The State Leo Tolstoy Museum (Moscow), the Yasnaya Polyana Estate-Museum (Tula Region), and Tomsk State University have launched a large-scale exhibition project dedicated to the saving of Leo Tolstoy’s heritage during World War II.
On April 24, 2025, exhibitions dedicated to the exploits of museum professionals who were able to preserve relics related to Tolstoy and to defend the museums commemorating the author opened in three different places in Russia at the same time. The exhibitions recreate the route of the Tolstoy Museums’ objects at the beginning of the war: Moscow—Yasnaya Polyana—Tomsk.
It was the library of Tomsk University that the writer’s manuscripts and personal belongings were sent to in 1941, as to “an absolutely safe place.” The evacuation was organized by Sophia Tolstaya-Esenina, Leo Tolstoy’s granddaughter and poet Sergei Esenin’s wife. She became head of the Tolstoy museums during the hardest war time and together with museum employees in Moscow and at Yasnaya Polyana heroically tried to save the relics that are of huge value to people in Russia and in the world.
The forty-five-day German occupation of Yasnaya Polyana, the damages from fire and explosive bombs at the Tolstoy Museum in Moscow, a month-long transportation in train carriages to Tomsk full of various obstacles, the life of the employees far from their children and families, and at last the triumphal return of all the objects, undamaged, in 1945—all these moments of personal stories and general history will be revealed to visitors to the exhibitions.
At Yasnaya Polyana, preparations for the evacuation began as early as the summer of 1941. In the first months of the war, most of the objects were taken to “the vaulted room.” Guided tours were still offered and, as the museum employee S.I. Shchegolev wrote, the story of War and Peace was being told to the roaring of motors and antiaircraft guns.
The front line was getting closer to Tula Region, and Sophia Tolstaya-Esenina asked the Council of People’s Commissars to provide a train carriage in order to save “the materials of world cultural value.” It was necessary to evacuate 110 boxes containing Leo Tolstoy’s personal items, portraits by Repin, Kramskoi, and Serov, and Tolstoy’s library, many books of which had his notes in the margin. In October of 1941, the museum got two carriages, and after forty days of a very complicated journey the objects from the Tolstoy House arrived at the Scholarly Library of Tomsk State University.
About the same time, by the end of October of 1941, German troops entered the Tolstoy estate. The one-and-a-half-month occupation of the estate (45 days) began. Soldiers of General Gederian’s division stayed in the Tolstoy House; they used museum furniture as firewood for the stoves, and before leaving, they set the house on fire. The library and bedrooms were especially damaged. Around Tolstoy’s grave, about 70 graves of German soldiers were later found.
The war correspondent N. Ilyinsky wrote: „Not far from the Volkonsky House... our battery stood, it was hammering away at the retreating enemy… Soviet soldiers wrote on missiles shortly, but expressively: “For Leo Tolstoy,” “Death to Fascists,” „For Yasnaya Polyana.“ The restored museum reopened on May 1, 1942. It was open every day, without days off, up to 20 hours per day. In May alone, it received 2,827 visitors, 2,239 of whom were people from the military. Mostly, they were soldiers of the Red Army on their way to the front.
On May 12, 1945, the objects of the Tolstoy House returned to Yasnaya Polyana from Tomsk. S.I. Shchegolev, who had sent them to Siberia four years before, welcomed them back. “An exciting and joyous moment!” he then wrote in the museum diary.
At Yasnaya Polyana, the exhibition will show photographs of the war years, paintings and drawings, and posters. A special place is taken by archival materials containing information on the evacuation of the objects, the museum diary, and the guest book with entries by Red Army soldiers.
On April 24, 2025, exhibitions dedicated to the exploits of museum professionals who were able to preserve relics related to Tolstoy and to defend the museums commemorating the author opened in three different places in Russia at the same time. The exhibitions recreate the route of the Tolstoy Museums’ objects at the beginning of the war: Moscow—Yasnaya Polyana—Tomsk.
It was the library of Tomsk University that the writer’s manuscripts and personal belongings were sent to in 1941, as to “an absolutely safe place.” The evacuation was organized by Sophia Tolstaya-Esenina, Leo Tolstoy’s granddaughter and poet Sergei Esenin’s wife. She became head of the Tolstoy museums during the hardest war time and together with museum employees in Moscow and at Yasnaya Polyana heroically tried to save the relics that are of huge value to people in Russia and in the world.
The forty-five-day German occupation of Yasnaya Polyana, the damages from fire and explosive bombs at the Tolstoy Museum in Moscow, a month-long transportation in train carriages to Tomsk full of various obstacles, the life of the employees far from their children and families, and at last the triumphal return of all the objects, undamaged, in 1945—all these moments of personal stories and general history will be revealed to visitors to the exhibitions.
At Yasnaya Polyana, preparations for the evacuation began as early as the summer of 1941. In the first months of the war, most of the objects were taken to “the vaulted room.” Guided tours were still offered and, as the museum employee S.I. Shchegolev wrote, the story of War and Peace was being told to the roaring of motors and antiaircraft guns.
The front line was getting closer to Tula Region, and Sophia Tolstaya-Esenina asked the Council of People’s Commissars to provide a train carriage in order to save “the materials of world cultural value.” It was necessary to evacuate 110 boxes containing Leo Tolstoy’s personal items, portraits by Repin, Kramskoi, and Serov, and Tolstoy’s library, many books of which had his notes in the margin. In October of 1941, the museum got two carriages, and after forty days of a very complicated journey the objects from the Tolstoy House arrived at the Scholarly Library of Tomsk State University.
About the same time, by the end of October of 1941, German troops entered the Tolstoy estate. The one-and-a-half-month occupation of the estate (45 days) began. Soldiers of General Gederian’s division stayed in the Tolstoy House; they used museum furniture as firewood for the stoves, and before leaving, they set the house on fire. The library and bedrooms were especially damaged. Around Tolstoy’s grave, about 70 graves of German soldiers were later found.
The war correspondent N. Ilyinsky wrote: „Not far from the Volkonsky House... our battery stood, it was hammering away at the retreating enemy… Soviet soldiers wrote on missiles shortly, but expressively: “For Leo Tolstoy,” “Death to Fascists,” „For Yasnaya Polyana.“ The restored museum reopened on May 1, 1942. It was open every day, without days off, up to 20 hours per day. In May alone, it received 2,827 visitors, 2,239 of whom were people from the military. Mostly, they were soldiers of the Red Army on their way to the front.
On May 12, 1945, the objects of the Tolstoy House returned to Yasnaya Polyana from Tomsk. S.I. Shchegolev, who had sent them to Siberia four years before, welcomed them back. “An exciting and joyous moment!” he then wrote in the museum diary.
At Yasnaya Polyana, the exhibition will show photographs of the war years, paintings and drawings, and posters. A special place is taken by archival materials containing information on the evacuation of the objects, the museum diary, and the guest book with entries by Red Army soldiers.
Posted : 16 april 2025