In Russia – with love. Tula environs without Tolstoy

Tolstoy in Tula is like the Beatles in Liverpool. At every step. In museums, restaurants, hotels, busts, walls, menus, souvenir shops. The proverb about military service in the Soviet army comes to Yasnaya Polyana: whoever was not – he will be, who was – will not forget. So, of course, it will not work without Tolstoy, but we will try.

Kulikovo field. One of the main military fields in Russia and one of the places where everyone should probably visit. From Tula – one and a half to two hours by car on a very high-quality road. Several memorable points. At the confluence of the Nepryadva and the Don is the village of Monastyrshchino. There are rows of memorial plaques in honor of squads from different cities and villages, a monument to Dmitry Donskoy. Previously, there was a museum here, but after the construction of the main memorial, he moved there.

Actually, Kulikovo field is just a field. But the land is not ordinary, it is thickly watered with the blood of our ancestors, tens of thousands of artifacts have been found by archaeologists. The wind of the past and the future blows the field from all sides.

The monument and the museum are in the center of this world of shadows of the Middle Ages. Nearby is a convenient building for visitors. A small souvenir shop and cafe with pies, cakes and hot lunches. This is important, this is the very infrastructure that makes your journey to the origins of Rus’ comfortable and not hungry.

And fifty kilometers from here you can dive into the heyday of the Russian Empire. Bogoroditsk. A small, seemingly unremarkable county town. But the estate of Count Alexei Bobrinsky makes this place a real gem.

The palace and park ensemble was built on lands that belonged to the imperial court, and after the death of Catherine II, it was given to her illegitimate son from Count Grigory Orlov, Alexei, who received his last name from another estate, Bobriky.

The park survived all the terrible times – both the October Revolution and the German occupation. The palace, although destroyed, was rebuilt. A cascade of ponds, centuries-old trees, paths, a cathedral – everything has been preserved on the banks of the river with the strange name of Uperta. And most importantly, here, unlike the palace ensembles around St. Petersburg, there is silence and peace. There is no crowd with guides. You can safely wander along the paths and clearings, sit on a bench. And sometimes it begins to seem that Count Aleksey Grigoryevich Bobrinsky will meet somewhere, feeding squirrels. You will approach him, say hello and ask: “Well, brother Bobrinsky?” “Yes, brother,” he will answer, “because somehow everything …”

Both Kulikovo Pole and Bogoroditsk can be seen in one day and, returning to Tula, stop at the Kozlova Zasek station, which is officially called Yasnaya Polyana. Here Leo Tolstoy appears again, because the station has been given exactly the look that it was in his time. So a great name in Russian literature still cannot be avoided, here even in a plowed field you can see huge letters – Tolstoy.

Why do I insist that in Tula one should stop for a few days to see the surroundings? Yes, because here I have not yet written either about the source of the Don in Novomoskovsk, or about Venev, one of the 115 historical cities of Russia, or about Belev with his marshmallow (which, however, sold into consumer goods, but Belev himself remained in place) .

It is impossible to embrace the immensity, as Kozma Prutkov said, one of whose fathers, as you know, was another Tolstoy – Alexei Konstantinovich. Travel notes are not Wikipedia, they are more about sensations, and not for reference.

Alexey Vishnevetsky.

Author’s photo