In the north-east of М-11 in the Solnechnogorsk district of the Moscow region, Shakhmatovo hides among beautiful forests. This is a whole state historical, literary, and natural museum-reserve, which includes memorial museums of Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev and Alexander Blok, the estates of the great chemist and great poet.
The Shakhmatovo Museum-Reserve was created in 1981. Here they carefully collect and preserve the history of two places at once: the estate itself and the village of Tarakanovo. In 2012, it was merged with the Mendeleev House Museum in Boblovo, opened in 1987. All these places are nearby and inextricably linked to each other.
It all started with the fact that in 1865 Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev acquired a manor in the village of Boblovo. It is curious that when he came to buy the estate, he did not have enough money. Then he asked his friend Nikolai Pavlovich Ilyin, a scientist, also a chemist, professor, and director of the St. Petersburg Technological Institute, to join the purchase. So, the estate began to belong to both. They threw lots: Ilyin got a park along with outbuildings, he combined them with a stone building. And Mendeleev received an old mansion and the entire orchard.
The manor house stands on top of a hill. Wonderful edges, fresh air, magical atmosphere. The great scientist loved to stay and live here in the summer. All the light of culture and science of that time came to visit him. The scientist started improving the territory, brought exotic plants, created a unique landscape and park ensemble, experimented with mineral fertilizers.
Now the house-museum carefully keeps all the pages of Boblovo's history related to the personality of the scientist. The exposition includes his personal belongings, furniture, even a table for experiments.
The neighboring Shakhmatovo estate belonged to Andrei Nikolayevich Beketov, the grandfather of Alexander Blok. Beketov became the owner of the estate in 1874, having bought it on the recommendation of his friend Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev. From this time until the revolution, the entire Beketov family often gathered here, little Sasha often came to visit his grandfather and spent a wonderful summer every year from 1881 to 1916. In his poems, he often recalled these places. Many of his poems, of course, are also written here.
The desert of beloved forest,
Yellow leaves.
Bright veil
Of the late beauty.
Fade in the distance
Late words,
Died away one –
The memory is still alive.
September 5, 1901 Shakhmatovo
Shakhmatovo is called the spiritual homeland of the Blok. But the life of the estate was not alien to him: he managed the household, dealt with the needs of the entire estate.
Since 1904, the poet lived in the outbuilding of the bar house with his young wife Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva, the daughter of a scientist. In 1910, after the death of his grandfather (Beketov), Blok independently developed a project to rebuild the house and brought it to life. In 1917, the house was plundered, and in 1921 it burned down altogether.
In 1984, the restoration of a wonderful estate began. The entrance hall, grandmother's room, the Blue living room, grandfather's office, the poet's wife's room and the dining room, from which - the entrance to the park - everything is done as if the poet had only recently left for a few days and would soon return...
On April 7, 1903, the poet will write a letter to his future wife: "My sweetheart, my dear, now I have received a letter. I am endlessly happy. There has been terrible talk all day. Everyone is exhausted. I wrote you a confused letter. That minute I got yours. I think that we will marry in the fall because we need to go abroad. What do you think of that? Then we will stay in Shakhmatovo. Everything needs to be talked about. Mom's coming tomorrow. I need to text my father sooner. Your dad, as always, decided completely extraordinary, in his own way, peculiarly and brilliant. I think of Friday as a promised day. My thoughts on You are gone and there will be no end. Yours."
A few months later, Alexander Blok is married to Lyubov Mendeleeva in the small old church of the Archangel Michael in the village of Tarakanovo.
The church of the mid-18th century belongs to another estate - the Tarakanov estate. It is located two kilometers from Shakhmatovo. The manor house has not been preserved; the landscape of the park has been destroyed for many years. However, there are monuments to the poet and his wife, there are a zemstvo school and a teacher's house, where the museum is now arranged.
