An exhibition opened at the M.E. Saltykov‑Shchedrin house‑museum (a department of the Kirov Regional Local History Museum named after P.V. Alabin): “Two Alexanders Named Alexander Sergeyevich” (0+). This exhibition project is being carried out by the Kirov museum in collaboration with the All‑Russian A.S. Pushkin Museum.
The exhibition tells the story of the lives and works of two significant figures in Russian culture. Pushkin and Griboyedov were not only near‑contemporaries and namesakes. Their lives and destinies display many common features: education, duels, passions, and tragic deaths. The writers maintained friendly relations, closely followed each other’s work, and ultimately changed Russian literature forever.
The exhibition is not held by chance in the house‑museum of writer M.E. Saltykov‑Shchedrin. His biography also contains intersections with Pushkin and Griboyedov: in childhood they studied at the same educational institutions in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and later Pushkin’s widow Natalya Nikolaevna Lanskaya helped Mikhail Saltykov return from exile in Vyatka.
The exhibits will tell about education, public service, literary activity, love, passion for the theater, the St. Petersburg and Caucasus chapters of life, and the duels of the two great Russian classic writers.
Visitors will see documents, photographs, books, illustrations, reproductions of paintings by such renowned artists as Ge, Bryullov, Ton, and others. Of particular interest are household items and clothing from the first half of the 19th century, theatrical costumes and props from productions based on the works of both writers.
Items from the collection of the Kirov Regional Local History Museum will illustrate how the writers’ work was reflected in the works of folk craftsmen: Dymkovo toys, boxes, and items made from kapok root.
