Передeлкино

Пастерна́к's дача

What to do on a beautiful, sunny, Spring Sunday in the city? (Hey, did you notice what I did there with the alliteration?)  Why, head out to tour a дача complex southwest of Moscow, of course!  Передeлкино (Peredelkino) is well known for being a Soviet writer’s colony and was featured in John le Carré’s spy novel “Russia House”.  Today it serves as a дача colony still, but it now serves as summer homes to many wealthy and notable Muscovite families.

Of the many famous writers who lived in the complex during the Soviet era, the dacha belonging to Nobel Prize-winning writer Бори́с Леони́дович Пастерна́к (Boris Pasternak -author of Dr. Zhivago) has been preserved as a museum.  Our tour guide Светлана (of course, her name was Svetlana!) provided us with a comprehensive and detailed history of Бори́с’s life while taking us from room to room, explaining the significance of many of the pieces contained within (his дача being preserved in the manner in which he lived until his death in 1960).

the photo from the 1940s shows how nothing has been changed/removed from this room

early television -they would fill the front glass with water to magnify the tiny screen

main dining room looking out upon the gardens planted by Пастерна́к

Пастерна́к's father was an accomplished artist -his sketches depicting life in Soviet Russia

Серге́й Васи́льевич Рахма́нинов (Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff) once played this piano

Soviet décor just as I envisioned -a single, bare, incandescent lightbulb hanging from the ceiling.

boots and a wardrobe

Пастерна́к's writing desk and table

multiple translations of Dr. Zhivago; first published in Italy in 1957

Пастерна́к's deathbed -flowers are routinely laid on his bed in memoriam

Пастерна́к's death mask -it is said that he smiled ever so slightly after his death

A stroll across the street and through tree-lined paths brought us to a monumental sanatorium complex that is home to a banquet hall that once housed writers’ residences.  The weather was stunning -the sun providing just the right amount of warmth and the leaves just the right amount of shade to keep us comfortable.

Down the lane a piece is the residence of Корне́й Ива́нович Чуко́вский (Kornei Chukovsky), the Russian Dr. Seuss best known for his children’s rhymes and tales.  Apparently every Russian child is familiar with his tale “The Cockroach”...

http://www.scribd.com/doc/57112894/The-Cockroach-by-Kornei-Chukovsky

children's library established by Чуко́вский

Чуко́вский was a writer, not an illustrator so his artist friends decorated the pillars and posts around the village with images from his tales and poems.

Ummm...I think I’m going to stick with Fox in Sox, if that is ok with you. 

“When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle's on a poodle and the poodle's eating noodles......they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle bottle paddle battle.” -Dr. Seuss

Next on the agenda was lunch consisting of pineapple juice, salad, borsch and a (pork?) cutlet with pasta and dill -everything comes with dill here- served banquet-style in a tent at a local restaurant/hotel.  There were 18 of us on the tour and lunch was a nice break from all the walking, listening and hiking around the complex.

hotel gardens and property

dining tent

Our afternoon дача museum tour took us to the former residence of Булат Шалвович Окуджава (Bulat Okudzhava), Russian poet, writer, musician, novelist, and singer-songwriter.  He is considered by many to be Russia’s answer to Bob Dylan.

A devoted fan created this clay portrait of Окуджава

interior of Окуджава's дача

Окуджава once received a bell as a gift from a fellow writer and others simply followed suit -bells just became a tradition.

Окуджава's sleeping quarters

дача exterior

plant life

Our last stop was the grounds of the 19th-century Church of the Transfiguration of the Saviour.  St. Phillip is the patron saint of the church.  Phillip was apparently chosen by Ivan the Terrible to be the Metropolitan of Moscow, as he displayed seemingly indefatigable stamina in building his community both spiritually and physically.  Many of his public works survive to this day.  St. Phillip was the only open critic of Ivan the Terrible and agreed to serve as Metropolitan on the condition that Ivan put a stop to the опри́чнина (oprichinia -domestic policy of secret police, mass repressions, public executions, and confiscation of land from Russian aristocrats).  The killings were stopped over a period of two years but soon started again.  When the Tzar was refused communion and publicly rebuked by Phillip for the re-institution of the practice of опри́чнина, Phillip became a marked man -Ivan the Terrible had him deposed and a year later, put to death.

 

As the Church of the Transfiguration of the Saviour remains a working church, women are expected to cover their heads and as one of our tour members discovered, shorts are not appropriate attire for a house of worship.  It was quite astounding to witness a tiny, little бабушка turn from her quiet task of brushing aside wax from the candelabra and exclaim “shorts!” and with a series of rapid gestures, not unlike the switching of a broom, shoo out a man twice her size in height and girth.  The clucking and disapproving looks he received from the wizened old lady made me thankful to not be the object of her wrath -and believe me, wrath it was.

Just across from the church is what can only be described as St. Basil’s baby sister.  It seems that the church is no longer large enough and will be moved across the way to the new structure currently under construction.  I'm assuming the parish has raised funds for the construction.  I am also assuming that the parish is crazy wealthy.

Onion domes to rival St. Basil's

construction on the facade and exterior is almost complete

Down the path is located the church cemetery that is home to a number of notable residents of the Moscow area, including both Пастерна́к and Чуко́вский.

Communist Party members' graves

beautiful monument

I wonder what adventures next Sunday will bring?  The possibilities are endless.  As our tour guide mentioned, Moscow is at her best in late May.  I would have to agree with her.