L. N. Tolstoy Museum-Estate in the village of Nikolskoye-Vyazemskoye

About museum

Nikolskoye-Vyazemskoye is the ancestral estate of the Tolstoy family, located in the Chernsky District of Tver Oblast on the bank of the Chern River. According to legend, an icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was found in the river, which is why the village was named Nikolsky. In the past the estate belonged to Prince Fyodor Vyazemsky, and later passed into the ownership of Prince Nikolai Ivanovich Gorchakov, the great-grandfather of the writer L. N. Tolstoy. In 1820 the estate was taken into guardianship by the Guardianship Council because of debts, but was later repurchased by the writer's father. In 1836, in fulfillment of a vow made during the War of 1812, the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin was built. In 1847 the lands were divided among the children of I. A. Tolstoy, and Nikolskoye-Vyazemskoye went to Lev Tolstoy's elder brother Nikolai Nikolaevich. After his death in 1860 the estate became the property of Lev Nikolaevich, who raised livestock and kept bees. In 2000 the L. N. Tolstoy museum in Nikolskoye-Vyazemskoye was transferred to the Yasnaya Polyana museum-estate. Today it houses an exhibition dedicated to the history of the Tolstoy family and the history of Russia.