Great Russian Writers 2023

Arrival in Moscow. Transfer from the airport/railway station to the hotel.

Check in. Free time.

Optional: Dinner at the hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel. Meeting with a guide at the hotel lobby.

Kremlin + 1 Cathedral tour.

Visit the Moscow Kremlin: far more than a fortress, it is the historical heart of Moscow, and the spiritual and political center of Russia. The Moscow Kremlin is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation.

Lunch at the restaurant “Cafe Pushkin”.

After visiting the main attraction of all of Russia, you will go to Tverskoy Boulevard. For many years here, in the atmosphere of an old noble house the restaurant of Russian noble cuisine “Cafe Pushkin” has been hosting guests. Tversky Boulevard and its environs played in the life of A.S. Pushkin's big, almost mystical role. It became a place for walks of the highest Moscow society and famous people. Pushkin was met more than once on the boulevard. Immerse yourself in the atmosphere of this street and restaurant and try delicious Russian cuisine for lunch.

Bus city tour “Pushkin places in Moscow” (3 h).

In different epochs, Russian literature generated styles, genres, and names peculiar to the time. Some of them were forgotten almost immediately, some survived for a long time, but there are several of them that still shines as a bright star in the literary sky of Russia and the world – one of them is A.S. Pushkin. Together we will touch the Moscow literary world and, believe us, it will open up to you from various and unexpected sides. During our tour, we will see the house where the great Russian poet Pushkin was born, the Cathedral where he was baptized. We will walk through the Central part of the city and see the houses where Pushkin studied, fell in love, and visited friends. We will get acquainted with the mansions and palaces included in the famous works of the Russian poet. Then we will continue our excursion and go to the famous Arbat, where there are also a lot of Pushkin's places.

Return to the hotel.

OPTIONAL

1. VISIT TO ONE OF MOSCOW THEATERS

2. MOSCOW METRO TOUR, INCLUDING A VISIT TO THE METRO STATION “PUSHKINSKAYA”

Take a look at the Moscow underground life visiting the subway of the capital. The stations of Moscow’s subway system have often been called «the people’s palaces», for their elegant designs and lavish and profuse use of marble, mosaics, sculptures and chandeliers. Built during Stalin’s rule, these metro stations were supposed to display the best of Soviet architecture and design and show how privileged the lifestyle of the Russian people was. During the tour, you will also visit the Pushkinskaya metro station, opened in 1975 and named after the great Russian poet.

Optional: Dinner at the hotel.

Moscow – Tula region – Moscow

Breakfast at the hotel.

Bus tour to the Tula region to the Museum-estate of L. Tolstoy “Yasnaya Polyana”.

Yasnaya Polyana is the family estate of L.N. Tolstoy. The appearance of the estate, familiar to Tolstoy, which has largely survived to this day, took shape at the beginning of the 19th century under the writer's grandfather, Prince N.S. Volkonsky. In Yasnaya Polyana Tolstoy was born and spent most of his life. Today Yasnaya Polyana remains the same as Tolstoy knew and loved. The memorial landscapes of the estate (gardens, parks, ponds planted by Tolstoy forests), like the buildings of the late 18th–early 19th centuries, are maintained in their unchanged historical form. The main memorial buildings of the estate:

• Volkonsky House – the oldest stone building in Yasnaya Polyana; under L.N. Tolstoy it had an economic purpose, today it is the administrative building of the museum; the house also has an exhibition hall
• House of L.N. Tolstoy, in which Tolstoy lived for over 50 years and wrote most of his works; preserved as of 1910 (the last year of the writer's life)
• The Kuzminskys' wing – the building of Tolstoy's Yasnaya Polyana school, later – a guest house; now it houses temporary exhibitions
• Memorial stable, which today contains about 30 horses, as well as various outbuildings

Lunch in a local cafe in Tula.

Continuation of the tour.

Return to the hotel.

Optional: Dinner at the hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel.

Excursion to the museum of Anton Chekhov “Anton Pavlovich – doctor and writer” (3 h).

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, a man in pince-nez and with a wedge beard, a Russian literary classic with an intelligent, attentive look of a doctor, is easily recognized by many. But not everyone knows “Chekhov's Moscow”. Chekhov lived in Moscow for about 15 years, almost a third of his entire life, and changed more than a dozen addresses here. It was Moscow that turned out to be the city where the writer and world-famous playwright Anton Chekhov grew up from yesterday's schoolboy, author of funny miniatures and sketches. During our excursion, you can learn more about the life and work of Anton Pavlovich by examining a literary exposition made up of genuine archival documents. There are definitely a lot of interesting facts and details here that will turn a black-and-white portrait into a colorful and lively image. You will be able to see the carefully restored rooms of the writer himself, his study and living room. The furnishings of the rooms can tell a lot about the way of life of the family, about the characters of the household, about the peculiarities of the Moscow life of those years.

Time for Lunch (Meal is not included).

Optional: Lunch in a local cafe.

Bus tour “Bulgakov's Moscow: in the footsteps of the Master and Margarita” with a visit to the “bad” apartment (3 h) Mikhail Bulgakov's mystical novel “The Master and Margarita” attracts, fascinates, and leaves no one indifferent. We have just taken the book into our hands – and we are plunged into an irrational world created by the writer's imagination. At the same time, they often forget that the action of the novel took place not somewhere, but in Moscow. Here lived the prototypes of its main characters, and the streets, houses and apartments mentioned by the author still exist. We invite you to take a tour of the Moscow of Bulgakov, the Moscow of the Master and Margarita, to once again feel the magical power, the special magnetism of one of the most mysterious works of world literature, to plunge into the story of eternal love. During the tour, you will see the modest house of the Master and the mansion of Margarita, the “bad” apartment where M. Bulgakov himself lived, the Patriarch's ponds, where the spirit of the writer invisibly hovers-here the action of the novel began and a special sign is installed, understandable only to those who read the book.

Return to the hotel.

Optional: Dinner at the hotel.

Breakfast at the hotel. Check out.

OPTIONAL

THEMATIC WALKING TOUR OF KHAMOVNIKI WITH A VISIT TO THE WOODEN ESTATE OF LEV TOLSTOY

Tolstoy's estate in Khamovniki is a quiet corner in the middle of a bustling metropolis. A place where time seems to have stopped, and it is not difficult to get from the rapid XXI century to the XIX. A cozy house, a wooden fence and a quiet Park that can tell guests a lot of interesting things about their former owners. Here the classic lived for 19 years and wrote more than 100 works. Here everything remains as it was during his lifetime, and more than 5 thousand authentic exhibits breathe the memory of their great master.

Optional: Lunch in a local cafe.

Transfer to the airport/railway station. End of the tour.