The Pushkin Museum-Reserve

Pskov Oblast
S. S. Geychenko Boulevard, 1 Pushkinskie Gory, Pskov region
Phones: +7(81146)2-23-21
Web site: http://pushkinland.ru/

THE MUSEUM-RESERVE INCLUDES:
- Pushkin’s grave and the Gannibal-Pushkins’ necropolis: the 16th to 19th –century ensemble of Svyatogorsk monastery;
- the estates of Mikhailovskoye, Trigorskoye and Petrovskoye with memorial parks, and estates of the poet’s relatives, friends and neighbours in which fragments of buildings have survived -Voskresenskoye, Golubovo, Deriglazovo and Lysaya Gora;
- the ancient sites of Voronich and Savkino and the historical part of Velye village (also the ancient site)
- the Mill-in-Bugrovo village museum;

On the territory of the museum-reserve there are also some ancient Slav burials of the 7th to 10th century.

In 1899 Mikhailovskoye was purchased from the poet's son, Grigory Pushkin, by the state. Many members of the Academy of Science supported that idea.

The first attempt to immortalize Pushkin's memory in the Pskov area was the opening in 1911 of a colony of elderly writers and teachers in Mikhailovskoye. A small museum was set up in the poet's restored house (architect V.A. Shchuko). That very colony ought to combine charitable purposes with educational ones, but the experience was not a success. But nevertheless the opening of the museum in Mikhailovskoye was of great importance as the first experience in such sphere.

In 1918 the building on the estates of Mikhailovskoye, Trigorskoye and Petrovskoye were destroyed by fire. On March 17, 1922 the Soviet government declared Mikhailovskoye, Trigorskoye and Pushkin's grave at the Svyatogorsk monastery to be a state reserve. In 1936 the reserve was extended by the inclusion in it of the entire grounds of the Svyatogorsk monastery, the Petrovskoye estate, Savkino with the old town site at Savkina Hill, and Voronich. Alexander Pushkin Museum-reserve suffered severe damage in the Second World War. In 1946 post-war restoration and repair work began in the museum-reserve.

In 1962 the historical buildings in Trigorskoye estate-museum were restored and in 1977 those in Petrovskoye. In 1992 Svyatogorsk monastery was given back to the Russian Orthodox Church for its use gratis and in perpetuity, and monastic life was resumed there. In 1995 the reserve was renamed the Mikhailovskoye Pushkin State Memorial Museum-reserve of History, Literature and Natural Landscape and its grounds extended to 9,713 hectares by the addition of estates which had belonged to the poet's friends, relatives and acquaintances, namely, Golubovo, Lysaya Gora, Voskresenskoye and Deriglazovo, and the ancient sites of Vrev and Velye. On 6 December of the same year following a decree of the President of the Russian Federation the museum-reserve was included in the state list of the most valuable items of the cultural heritage of the peoples of the Russian Federation. To commemorate the bicentenary of the poet's birth a number of measures have been taken, including repair and restoration work, reorganization of the museums, new acquisitions for the museums and publishing activities.

On 12 January, 1742 most of the land which made up Mikhalovskaya Guba was granted in perpetuity by decree of Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great, to Pushkin’s great-grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal, known as "the Negro of Peter the Great", for his services to Russia.

The poet first visited the family estate just after graduating from Tsarskoye Selo lycee and was enchanted by the natural beauty of the place, the poetry of the peasant life and the aura of the past. From 1824 until the end of his life Pushkin made frequent visit to Mikhailovskoye, where he also spent two years in exile. Mikhailovskoye became for him a place of intensive poetic creation. He wrote no less than 100 poems there and worked on chapters of "Eugene Onegin", "Boris Godunov", "The Gypsies" and "Count Nulin". During his exile there the poet was visited by his loyal friends from the lycee Ivan Pushchin, Anton Delvig, and Prince A. Gorchakov.

Today the Pushkin estate looks almost the same as on the lithograph by P.A. Alexandrov from a drawing by the Pskovian land-surveyor I.S. Ivanov made in 1838 .