Exploring Russian literature: tour about literature-related places of Moscow
Hi! I'm Asya, an independent journalist (not affiliated to authorities) and a passionate connoisseur of Moscow, the city where I've lived since the age of 10. I've worked as a tour guide for around a year: first, I showed my foreign friends around the city for free, but soon it turned into a part-time job. I arrange tours around Moscow where I show hidden gems and less touristic sights. If you have already been to Moscow or live here, if you have seen the Red Square and VDNKH - you're welcome to join my tours! Together we can discover Moscow from different historic&cultural prospectives, e.g. we'll see the Moscow of merchants, of poets - or of vagabonds, orphans and thieves, or we can see the Jewish or feminist Moscow. I adore discovering the city from the point of view of muscovites - e.g. via diaries, letters, recollections etc. - and then collecting from those pieces a bigger, more general historic, social or cultural context. Welcome - let's plunge together into the different layers of muscovite history.
Pickup
I'll be waiting for you near the Pushkin monument with a teddy bear in my hand
Description
You have probably heard a lot about Pushkin, Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy - but do you fancy learning more about Russian literature? During our tour, we'll get acquainted with a broader context of Russian classical and modern literature and try to understand what could have influenced the mindset and the literary works of outstanding Russian writers.
We'll see:
- The places related to the daily life of Russian writers - e.g. where Pushkin fooled the police, where Tolstoy used to exercise and what was the theater where the first Chekhov play was staged
- Former editions of historic magazines and journals
- Historic libraries - public, private, and even secret
- Places where the word was spread - theaters, "literature saloons" (discussion clubs), printing houses, etc.
- The places related to less famous (but equally distinguished) Russian writers and poets, like Yesenin or Ostrovsky - we'll learn more about different artistic styles, like Russian futurism poetry or Russian drama of the mid-XIX century;
- Venues related to non-Russian writers, e.g. former Yiddish theater, house of Belarus writer Adamovich or a building where Polish poet Mitskevich spent time in exile;
- The locations that gave us famous literary prototypes.
On our way from Dmitrovka to Mayakovskaya, we'll see how literature was evolving in Moscow - both Empire and Soviet - how it thrived, broke through censorship, or overcame crises, and how it reflected and reacted to the changing sociocultural reality.