entirely by works from the collection of the Pushkin Museum of the RT. At the exhibition, one can see various popular graphic and picturesque views of the city of such artists as A.P. Bogolyubov, K.P. Beggrov, A.N. Rakovich, V.S. Turin, E. Turnerelli and others. For the first time, after attribution and restoration, a lithograph by V. Shertle “Portrait of M.D. Gorchakova ". The portrait series of the 19th century is widely demonstrated, which brings a special unique charm to the exposition. These are images of representatives of famous Kazan surnames: museum portraits of the Molostvov dynasty, portraits of K.F. and A.A. Fuchsov, I.A. Palitsyna, V.P. Monaseina, N.P. Shipova, M.P. Leontyeva, portrait of the Kazan bookseller A.G. Myasnikov. The exposition also includes samples of a family portrait of the first half of the 19th century, reminiscent of the home environment of the Yushkov family, in which Tolstoy grew up and studied in Kazan, portraits of secular beauties.

In addition, the exhibition halls complement the objects of decorative art of the era and sculptural samples of Russian and foreign masters.

The exhibition presents maps, excerpts from the book “Kazan and its inhabitants” by the famous painter of Kazan E. Turnerelli; fragments from the works of local history K.F. Fuchs and M.N. Pinegin. The exposition includes excerpts from the memoirs of various cultural figures and diary entries of Tolstoy himself, which he began to keep in Kazan, and where you can find the first thoughts of the future writer about the meaning of human life. From the original documents of the era, conveying the “flavor of the times", an album for the records and wishes from the collection of the Panayev family, first purchased in the museum’s collection on the eve of the exhibition, is exhibited for the first time. Books and exhibits of the Kazan (Volga) Federal University were also attracted.

The exposition presents genuine documentary exhibits from the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books of the Scientific Library. N. I. Lobachevsky and from the collection of the Ethnographic Museum of Kazan Federal University.

Thus, like theatrical action, Kazan life of the 1840s seems to come to life in front of the viewer, which allows us, the generation of the 21st century, to feel at least partially in the historical space of Kazan of Tolstoy’s time.

The second part of the project is the exhibition “Leo Tolstoy. Kazan chronology. " Graduate of SPbGHPA them. A.L. Stieglitz, a member of the Union of Artists of Tatarstan, the famous Kazan artist Ildar Safin, in his favorite watercolor technique, especially for this project, illustrated the main events of Leo Tolstoy’s life in Kazan. The curator of the exhibition, Natalya Arkhireyeva, architect, master of architecture (Royal Technological Institute of Sweden) conducted extensive research in archives, funds, depositories, museum repositories and developed 45 subject themes that reveal the Kazan period of Lev Nikolaevich’s life, on the basis of which graphic sheets were created.

For the first time in a series of watercolors, the writer’s life is traced, beginning with the story of his arrival in Kazan in 1841, illustrating the writer’s adolescence, the years of Tolstoy’s formation as a person, his studies at Kazan University, the history of his first hobbies, religious pursuits, moving from house to house, fire, which was subsequently vividly described in the novel War and Peace and, finally, the departure from Kazan in April 1847.

At the same time, an album of watercolors with annotations is being prepared for publication in order to distribute it in the libraries and schools of the Republic of Tatarstan, which will make the study of the biography of the Kazan period of the writer’s life creative and informative.