ASTAFIEV LITERARY MUSEUM

Meet in a magnificent Art Nouveau mansion built in 1911. Inside, you will discover an extraordinary small museum, renovated in 2014 according to a very original concept: to bring together here intimate and personal views of Siberia of yesteryear (until the Soviet era). The exhibition unfolds in chronological stages, through 11 thematic rooms: religion, social life, scientific explorations, education, etc. You will enter as many reconstructed worlds: a Soviet school, a tchum (traditional habitat of the Evenks, among others), the Lykov isba (family of Old Believers cut off from the world, discovered at random during a scientific expedition in 1978), a printing works, the reception room of a notable, etc. All these views are embellished with "impressions": literary texts, poems, diaries of Siberian personalities, documents, paintings, everyday objects, etc. You can do this tour with the help of an "audiopen" (provided at the entrance on request, very easy to handle): as you enter each room, you click on the map and let yourself be carried away by these comments (history, anecdotes, legends ...) otherwise very literary. Unfortunately, the explanations in the window are not always translated into English. The staff is Russian-speaking, but will do everything possible to make your experience as pleasant as possible. The complete tour lasts 1h30: you won't see the time go by. A marvel!