Named the most patriotic tours in Russia

The tourist has now gone spoiled, having seen a lot. The same Chernyshenko noted that “the popularization (of the tours) will make it possible to involve children in the study of the history of their native land and their country in an interactive and educational format.” And there are such formats, in those museum expositions that have been working for a long time.

For example, in Borodino. There are not only monuments-museums, but also interactive. The historic battle between the two armies on the field of the same name is recreated every year at the beginning of September. The event gathers under 100 thousand spectators, and 2 thousand people come to the reenactors themselves. Napoleon and his marshals traditionally come from France, the rest from everywhere, including Uzbekistan and Italy.

But this is not the only such “battle”. On the 20th of November, a battle is played annually on Ivanovo Lug near Maloyaroslavets, which turned Napoleon retreating from Moscow onto the Smolensk road. Military-historical festivals are held in Kaliningrad, near Ivanovo (“Open Field”), on the Kulikovsky field, in the Zolotarev settlement near Penza, in Klintsy (the era of the Second World War), on the Voinovoye field, etc.

– Interest is very big to reconstruction, – the participant of historical club from MO Oleg speaks. – But for a long time it was such a “peace within itself.” And only in the last few years we have started to be invited. For City Days and festivals, somewhere else for events. In our club, the era of the XIII-XV centuries. is being studied, there are Russians of different ranks, and there are Mongols, Byzantines, Vikings. We are all seriously studying the costume, life, we trace the sources. It is, of course, for the soul. But knowledge, developments are not averse to sharing.

Other non-standard ways of presenting information about military historical events are interactive museums, “immersive” excursions, and inverse panoramas. Modern children are visual, psychologists say. And adults have also changed, it is difficult for most of them to assimilate the “classic” presentation from a monotonously mumbling guide.

– Yes, I have long noted to myself that just telling and showing is not enough, – says Vitaly, a Kaluga guide with 30 years of experience. – That is, of course, there are expositions that speak for themselves.

We have the borders of Tarutin, the city of Zhukov, the heroic Kozelsk, a memorial in the village. Ilyinsky (a monument to the Podolsky Cadets and a museum), etc. Or the pre-war diorama “The Battle of Maloyaroslavets”. But time dictates its own. Children like in the same Maloyaroslavets, for example, the open-air museum of military equipment, where you can climb tanks and howitzers. Adults are impressed by the panorama “Standing on the Ugra River” in St. Tikhon’s Hermitage.

In almost every group: at first, grumbling “why are we going there, to this distance”, and then thank you. After all, not only the murals are beautiful there, a student of Ilya Glazunov worked, but also 3D effects. Music, there, clatter of hooves, cannons, the wind blows, brings the smell of hay … I would also note the interactive museum in the Linen Factory, children also like it very much. Here we would have more of this.

Olga, a guide from the city of Myshkin, tells about a more modest, but also invariably poignant “with immersion” effect.

“We have here, you know, a frivolous flair on everything: cats and mice, cheeses, felt boots,” she says. – But there is one small exposition, wartime. There, not only the life of the townspeople during the Second World War, but also a whole class was made. Here are desks with lids, here are newspapers instead of notebooks, there was no paper, they wrote in the margins. Here is a jug of water, a pot of potatoes in their uniforms – food for the whole day. Several textbooks for everyone, potbelly stove, firewood, scarves, hats, padded jackets. Classes warmed badly, they saved firewood. You can touch all this, sit down at your desks.

Children sometimes come in classes, sit down and they are told how the guys studied until 4 days, and then went on to another work shift. There are notes on the desks, reprints of letters to the front, everything can be touched. You know, not a single school class has yet made noise and has not played the fool in our museum. They sit, pretend to be boys or girls of wartime. Many are crying…

The development of military-historical topics in tourism is facilitated by the city being given the status of “City of Military Glory”. Now 30 cities of the Russian Federation have this status, but Putin announced that the list will be replenished.

“We became the “City of Military Glory” in 2012,” says Elena, an employee of the museum “In Memory of 1812”. “We had an exposition here before. And there were memorable places in the city, of course.

But in recent years, a lot has happened. Mini-monuments, stelae and memorial plaques: to the dead grenadiers, the regimental priest and others. And all sorts of different things around: a themed hotel, a restaurant, there is even a museum of the USSR …

That is, of course, the city is developing thanks to tourism, we have only 30 thousand inhabitants. Buses arrive every day, even competition among local guides has formed. Someone shows a house in the city that survived after 1812. Someone is taking to our famous monastery not only to show the trace of French shrapnel on the gate, but also to taste the cheeses that the nuns make. Or to the nearest suburb of Vorobyevo, to look at the doctor Fedorov’s dacha, in the Art Nouveau style, or to Dubrovka, to Mansurov’s estate.

Farmers also sell honey, cottage cheese, vegetables right there… And for me, as a historian, another aspect is important – in the “Cities of Military Glory” they are obliged to preserve monuments, this is a protected status. It is impossible to carry out high-rise buildings near them, for example. It is not allowed to build up or demolish historical objects. Therefore, Ivanov Lug was preserved inviolable. Or Dubki Park. Oaks grow there, planted in 1912, in honor of the centenary of the victory over Napoleon.

Read also: “Where to relax on New Year’s Eve: Buddhists will meet in Russian”