The family of the Turgenevs in the Oryol region appeared at the end of the 16th century, at the time when Ivan the Terrible decided to welcome a tiny village with a small church of the Transfiguration of the Savior to the wealthy family of the Lutovinovs.
The head of the family then was Ivan Lutovinov. The name of the village - Spasskoye-Lutovinovo - comes from the first word in the name of the church and the name of its owner.
Estate organizer
Ivan Ivanovich Lutovinov was Turgenev’s cousin from his mother. He served as a judge and was known as a prosperous landowner. A noble relative, having received a village as a reward, began to build a manor there. In the center of the estate grew a wooden landowner house on two floors. Its facade was decorated with porticoes, columns and five-arched windows.
The area around the manor house was equipped with flower beds and curly flower beds. After some time, they broke the park, planting pine, spruce and fir in it. They built the Transfiguration Church. Although it was on the estate, it was always a parish, intended for all villagers. The church is the oldest building that has not collapsed in Spassky-Lutovinovo since construction.
The estate turned out magnificent. However, there was no hint of calm. Numerous relatives who claimed to own the estate after the death of Ivan Ivanovich, now and then weaved intrigues and started litigation with the aim of acquiring the family nest.
The estate was dealt with for a very long time, until January 1814, when the jaunty and tenacious niece of the judge conquered him in her favor. By coincidence, Varvara Petrovna Lutovinova was lucky enough to declare herself as the only legal heiress. In those days in Spassky-Lutovinovo life was seething. The estate hosted an endless series of balls, picnics and home performances.
The handsome cavalry guard Sergei Nikolaevich Turgenev, who married the nimble Varvara Petrovna in the Spasso-Preobrazhensky church at the estate, became the happy father of the future literary classic. He and his wife in Orel had a son, Vanechka. In 1823, the family settled on the estate. The youth of Ivan Turgenev, who later became a famous Russian writer, passed in Spassky-Lutovinovo and its environs.
Turgenev and Spasskoye-Lutovinovo
In 1827, the family moved to Moscow, because the children needed a good education. The owners did not leave the estate for good. The family came there from time to time. Each trip to the village filled the life of young Turgenev with vivid impressions. The village way of life was subsequently reflected many times in the writings of the legendary writer.
He became that rare writer who noticed and accurately conveyed in words the colorful identity of the Russian village. In the village Turgenev found not only natural wealth and beauty. Spasskoye-Lutovinovo exposed before him the terrifying poverty and powerlessness of serfs. The places described by Ivan Sergeyevich in the works are genuine.
He wrote with sincerity and truthfulness about the Bezhina Meadow, the Istra River and Raspberry Water. The first reader of the novel "Rudin", which Turgenev wrote in Spassky-Lutovinovo in seven weeks, was L.N. Tolstoy, who was then at the estate. There, Ivan Sergeyevich worked on Faust.
He always spoke warmly of the estate, claiming that only in it was able to work perfectly. Here he lived for a total of 17 years and wrote the bulk of the works. When they shared the property, Ivan Sergeyevich defended Spasskoye for himself. Due to financial affairs, constantly leaving much to be desired, he sold the estates that were in his property, preserving only the estate in Spassky-Lutovinov.
Arriving at the estate in May 1852, Turgenev did not leave him until December 1853, under police supervision. House arrest was the reckoning for the written and published obituary of Gogol. The last visit to the estate, which happened in 1881, was preceded by a fifteen-year break.
Historical facts
Significant changes took place in the empty estate. In a landowner house in 1839, a fire broke out. Only the left wing did not burn. The destroyed third of the building was reconstructed again, and in 1840 an outbuilding was added to it, where the estate manager settled.
With the departure of the writer from life, the estate was empty. According to the will, Turgenev’s estate Spasskoe-Lutovinovo and other property of the writer went to Polina Viardo-Garcia, a foreign citizen. She had no desire to own the estate, and even by law she could not manage it. Therefore, the estate was transferred to distant relatives - the Galakhov family.
The new owners did not want to live in it. But they bothered to transport all the property to Oryol. The house in the abandoned estate where Turgenev created was burned down in 1906. Its restoration began after 12 years, on the occasion of the centenary of the Russian classic. The museum was founded by A.V. Lunacharsky and V.Ya. Bryusov.
The property belonging to Turgenev was stored in Orel; it was transferred to the local museum with the end of the revolution. Spasskoye-Lutovinovo will regain it only in 1968, when they decide to restore the house on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Turgenev. At the memorial exposition in 1976, numerous interested visitors were already shown genuine household items and furniture by Ivan Sergeyevich.
Eminent guests of Spassky-Lutovinovo
The Turgenev patrimonial nest is glorious by those guests who visited the talented writer, because they too became legends of that era. A. Fet, I. Aksenov, L. Tolstoy, M. Shchepkin, N. Nekrasov, M. Savin, V. Garshin and many other prominent representatives of Russian culture of the time had the opportunity to come to Spasskoye-Lutovinovo.
It was with them, with his friends, that Ivan Sergeyevich had intimate conversations in the living room, and had heated debates in his study or in a huge library.
An unprecedented creative atmosphere reigns in the memorial museum-reserve. It is so saturated with the spirit of the greatest Russian classics that the guests take their breath away.
Manor architecture in Spassky
The estate received a new impetus for development in 1988. It was then that the restoration of the ancient park began. It took the masters twenty years to restore the original appearance of the manor and the former appearance of the mansion, as well as the buildings adjacent to it. Thanks to first-class specialists, Spasskoye-Lutovinovo appears to visitors the same as during the life of Ivan Sergeyevich.
Manor house
The spirit of the Turgenev era is guessed in lacy verandas drowning in green ivy, in tiny windows of a mezzanine, in porches, in en suite rooms and their interior decoration. The furniture of the mansion is represented by magnificent pieces made by Russian and foreign craftsmen who worked in the 18th-19th centuries.
Separate pieces of furniture are real masterpieces of crafts. Empire furniture is striking in its simplicity and sophistication. The premises are filled with warmth and light emitted by noble wood. The luxurious Samson sofa was set aside in the small living room.
The comfort of home from the measured ticking of the English clock attached to the dining room. Their melodic chime at half-hour intervals is heard in the silence that reigned in the old mansion. The desk where Ivan Sergeyevich worked on famous works was returned to the bowels of the office.
Manor park
The mansion is surrounded by a park, spread over forty hectares. Linden alleys descend to the ancient reservoir , which originally equipped Turgenev's estate. Spasskoye-Lutovinovo is proud of the oak planted by the young Turgenev and managed to survive in times of hard times, as well as an extensive orchard and two thousand relict trees. Among them there are centennial elms, spruce, silver poplars.
Ivan Sergeevich adored Spasskoye-Lutovinovo. He liked the intersection of alleys formed by lindens and interspersed with lawns bathed in sun and silky forbs, restless bird chirping, a pond sparkling with a mirror of a water surface.
Spassky’s natural beauties do not leave anyone indifferent.
Transfiguration Church
The church, originally built as a parish, still operates today. Those who want to get into it when the museum is open. Spasskoye-Lutovinovo is a memorial ensemble in which the buildings are preserved in the complex.
Inside the park fence stands a church gatehouse, turned into a museum ticket office. A cemetery was established near the park, where the Lutovinov family crypt is equipped. It, together with the small chapel of Alexander Nevsky, is taken out of the estate fence.
Description of the exile's wing
Behind the main building there is a manager’s house, called the outhouse. The name of the building, erected in 1840, appeared twelve years later, when the writer arrived at the estate to serve the link. The manager's family at that time, with the consent of Turgenev, lived in the main house. The writer did not begin to evict the family in the outhouse, he himself settled in it.
In the outbuilding, an exposition was organized with the things of the writer, telling about the creative successes of Ivan Sergeyevich. Next door is a household courtyard, on the territory of which there is a cellar, a bathhouse, a horse carriage and a stable. And what is a Russian landowner estate without a reservoir ?! Spasskoye-Lutovinovo is ennobled by a beautiful blacksmith pond.
During the war years (1941-1945) a hospital functioned on the estate. Therefore, in the park near the oak there is a mass grave where Soviet soldiers rest.
Manor Relics
Spasskoye-Lutovinovo (photos of the place are magnificent) holds priceless relics. In the expositions of the Turgenev Museum you can see the icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands; a collection of paintings, including great works written by Klodt, Dmitriev-Orenburg, Svechkov; unique interior items; huge library. Rare exhibits were collected by generations of the Turgenevs.
The value of the estate
Spassky with its shady alleys was reflected on the pages of Turgenev's works, glorifying the modest and at the same time full of irresistible charm natural beauty of the vast Russian expanses. Turgenev's estate is an example of a landowner way of life of the middle of the XIX century. The estate is of great importance for Russian literary fame, the historical heritage of a great state.