The A. S. Pushkin Museum-Reserve "Boldino" is a state historical and literary museum-reserve in the Bolsheboldinsky Municipal District of Nizhny Novgorod Region, located in the villages of Bolshoe Boldino and Lvovka. It preserves the Pushkin heritage associated above all with the "Boldino autumn" of 1830, when the poet came to his ancestral estate and wrote a significant portion of his works here. The reserve includes the estate in Bolshoe Boldino and several sites in Lvovka, among them a house built by the poet's widow for their children and used by their eldest son, Alexander Alexandrovich Pushkin.[4]

Composition and Sites

The key site of the reserve is the estate in Bolshoe Boldino — the property of the poet's father, where Pushkin stayed on several occasions.[4] In Lvovka, the manor house built by the poet's widow, Natalia Nikolaevna, for the children has survived; the poet's eldest son, Alexander Alexandrovich, later lived there.[4] A separate site is the building of the parish school, built in 1903–1904 by the peasant community with the financial support of Alexander Alexandrovich Pushkin, who donated the land and helped with money.[2][3] The school is a cultural heritage site of regional significance.[2]

The Parish School in Lvovka

Opened in 1904, the school was initially a literacy school and was converted into a parish school in 1908; from 1934 the building housed a primary school and later an eight-year school, which closed in 1972.[3][4] A museum exhibition opened here in 2009.[2]

From June 2025 to June 2026, the building underwent major renovation: the brick foundation was reinforced, the facade was renewed, some of the log-frame courses were replaced, the window and door units were restored, and the stoves were recreated based on historical data.[2][3] Roughly 15 million rubles from the regional budget were allocated for the work.[2] According to Nina Zhirkova, director of the museum-reserve, the restoration will extend the building's life by another three decades.[2]

On September 2, 2026, the renovated school opened to visitors. The exhibition recreates three areas: a classroom, the teacher's room, and the entryway with a Russian stove.[3] The classroom is furnished with Erismann desks, found at a parish school in Bashkortostan after a year and a half of searching, as well as early 20th-century dip pens, inkwells, maps of the hemispheres, a portrait of Emperor Nicholas II, and pre-revolutionary notebooks, including six blank notebooks from the 1937 jubilee series marking the 100th anniversary of Pushkin's death.[2][3] The selection of artifacts took more than two years and was carried out by Vyacheslav Khurtin, an honorary citizen of Nizhny Novgorod, collector, and founder of the Technical Museum.[2]

The opening was timed to coincide with Knowledge Day and a symbolic date: on September 3, 1830, Pushkin first came to Boldino, beginning the "Boldino Autumn."[3] Natalya Sukhanova, Minister of Culture of Nizhny Novgorod Region, noted that the school's restoration continues the comprehensive work on developing the reserve that began after the celebration of the poet's 225th birthday.[2] At the same time, the Lvovka grounds are being improved: paths have been laid, swings installed, and a footbridge built, the ponds are being cleaned, and a space for workshops is being created.[3]

Sources

  1. GTRK "Nizhny Novgorod" (Vesti) — A renovated parish school opened today in the selo of Lvovka
  2. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — A parish school opened in "Boldino" after restoration Nizhny Novgorod News (archive)
  3. Vremya N — A parish school opened in Lvovka after restoration and an update of its exhibition (archive)
  4. GIPERNN — A historic parish school was restored in Bolshoe Boldino