M.Yu. Lermontov Museum and Estate in Tarkhany

M.Yu. Lermontov Museum and Estate in Tarkhany is a unique museum of national value. Michail Lermontov, a Romantic poet and writer, was one of the key characters of the so-called Golden Era of Russian Literature, his works made a profound and lasting influence on later poetry, and his works have been a staple of school curriculum up till now. Lermontov’s maternal grandmother E. Arsenyeva, who became the guardian of M. Lermontov (born 1814) after the death of his mother and a family quarrel with his father, had an estate in Tarkhany, where the boy spent his childhood and adolescent years. 
The atmosphere of the place - the lush countryside, the majestic park, the green fields combined with the typical rural way of life of common people - produced a deep impression on the young poet. The boy was pampered by his grandmother and received the best schooling the money could afford, he was gifted in languages, well-read, painted and played the instruments very well.
He lived at his grandmother’s estate until he moved to school and later university in Moscow in 1827. After that, already a military man, he often visited his grandmother. And it was here, in 1842, that the body of the rebellious poet, killed in a tragic duel, was brought: with the permission of the Emperor the body was reinterred in the family vault in Tarkhany. 
The museum dedicated to the life and works of the extraordinary Russian poet was opened here in 1939. The museum complex comprises three exhibition groups. The first includes the manor house with the recreated atmospere of the first half of the 19th c  (authentic furniture, objects, paintings, household objects and personal possessions), the church of Mary of Egypt, and several household buildings. The park with orchards, shady oak groves, brooks and the bridge, has a spacious field where the boy played with his friends. 
The second group of the museum complex includes the family vault of the Arsenievs and the Lermontovs. The poet’s tomb is decorated with black marble stone. The burial place of the poet’s father is outside the vault, next to the chapel. The church built in honour of St. Michael, the patron saint of the poet, is also nearby. The third group of the museum complex is Apalikha family estate that belonged to Maria Shan-Girey, the niece of E. Arsenyeva and a close friend of her daughter.
The overall collection of the museum complex comprises more than 15,500 exhibits: objects of historical and artistic value, period furniture and furnishings, personal belongings of the family, poet’s paintings and writings, early copies of his published works and illustrations, portraits, icons, pieces of applied art, period objects that illustrate the life of the nobility and the common people. Thanks to the untiring efforts of local historians, scholars and the museum staff, the Tarkhany museum complex remains the most visited museum object of the region.