"Tom Sawyer Fest" is a volunteer movement for preserving the historic environment, active in Nizhny Novgorod since 2018. It is part of the all-Russian festival of the same name, founded in Samara in 2015 by the journalist and historian Andrey Kochetkov with the support of the Samara branch of VOOPIiK.[1] The Nizhny Novgorod branch has concentrated its work in the quarter around the Church of the Three Hierarchs — a surviving ensemble of wooden architecture in the center of the city, bounded by Korolenko, Novaya, and Slavyanskaya Streets.[2]

History and Activities

The first site of the Nizhny Novgorod festival in 2018 was house No. 18 on Korolenko Street — a former tenement house built in 1891. The building became the festival's headquarters and a gathering place for everyone who cares about the city's history.[2] Over seven seasons, participants have renovated 12 sites, and have carried out artistic conservation on a significant number of other buildings. By 2025, the total number of sites the festival had worked on or planned to work on reached 39: 34 of them restored, 3 in progress, and 2 planned.[2]

The fifth season opened on June 11, with excursions and an exhibition on the program. In the same season, volunteers took on the house of the peasant woman Praskovya Shchelukhina (17 Korolenko Street), a cultural heritage site. Inside the building, an exhibition was prepared devoted to the life and work of the writer Vladimir Korolenko, who lived in the neighboring house No. 11a from 1888 to 1896. At the same time, a fundraising campaign began to restore a rare window made of Falconnier glass bricks, preserved in a window opening of the same house.[3]

The festival operates on the efforts of volunteers with no professional training: anyone who wishes can take part, and is taught safety procedures and working techniques on site. Restoration methods are agreed upon with professional builders. In addition to repair work, the sites host workshops in carpentry, forging, and wood carving, as well as lectures and concerts.[1] The coordinators of the Nizhny Novgorod branch are Yulia Serebryakova and Anna Davydova.[2]

Participation in City Projects

In 2026, volunteers of the movement took part in conservation work at the Samsonov Estate on Gruzinskaya Street together with the state-owned enterprise "Regnedvizhimost". The Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region, Gleb Nikitin, expressed special gratitude to the festival's volunteers for their contribution to preserving the cultural heritage site.

All-Russian Context

The Tom Sawyer Fest festival is named after the hero of Mark Twain's novels, who turned the painting of a fence into a collective adventure. By 2019, the movement covered about 40 cities in Russia, from Arkhangelsk to Astrakhan. In 2017, the festival received a presidential grant to replicate its methods, after which an annual School for Regions wishing to launch a similar festival was organized. In 2019, the first Restoration School took place in Samara, with volunteers and experts from 15 cities.[1]

Sources

  1. kuvalda.ru — Restoring Historic Buildings with the Tom Sawyer Fest Festival — Kuvalda.ru Company Blog
  2. my.tsfond.ru — Nizhny Novgorod — Tom Sawyer Fest
  3. Open Nizhny — "Tom Sawyer Fest Nizhny Novgorod" Announced the Start of Its Fifth Season on June 11
Materials from the following articles were used (1)

Completion of work to preserve the Samsonov estate on Gruzinskaya Street (2026)