May 2010 in Moscow : Peredelkino, a painter and two writers

The visit to the Peredelkino village allowed us to discover two writers (Tchoukovski and Pasternak) and a painter (Shilov).

  

Let's start with the Shilov painter (right picture), contemporary artist born in 1943. He painted over 600 paintings, including portraits of all the leaders of the Soviet Union and Russia, as his family and also showed the lives of ordinary people. His critics say his portraits look like photographs, but his paintings are often expressing the hard life through the facial features : his pencil drawings are remarkable. Since 2001 he is member of the Russian Academy of Arts and has donated to the city of Moscow 365 of his paintings.

 

The new Building of Shilov Gallery is located near the Kremlin, closed to the subway station Borovitskaya: it was inaugurated by the Mayor of Moscow YM Luzhkov end June 2003.

  

To have a look at the paintings, see official site  http://www.amshilov.ru/ and also http://www.tanais.info/art/en/shilov.html

Besides portraits, he has painted few still-life and also landscapes like the Peredelkino village (below).

  

Now, let's explore the Peredelkino village : http://www.peredelkino-land.ru/ 
Peredelkino is just 40 minutes drive from the Kremlin (20 km from Moscow, south-west) and to get there you should take the Minskoe road (towards Minsk). Peredelkino has a collection of datchas that had been built for artists. It is also possible to go by train but you need a full day and also walk a lot ! 


Let us first see the Church of the Transfiguration, whose style recalls the St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square : the Peredelkino has 11 domes (we counted them !).

    

Then, let's go to the cemetery where the Peredelkino writers Chukovsky and Pasternak are burried.

  

We will take the car to see Chukovsky and Pasternak dachas, who are numbered 48 and 34 on the map below.

Korneï Tchoukovski (1882-1969) is a great author of poems for children. His books are still printed in millions of copies. Chukovsky spoke fluent English and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford for his essays on Walt Whitman and his theory of translation. He was also known as a leading Soviet dissident: he gave refuge to Solzhenitsyn and many others. His dacha can be visited (Russian guide) and you can find many items that belonged to him.

     

Almost everything in the house is preserved as if Chukovsky still lived. In the office, there is a huge library (over 5,000 volumes), a sofa, a desk, on which there is a tree and even a crocodile in black wood. A dress of Oxford professor is suspended from a door : he had received it for his translation of literary from Great Britain.

When leaving the dacha you can see the tree shoe that Chukovsky mentioned in one of his stories.

 

The major works from Korneï Tchoukovski are :

•                The Crocodile (« Крокодил », 1916) : the words of the tale read in Russian families to young children http://www.stihi-rus.ru/1/chukovskiy/12.htm

•                Principes of the artistic translation («Принципы художественного перевода», 1919)

•                Moïdodyr (« Мойдодыр », 1923)

•                The cockroach (« Тараканище », 1923)

•                The Tsokotouche fly (« Муха-Цокотуха », 1924)

•                Barmaleï (« Бармалей », 1925)

•                The phone (« Телефон », 1926)

•                Aïbolit Doctor (« Доктор Айболит », 1929)

•                The art to translate (« Искусство перевода », 1930)

•                From two to five (« От двух до пяти », 1933)

•                The Philomena pain (« Федорино горе », 1968)

•           The Babel tower and other ancient legends (« Вавилонская башня и другие древние легенды », 1968)

Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) is the most famous writers of Peredelkino village outside of  Russia. He received a Nobel Prize for his novel "Doctor Zhivago" by 1958, but he refused to get the award under the pressure of the Soviet government viewing the book as anti-Soviet. In Russia, Boris Pasternak was a very popular as a writer and translator of Shakespeare books. His dacha was transformed into a memorial museum and you can visit it (Russian guide).

For geeks, the equipment that looks like a TV is a real one : indeed, in front of it, there is a device with a magnifying glass and a water tank. It magnified the image and allowed all the guests around the table to watch TV : it was the ancestor of the videoprojector !

      

The last picture above is an article in Paris Match on Pasternak's funeral (number 584 from 18/06/60).

The main works of Pasternak are :

•                A twin in the clouds (1914)

•                Above the gates (1917)

•                My sister Life (1917)

•                Year 1905 (1927)

•                The lieutenant Schmidt (1927)

•                Safe conduct (1931)

•                Second birth (1932)

•                Doctor Zhivago (1957). Also see the movie directed by David Lean (1965).

After this tour in the countryside we should drive back to Moscow, hoping that there is not too much traffic !

May 2010 in Moscow : Tsaritsyno

Still south of Moscow, accessible by subway, but far enough from Moscow downtown, we will discover a site frequented by few foreign tourists : Tsaritsyno. 

To get there, take the Green Line Metro and get off at Orekhovo, the return may be made via the Tsaritsyno station.

On the map below where the center of Moscow is up, the site of Tsaritsyno is located at the bottom right (zoom o, the right picture). It is near the large circular MKAD road about 15 km from the center of Moscow.

Let's start with a little history with Catherine II.
In 1762 Catherine II, « the Great », a German princess, usurped the throne of her feeble hushand Peter III with the help of her lover Grigoriy Orlov, a guards officer. Under her energetic and intelligent leadership, the country saw another vast expansion in its prestige and made territorial gains at the expense of Turkey and its old adversary Poland. Catherine purchased great collections of European art and books (including Voltaire’s Library) and in 1767 published her Nakaz (Imperial instruction) upon which a reform of Russia’s legal system was to be based. 

What was the role of Catherine II for the Tsaritsyno site ?
Catherine II bought this tract of land in 1775 and changed the name from Chyornaya Gryaz (black mud) to Tsaritsyno (the Tsarina’s village). Then, she commissioned one of her most imaginative architects, Vasiliy Bazhenov, to design and construct a lavish imperil palace which would rival any found in St Petersburg.


Bazhenov conceived an innovative palace complex combining Gothic, Baroque and even Moorish styles and Catherine II approved the plans. She visited the site in 1785 (10 years later !) and, although construction was well under way, proclaimed herself dissatisfied. Bazhenov’s young colleage Matvey Kazakov was told to rebuild the palace but, after a further decade of construction, lack of funds left it incomplete. 

Today the grounds boast charming lakes and Woodland walks. Some of the ruins have been restored, but the forlorn remainder have a beauty which the completed palace might never have matched. Although the shell of Kazakov’s Grand Palace is the most imposing building on the estate, some of the Bazhemov’s smaller structures are equally impressive.  

 

Visitors can see the Figure Gate with its elegant Gothic style towers and lancet Windows, the Figured Bridge and the ornate two-storey Opera House, one of the few buildings Catherine approved. 

Note on the left of "Figured door" the "House of Bread" : 

We had the opportunity to attend a concert, songs from operettas and dances in the halls of the Grand Palace and at no extra cost because it was apparently the day of "heritage", that means free access to museums and castles !

 

Let's continue our walk in the park.
The attractive Church of "Our Lady of the life-giving spirit " was added in the 19th century.

The use of the building called "3rd Cavalry Corps" built at the request of Catherine II has not yet been elucidated.

Opposite the church is the "Figured Bridge" designed by architect Bazhenov : it is a combination of brick with white stone bases, with towers and columns railing in a kind of gothic style.

 

Do not forget (like us) to go through the big Bazhemov Gothic bridge which was conceived as a ceremonial entrance to the residence of the Empress Catherine II.

Walking through the  Tsaritsyno subway station, you can have a last look (although it is gray as it was on April 18th) to the palace that dominates the little hill surrounded by many lakes which have become a place of promenade for Moscow families.

 

For more information on Tsaritsyno, see the website http://parktsaricino.ru/ (only in Russian).