What is the name of the village where Ostrovsky’s house is located. State Memorial and Natural Museum-Reserve A.N.

The house-museum of the Russian playwright Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky in Zamoskvorechye is a branch of the theater museum. It was in this small house on Malaya Ordynka that Sasha was born back in 1823.

Ostrovsky considered himself a true Muscovite and did a lot for the social and literary development of the capital and Russia as a whole. In Moscow, at the Maly Theater, forty-six plays based on his works were staged during A. N. Ostrovsky’s lifetime. On his initiative, an artistic circle, a public organization of writers and composers, was created. Descendants call the writer the Columbus of old Moscow. Therefore, the main theme of the exhibition of the house-museum in Zamoskvorechye was the Moscow theme in the life of this wonderful person. And the atmosphere in the museum fully reflects the social environment in which the writer was born and which nourished his unique creativity.

The playwright's father, Alexander Nikolaevich, was from the poor clergy class, after the seminary he decided to enter the public service, and then was a private lawyer. Ostrovsky's mother, Lyubov Ivanovna, was the daughter of a sexton, a low-ranking minister in the Christian Church. The interiors of the house are poorly furnished. The bedroom and office contain modest furniture of that time - armchairs, a secretary, a bed. There is a portrait of my father in a velvet frame, on the table there is a book and a melted candle. But the bookcase in the library has rich content - classical genres, periodicals, the best plays of that time. In a cozy bedroom on the bedside table there is a playwright’s box, painted by a talented artist. All these exhibits seem to resurrect the life of those years and help to better, more accurately imagine the environment in which the brilliant playwright spent his childhood and from where he was able to draw his talent to some extent.

The red living room in the Ostrovsky house-museum is very interesting. Here the writer read his scandalous plays to his friends, which excited Moscow and aroused the displeasure of the authorities. A staircase with wooden railings leads to the second floor. There the guest finds himself in old Moscow: in the engravings, drawings and paintings of that time the Kremlin, Kuznetsky Bridge, Alexander Garden, Maryina Roshcha and other unique places dear to the writer’s heart are visible. There is also a model of the Maly Theater, made in 1840. It reproduces with precision worthy of the best jewelry work not only the external appearance, the facade of this iconic building, but also the interior spaces, the auditorium and the stage. There are photographs of famous actors, actresses, political and cultural figures of those years. One of the rooms is entirely dedicated to the history of the creation of the play “The Thunderstorm”.

The Ostrovsky House Museum in Zamoskvorechye was opened to visitors in 1984. Near the city estate there is a stunning garden that begins to bloom in early spring. It bursts with colors and aromas until late autumn. Green tree branches lean toward the windows of a cozy old house, preserving the mood and atmosphere of a measured life. This is how it was here during the life of the great playwright, and this is how the house remains today.

Seeing Ostrovsky’s estate in Zamoskvorechye will be interesting for both adults and children. The first one will feel the special power of this place, and the child will be able to have fun. For this purpose, holiday excursions are often held in the house museum. And if you look here on Christmas Eve, you will definitely see a Christmas tree decorated the same way it was done for little Sasha Ostrovsky.

There are unique points on the map of Russia - these are places that inspired the greats year after year. And there are not so many of these points. Residents of Nizhny Novgorod are doubly lucky - not only the Boldino estate of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, but also Shchelykovo, beloved by Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky, is within daytime access. To get to it, you have to drive along the Volga past the ancient Puchezh, Yuryevets, Reshma and Kineshma, cross the river and delve into the Kostroma forests along the centuries-old Galichsky tract. Only four and a half hours of travel for those who can handle their self-propelled stroller perfectly on regional roads.

By the way, this route is a real “time machine”, because upon arrival you will be immersed in the world of country life of landowners of the 19th century. And before, people knew a lot about treating souls tormented by the city with natural beauty and sweet pleasures. In addition, Shchelykovo is especially hospitable :)

V.G.Perov. Portrait of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. 1871..

"We have a custom- Ostrovsky wrote to the artist Musil in 1878, - The more guests and the longer they stay, the better!”

“What rivers, what mountains, what forests!- Ostrovsky admired. - All our rivers flow in ravines - this place is so high... If this district were near Moscow or St. Petersburg, it would have long ago turned into an endless park, it would have been compared with the best places in Switzerland and Italy.”

“... The real Shchelykovo is as much better than the imagined one as nature is better than the dream. The house stands on a high mountain, which on the right and left is dug with such delightful ravines, covered with curly pines and lindens, that you can’t imagine anything like it.”- Alexander Nikolaevich quite sincerely praised his estate.

Oh, how much awaits you!

The house of the landowner Ostrovsky is so cozy that it seems that the owner is about to walk through the white doors. He will push back the Viennese chair, shuffling it across the unpainted, polished floor, and ask you to sit at the table and drink tea with thyme or mint. He orders the pies to be served and strongly recommends the pitted cherry jam from last year's harvest. And you won't refuse!

A series of cozy rooms. All these vases with low bouquets that Alexander Nikolaevich loved so much, balsams in the windows, glossy sides of stoves, cozy pillows on the ottoman and crocheted or bobbin napkins... Walk along the homespun rugs, see where the very plays that we know from schools.

The charm of manor life envelops you like an evening milky fog arising in the lowlands above the Kueksha River. I want to stay and never leave anywhere else. Because time is in no hurry here.

And the subtle artistic profile of the playwright’s daughter’s mansion! Without preserving its furnishings, it will captivate you, like any sincere female fantasy - after all, it was born from the female head of an artistically gifted heiress.

The park will enchant you with its edges, centuries-old fir trees and wooden bridges running along ravines and ridges, as well as gazebos lost in the greenery, like beads in an expensive box.

In a word, go in any season - even in the languid hot summer, even under the crystal sky of golden autumn, even in the first greenery of frivolous spring. The journey in winter, with its treacherous road conditions, will take longer and require nerves of steel, but if you are confident of a good journey, take the risk.

Shchelykovo is a typical middle-class estate. There were many of these throughout Russia - not rich and not always bringing in at least any income at all, but who raised generations of barchuks and young ladies, who became for them the very nest to which they return, having received it as an inheritance and bringing their children. Shady linden trees, heavy branches of apple trees, the inevitable river or ponds, a modest and at the same time comfortable manor house with an outbuilding and a whole system of stables and barns. All these dinners on verandas under canvas awnings, the muttering of an old nanny and a maid in a scarf donated by a kind lady, hurrying to the table with a samovar - a world of midday slumber, hunting passion and a mother’s idea of ​​a healthy childhood.

So the story of Shchelykov’s appearance in the life of the playwright Alexander Ostrovsky (1823 - 1886) would have been impossible without his father, Nikolai Fedorovich.

The playwright's father Nikolai Ostrovsky (1796-1853)..

Nikolai Fedorovich was the son of a priest, a seminarian who did not become a priest, but preferred a judicial career. Having reached the eighth grade, he received, as expected, personal nobility (Sasha was already sixteen by this time). Mother, Lyubov Ivanovna (nee Savvina), a gentle and kind woman, was the daughter of a malt baker and a sexton. The Ostrovskys lived in Zamoskvorechye - cozy, welcoming, with its two-story houses and high bell towers, inhabited by matchmakers, merchants, sextons, tradesmen, artisans, and petty officials. Drowning in the ringing of bells, smelling of pies and blooming with its gardens and shawls of merchants, the idyllic Zamoskvorechye was a closed world with its own rules and concepts, its own dramas, its own pleasures - sleigh rides in winter, horseback riding in summer, walking in Sokolniki or Maryina Roshcha.

The popularity of the energetic, educated, talented lawyer Ostrovsky Sr. gave him the opportunity in 1841 to leave public service and devote himself only to private studies.
In the 40s, Nikolai Fedorovich was the chairman of several large competitions - the lower courts of the Commercial Court, which heard the cases of insolvent debtors and bankrupt merchants. At the very beginning of the 40s, Nikolai Fedorovich already owned seven houses in Moscow. Most likely, he would continue to invest his growing capital in apartment buildings.

Ostrovsky's mother died early - Sasha was 8 years old. Four children were left orphans. My father married five years later to the Russified Swede Emilia von Tessin. She turned out to be an attentive and kind stepmother, she taught the children languages ​​and music, and took care of them like a mother. There were soon six children. Sasha began writing poetry while still a high school student. His father, however, predicted a legal career for him, so after graduation, 17-year-old Ostrovsky went to study at the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, where he had the right to enter without exams, since the scores on the certificate were quite high. But he did not turn out to be a lawyer. The father got the young man a job as a scribe in a conscientious court for a salary of 4 rubles; then he moved to the commercial court - as an official at the table “for cases of verbal violence.”

Since 1849, Alexander Ostrovsky brings to his part of his father’s house the bourgeois Agafya Ivanovna, a sincere and kind woman, very similar to Oblomov’s Agafya Matveevna. The father did not approve of the chosen one, his relationship with his son went wrong - he stopped giving Alexander money. However, the young playwright did not enter into a legal marriage, that is, get married, and Agafya Ivanovna, who regularly gave birth to children, remained an unmarried wife under Ostrovsky.

Moscow. House in Nikolo-Vorobinsky Lane, where A.N. lived from 1841 to 1877. Ostrovsky..

One of the visitors, Mikhail Semevsky, left memories of Ostrovsky at the beginning of his family life: a small house, a dirty staircase and an unlocked door according to Moscow custom; outside the door the visitor is greeted by a little boy with a finger in his mouth, followed by another, followed by a nurse with a baby, and only in the third room are the owner and the hostess sitting - and the hostess immediately runs behind the partition, and the owner is painfully thinking whether he should take off his robe. “I saw in front of me a very portly man, looking about thirty-five years old, a full, month-shaped face framed by soft brown hair, cut into a circle, in Russian style (a la muzhik or a la Gogol - as he is depicted in portraits), an inconspicuous bald spot can be seen on crown, blue eyes, which squint a little, give an unusually good-natured expression to his face when he smiles.”, - said the guest.

It was hard for Alexander Ostrovsky - his family was growing, but his fees were not. Children born into an unmarried family were considered illegitimate and had no right to their father's surname. In addition, after ten years of living with his common-law wife, Ostrovsky developed a passionate love for the actress Lyubov Kositskaya. Both had families, and the actress had no intention of responding with ardent reciprocity to the playwright’s claims. Having become a widow in 1862, Kositskaya continued to reject Ostrovsky's feelings. Soon she began a relationship with the son of a rich merchant, who eventually squandered her entire fortune. She wrote to Ostrovsky: “...I don’t want to take your love away from anyone.”

Lyubov Nikulina-Kositskaya. Engraving from a drawing by I. Lebedev. Mid-19th century..

The unmarried wife of the playwright, Agafya Ivanovna, was an intelligent woman with a subtle, easily wounded soul. Meek by nature, she silently endured her insult when her common-law husband was inflamed with love for Kositskaya. In 1867, Agafya Ivanovna passed away. It must be said that all of her children died in infancy - except for one, Alexei Alexandrov (surname after his father's patronymic), who died at 21, outliving his mother by only two years. Nothing remains of Ostrovsky's twenty-year life and family. The attitude of Ostrovsky’s heirs, the children from his second marriage, to this marriage is striking: they did not even consider it necessary to preserve Agafya Ivanovna’s surname for their descendants. There was nothing left - not a portrait, not a note. It’s as if the person never lived, didn’t love….

Ostrovsky Sr. begins to get sick, and his wife asks him to leave his law practice and visit the village more. It is worth noting that Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky, escaping from family troubles into rural life, had long been planning to leave for the village. Being a wealthy man, in 1846 he began buying estates at auction. He bought four estates in the Nizhny Novgorod and Kostroma provinces, which included 279 serfs. Among these estates, the largest is Shchelykovo. Estimated by the bailiff at 20,820 rubles. 30 kopecks silver and purchased by Nikolai Fedorovich on July 28, 1847 for 15,010 rubles, it was located in the Kineshma district of the Kostroma province.

By that time, Shchelykovo was already a deserted manorial estate. The first information about it dates back to the middle of the 18th century. - in the “fairy tales” of the third revision, “the village of Shchelykovo, the property of the state councilor Ivan Fedorovich Kutuzov,” is mentioned. The landowner himself belonged to the well-known Kostroma boyar family of the Kutuzovs - his ancestors according to scribe books date back to the beginning of the 17th century. Almost all settlements in the vicinity of the estate were included. Among the “life-campans” who elevated Elizaveta Petrovna to the throne was Captain Kutuzov. Apparently, it was he who started the estate in Shchelykovo.

Once upon a time, the estate was reputed to be one of the richest in the area and was built up with beautiful buildings, of which, however, at that time only the remains of the foundations remained. According to legend, the estate was destroyed by a big fire. However, Fyodor Mikhailovich Kutuzov, who owned it at that time and was the Kostroma provincial leader of the nobility from 1788 to 1800, spared no expense in restoring the estate. He also built the now existing two-story wooden house, about which information is first found in the archival description of the last quarter of the 18th century. After Kutuzov, the estate went to his eldest daughter, and then to her son, A. Sipyagin. The latter led a wild life, and therefore soon laid the foundation for the declining Shchelykovo in the Moscow Board of Trustees. Subsequently, my grandfather's estate went under the hammer.

At the time of the purchase of Shchelykov by Ostrovsky Sr., in addition to the main house, the estate had three outbuildings that housed courtyard people. All the necessary outbuildings were also well preserved: a large stone horse yard, a two-story barn, a feed barn, a chaff barn, three cellars, a bathhouse, a stone forge, and so on.

Returning in 1847 from the village of Shchelykov, which he had just acquired, Nikolai Fedorovich enthusiastically told his children about it. Alexander was most interested in the estate as a connoisseur of Russian nature.

In April 1848, the whole family, except brother Mikhail, gathered in Shchelykovo. They rode horses in three carriages. Alexander Nikolaevich liked the estate so much that instead of the 28 days allotted to him on vacation, he lived there until the fall and was forever fascinated by the Shchelokovsky beauty and freedom, the splendor of the surrounding area.

"From the first time,- Alexander Nikolaevich wrote in his diary, - I didn’t like it... This morning we went to inspect the places for game. The places are amazing. Game abyss. Shchelykovo did not appear to me yesterday, probably because I had previously built my own Shchelykovo in my imagination. Today I looked at it, and the real Shchelykovo is as much better than the imaginary one as nature is better than the dream.”

Very pleased with the purchased estate, Nikolai Fedorovich made it his temporary (summer), and then, apparently from 1851, his permanent residence. Having finally settled in Shchelykovo, the newly-minted landowner was registered as a Kostroma nobleman and energetically began to transform the estate into a profitable commercial enterprise. And he almost succeeded.

In December 1852, feeling the approach of death due to illness, Nikolai Fedorovich wrote a testamentary disposition according to which Shchelykovo was transferred to his wife Emilia Andreevna Ostrovskaya with the children born from her marriage. The children from the first marriage - Alexander, Mikhail and Sergei - were given a small estate of 30 souls in the Soligalichsky district of the Kostroma province and two small wooden houses in Moscow. The playwright lived in one of these houses.

Notified of his father’s serious condition, Alexander Nikolaevich immediately went to see him, but did not find him alive. Nikolai Fedorovich died on February 22, 1853.

Photo by Alexander Ostrovsky, 1856.

According to oral tradition, before his death, the playwright’s father asked to lift himself out of bed in order to take a last look at the beautiful nature of Shchelykov, whom he loved so much. According to the story of his daughter N.N. Ostrovskaya, the writer, had something to admire!

“From the balcony of the living room there was a view that was famous throughout the entire neighborhood. It was a completely finished picture, in which nothing could be added or subtracted. On the mountain, in a semicircular frame of a dark forest, multi-colored fields waved. From the fields, meadows descended with a soft slope all the way to the river... The narrow, but full-flowing river snaked through the flowering banks; In some places, alder bushes, shimmering with emerald, bent over it. To the right, where the jagged edge of the forest ends, stood a white church with a shining cross.”

This Church of St. Nicholas on Berezhki glittered with a cross. Nikolai Fedorovich is buried in the fence of this temple.

Emilia Andreevna Ostrovskaya was unable to maintain Shchelykov’s household at the level achieved by her husband. From a profitable, growing estate, as it was under Nikolai Fedorovich, Shchelykovo gradually declined and turned into a neglected one. In post-reform conditions, farming has become much more difficult. The free power is gone. The more complicated housekeeping and life in Shchelykovo after the death of her husband became more and more burdensome for Emilia Andreevna. She wanted to be with her own children who lived in Moscow.

Alexander Nikolaevich, who sincerely loved Shchelykovo, decided to buy it from his stepmother together with his brother Mikhail. Shchelykovo was bought with the money of Mikhail Nikolaevich, to whom the playwright paid his share gradually, over the years. Formal taking over took place on October 8, 1873.

“Here is my shelter,- the playwright wrote in early September 1867, - I will have the opportunity to engage in modest farming and finally give up my exhausting dramatic labors, on which I fruitlessly spent the best years of my life.”

"God will give,- brother Mikhail wrote to Alexander Ostrovsky, - peasant life and economic activities will disperse you and strengthen your health.”

Having lost Agafya Ivanovna in 1867, the playwright married the young actress Maria Vasilievna Bakhmetyeva two years later. Judging by the remaining memories, the person had a rather energetic and absurd character. And if you take into account that the young wife was 22 years younger than her husband, you can understand why the playwright’s family life was not cloudless. The marriage to Maria Vasilievna did not meet with sympathy from the playwright’s closest relatives, in particular from his wise and tactful brother Mikhail. Even after many years, she did not achieve the complete, unconditional favor of either her family or her husband’s closest friends.

Contemporaries note that Maria Vasilievna was not without swagger and arrogance in her dealings with the district-Kineshma intelligentsia, which did not arouse sympathy for her on the part of the latter. There was something oriental in Maria Vasilievna’s appearance, and therefore, knowing her love for gypsy romances, they said that she herself was a gypsy.

"At all,- a neighbor on the estate, Maria Olikhova, recalls her, - Alexander Nikolaevich had a hard time getting married: they lived beyond their means. He brought his wife, Marya Vasilyevna, from among the “artists,” and she somehow did not fit into the local customs and family way of life of the Ostrovskys. There are still a lot of unknowns...”

However, the children who appeared smoothed everything out - Alexander Nikolaevich was again surrounded by kids, whom he loved very much.

The young wife of a playwright with a child..

Of course, there is nothing healthier for children than country air, fresh milk and fresh berries. Therefore, trips to “dear Shchelykovo” were annual and were arranged as a whole event. The preparations began long ago, with the purchase of all the essentials. Sometimes Ostrovsky even had to borrow money to ensure his departure in the best possible way. Carts with the necessary provisions and necessary supplies were sent to Shchelykovo in advance. As a result, the family itself traveled almost light.

Since 1871, in connection with the completion of the construction of the Ivanovo-Kineshma railway, the Ostrovskys began to use only this type of transport, spending only 15 to 17 hours on it. During the day, in the 70s, they boarded a passenger train, and in the 80s, on a postal train of the Nizhny Novgorod Railway, then changed in Novki to the Kineshma road and arrived in Kineshma at seven o’clock in the morning the next day.

Station in Kineshma..

Horses sent from the estate were usually waiting for the Ostrovskys at the station. If the weather was not favorable for crossing the Volga, then the coachman took the playwright’s family to the inn, where the clerk and workers who came there on estate business constantly stayed. This was probably Tyurin's house on Moskovskaya Street.

Kineshma. Moscow street..

Along a steep descent, three horses, restrained by a coachman, carefully descended towards the carriage.
Moving across the Volga was not always pleasant. So, having arrived in Kineshma on May 9, 1868, Alexander Nikolaevich, due to a terrible storm with rain and snow, could not get to Shchelykov that day and with great difficulty, with strong winds, having spent two hours, crossed the Volga only the next day. Detained in Kineshma by the raging elements, the playwright wrote to Maria Vasilievna: “We can’t get to Shchelykovo due to very strong winds... We can’t move, no one will undertake to transport; the wind is terrible, and the Volga is in full flood, there is so much water that I have never seen: so we sit on the water on the pier all day in the cold. Now we have moved to the city to a hotel, where we are spending the night.”
He described this Volga storm, which made a great impression on the playwright, in a letter to his brother that has not reached us.

Tugboat “Mezhen” on the Volga..

In 1873, the ferry on which the Ostrovskys crossed the Volga was almost sunk by a tugboat. K.V. Zagorsky, who was with the playwright, recalls: “Having reached the middle of the Volga, we saw that a tugboat was walking on the left side of the Volga. We had to get ahead of him, otherwise we would have been carried far downstream. Alexander Nikolaevich sat down on the oar, and so did I, and they began to row vigorously and slipped right in front of the bow of the steamer so that the wave from the steamer almost capsized the boat. Alexander Nikolaevich was very frightened, turned pale, but did not say anything. We safely crossed to the other side and went to the estate in carriages.”

But in calm weather, when the Volga flows smoothly, crossing it, as a rule, gave the playwright great pleasure. On May 23, 1881, he notified Burdin: “Beyond our expectations, we arrived not only safely, but even pleasantly. The weather was warm, just like summer, we drove all the way and crossed the Volga in a light dress.”

Kineshma..

But the Galichsky tract itself was not at all the most pleasant road. In those days, this road was extremely bumpy, rutted after rains, with deep potholes and puddles. Sometimes, especially in the fall, it looked like solid liquid clay. Driving along such a road was a martyr's torment. The horses walked at a walk, at best at a light trot, carefully avoiding the ruts of the broken path. Even the soft springs of the carriages could not cope with the potholes - the riders were shaking terribly. If in bad weather this road became impassable, then in hot weather it became unbearably dusty. On June 5, 1877, having arrived in Shchelykovo, Alexander Nikolaevich informed Maria Vasilievna: “The road is not only dry, but so dusty that I still can’t wash my eyes.” From the raised dust we had to cover our faces with scarves and pull down our hats, but this didn’t help either.

Galichsky tract. Bridge over the river Kichegu near the village. Ugolsky...

But this road, connecting Kineshma with the city of Galich, in addition to torment, also brought a certain interest with its liveliness. In dry weather, dashing couples and threes of harnessed horses with their owners, landowners, officials and merchants raced along it. There were also chaises and vans of small resellers of handicrafts, grain and other food products, and carts with heavy luggage were slowly dragging along. Pedestrians also walked - alone and in groups. Along this tract, at certain times of the year, “working people returning from the capitals for leave to their native villages in batches, going out to latrine trades from the Galitsky, Chukhloma and Kologrivsky districts in the Kostroma province,” returned. The road either widened or narrowed with the forest surrounding it.

After the village of Khvostovo all the way to Shchelykov there was a continuous forest. When travelers on horseback and on foot alternated, in the silent, wary silence of the dense forest, stories about robberies and murders committed on this tract were involuntarily recalled. On December 19, 1869, Shchelykova’s manager informed Ostrovsky: “We have a lot of robbery and a lot of people are being killed, and our driver is going to Kostroma: it would be closer from here (to Moscow), but he’s afraid!” They also played pranks here in later years. And the travelers were involuntarily seized with fear.

Nowadays, the only thing you should be afraid of is potholes in rather leaky asphalt if your car wears low-profile tires.

At the eighteenth mile we turned sharply off the road to the left. You will take exactly the same turn - the road retains its own memory. There will be two miles left to the estate. Through a dense, well-preserved forest, the road leads to a bridge over the Kueksha River, which runs in a deep valley. On the left side, just above the bridge, a mill, a butter churner and their service buildings used to be visible: the miller's house, a barn, a covered shed for the horses and carts of the prayer people. Having crossed the bridge, the horses slowly climbed up the mountain. Now you will simply cover the most picturesque two kilometers. The mill and other buildings that were visible from the bridge have not survived.

The village of Shchelykovo is comfortably located on the mountain. On three sides (western, southern and eastern) it is surrounded by forest and only one, northern, is arable land, the strips of which go down to the Sendega River, again bordered by forest.

Already near the estate, around the last turn, on the right, a field used to open up, on which one could see a barn with a current for threshing bread, as well as a hay barn located along the road lined with birch trees. The entire estate was surrounded by a palisade. The horses turned into the gate as usual, and the carriage drove into the estate. A sandy road wound from the gate. The journey is complete. The Ostrovskys were usually joyfully greeted by the servants of the estate - the clerk Lyubimov, the gardener Feofan Smetanin, the worker Andrei Kuzmich Kulikov, the “cook” Olga and others. And finally, as in the play: “Everyone enters the house.”

You, having left your car on the side of the road, can go to the ticket office to buy tickets, having previously studied the diagram of the estate buildings.

Be sure to buy a ticket to visit the manor house with a guided tour. You definitely won't regret it. And if you are lucky with a guide (however, they are all in love with the estate), you will take away complete charm with you, and you will dream of the most comfortable house in your sweetest dreams.

The residential building in Shchelykovo also charmed Alexander Nikolaevich, and at first sight. On May 2, 1848, he writes in his diary that the house “It is amazingly beautiful both outside with the originality of its architecture and inside with the convenience of the premises... The house stands on a high mountain, which to the right and left is dug with such delightful ravines, covered with curly pines and lindens, that you can’t imagine anything like it.” This house is truly original in appearance and is very comfortable and cozy with the layout of the rooms inside.

It is one-story. But the mezzanine in the form of an upper half-story with eight windows gives it the appearance of a two-story building from the northern façade. Four white columns in the middle of the open terrace and two porches in the corners, black, service (eastern), and front (western), to which carriages drove up, give it elegance and a kind of impressiveness.

A high attic above the rest of the building with a large semicircular window to the south made it possible to make the entire roof on the same level, which contributes to the harmony and harmony of the house's architecture.

On the southern facade there is a large terrace, covered with planks, with a canvas border at the top, with curtains of harsh linen hanging down on cords, like curtains.

On the terrace there is a long unpainted table, and around it there is wicker furniture: chairs, armchairs, sofas. The southern terrace is a place for a quiet lunch in the open air, evening tea, friendly conversations with guests, and sometimes on hot days, the creative work of the playwright.

In Ostrovsky’s time, the southern terrace had a view of the village of Vasilevo, the church of the Berezhki churchyard and the church of the village of Tverdovo. The owners of the estate strictly ensured that this panorama was not obscured by the green spaces of the estate. The clearings were cleared, the linden trees on the slope in front of the house were regularly trimmed. On the south-facing windows there were awnings, that is, external canopies, to protect from the sun. Now the clearing is already overgrown, and there are no awnings.

Inside, according to the appearance and arrangement of the rooms, the house seemed to be divided into two parts that were sharply different from each other - winter and summer. The winter room is the rooms on the northern facade, with low ceilings, small windows, an abundance of stoves and beds (in the mezzanine). Summer - 4 large rooms, with high ceilings, large windows facing the sunny sides. Under Alexander Nikolaevich these were the dining room, living room, office and bedroom.

The playwright enjoyed walking around the rooms of the old house that he liked so much, especially in the first days of his arrival. Here one could feel the caring hand of the owners and order, strictly preserved according to the established rules. According to the custom of that time, the floors were white, that is, unpainted. Made of oak, washed frequently, they were always spotlessly clean. The interior furnishings were not luxurious, but they did not seem poor either. Everything looked very simple and at the same time strict and respectable. A neighbor in Shchelykov, Maria Gavrilovna Olikhova, could not help but note: “He generally loved everything Russian, and their house was old-fashioned.”.

Having climbed the stairs of the front porch, the visitor entered the closed part of it through a double door. He passed the closets located to the left and to the right. The left one contained Alexander Nikolaevich's fishing equipment.
Behind the closets was a second double door leading into the hallway. According to the recollections of the playwright’s daughter, there was a brown locker in a small recess.

Through a heavy, felt-lined door the visitor entered the hallway. In the hallway to the left there were hangers on the wall. Right there, in the corner, is the original stick-chair, painted with light brown varnish, with which Alexander Nikolaevich went on long walks. To the right, under the window, there were two antique brown benches. There was also a mirror hanging here.

Two double doors led from the hallway into the dining room, located on either side of a large white tiled stove. But under Ostrovsky, apparently, only the right one, closer to the window, was always active.

The dining room is the most extensive of all the rooms in the Shchelykov house. Along the walls there was: at the entrance to the left, along the northern wall, covering the second entrance from the hallway, a small light birch buffet; almost at the beginning of the eastern wall there is a window from the dining room to the pantry; next to it, on his right side, there was a table, and on it was an old samovar, still from Nikolai Fedorovich.

Next to him is a copper rinse and a tea towel. Further, along the wall, almost to the door to the living room, there was a row of “spare” (in case guests arrive) rather massive light Viennese chairs with wicker seats. Along the south wall were wicker jardinieres with flowers. At the western wall, near the windows, there are also jardinieres with flowers, in the walls there are two folding card tables with crimson cloth inside. Above one of them hung a wall clock in a light octagonal frame.

The middle of the dining room was occupied by a large oval extendable table (“centipede”), with Viennese chairs around it. A hanging lamp with a white porcelain shade descended from above.

According to recollections, in the corner between the southern and western walls there was a Viennese sofa, and above it a small image of Nicholas the Wonderworker; on all the windows (there are six of them, three to the west and three to the south) there were straw blinds and light summer curtains with tiebacks.

During Ostrovsky's time, kitchens in manor houses were never located in the house itself; they were always located in another building. So here, the kitchen was located on the ground floor of a semi-stone service outbuilding located near a residential building. From there, food was brought through the back porch into the pantry room in pots, where it was poured into a soup bowl or laid out on dishes and passed through the window to the dining room. The bowl was placed in front of the hostess, who poured the soup into plates; the second dishes were usually passed around, and everyone sitting at the table put them on their own plate, after which the dish was placed in front of the hostess. The used dishes were collected by the maid and passed through the window to the pantry.

The daily routine was usually as follows: at eight or nine o'clock - morning tea; at one-half past two - lunch; at four and a half to five o'clock - afternoon tea; at eight o'clock - dinner. We went to bed early - no later than ten o'clock. However, sometimes this order was violated depending on the presence of guests, planned long walks, picnics, fishing trips on the Meru River.

People were invited to meals by ringing a bell hanging on a pole near the back porch. In calm weather, this ringing could be heard at a distance of one and a half to two miles from the estate.

From the living room, double doors led west to the dining room, south to the covered terrace and east to the study.

The living room itself was small, with two tiled stoves, darkened by a roof over the terrace, but very beloved by the Ostrovsky family. In summer, even on the hottest days, it was cool there: the roof of the terrace did not allow the sun's rays to pass through, but on cold and stormy autumn days it was warm there: again, the roof of the terrace prevented cold winds from entering the room. The decoration of the living room was simple, quite typical for that time. There was an old piano against the eastern wall, next to it was a pouffe, and in front of it was a chair that seemed to be Viennese. Above the instrument, on the wall, was a mirror that reflected the light from the piano's candle chandeliers.

There was a low soft sofa against the northern wall, in front of it was an oval table on one leg, a carpet under it, around the table and in the free spaces were two soft armchairs and six soft chairs. The furniture was soft, without any visible wooden parts, upholstered in the same type of material with a narrow fringe at the bottom. On the table, covered with a heavy tablecloth with wide fringe, there were: a large kerosene lamp with a painted porcelain tank and a silk lampshade with fringe, a vase of flowers and an ashtray.

Between the sofa and the piano, near the semicircular mirror of the white tiled stove, there was a simple black bookcase with three shelves on which sheet music lay. On the western wall, in a narrow frame made of gilded baguette, hung an oleograph of “Madonna” by Murillo. On the north wall, above the sofa, in the same frame, hung a painting in oils by an unknown Italian artist (most likely “Mary Magdalene”). According to Alexander Nikolaevich’s eldest daughter, Maria Alexandrovna, this painting was given to her during her childhood by some old man who traveled on foot “to holy places.” Above the door opening onto the terrace and next to it there are two narrow windows - a narrow lambrequin with a narrow fringe; on the outer sides of the windows there are massive heavy curtains with a narrow fringe, with tiebacks made of the same fringe.

From the living room, double doors led into the playwright's office, an almost square, very bright room, with three windows facing south and two facing east.

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. Photographer Dyagovchenko. 1879..

In the north wall, closer to the window, there is a double door to the bedroom. Along the rest of the wall is a wide Turkish ottoman with a backrest of four removable cushions and bolsters on the sides. In front of the ottoman there is a round table on one leg, on it there is a heavy tablecloth with fringe. On the table there was a vase of flowers and a large album with photographs. There is a carpet under the table.

In the evenings, a large kerosene lamp, similar to the one in the living room, was brought into the room and placed on the table. Around the table and along the western wall are simple black semi-upholstered armchairs and matching chairs.

Along the southern wall, under the windows, there is a large desk, on two bedside tables. The top board is covered with cloth. Rumor attributes the manufacture of the table to Alexander Nikolaevich himself, since the table is clearly handicraft. However, most likely, at the request of the playwright, the table was made by his friend, the local skilled self-taught carpenter Ivan Viktorovich Sobolev. On the table are 2 copper candelabra for several candles with green lampshades, an elegant wooden travel box for writing instruments (a gift from abroad from his brother, Mikhail Ostrovsky), a leather pad, a tin box that served the playwright as a tobacco store, a bell, a vase with flowers, an inkwell, a pen stand , a shelf for handy books, framed photographs (of his father, wife and several close friends) and in the right corner - an abacus - a sign of Ostrovsky’s household worries. All sorts of business documents related to Shchelykov were kept in the right bedside table, and manuscripts in the left one. There is a comfortable wicker chair at the table. Next to it is a wooden sandbox ashtray with a hinged lid. To the right and left of the table, at the outer windows there is a soft chair. Next to the chair, in the right corner, is a simple black bookcase (4 shelves) with books. In the space between the windows of the eastern wall there is a card table, on it there are candelabra with candles. All the walls of the office were covered with photographs, most of them in frames cut by the playwright himself.

In the walls above the desk, on the right is a photograph of Maria Vasilievna with her young daughter Masha in her arms, on the left are photographs of Mikhail Nikolaevich. Right there on the wall hung a homemade barometer, made by Alexander Nikolaevich himself, in the form of a Catholic monk standing in his cell in front of the lectern. In clear weather, the hood that belonged to his clothing was folded back, in inclement weather it was pulled tightly over his head.

The walls of the eastern side were also occupied by photographs, among them, above the card table, in a small black frame - a group of members of the editorial board of the Sovremennik magazine.

All windows have straw blinds and light curtains.

The bedroom was a small room with one window facing west. Since the playwright’s wife, Maria Vasilievna, occupied this room even after the playwright’s death for 20 years (she died in 1906), the name “Maria Vasilievna’s bedroom” was firmly assigned to the room.

In it along the southern wall there was a bed with a spring mattress, next to a night table covered with a napkin, on which stood a candlestick with a candle, a glass of water, a bell, an ashtray and a match holder (Maria Vasilievna smoked).

Maria Vasilievna (photo from the late 1890s)..

On the opposite wall there is a washbasin, a dressing table with a pouf and a linen chest of drawers. At the eastern wall, under the window, there is a work table, along its edges there is a small soft chair.

An ancient icon hung in the right corner. The window has straw blinds and colorful chintz curtains. At the back of the room, a door with a glass top and a curtain hung on top led into a dark closet, where there was a large wardrobe and a huge wooden chest, on which lay a heap of feather beds and pillows. Maria Vasilievna was very afraid of thunderstorms. When it started to thunder, she climbed into the closet and buried herself in the feather beds and pillows so as not to see the lightning or hear the thunderclaps.

Under Maria Vasilievna’s bedroom and partly under the office, a shallow basement was equipped with access to the east (just under the bedroom window), where bottles of grape wine brought for the summer were stored in low boxes with sand, bottles with liqueurs and tinctures, and jars were stored on the shelves with jam, marinades and other supplies.

From Maria Vasilievna's bedroom, a double door to the north led to a room adjacent to the back porch. In the old days, before the peasant reform of 1861, this was a “girl’s room,” that is, a room where “hay girls” worked, doing various types of needlework under the supervision of an overseer assigned to them - an old woman, who usually lay in the same room on a warm tiled bed . The name of the “maid’s room” for this room was preserved by tradition even after the reform.

Under Alexander Nikolaevich and after him, they did not call him anything other than “maiden’s”. Along the small windows facing east stood the same chest lockers as in the hallway. There is a kerosene lamp on one of the walls. On the windows there are light chintz curtains with tiebacks. Along the north wall, between the exit to the back porch and the door to the storage room, stood a large, cleanly planed wooden table. On it, peasant women laid out to Maria Vasilyevna the products they had brought for sale: eggs, berries, mushrooms, game, fish. At the opposite wall (south) there was another table, smaller in size. Behind him, Maria Vasilyevna accepted and measured the homespun canvas of various thicknesses, handicraft rag runners, and woven lace brought to her.

Next to the couch, located against the western wall, is a door leading to the storeroom - a small room with a window overlooking the northern terrace, into which a lattice of riveted iron strips was inserted. On the sides, along the entire length of the room, there were narrow wooden shelves with three sparsely placed shelves. Under the window there is a small unpainted table on which the steelyard lay, and a chair. In this pantry, the keys to which Maria Vasilievna always carried with her, all non-usable and spare tableware and kitchen utensils (basins, jugs, etc.) were stored on one side, and on the other - dry foods, such as sugar loaves in a blue wrapper (next to them there was a machine for chopping sugar), “pudovichki” (pood bags) with flour, cereals, peas, granulated sugar, there were tin cans with spices, dried mushrooms hung... The upper shelves were occupied by empty quarter and half-bucket bottles, glass jars of different sizes (for future liqueurs and jam).

Every morning the cook came here, and Maria Vasilievna, ordering food for him, gave him the necessary products by weight. Meat, dairy and other perishable products were stored on a glacier or in a special basement in a barnyard building, and were sold there on the spot, but also on an invoice basis. The cook received only fresh vegetables and berries from the gardener, who immediately collected them for him from the beds and bushes. The arrangement of the rooms in the back porch was the same as in the front porch. A heavy door covered with felt led from the maid's room to the entryway, where opposite the window in a recess stood a small basin on high legs, above it a cast-iron washbasin, a “duck,” suspended on cords. On the left on the nail is a towel; on the right is a bench with buckets of water: river water for washing, spring water for drinking, a drawn iron ladle above them, and a rocker next to them. Next, a double door led into a dark, paneled portion of the porch with closets on each side. Brushes, brooms, rags and other household items were stored in one of them. From here, double doors led to an open part of the porch with steps down.

The maid's room is connected to the hallway by a narrow corridor, the southern wall of which stretches under the stairs leading to the mezzanine. Here along the wall stood a wooden chest and a simple, dark-colored china cabinet. Nearby is a small door to the pantry. In the opposite, northern wall there are doors to two living rooms on the northern facade. In the first years of Shchelykov’s ownership, before the construction of the house behind the semi-stone outbuilding (the so-called “new” house, in contrast to the main house, which was called the “old”), in these rooms of the northern facade, which had a separate exit through the northern terrace, his brother, Mikhail Nikolaevich, lived Ostrovsky - when he came to Shchelykovo. The smaller room was his bedroom, the larger one, with a door to the terrace, was his office.

Here, in the absence of Mikhail Nikolaevich, the younger brothers, Peter and Andrei Nikolaevich, lived when they came to Alexander Nikolaevich. After the construction of the “new” house, Mikhail Nikolaevich settled in it, while the brothers Peter and Andrey continued to live in the “old” house, in the northern rooms, which were called “the rooms of Alexander Nikolaevich’s brothers.” After the birth of the playwright’s youngest son, Nikolai (1877), he was first settled with a nanny in these rooms, but after a few years Nikolai was moved upstairs, where the rest of Alexander Nikolaevich’s sons lived, and the lower rooms were returned to the brothers’ disposal. How these rooms were furnished under Alexander Nikolaevich is unknown; no instructions or memories have been preserved about this. But Andrei Nikolaevich often lived there even after the death of his older brother.

Among the staff of the “old” house, this room was known as Ostrovsky’s “working room.” In it, in the absence of his brothers and guests, who sometimes occupied this room, Alexander Nikolaevich was engaged in economic affairs, received the estate workers, the clerk, peasant petitioners, etc.

All living rooms on the first floor were covered with wallpaper, which gave them a special coziness.
Two narrow wooden staircases lead to the second floor: from the hallway of the front porch to the “boys’ room”, and from the “girls’” to the girls’ half. There are six small rooms intended for children, symmetrically located there, with a narrow passage along it, separated from the stairs by a low balustrade. All these rooms had whitewashed walls and were furnished equally simply. They contained wooden beds, made without a single nail, with hay bunks laid on boards, with pique or flannelette blankets and down pillows (two per bed). Each room had a night table, an ordinary small square table, two Viennese chairs, a washbasin and a chest of drawers with four or five drawers.
There were mirrors in the girls' rooms. All windows have blinds.
In four rooms facing north there are tiled beds. In the girls' half, in a smaller room with a window to the east, there was a governess, in the other two - the playwright's daughters Maria and Lyubov. Alexander Nikolaevich’s sisters, Maria and Nadezhda Nikolaevna, were also accommodated there when they arrived.

The sons of Alexander Nikolaevich lived in the boys' half - Alexander, Mikhail and Sergei, and later also Nikolai and their teacher. Continuing family traditions, starting with his grandfather, Fyodor Ivanovich, Alexander Nikolaevich believed that giving children a good upbringing and education means giving them everything. Therefore, he spared no expense on home teachers and governesses.

The photo shows the Ostrovsky children..

In Shchelykovo, the Ostrovskys usually took with them a governess who taught children English (Anna Ernestovna), a teacher (or teacher) of German (Maria Karlovna), a teacher (Ivan Alekseevich) or a home teacher (Viktor Fedorovich Podpaly).
These people came to Shchelykovo to teach children in the 80s. In the early 70s, there was a German language teacher in the estate, in 1874 there was a governess Anna Isaevna, and in 1879 there was Yulia Alfonsovna.

Many pieces of furniture are genuine, which is a special pleasure.

After viewing the house, go for a walk in the manor park.

The “old” house, surrounded by a flower garden and trees, was literally buried in greenery under Ostrovsky. Flower beds bordered by green turf surrounded the house on three sides, western, southern, eastern, interrupted only at the entrance to the basement and at the stairs of the southern terrace. The flower beds were filled with lilies, irises, dahlias, mignonette, petunia, phlox, peonies, and tobacco. The entire outer wall of the office was covered with ivy. Now, probably, there is no longer that riot, but the museum staff is trying to plant flower beds.

Opposite the southern terrace, a park wooden staircase descends down to the lower park. To the right and left of it were gazebos made of yellow acacia intertwined with hops, and inside them there were benches in the shape of the letter “p”.

At the very beginning of the staircase, on each side there are square whitewashed brick pillars topped with large flowerpots with nasturtiums.

Around the house bushes of lilac, jasmine, yellow acacia, honeysuckle, and peonies of different colors grew densely. There were also a lot of bird cherry trees, which Alexander Nikolaevich loved very much during the flowering period. Tatyana Sklifosovskaya recalls: “The rooms are always twilight from overgrown bushes of lilac, jasmine, honeysuckle, etc. Under the windows of the office where our great playwright pondered his works, there are flower beds of neglected flowers: fiery yellow lilies, irises and others.”

The lower park and garden around the house were kept very clean. Every spring, the paths were cleared, last year's leaves were raked and buried. Much attention was also paid to the grass cover of the Red Court.

At Ostrovsky’s request, the upper park, known in their family as “ravines,” was also cleared.

While building an outbuilding for his brother, Ostrovsky also decided to build several gazebos in the lower and upper parks. “Do me a favor,” Alexander Nikolaevich wrote on July 25, 1871 to N.A. Dubrovsky, “ask the architect (S.A. Elagin - A.R.) to send drawings of gazebos.” Elagin immediately sent the drawings. Ostrovsky really liked them. “Thank you,- he answered Dubrovsky, - an architect for me, his drawings are very cute and easy to execute.”

During 1871 - 1872, benches were placed on the paths of the lower and upper parks and, apparently, two gazebos were built. One, two-story, in the upper park, and the other, according to N. N. Lyubimov, similar to it, “but much smaller and worse,” under the “old” house, to the right of the stone staircase.” At the beginning of the 20th century, this stone staircase replaced the wooden one.

So the lower and upper parks were gradually improved.
The playwright's favorite gazebo was always the two-story one in the upper park. According to the memoirs of the playwright’s children, which reached his granddaughter M. M. Chatelain, Alexander Nikolaevich made the final changes to the text of “The Snow Maiden,” which had already been sent to print, while working in a two-story gazebo (in the summer of 1873), and they nicknamed her “Snegurochka.”

This gazebo cleverly hides in the park - be careful to find it.

During Ostrovsky’s time, the park was decorated with three ponds: a small one, under a two-story gazebo, a little to the left of it and closer to the river; middle - below and to the left of the “old” house; large - after medium. At that time, even in a small pond, constantly cleared, there were large crucian carp. The middle one, with an artificial island in the middle, is maintained in good condition to this day. A large pond, located near the Kuekshi River and separated from its bed by narrow bridges, was destroyed during a strong flood by washing out the bridge; it turned into the second channel of Kueksha. Currently this duct is closed.

Alexander Nikolaevich was especially pleased with his vegetable garden, located between the Red Court and the upper park, to the south and west of the barnyard. In the garden there was a small greenhouse and a number of greenhouses adjacent to the southern facade of the barnyard, which served as reliable protection from the cold northern winds.

Gardener Feofan Smetanin, who worked on the estate for many years, not only looked after flowers, but was also a great master in gardening. In addition to ordinary vegetables, he grew all kinds of cabbage (cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, Savoy, etc.), peas, beans, artichokes, asparagus, all kinds of seasoning herbs, up to ten varieties of lettuce and even... decorative pumpkins. Watermelons and melons ripened in his greenhouses, which he was very proud of. Ostrovsky was delighted with the vegetables he grew. Inviting Burdin to Shchelykovo in 1870, the playwright wrote: “I will treat you to a salad that you have not only never eaten, but also never seen.” Although Alexander Nikolaevich “was very pleased when Feofan brought him several cucumbers, just picked from the ridge...”.

Feofan did not ignore the berry garden, located in the western part of the garden. All kinds of strawberries, raspberries, currants, and gooseberries grew there in abundance. The berries were served to the table; there was plenty of them for liqueurs and preparations (jams, jellies, syrups), with which Maria Vasilievna provided the family for the entire winter.

After the death of the playwright, Shchelykov Park was replenished with a new structure. The Blue House is a monument of estate architecture of the early 20th century, built in 1903 according to the own design of Maria Alexandrovna Chatelain, the eldest daughter of Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky. In the new estate, Maria Alexandrovna tried to revive the same way of life that was under her father: there were often guests in the house, music was played. The hostess even came up with the interiors of the house, painting inserts on the doors and walls.

It's a pity, but the interior has not been preserved. You can spend time exploring the Blue House. only if you want to experience small temporary exhibitions. During our trip, one of them was dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory and the Snow Maiden through the eyes of children.

And, of course, walking through such beauty, already in the second hour of your stay you will begin to imagine how you would relax here if you were a gentleman or lady. How they would shout at some Lipka to bring tea and sweets to the veranda and grab yesterday’s pie. Or we would ride in the shade of the old alleys astride the quiet piebald Beauty. Or they would receive old friends, showing them everything. what they just saw. And, I’ll tell you, you wouldn’t be far from what entertained and consoled Ostrovsky himself.

Arriving in Shchelykovo, Ostrovsky threw off his city suit and put on a village suit. In his estate, Alexander Nikolaevich wore a Russian costume: an untucked shirt, trousers, long boots, a gray short jacket and a wide-brimmed hat.
Alexander Nikolayevich usually walked slowly along the paths of the park, sat on his favorite bench above the slope to the meadow, near his new house, and thoughtfully peered into the blue distances, into the boundless expanses of forests stretching across the Kueksha River. The playwright went down the wooden stairs leading from the main house.

After the second landing, which was almost in the middle of the stairs, there was a linden alley: to the left - to the meadow and the middle pond; to the right - to the spruce alley leading to the bathhouse. Alexander Nikolaevich went down the spruce alley to Kueksha, where the bathhouse was located. This journey took no more than five minutes.

Near the bathhouse stood a boat, attached with a chain to the railing. Sometimes Ostrovsky rode on it to Nikola’s churchyard on Berezhki to his friend the peasant Sobolev, or rode down to the village of Subbotino, transferring to another boat, which was laid up behind the mill.

V.D. Polenov. "On the boat. Abramtsevo.” 1880..

For the sake of a good walk, Ostrovsky went for berries and mushrooms. This is how his daughter, M. A. Chatelain, spoke about them:

“Dad really loved visiting Ivanovsky and Gribovnik, and usually took us children with him. The slender mast spruces and huge centuries-old pines that grew there evoked admiration. It used to be that my brothers and I would hold hands and stand around something. a thick pine tree, so the three of us could barely grasp it... It used to be that dad, who was very fond of mushroom trips, would go with us to the Mushroom Garden. There were several empty laundry baskets piled on top of the cart, and we all had a basket. Three hours after arriving in the forest, our laundry baskets turned out to be full, and we headed back, and when we arrived home, dad, happy, animated, surrounded by us, proudly reported to mom (Maria Vasilievna) about the number of mushrooms collected.” Alexander Nikolaevich could talk for hours with his mother-in-law about “Was it a mushroom summer, which mushrooms were produced the most, which ones were spoiled the most, was there a harvest of his favorite butterfly fungi.”

A great pleasure of Shchelykov life was always swimming. Ostrovsky began to swim as soon as possible. On June 20, 1878, he notified in a letter: “... my health is really better; and I arrived here in a very unenviable position: I had constant dizziness, so that I could not walk ten steps without holding on to something. Now, thanks to the good air, and most importantly, the bath, I feel fresher.”

Solitaire was one of the means of relaxation, and often calm from everyday worries, for Alexander Nikolaevich. If the weather was gloomy and rainy, then after dinner the owner would invite his guests to play vint or preference. While playing, he always joked, amusing his partners with funny reasonings. “Sometimes they dealt him bad cards, he would begin to shrug his shoulders vigorously and grumble:
“What is this? What have you done to me?.. These are not cards, but tears... yes, sir, tears and nothing more... Not a single representative face, all some kind of allegories. For fortune telling, they may be very good and pleasant, and they talk a lot about interest, but for screwing they are completely unsuitable.”

Losing the game and giving a penalty to his opponents, Ostrovsky often said grumpily and good-naturedly: "My God! What is this?.. How well I play and... how unhappy I am at the same time. Amazing, inexplicable, terrible!
Since 1875, almost every day, often after breakfast, Ostrovsky went to the “new” house or, as it was also called, to the “guest” wing, connected to the “old” house by a birch alley.

Most often, the playwright worked on the mezzanine with a jigsaw. This activity was one of his most favorite types of recreation. He cut out elegant frames of various sizes, hung them on the walls of his house, and gave them, along with photographic cards, to family, friends, and good acquaintances. In addition, Alexander Nikolaevich used a jigsaw to make cornices for drapes and curtains on windows and doors.
On the mezzanine there was also a lathe, using which Alexander Nikolaevich made small and large crafts for the home. The playwright more than once took on more complex subjects.

Having paid tribute to carpentry or turning, the playwright often took a book and sat down here or on the balcony of the outbuilding to read it.

Thanks to the care of the playwright and his brother Mikhail Nikolaevich, the library located in the wing was very respectable. Its basis was the book collection of Nikolai Fedorovich. In 1868, Mikhail Nikolaevich sent the first parcel of books worth 11 pounds, and then these parcels became systematic. Boxes of books arrived from St. Petersburg in 1872, 1874 and 1876. Mikhail Nikolaevich sent many old magazines from St. Petersburg to the estate in 1881. The Shchelykov library was replenished by the playwright himself. The main library of A. N. Ostrovsky was located in Moscow. But the Shchelykov library clearly demonstrates the playwright’s versatile interests and the great culture of the estate’s owners. Now most of the books are lost.

While in Shchelykovo, Ostrovsky, especially in his early years, walked a lot. He was not afraid of distances. On June 10, 1867, he reported to Maria Vasilievna: “In the evening I go for a walk with my sisters two and three miles away.”

In the minds of people who saw Alexander Nikolaevich in Shchelykov, he is a tall, rather plump, but slender man, with a purely Russian face, with a round light red beard and mustache. Most often he appeared in a simple white or red shirt-shirt, sometimes in a scalloped jacket. In the summer, in good weather, he was met in the most remote corners of the Shchelykovo environs, more often in Vysokov, Adishchevo, Ryzhevka.

Ostrovsky especially often went to the Berezhka churchyard, visiting his father’s grave.

Horseback riding was a great success in the Ostrovsky family. Alexander Nikolaevich preferred walking and only in recent years, due to illness, began to use a carriage more often. He repeatedly traveled from Shchelykov to Semenovskoye-Lapotnoye, the then trading center of the area.

In Semenovsky-Lapotny, near the church, on the central square during Ostrovsky’s time there was a large bazaar. Ugolskoye was also a fair village. In the village of Ugolskoye, during Ostrovsky’s time, there was a Sabaneev estate: a stone manor house and the Pokhvalinsky Church.

Church of Pokhvalinsky in the village of Ugolskoye. 1820..

When going on walks with members of his family and close friends, Ostrovsky willingly sat down as a coachman. He is remembered riding in a troika to a picnic in Sergeevo or for a walk in Adishchevo. Alexander Nikolaevich had a favorite horse - the beautiful Poteshka, who walked as a root horse.

Galichsky tract..

With all this, Ostrovsky, when his health allowed him, was engaged in hunting. Every year upon his arrival, “Peter the Hunter” came to the estate from the village of Kudryaevo and reported on the prospects for hunting. Ostrovsky hunted so intensely in his early years that he exhausted his entire supply of gunpowder. Inviting his friends to Shchelykovo, Ostrovsky also attracted them with the pleasure of hunting. In the last years of his life, the playwright no longer hunted, but he tried to keep the material part of the hunt in good order, keeping in mind the children and guests.

THEM. Pryanishnikov “On traction”. 1881..

At the same time, Alexander Nikolaevich was a passionate, truly frantic fisherman. His pen was guided by both the fisherman and the artist when he wrote with admiration about the water expanse of Shchlykovo.

Having mastered the wisdom of fishing, Alexander Nikolaevich never came home without fish. "Him,- testifies S.V. Maksimov, - like an experienced and renowned fisherman, no matter how the hook drifts, the fish bite - usually squinting - in the pool of the river in front of the mill dam, and in such quantities, during any fishing, that it was enough for a whole dinner.

V.G. Perov “Fisherman”. 1871..

Music occupied a large place in the Ostrovsky family. It is known that in his youth Alexander Nikolaevich sang and played the piano very well, and read notes like books. Having retained a good voice at a later time, he willingly sang Russian songs, accompanying himself on the guitar.

Both of the playwright's daughters, Maria and Lyubov, were very musical and played the piano. From childhood, almost from the age of eight, Lyuba showed extraordinary musical abilities, and she was predicted to have a brilliant musical future. In the evenings, sitting in a cozy living room in an easy chair or on a sofa, the playwright enjoyed the play of his daughters, especially Lyuba.

Musical family evenings were greatly enlivened by Maria Vasilievna’s singing to her own accompaniment. Maria Vasilievna loved to sing and sang very willingly. The first place in her repertoire was occupied by gypsy romances...

Inviting guests to Shchelykovo, Alexander Nikolaevich promised them a “feast.” So, on June 20, 1873, seducing N.A. Dubrovsky on a trip to Shchelykovo, he added: “We would take a walk and feast to the fullest.”

“Feasts” were usually associated with the birthdays of members of the family of Shchelykov’s owners.

On the name days of the owner of the estate and his family members, the park was decorated with colored lanterns. They placed light bowls near the house and lit rockets. The estate, illuminated by the generous light of bright lights, seemed fabulous in the forest darkness.

These holidays were memorable not only for the representatives of the district public present at them, but also for many peasants. The fact is that these days were adapted to theatrical performances, which were attended by residents of nearby villages.

Performances were staged in a hay barn in a meadow, behind a pond, or in a barn. According to the memoirs of I. I. Sobolev, in the theatrical performances staged in Shchelykovo, guests, Maria Vasilievna, performed, and in simpler roles - boys, girls from the village and servants. “All the plays that Alexander Nikolaevich wrote- Sobolev reports, - were staged for the first time in Shchelykovo; a special barn was built for this purpose. Alexander Nikolaevich himself sat in the audience, watched, noted something in a book.”

From Shchelykov the Ostrovskys returned to Moscow at the end of September or early October, depending on the weather and requests from Moscow.
The blessed Shchelykov brought mushrooms, jam and other food not only for himself. Upon Ostrovsky’s arrival in Moscow, his closest friends and acquaintances went to him for their share of jam and mushrooms. Alexander Nikolaevich called the trip from Shchelykov to Moscow with children, with a load of village supplies (berries, mushrooms, jam, etc.) along the autumn road “a difficult voyage” with “his entire horde.”

And finally, there remains a very sad place to visit - the church graveyard. Take a walk, as Ostrovsky himself once walked to his father’s grave. When his strength became low, he went there in a carriage. But in general, under the influence of the life-giving forces of nature, Alexander Nikolaevich became cheerful, blossomed, and the tone of his letters, tired and gloomy before leaving for Shchelykovo, again acquired his usual liveliness and cheerfulness.

Expressing complete satisfaction with the pleasures of Shchelykov’s life, Alexander Nikolaevich notified S.V. Maksimov: “... we read, we walk in our forest, we go to Sendega to fish, we pick berries, we look for mushrooms... We go to the meadow with a samovar and drink tea... everything is as prescribed by doctors and legally.”

Throughout his last winter, Ostrovsky repeated: “If only I could live until spring to go to Shchelykovo.”

Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky..

Without changing the routine, he set to work on this day, June 2. From time to time, the playwright exchanged words with his daughter, who was present in his office.

And then, sitting at work, he suddenly cried out: “Oh, how sick I feel, give me some water!”. It was about half past ten o'clock. "I ran,- says Maria Alexandrovna, - s and water and had just gone out into the living room when I heard that he had fallen.” Mikhail Alexandrovich adds: “and hit his cheek and temple” about the floor

The writer’s sons, Mikhail and Alexander, his sister Nadezhda Nikolaevna, as well as the student S.I. Shanin, who was visiting them, and the servant, came running to the call of the frightened daughter.

They immediately lifted the playwright and sat him in a chair. According to Mikhail Alexandrovich, “He wheezed three times, sobbed for a few seconds and then fell silent.” It was at eleven o'clock in the morning.

He was buried not in Moscow, as the public expected, but in Berezhki, near the St. Nicholas Church. The two-story stone St. Nicholas Church was built on the site of a wooden one. The authorship of the project is usually attributed to the prominent Kostroma architect S. A. Vorotilov. The temple was built over 10 years and was consecrated in 1792 under the previous owners of the estate.

The appearance of the church is very harmonious: it is successfully “fitted” into the surrounding nature and has slender and strict forms. The eclecticism of Baroque and Classicism styles is evident both in the exterior and in the interior decoration of the temple. The upper summer temple is distinguished by its splendor: a richly carved iconostasis, brightly painted walls and ceilings in Western European traditions with elements of Masonic and naval symbolism. The Winter Church is modest, there are no wall paintings, and the icons collected in the temple carry the tradition of Orthodox icon painting.

The church cemetery is surrounded by a brick fence with east and west gates. Here, on the southern side of the temple, in a common low wrought-iron fence, there is the Ostrovsky family necropolis. Buried next to the playwright’s grave are his father, Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky, his wife, Maria Vasilievna Ostrovskaya, and his daughter, Maria Alexandrovna Chatelain.

On the way from the eternal resting place of the man whose plays every Soviet schoolchild read for the first time in a literature textbook, you can look into Sobolev’s house - this newly rebuilt hut stands right behind the bridge, next to the temple. The reconstruction may not please a lover of antiquity, but everything there was done with soul. And the museum staff also pampers guests with master classes, and on holidays teaches tourists to play simple games that delighted rural youth at winter gatherings a century and a half ago.

You will return again through the park, walking along wooden walkways and ladders spanning ravines. Breathe deeply in that pine air - when you return to the city, you will feel its shortage. If you have time, go to the building of the Literary and Theater Museum - the exhibition there contains cute little things that belonged to the owners of the estate and not only.

At the same time, you will see how the playwright’s daughter painted - door panels with flowers designed by her are stored there. And you will probably see for the first time what that young lady’s ballroom book really looked like.

If you wish, they will tell you about the fate of the “Snow Maiden”. And in the foyer you can see giant carved buffets from the century before last.

There you can also buy simple souvenirs and memorabilia from Shchelykovo - brochures, magnets and other quite traditional items.

Since there is a sanatorium on the territory of the estate, you may be hoping that you can eat in its own dining room - come on. Take a snack with you, and also try to get into a small, modest and very tasty cafe, which is located outside the sanatorium next to rural shops. The prices will surprise you - you’ll take the receipts home to show your friends :)

At the exit from the estate, already on the bridge, when the road goes up, stop the car and walk along the forest path to the Blue Key. Be patient - this is some distance from the road. The key amazed us with the color of the water – it’s really blue. And in the clearing in May, the Red Book swimsuit was blooming. True, we had no desire to get water or even try it. Firstly, the water level is quite low in the log house, and secondly, it was clearly stagnant and full of forest debris. However, the place is captivating - the Kostroma deep forest, the river and this spring in the clearing.

We could also add a story about what you can see on the way to Shchelykovo. But we decided that this would be a completely different report :)

By the way, we noticed that we caught ourselves comparing the Boldinsky and Shchelykovsky museums. And what? Writers' estates that gave inspiration to geniuses and gave us classics of literature. However, Boldino seems much poorer than Shchelykovo. And here it’s worth making your own guesses as to why everything is so. Either because Pushkin’s era is older than Ostrov’s, and therefore it is more difficult to assemble a collection of furniture and household items. Either because the Shchelykov Museum, unlike the Boldino Museum, is federal, and, therefore, richer.

Ostrovsky and Shchelykovo (emphasis on the “o”) are almost the same as, for example, Pushkin and Mikhailovskoye. And not at all because both writers spent a lot of time on their estates, but because the estates, far from Moscow and its “worldly noise,” served as a source of inspiration, poetry, truthful images and precise phrases.

Interactive map:

Shchelykovo was not the Ostrovsky family estate: it was owned by the Kutuzov family, and only in 1847 the estate was bought by the writer’s father, a native of Kostroma. After his death, Alexander Nikolaevich tried to actively engage in farming in order to have a constant income, but these attempts were in vain, which cannot be said about literary work: in Shchelykovo, the playwright successfully worked on 19 plays, and it was on stage that many of them were staged for the first time.

However, everything in the estate is conducive to collaboration with the muse - and first of all, the natural landscapes on the banks of the small river Kuekshi, discreet, but very subtle. It is not surprising that it was Shchelykovo that, already in Soviet times, was chosen to house the Maly Theater Holiday House, which was later transformed into a sanatorium for the Union of Theater Workers (this is how the holiday house located next to the estate is officially called now).

The modest but elegant main house (today the Ostrovsky House Museum), surrounded by a park with cozy benches, bridges and gazebos, harmoniously blends into the natural beauty. On the territory of the estate there is also the Literary and Theater Museum in a modern building and the Blue House, which belonged to the daughter of the playwright. Today it serves as the residence of the Snow Maiden (Santa Claus’s assistant also has a residence permit in Kostroma, where she has her own).

The memory of Ostrovsky is also preserved in the nearby village of Nikolo-Berezhki: here, in the graveyard of the St. Nicholas Church, the playwright himself, his father, wife and daughter are buried. And in the House of Ivan Sobolev, a serf cabinetmaker who made furniture for the estate, an ethnographic museum has been opened.

Useful:

You can view the exhibitions either independently or with a guided tour (guided tours are offered for groups of 3 or more people); Please specify the subject and cost. You can get to Shchelykovo by car from Kostroma through the village of Ostrovskoye or by bus Kostroma - Kineshma or Kostroma - Ostrovskoye (in the second case, in Ostrovskoye you will have to change to a bus to Kineshma). There is a road from Ivanovo: by car through Kineshma or by bus Ivanovo - Kineshma, then Kineshma - Ostrovskoye. Distances to Shchelykovo: from Kostroma 120 km, from Ostrovsky 30 km, from Kineshma 37 km, from Ivanovo 130 km.

Estate of A.N. Ostrovsky "Schelykovo"

For almost two decades, these picturesque places inspired the work of the great playwright. His most famous works were born here: “Late Love”, “There Was Not a Penny, But Suddenly Altyn”, “Simplicity is Enough for Every Wise Man”, “The Last Sacrifice”, “Thunderstorm”, “Forest”, “Wolf and Sheep”, “ Dowry", "Truth is good, but happiness is better." Here the idea of ​​“The Snow Maiden” was hatched, the smallest details of this wonderful fairy tale-play were thought out.

Currently, the museum-reserve is a whole complex, which includes: the house-museum of A.N. Ostrovsky is the main object of the museum-reserve, a memorial park, the ethnographic museum “Sobolev House”, the residence of the Snow Maiden “Blue House”, the Church of St. Nicholas in Berezhki and the Ostrovsky family necropolis, a literary and theatrical museum presenting the exhibition “Ostrovsky Theater”.

The playwright's estate and the picturesque nature around it delight our contemporaries just as they admired A.N. Ostrovsky: “What rivers, what mountains, what forests! If this district were near Moscow or St. Petersburg, it would have long ago turned into an endless park, it would have been compared with the best places in Switzerland and Italy,” the playwright wrote about Shchelykovo in his diary.

Visitors to the estate are amazed by the many flowers near the manor house and in every room, and are captivated by the lack of luxury typical of noble mansions. Everything here is surprisingly simple and homely. The aesthetics of Russian folk style reigns everywhere. In the house of A.N. Ostrovsky contains the main part of the museum’s memorial exhibition - personal belongings of the playwright and members of his family, original furnishings of the house. In the former children's rooms on the mezzanine floor there is an exhibition dedicated to the famous Maly Theater actress A.A. Yablochkina.

The Literary and Theater Museum introduces visitors to the exhibition “Ostrovsky Theatre”. The playwright's personal belongings, picturesque portraits and photographs of his contemporaries, sketches of costumes and scenery, models for performances and posters are also presented here. Particular attention in the exhibition is paid to the works that Ostrovsky worked on in Shchelykovo, especially the plays “The Thunderstorm”, “The Dowry” and “The Snow Maiden”.

“Blue House” is a former guest house in the upper Ovrazhki park, which Ostrovsky’s eldest daughter inherited after the division of the estate between the children. Maria Alexandrovna built a new estate on the site of the guest house according to her own design. This building is considered a rare monument of estate culture of the early 20th century. Currently, two libraries are open in the Blue House - a scientific and a public one, there is a reading room, a literary and musical lounge, and a video room. The residence of the Snow Maiden is also located here.

Everywhere in the museum-reserve one can feel elation, the joy of expecting miracles from natural gifts, from walks along protected paths, meadows and forests, through a flax field.

While in Kostroma we decided to visit the estate of A.N. Ostrovsky in Shchelykovo...

We put this geographical name into the navigator, in a matter of seconds it calculated the route and off we went...

From Kostroma to Ostrovsky’s estate we had to travel only about 120 km, but the Kostroma roads turned out to be the same... We, of course, mentally understood that we were in Russia, and that, to put it mildly, not everything was in order with our roads, but we still need to look for such roads... In short, virtually all 120 km along the federal highway P98 Kostroma - Kirov we were engaged exclusively in figure driving around numerous various road irregularities of impressive size...

Apparently the navigator began to falter from such driving... When we approached the regional center of Ostrovskoye, he forced us to leave the federal highway, drive through the village, and when we hit a deep ravine, he began to speak heart-rendingly: “keep moving, there’s only one left to reach our destination.. . km". Apparently, on the way, we picked up the Susana virus... We did not continue moving along the course he had laid out, but used the old method - we asked the local residents. It turned out that there was no need to turn anywhere from the P98 highway to the fork with the sign “Ostrovsky Museum-Reserve”. We got out onto the main road again and literally a couple of kilometers later (towards Kirov) an intersection appeared with the necessary sign. We must pay tribute to the road workers of the Kostroma region - the section of the road from the highway to Shchelykovo turned out to be simply magnificent + the road runs through a beautiful landscape... This somewhat smoothed out the overall picture of the Kostroma road chaos...

After a while we slowed down at the sign (see photo). We wanted to turn right, but there was no road there. There was no road on the left either...

True, about ten meters before this sign there was a branch from the road on the left side, but the path was blocked by a closed gate. We drove straight ahead a little - we thought that the intersection would be further... But after 50 meters the asphalt ended... We returned to this sign, parked the car at the closed gate and decided to walk a little... Despite the fact that we arrived on a weekend day - there were no people who could be asked where the museum is located...

At first we decided that it was on the right side (behind the fence) where the information board indicated...., but it turned out that we were wrong. It is located on the opposite side (if you believe the sign - this is the “Rest House”) and it is behind closed gates...

The gate was open and we entered a closed area...

A long alley appeared before us, quite well-groomed and... not a soul...

Let's move on... And then a monument appears on the right side... A.N. Ostrovsky... We breathed a sigh of relief - after all, 120 km of off-road was crowned with success - we are in the right place. Why did they remember the local hero Susanin again...

Opposite the monument, behind the fence, a small house was visible...

We pass through the open gate...

and in front of us was indeed the estate of A.N. Ostrovsky... Judging by the complete lack of information along our route, and sometimes the provision of deliberately false information, we seem to be at some kind of secret facility...

But a short excursion into history refuted our assumptions...

Once upon a time, more precisely in the 17th century, this estate began to belong to the Kutuzov family. A representative of this family, the leader of the Kostroma nobility, retired general F. M. Kutuzov, built a large stone house in this place in the 18th century, laid out a landscape park, developed the surrounding area, and even sponsored the construction of the Church of St. in the neighboring village of Berezhki. Nicholas... After his death, the estate is inherited by one of his daughters, then to another, from that one to her son, and he, having squandered everything “acquired by back-breaking labor,” brought the situation to its logical conclusion - the estate was put up for sale bargaining....

It was then that a buyer appeared in the person of Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky, the writer’s father, who at that time, after completing his law practice, began to seriously engage in agriculture and for these purposes bought up estates...

In April 1848 (a year after his father acquired the estate), Alexander Nikolaevich spent his vacation here for the first time, who was fascinated by the beauty of the estate and its surroundings...

After the death of N.F. Ostrovsky, the estate was owned by his wife, Emilia Andreevna (stepmother of A.N. Ostrovsky), who brought the estate to decay...

In 1867, Alexander Nikolaevich, together with his brother, bought his father’s estate from his stepmother for 7357 rubles 50 kopecks (in installments for three years) and thanks to his active actions, the estate came to life again...

It is from this moment that the writer begins to spend 4-5 months a year on the estate, fruitfully engaging in his creative activity....

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

(This is what the estate looked like during the time of A.N. Ostrovsky, judging by the picture painted by one of the frequent visitors to the estate...)

But let's go back to our times. So we are at Ostrovsky’s house-estate. We no longer hope for anything good (considering our previous adventures), but to our surprise, the museum was open to the public. In addition, for a fairly nominal fee - 100 rubles, a guide was invited from the administrative building for us, who gave us an excellent tour of the museum for an hour...

We begin our inspection of the museum's exhibition from the largest room in the house - the dining room. Once upon a time, the playwright’s family and his guests often gathered at this table...

There was no kitchen in the house. They cooked in the next room, then the servants brought the dishes through the back entrance and served them to the table through a special window in the wall...

Here is also one of the attractions - the samovar, whose owner was Nikolai Fedorovich Ostrovsky...

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

The next room is something like a relaxation room... In it you could relax after a hearty lunch, talk about something important and vital at a cozy table, and play music on a good instrument. In winter, warm up by the stove, near which there is an original protective screen that allows you to avoid accidentally touching a hot object and to some extent limit the excess of directed thermal energy...

Here he worked on the plays “Thunderstorm”, “Forest”, “Wolves and Sheep”, “Dowry”, “Snow Maiden”...

On the desktop there are Ostrovsky's manuscripts, writing instruments, a calculator of those times, dictionaries, etc...

On the walls of the office you can see photographs from the writer’s personal archive. By the way, he made the patterned wooden frames for his photographs himself...

Well, after hard everyday life you could relax on this couch....

Next to the office is the room of the playwright's wife, Maria Vasilievna. Despite the small size, everything here is quite thought out and functional...

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

Above Maria Vasilievna’s bed you can see a painting on a rural theme... She made the frame for it with her own hands... In addition, she had to take control of the estate into her own hands (from the second half of the 70s XIX century Ostrovsky lost interest in agriculture)...

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

We continue the tour of the house... If you noticed, there are no fences in the house that prohibit the passage of tourists... This, in our opinion, has a rather positive effect on the tour, since you get the feeling that you are not in a museum, but just for a moment I was transported to a real house of those times...

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

When leaving the bedroom we find ourselves in a small corridor... Here an original chair appears to our eyes... It turns out that a similar specimen, the back of which was forged by a local blacksmith to the profile of Ostrovsky's back, was used by him while fishing... I must say that it weighs quite a lot decently (not like modern sun loungers), but nevertheless - the owner’s servants took him out to the lake (river) and Ostrovsky sat on it for hours with a fishing rod in his hands...

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

The next room is A. N. Ostrovsky’s library, which was based on his father’s books. A great contribution to its further equipment was made by the writer’s brother, Mikhail, who repeatedly sent parcels with books, and even brought them himself during his visit to the estate...

If you look at the shelves, you can find books on history, philosophy, gardening, and, of course, literary almanacs...

In the library there is a secretary behind which Ostrovsky worked with books, looked through periodicals...

You can still see newspapers from that time on the table today...

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

The walls of the library are also no exception - on them, as everywhere else in the house, there are photographs from the personal archive...

A.N. Ostrovsky was very sensitive to the estate... In September 1884, an arson took place in the estate, as a result of which 30,000 sheaves of bread were burned and the house was miraculously preserved... This fact seriously affected the health of the playwright, after which he could not recover until death...

A.N. died Ostrovsky June 2, 1886 ode in his office and was buried at St. Nicholas Church in the village of Berezhki..

In principle, this could be the end of the tour of the house.... But the house also has a second floor. During the time of A.N. Ostrovsky, his children lived there, and two staircases lead up: one for girls, the other for boys... Everything in the house was planned so that children of different sexes would not intersect in their personal time...

Now on the second floor there is an exhibition dedicated to the famous dramatic actress of the Maly Theater Alexandra Aleksandrovna Yablochkina...

We did not miss the opportunity to get acquainted with the exhibition, and, for a fee, went upstairs...

Here we saw the actress’s personal belongings - her favorite sofa,

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

decor items,

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

the costume in which she performed on the theater stage,

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

working music box in the shape of an Easter egg...,

and numerous photographs from my personal archive....

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

Well, the tour of the house is over. Many thanks to the local museum workers for this - they thoroughly know the subject of their work...

We leave the house....

Once again we find documentary evidence of the fact that it was here that the great Russian playwright lived, worked and died,

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

and we begin to explore the surroundings....

After all, if you remember, Ostrovsky repeatedly admired the nature of these places and with his brother Mikhail put a lot of effort into maintaining the manor park in proper form: dirt paths were laid, gazebos were built, benches were installed, etc... Let's see what this park looks like today...

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

On the other side of the writer’s house, along a steep wooden staircase (by the way, underneath it you can see the remains of the previous one - a brick staircase)

we go down to the gazebo...

Perhaps it was in this place that inspiration came to Ostrovsky and he continued his creative work with renewed vigor....

If you turn around and look at the estate, you can see an open terrace....

According to the guide, Ostrovsky loved to relax on it and at the same time enjoy the surrounding views. By the way, at that time trees that interfered with the view were specially pruned and nothing prevented the playwright from viewing the surroundings over long distances...

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

Well, let's start our walk in the park...

Despite the beginning of May (the snow has only recently melted), the paths of the park are quite passable....

Bridges have been built across difficult places...

And this is one of the attractions of the park - a pond with an island, which has been preserved from the first owner - F.M. Kutuzova..

Near it there is a local wishing tree....

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

We continue our walk through the park...

As local comrades told us, if you move to the right of the stairs leading to Ostrovsky’s house (if you stand with your back to the house), you can get to another attraction of Shchelykovo - the Blue House...

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

After 10-15 minutes of calm walking through picturesque places

we come to another long staircase...

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

We rise and indeed a blue house appears in front of us.....

The Blue House was built in 1903 according to the design eldest daughter A.N. Ostrovsky - Maria Alexandrovna Chatelain ...At one time it was a favorite vacation spot for many famous actors of the Maly Theater, and recently, in winter, a thematic exhibition dedicated to Ostrovsky’s famous character, the Snow Maiden, began to be held in this building. Then they began to call it the Snow Maiden’s Tower, and it all ended with Shchelykovo becoming the Snow Maiden’s homeland.....

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

In winter, special tours are even organized here to meet the Snow Maiden....

But we didn’t find the Snow Maiden, apparently she had already melted by the time we arrived, and no wonder, because the temperature outside was already over 20 degrees. (heat)...

But we learned that the museum’s administration and ticket office are located in the house, at least in the summer (although tickets can also be purchased directly at Ostrovsky’s house)....

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

It seems that everyone has looked, it’s time to know the honor....

It’s somehow not interesting to return to the car along the asphalt path, and we find an alternative road....

It seems we didn’t go down this road in vain - we discovered a two-tier gazebo. They say that it was in it that Ostrovsky conceived the image of the Snow Maiden....

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

Having rested a little in it and also thought about the eternal, we go out along a path parallel to the main road to the car to continue our journey...

Museum-Reserve A.N. Ostrovsky. Village Shchelykovo

We had no desire to return through Kostroma, and we decided to drive through Kineshma (it’s much closer, and the road, we thought, would be better). But the navigator, which we had already nicknamed “Susanin,” went berserk again... When we put Kineshma into it (which is 15 km from Shchelykovo), he determined the shortest route as much as 250 km long - first to Kostroma, there we cross the Volga, and then along on the other side there is another 120 km to Kineshma. We rejected his proposal, to put it mildly, and went our own route (fortunately, sometimes there are signs on the road, and cellular communications in this area are stable - we called a friend (a native of these places) and he confirmed that a bridge across the Volga in the Kineshma area exists) . About twenty minutes later we successfully overcame a water barrier in the form of the mighty Russian Volga River... As it turned out later, for some reason the navigator maps completely lack a bridge across the Volga in this place (perhaps this is a secret object). But in our paper topographic maps it is well marked... So it’s not for nothing that Susanin is the hero of the local epic...