Courtesy of Sergey Dovlatov, people call it Open-Air Museum. There are many such museums, but only one of them is devoted to Pushkin. Mikhaylovskoye, Trigorskoye, Svyatye Gory (holy hills) – this is the touristic route covering the places of the poet’s exile and posthumous shelter. The harbor of tranquility, work and inspiration, if we choose to speak Pushkin’s lines. We owe to the People’s Commissariat for Education with Lunacharsky in charge the foundation of the memorial estate, as Lunacharsky passionately supported the request of Pskov Provincial Executive Committee as to the protection of Pushkin’s estate in Opochetsky district. On March 17, 1922, The Council of People’s Commissars ruled to found the open air museum. The small museum at the colony for old-aged writers and teachers which had settled in Mikhaylovskoye before the revolution was plundered and burnt by that time. Thus, the authorities had to build the museum anew. In 1924, the 100th anniversary of Pushkin’s arrival in Mikhaylovskoye for staying there during exile was celebrated in Holy Hills renamed into Pushkin ones for that occasion. Today, the open air museum includes Pushkin Hills, Trigorskoye, new house in Mikhaylovskoye replacing the burnt one, the Alley of Anna Kern, the house of Pushkin’s nanny Arina Rodionovna. “Let us have a drink, little old lady…” Do not confuse Pushkin’s nanny with the little old lady from Yesenin’s poem, like a character of the book by Dovlatov.
