The Tolstoy Museum

The Leo Tolstoy Museum was opened in 2015 after a long reconstruction of the historic building – the former city estate of the Gortalovs, where Leo Tolstoy lived from 1841 to 1845. This house is the center of the architectural and spiritual space that surrounded the great writer during his life in Kazan. Tolstoy arrived in Kazan at the age of 13, studied at the Kazan Emperor University. Here he saw the brilliance and the reverse side of the rich society’s life and he decided to train “the will of the body, the will of the mind, the will of the sense.”

In the main house of the museum, all the interior of the rooms is created as it is described in the author’s autobiographical works: these are the rooms of Tolstoy’s brothers and his aunt P. Yushkova. Looking at these surroundings we get the idea of how noble families in Kazan lived and what their life consisted of in the first half of the 19th century. Now in the wings of the main house of the estate there is a pottery workshop, a wood carving workshop, a recording studio, and a room for master-classes for the schoolchildren.

The biographical exposition “Leo Tolstoy and Kazan” and the electronic exhibition” Life and works of Tolstoy” show us the main periods of his biography and activities. The purpose of the museum is to show the contribution of the Tolstoy family to the history, culture, social and political life of Kazan and the Kazan region. Now the museum is not filled and finished, the items for the collections and expositions are still gathered.

Address: Yaleev Street, house 15