Let's get together!..
The village, a little over 10 kilometers from the town of Pavlovo-on-Oka, was once named for its specialty - “splitting” substandard wood into pine shingles - is now known in the area exclusively as the place where Nikita Mikhalkov built his estate. The most titled and, perhaps, the richest Russian cinematographer has now settled on a peculiar peninsula among the Oka oxbows and bends for several years now. From Shchepachikha, still a populous village with empty general store counters, but in the sight of a fading village, a smooth asphalt road leads to the estate. It's one-lane - two cars can't pass each other on it. Well, outsiders are not allowed there - in the middle of the swamps (tested by practice) any outsider will be met and politely escorted home. And the flash drive will be taken away from the photographer altogether, just in case.
And don’t say that you weren’t warned: before entering the almost “Baskerville” swamps, there is a poster copied from the American one, but written in Russian: “Passage is prohibited. Private property." Some of the locals, however, know an alternative route - it requires a boat and a lot of courage. The guards, of whom Nikita Sergeevich has several dozen, are armed, according to the Shchepachikha residents, with “50-round” carbines and do not like to joke. So, if you were not invited to Mikhalkov, you have to turn back from the flat asphalt road - to the village, where the asphalt ends and the “minefield” traditional for spring Russia begins.
It is all the more interesting that both inside - on a magnificent, ethnic-style manor house with numerous services - and outside, in the working-class village of Tumbotin and several other nearby villages - things are quite positive. Life goes on, people work, the “master” himself is very respected. It's just vipers, you know...
The idea of rural wit
There is a joke in the village that Nikita Sergeevich released vipers into the forest to protect his possessions. “Okay, all the rangers at Mikhalkov’s, our locals, warned us,” a local resident, mason Andrey, told SP. “Otherwise someone would definitely have been bitten.” Now children who come from the city will have to be driven away from there.”
Why snakes were released along the boundaries of the site - the locals have no doubt: “so that just anyone would not walk around.” Few people are offended by the “master” - mainly women, who will now have to worry about their children and goats, who may accidentally suffer from Mikhalkov’s “battle bastards.” The men reason more thoroughly: if I had the same estate, I would do the same. But really, all sorts of people are walking around! Those of the richer villagers (mostly summer residents from Nizhny) even imitate - the cottages here come across with a twist, one is built into an English castle, the other into a log tower.
The main line of defense of the estate from outsiders is, of course, not vipers and copperheads, but huntsmen and guards from local residents. “No, no Tajiks, only our guys,” says Alexey from Tumbotin, who apparently works on the estate himself, but does not like to discuss this with outsiders. “In winter we use snowmobiles, now we use ATVs, and there are also several horses that help with hunting.” The whole region is talking about the powerful and expensive carbines of the guards (Pavlovo and the surrounding areas have long lived by the production of weapons and hardware, so everyone knows a lot about iron). Their number is no more than a hundred, but not a couple of dozen, or rather, no one counted.
The salary they receive is “no worse than us,” says mason Andrey. In rubles this is about 20 thousand per month, perhaps a little more. The “viciousness” of the guards can be explained simply by the strict system of fines. “There was a case here recently, poachers shot a young wild boar, but the huntsman didn’t keep track. I was left without a salary for a month; the boar was worth that much.” The entry of outsiders, presumably, is fined no more lightly...
In the taste of sweet old times
The estate of Nikita Mikhalkov itself is divided into two unequal parts. The first - the estate itself with the main house, guest cottages, house church, stables and other services, with a pier on one of the Oka oxbows - occupies 115 hectares, the second - the Tyomino hunting farm, named after the son of Nikita Sergeevich - is almost a thousand times larger . Initially, the area of the farm transferred to the director for long-term use was 37,000 hectares, then it was expanded to 140 thousand hectares.
“The house was built very well, in an old style. Chopped, do you hear! Not Schmeiding siding, but real chopped siding, who can do that now!..,” say almost enthusiastically the Shchepachikhinsky and Tumbotinsky men who cover their own houses with siding, installing double-glazed windows. It’s cheaper and easier - you don’t have to bother with insulating windows and painting the house every year. But purely aesthetically, Mikhalkov and his buildings are approved by almost everyone who saw them. And the restoration of the church in Tumbotin, in which the “master” wholeheartedly invested, is, whatever one may say, a matter pleasing to God. True, when asked how many people visit this church outside of Christmas and Easter, the Tumbotin residents hesitated somewhat. Not much, apparently.
The director himself said many times that when building his estate, he was guided by the mansion of appanage princes and boyars of the pre-Petrine era - and the stylization, apparently, turned out even more successful than the recently built “palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich” in Kolomenskoye. Moreover, the stylization turned out not to be blindly imitative, but creative and adequate to the needs - the log mansion was not surrounded by a palisade, the service buildings were not crowded around the mansion, as was the case in real boyar estates.
The guest quarters were also not integrated into the main manor house, as is generally customary in Russian estates, but were built separately (and the largest guest house is a real hotel, according to those who visited the estate, designed for 400 - 500 guests). “Everyone,” as the mason Andrei puts it, visits Mikhalkov—Putin, Medvedev, numerous actors, and regional authorities. “Shantsev, for example, never comes here - he flies. Because to get here from Pavlov you have to take a ferry, and the road is bad. So he’s in a helicopter.”
The main entertainment in the estate is quite traditional for the large aristocracy: horse riding, riding yachts, troikas and snowmobiles, hunting. True, hunting is more rifle hunting than the more aristocratic hunting with dogs or falcons (although there are such opportunities on the estate) - in the circle of the Sheremetevs or Yusupovs of the century before last, Mikhalkov would be called “small-grass”... But with the newfangled “Tiger” all-terrain vehicles, like those of the elite riot police - a patriotic analogue of Hummers, each costing 5-6 million rubles.
Slowly, the estate and hunting farms are beginning economically meaningful activities - for example, dumplings with minced boar and elk meat go to the table not only for guests of the estate itself, but are also served in the Rus restaurant, the most upscale of three or four restaurants in Pavlov. They are called “Tyominskie” and cost an impressive 500 rubles per serving by local standards. The amount of game in the Mikhalkov forests has already become a local legend - fortunately, almost no one dares to poach - and this means that, if desired, the hunting area can be fully loaded with elite visitors and earn a lot of money.
Another profitable function of the Mikhalkov estate, apparently, is to serve as a film set for the director’s films. It was here - more precisely, next to the hunting farm, in the village of Polyany - that most of the scenes of the now-released "Citadel" - the conclusion of the military saga about Divisional Commander Kotov - were filmed. A fake bridge and a church were blown up here, a large film crew was stationed here, and villagers were paid 2-3 thousand rubles for the inconvenience. Presumably, the proximity of the shooting to his own estate helped the director save a lot from the $50 million budget announced for Citadel. And, of course, it’s more pleasant to work within your own walls.
What the estate does not have is an agricultural component. This circumstance sharply separates the Mikhalkov estate from the traditional Russian type of landowner farming - almost everywhere in post-Petrine Russia there were landowner fields, and the pre-Petrine boyars did not disdain land ownership. Hunting and other “purely aristocratic” types of thought were limited only to the appanage princes of the pre-Moscow period - they really agriculture They were not interested in and did not organize large-scale “agricultural holdings”, preferring to hunt and take tribute from the subject population.
Patrimonian or favorite
So, among the picturesque bends of the lower Oka, not far from Nizhny Novgorod one of famous people in Russia he built a real manorial estate, of noticeable size even by the standards of Tsarist Russia. What's most interesting is we're talking about not only about the external, but also about the functional stylization of large-scale land ownership of the past. But until recently, this seemed impossible to someone.
The “physiology”, that is, the functioning, of the Mikhalkov estate deserves a separate analysis. The main function of this place is to be the owner’s residence, a place to relax and receive guests, to represent Mikhalkov’s personality and tastes to those whose opinion he is interested in. The director is naturally not interested in the opinions of villagers and city dwellers, which is why the estate is closed from them—from us.
This was precisely the main goal of the most magnificent estates and palaces of former Russia - the residences of the Sheremetevs, Yusupovs, Bobrinskys. The most famous of them - Kuskovo, Ostankino, Yaropolets, Bogoroditsk - surpassed the Mikhalkov estate in scope.
Another thing is that the largest nobles of tsarist times owned not only residences, but also huge plots of agricultural land, where serfs or hired peasants produced what Marx would call a “surplus product” for the landowners. As a rule, the huge steppe fields in the Black Earth Region and Novorossia were not directly related to the Moscow or Crimean residences of princes and counts, but belonged to the same persons and, to a certain extent, brought the main income to the owners. Mikhalkov does not have such “working” land - that is, agricultural holdings.
The main cinematographer of the Russian state, however, uses another source of wealth, no less traditional for the Russian (and, in general, the European, post-medieval era) nobility: proximity to power. Nikita Mikhalkov - this is hardly disputed - courtier an aristocrat, moreover, hereditary and successful by the highest standard. In almost all times (at least since the era of Ivan the Terrible), well-born and successful dignitaries at court lived on a much larger scale than the income from their own households allowed them - and the “cash gap” was always eliminated by grants “from the royal shoulder.” Money, land, serfs - the stories of Catherine’s favorites Orlov and Potemkin are well known, who spent more than anyone in Russia could imagine, but received incomparably more as a gift from the crown.
On the contrary, no matter how well-born boyars and nobles, deprived here and now of the highest favor and “bypassed” at court, over the course of a couple of decades were bled dry, became “impoverished”, dropped out of the high society “vanity fair”...
No, successful estate farming in Russia is possible (both then and now) - according to the formula “cherries were dried and sent to Moscow by carts.” But examples of such successful land ownership in the estate format were demonstrated not by the largest nobles, but rather by strong and well-born “middle peasants.” Such were, say, successful landowners Lev Tolstoy, Afanasy Fet and Nikolai Nekrasov. It is interesting that, as SP wrote, in Yasnaya Polyana, estate life and economy have been practically restored, and from an economic point of view, Tolstoy’s estate is much more independent, autonomous and tenacious without “court” support than Mikhalkov’s residence.
But what will happen to the estate of the head of the Union of Cinematographers in the event of his unexpected disgrace - well, let's say, if those at the top decide to radically change the style from "imperial" to "anti-imperial" - is not very clear. Perhaps the guest house with 500 beds could be converted into a good hotel, and the hunting ground could be opened for free access - at a considerable cost - to the public. Then - if the land granted by the state is left to the landowner - Mikhalkov will survive, just as the disgraced boyars and nobles survived in their estates.
In the absence of "Dubrovsky"
After all, it’s a strange thing - the director only has to fear changes in the situation “at the top.” Village residents generally respect Mikhalkov. You won’t hear any bad words about Mikhalkov in the vicinity of the estate - except that the Old Believers, who have been living in the vicinity of Pavlov-on-Oka since ancient times, were outraged for several years by the “debauchers” from the Mikhalkov estate, who swam naked and were not embarrassed by the local residents.
In the minds of the inhabitants of Shchepachikha and the surrounding area, Mikhalkov took the place of the “father-master” that had been empty for one and a half hundred years - and it was as if fifteen decades had not passed since the abolition of serfdom. And now the well-known Vorsmen master Valery Safonov makes an offering to Nikita Sergeevich - a damask hunting set with inlay and chasing in the form of the “life” of film actor Mikhalkov, where the stamps include walking around Moscow and a shaggy bumblebee on fragrant hops. And so local officials - in the person of Governor Valery Shantsev - on his birthday “grant” the master several dozen more hectares of land for the construction of that same 500-bed hotel.
Mikhalkov enjoys a reputation as a strict but fair owner. Maybe because he loves his land and decorates it better than everyone else within the reach of the Shchepachikha and Tumbotin people. “At least Mikhalkov takes care of the forest, doesn’t cut it down, he has animals there,” says Shchepachikha resident Uncle Petya. - With his own money, and how he earns it is his business. But look around, everything has already been cut down and is being sold on the stump. Of course they plant new forest, but while he’s still growing..."
He takes care of the forest, gets animals, builds a cozy house, pays money to local residents (rather than importing strangers). Mikhalkov is perhaps the only powerful person in today’s Russia who, at least at the estate level, is playing “the long game.” And the fact that at the same time he treats his own fellow citizens approximately as Kirill Petrovich Troekurov treats small-scale neighbors - Mikhalkov’s neighbors, apparently, simply do not know any other attitude. Dubrovsky is not in the vicinity of Shchepachikha and, apparently, is not expected.
Undoubtedly, the Mikhalkovo estate is one of the most interesting attractions of the capital's metropolis, where you can usefully spend your leisure time. The territory of this walking area is almost a hundred hectares; cozy alleys, green spaces, shady ponds, and original sculptures harmoniously coexist on it. And, of course, the central link of the park is the Mikhalkovo estate itself, which, unfortunately, today is in a dilapidated state, despite its high-profile status as an architectural monument of the 18th century.
Of course, the area of this object cannot but surprise. But the estate of Nikita Mikhalkov (director) is half the size - only fifty hectares. However, the architectural monument is attractive to tourists and Muscovites not only for its dimensions. In summer it is pleasant to walk here surrounded by lush foliage, and in winter many come to admire the beauty of the entrance towers, decorated with rare kokoshniks and pinnacles, which rise above the snow-white snowdrifts.
When did this unique object appear? cultural heritage Russia, what happened to it over the centuries? Let's look at these questions in more detail.
Historical excursion
For the first time, the Mikhalkovo estate appears in the scribe book of 1584. Its owner was Semyon Fomin, who was Tretyakov’s offspring. Most likely, the name of the architectural monument comes from family name or the nicknames of its first owner. After some time, the property becomes the property of Novgorod employee Anton Zagoskin. However, already in the middle of the 17th century, the Mikhalkovo estate was renamed the estate of Ivan Dashkov, who was in charge of the affairs of the Robbery Prikaz. He arranged an orchard and several ponds on the territory, and also built a manor house made of wood.
After the death of the owner of the estate, it was inherited by his wife E.R. Dashkova. However, the new owner of the estate intended to go abroad after some time, so she had to sell the architectural monument. One of the educators of Emperor Paul I, N.I., became the new owner of the Dashkovs’ property. Panin. However, he did not often visit the estate, so the Mikhalkovo park-estate became the summer residence of the count’s brother, Pyotr Ivanovich.
British confessor W. Cox writes about what it was like in the late 70s of the 18th century: “The road from Moscow to this place takes about four hours. The Mikhalkovo estate, located surrounded by forest, consists of several wooden structures, the facades of which are painted quite brightly and colorfully. Parks, arranged according to the English model, are in perfect harmony with wide fields, meadow grasses and a large pond, on the banks of which there are many trees.”
Such attractions distinguished the estate, which actually belonged to General-Chief P.I. Panin.
For your information, the Mikhalkov estate (location: Shchepachikha village, Pavlovsky district, is also not devoid of natural beauty. The estate of the famous director runs along a picturesque lake, popularly nicknamed the Saint, since it reflects the outlines of the church.
Large-scale restoration
The Mikhalkovo estate in Moscow was rebuilt in the 70s of the 18th century on the initiative of Pyotr Panin. Thus, he wanted to perpetuate his exploits in the war with the Turks, in which he took a direct part. Architect V. Bazhenov worked on the restoration project. He embodied in stone a colorful image of one of the fortresses of the Ottoman Empire, which the count managed to conquer. The central link of the overall plan was a semicircle (visually reminiscent of the Turkish crescent). The territory was fenced, and three pairs of towers and outbuildings were installed along its perimeter and entrances were marked. Toward the park, two more outbuildings and a manor house were erected, which have not survived to this day. The towers, mounted towards the entrances to the front courtyard, were decorated with original details.
Their upper parts ended with two-horned teeth, which only emphasized their strict outlines. Fences and outbuildings were decorated with decorative arrows and half-columns above the cornice. Behind the manor house there was a park with several ponds, and on the shore there was a gazebo-pier.
After Count P. Panin died, the Mikhalkovo estate (address: Mikhalkovskaya St., 38, building 1, Northern Administrative Okrug) began to change hands.
A series of new owners
At the end of the 18th century, the merchant Turcheninov became the owner of the estate, who organized the production of chintz here. The enterprise will bring huge profits when the estate is acquired by the businessman Grachev. The business achieved even greater development after entrepreneur Wilhelm Jokisch became the new owner of the estate. In the mid-19th century, he turned the enterprise into a powerful cloth manufacturing partnership. Its products provided the needs of all Russian Empire. It should be noted that the proletarians, who originated from Mikhailovsky peasants, spoke positively about their master, so they did not take an active part in the revolts of the early 20th century.
The owner of the enterprise really favored the workers and in the early 20s even gave money for the construction of a workers’ camp, which was designed by the architect D. Sukhov.
It should be noted that the organization of the factory on the territory of an architectural monument had a negative impact on its appearance. The outbuildings were rebuilt, the towers were laid down, the decorative wall was destroyed, and some areas were given over to summer cottages.
After the revolution
Shortly before the October events, a medical treatment facility and a nursery were erected on the territory of the estate, and one of the estate outbuildings was given over to a school. After the fall of tsarism in Russia, the Bolsheviks nationalized the famous cloth factory. The company began to produce various fabrics for sewing clothes.
Manor during the Second World War
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War One of the defense lines of Moscow passed through the territory of the estate.
The soldiers, hidden in firing points, were ready to meet the enemy face to face. By 1945, there was practically nothing left, as there was an urgent need for firewood.
Another restoration
In the mid-20th century, another restoration was carried out in the Mikhailovo estate park: trees were planted and alleys were laid out. It is noteworthy that it was then that a plaster statue of Komsomol member Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya appeared on the territory of the architectural monument, who, it turns out, lived in neighboring Koptevo. During the Soviet era, children's attractions were created on the territory of the estate, but now, of course, they are not there.
Golovinsky Ponds
One of the main attractions of the estate is the Big, Small and Upper
All of them are connected by canals through which bridges are thrown. In the early 40s, hydraulic engineering work was carried out, as a result of which Volga water began to flow into the ponds through the Moscow Canal. Now everyone can relax on the shore here.
Golovinsky Monastery
Another object that attracts attention is the Golovinsky Monastery, built back in 1886. During the period of collectivization, the Soviet government prohibited holding services, and all church valuables were confiscated. The building itself has been converted to suit various needs. A club, a warehouse, and a hospital for commanders were set up here. Subsequently, the builders converted the cathedral into a multi-story building. In the 70s, a residential microdistrict began to be built here, so all the monastic objects were destroyed; only the three-tiered bell tower, which was not touched, reminded of the former greatness of the Golovinsky Monastery.
Manor in modern days
Currently, the estate has somewhat lost its original appearance. Large-scale restoration work was carried out between 1994 and 2006.
Some elements of the architectural ensemble were nevertheless restored, and the park with a cascade of ponds was also reanimated. The southern gate, southeastern front gate, southwestern wing, part of the massive wall decorated with buttresses, as well as the towers of the western ponds have been preserved. One way or another, even today the degree of improvement of the 18th century architectural monument cannot be considered high. Nevertheless, this object of historical heritage should be of interest to every resident of our country.
The heritage of Russia is the Mikhalkovo park-estate. How to get there? First we get to the Vodny Stadion metro station, and then take bus No. 72. Some travel on foot from the above-mentioned subway station, walking in the direction of Golovinskoye Highway, passing the cemetery.
Landscapes and landscape sketches about the life of a modern Russian gentleman!
How Sir Henry became Troyekurov, and why there are no more Dubrovskys in Rus'...
Eh, I can’t say it in a fairy tale, I can’t describe it with a pen! Among the picturesque bends of the lower Oka, not far from Nizhny Novgorod, a little over 10 km from Pavlov-on-Oka, named after its specialty - “splitting” substandard wood into pine shingles, lies Shchepachikha, where a manorial estate flourishes, of noticeable scope even by the standards pre-revolutionary, tsarist Russia. Bring several dozen to Shchepachikha poisonous snakes and let them live around the perimeter of their property - it is unknown when such an idea came to the head of the owner N. Mikhalkov, but it was realized exactly this year.
The estate of Nikita Mikhalkov itself is divided into two unequal parts. The first - the estate itself with the main house, guest cottages, house church, stables and other services, with a pier on one of the Oka oxbows - occupies 115 hectares, the second - the Tyomino hunting farm, named after the son of Nikita Sergeevich - is almost a thousand times larger . Initially, the area of the farm transferred to the director for long-term use was 37,000 hectares, then it was expanded to 140 thousand hectares. “The house was built very well, in the old style. Chopped, do you hear! Not siding-schmeiding, but real chopped, who can do that now!..” - the Shchepachikha and Tumbotin men say almost enthusiastically.
Why snakes were released along the boundaries of the site - the locals have no doubt: “so that just anyone would not walk around.” Few people are offended by the “master” - mainly women, who will now have to worry about their children and goats, who may inadvertently suffer from Mikhalkov’s “battle bastards.” The men reason more thoroughly: if I had the same estate, I would do the same. But really, all sorts of people are walking around! Those of the richer villagers (mostly summer residents from Nizhny) even imitate - the cottages here come across with a twist, one is built into an English castle, the other into a log tower.
The director himself said many times that when building his estate, he was guided by the mansion of appanage princes and boyars of the pre-Petrine era - and the stylization, apparently, turned out even more successfully than the recently built “palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich” in Kolomenskoye. Moreover, the stylization turned out not to be blindly imitative, but creative and adequate to the needs - the log mansion was not surrounded by a palisade, the service buildings were not crowded around the mansion, as was the case in real boyar estates. The guest quarters were also not integrated into the main manor house, as is generally customary in Russian estates - but were built separately (and the largest guest house is a real hotel, according to those who visited the estate, designed for 400 - 500 guests). “Everyone,” as the mason Andrei puts it, visits Mikhalkov—Putin, Medvedev, numerous actors, and regional authorities. “Shantsev, for example, never comes here - he flies. Because to get here from Pavlov you have to take a ferry, and the road is bad. So he’s in a helicopter.”
The main entertainment in the estate is quite traditional for the large aristocracy: horse riding, riding yachts, troikas and snowmobiles, hunting. True, hunting is more rifle hunting than the more aristocratic hunting with dogs or falcons (although there are such opportunities on the estate) - in the circle of the Sheremetevs or Yusupovs of the century before last, Mikhalkov would be called “small-grass”... But with the newfangled “Tiger” all-terrain vehicles, like those of the elite riot police - a patriotic analogue of Hummers, each costing 5 - 6 million rubles. Another profitable function of the Mikhalkov estate, apparently, is to serve as a film set for the director’s films. It was here - more precisely, next to the hunting farm, in the village of Polyany - that most of the scenes of the now released "Citadel" - the conclusion of the military saga about Divisional Commander Kotov - were filmed. A fake bridge and a church were blown up here, a large film crew was stationed here, and villagers were paid 2-3 thousand rubles for the inconvenience. Presumably, the proximity of the shooting to his own estate helped the director save a lot from the $50 million budget announced for “The Citadel.” And, of course, it’s more pleasant to work within your own walls.
What the estate does not have is an agricultural component. This circumstance sharply separates the Mikhalkov estate from the traditional Russian type of landowner farming - almost everywhere in post-Petrine Russia there were landowner fields, and the pre-Petrine boyars did not disdain land ownership. Hunting and other “purely aristocratic” types of thought were limited only to the appanage princes of the pre-Moscow period - they really were not interested in agriculture and did not organize large-scale “agricultural holdings”, preferring to hunt and take tribute from the subject population.
P.S. ...
In the minds of the inhabitants of Shchepachikha and the surrounding area, Mikhalkov took the place of the “father-master” that had been empty for one and a half hundred years - and it was as if fifteen decades had not passed since the abolition of serfdom. And now the well-known Vorsmen master Valery Safonov makes an offering to Nikita Sergeevich - a damask hunting set with inlay and chasing in the form of the “life” of film actor Mikhalkov, where the stamps include walking around Moscow and a shaggy bumblebee on fragrant hops. And so local officials - in the person of Governor Valery Shantsev - for his birthday “grant” the master several dozen more hectares of land for the construction of that same 500-bed hotel.
Mikhalkov enjoys a reputation as a strict but fair owner. Maybe because he loves his land and decorates it better than everyone else within the reach of the Shchepachikha and Tumbotin residents... He takes care of the forest, gets animals, builds a cozy house, pays money to local residents (rather than importing strangers). Mikhalkov is perhaps the only powerful person in today’s Russia who, at least at the estate level, is playing “the long game.” And the fact that at the same time he treats his own fellow citizens approximately as Kirill Petrovich Troekurov treats small-scale neighbors - Mikhalkov’s neighbors, apparently, simply do not know any other attitude. Dubrovsky is not in the vicinity of Shchepachikha and, apparently, is not expected..."
MORE, A TRIP TO THE RUSSIAN ESTATE TO MIKHALKOV WITH PHOTOS...
(http://svpressa.ru/society/article/43111)
N.B. ...
“If Stapleton had proven his rights to own Baskerville Hall, how would he have been able to explain the fact that he, the heir, lived under a false name and so close to the estate?..”
(A. Conan Doyle. "The Hound of the Baskervilles")
“The dinner, which lasted about three hours, ended; the owner put a napkin on the table - everyone got up and went into the living room, where coffee, cards and the continuation of the drinking session that had so nicely begun in the dining room awaited them. Around seven o’clock in the evening some guests wanted to go, but the owner , amused by the punch, ordered the gates to be locked and announced that he would not let anyone out of the yard until the next morning..."
(A.S. Pushkin "Dubrovsky")
- Calm down, Masha, I am Dubrovsky, - will you marry me, or
Will you listen to Father Troyekurov, or will you get yourself a tycoon?!
They are still there today - academicians Sergei Kapitsa and Sergei Vorobyov, artists Vasily Livanov and Nikolai Slichenko, musicians Yuri Bashmet and Alexander Lipnitsky... True, in last years new masters of life appeared on Nikolina Gora. “Well, I’ll just save them from them, no, they’re buying up forests and building their own palaces with turrets,” complains one of the Mountain’s natives, pianist Nikolai Petrov. “I just don’t go beyond the boundaries of my property, I spend all my time here - this is both my home and my dacha.” But once upon a time...
Nikologorsk residents gathered for musical evenings that took place at the dacha of Svyatoslav Richter (here the great musician died in the summer of 1997), to watch the once outlandish video that Nikolai Petrov brought from foreign voyages. One of the main cultural places of Nikolina Gora was the house-teremok of Natalya Konchalovskaya, granddaughter of Surikov and wife of Sergei Mikhalkov (now Andrei Konchalovsky lives in this house). Today, a mansion with columns - the house of Nikita Mikhalkov, built only a few years ago - claims the central place. But Vladimir Putin, Jack Nicholson, and Peta Wilson have already been here. Here, after the Easter service, a noisy breaking of the fast takes place.
By the way, the church in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was restored not so long ago - in 1990, through the efforts of the local community (mainly the same Nikita Sergeevich) and the rector, Archpriest Alexy Gostev. Not only Nikologorsk residents come to the once traveling church of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, in which he stopped for prayer while going on pilgrimage to the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, but also believers from Moscow. Last year on Easter they prayed in the church by the light of the Fire of Great Saturday, brought by Mikhalkov from Jerusalem.
The gastronomic center of Nikolina Gora is a restaurant without a name (but with surprisingly low prices) on a football and volleyball court. Once upon a time, noisy matches of local teams were held here, and poetry was read from the stage. Now this rarely happens - the lifestyle has changed, and they mostly gather at each other's houses. Thus, the invariable Christmas celebration takes place at Stepan Mikhalkov’s dacha in neighboring Maslova (or in Maslovka, as the natives lovingly call the neighboring village). They also like to receive guests at one of the most old-fashioned dachas of Nikolina Gora - near Kachalov, where today the granddaughter of the great Moscow Art Theater master, actress Maria Lyubimova, lives with her family. This is one of the few houses in an ancient resort near Moscow where you can fully experience the spirit of the former Nikolina Gora. Portraits and little things are lovely witnesses of antiquity. But another descendant of the great Moscow Art Theater student, Vasily Livanov, added a new house to the old dacha - it became a bit cramped...
There are also abandoned houses on Nikolina. Thus, Sergei Prokofiev’s dacha has been empty for a long time - the composer’s son went into exile. And the huge mansion, which rumor ascribes to Tatyana Dyachenko, has never been settled in and looks somehow threatening. The brick palace, supposedly built for Minister Pugo, who tragically ended his life, is empty and lonely. Remember this one?.. Rumor has it that they will soon demolish (and build a new one) the very bridge from which Boris Yeltsin supposedly tumbled into the Moscow River in the morning. The old one, you know, has become a bridge, just like a memorial one.
The Nikologorsk residents created their village, guided by the ancient motto “My home is my fortress”, carefully protected the protected area, preferring to return from Moscow not to Moscow apartments, but to dachas near Moscow. And therefore, now, when new vandals are encroaching on their “small homeland,” they are less and less inclined to talk about their land, and on their faces you can increasingly see a trace of sadness.
“No “capee-esos” touched us, they lived in their “enviable” and “slides”, but these!!!” - pianist Petrov is again indignant, having built a house, like almost all Nikologorsk residents, with his own hands (including a house for guests, which is not uncommon for Nikolai Arnoldovich and his neighbors to this day). Only these are increasingly not “new Russians”, but those who feel at home even when visiting Nikolina Gora. For now...
The richest and most famous court film director in Russia built an estate for himself in the village of Shchepachikha, Nizhny Novgorod region. Here on the shore of Lake Istra near Mikhalkov there is an estate with a log manor house, a chapel, a stable and large hunting grounds guarded by their rangers. A correspondent from Sobesednik gathered to take at least one look at the lordly life.
No entry
A one-lane asphalt road leads to Shchepachikha, sandwiched between the Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod regions. If you move along it without turning, you run into a sign “No Trespassing! Private properties. Protected by law." Fifty meters later the outbuildings begin. It’s easy to spot any strangers here.
A guard comes out of the first house and asks what I need. I answer that I heard that there is a temple here, so I’m going to pray.
– What if you are a journalist? Admit who you work for, show your documents,” he says.
I really don’t look like a pilgrim: jeans instead of a skirt, without a scarf or even a cross. Having called the authorities, the security guard turns away from the gate, but I manage to see the open garage, in which there is a line of UAZ cars and a fire truck with a flashing light. As I’m leaving, I’m trying to take pictures, and someone rushes after me: “Aha-ah, with a camera!”, but no one rushes to catch up with me with a gun at the ready and take away the equipment.
Shchepachikha is a big village, the houses are good. There are summer residents, but there are also many locals. The villagers work on the estate; you won’t get an extra word about Mikhalkov from them: he pays well, but there is no other work in the area.
“You try to take a different road, behind our house,” advised a summer resident from Dzerzhinsk. “There are no security booths here, the locals go into the forest to pick berries and mushrooms and go to the lake to swim, no one is chasing us.”
According to the woman, the Shchepachikha residents live peacefully with their famous neighbor, there are no troubles from him, only benefits. On the advice of ecologists, Mikhalkov brought and released into the forests all kinds of fauna, from wild boars to birds, raised carp and other fish in reservoirs, but most importantly, he installed gas! The authorities only promised to provide gasification for twenty years.
Praying with the people
I walk along the forest road carefully, looking at my feet. The press wrote that the perimeter of the estate was guarded by poisonous vipers and copperheads. Mikhalkov allegedly scattered them himself from a helicopter so that no one would poke their nose into his life. There are really a lot of snakes in these places, but I doubt it’s the director’s fault. I only came across a fat cat and a lizard; the poor thing was more scared of my sneakers than I was of her.
On Lake Istra a fish bites every five minutes. From the swimming bridge you can clearly see the veranda on the very shore. In the evenings, Mikhalkov rides around the lake on a scooter or boat. A stream flows from Istra to Oka. As the villagers joke, from Shchepachikha you can get to America by water.
Not far from the lake, behind a simple outskirts, there is an outbuilding and a stable, it is guarded by a huge dog on a chain, and chickens walk around the territory. The Mikhalkov manor house was built in Russian style, and recently built the chapel of St. Tryphon, the patron saint of hunters. Shchepachikha old women are allowed into the chapel. It happens that Mikhalkov himself prays surrounded by people.
On the shore of the lake I meet a man who has bathed. Andrey is a boxing coach from the city of Pavlovo, his niece takes horse riding lessons from the Mikhalkov grooms. One lesson costs only 300 rubles.
“Nikita is generally a big liberal,” says Andrey. – He allows his employees a lot of things. And you should have seen how he picturesquely greets and hugs the men! But if something goes wrong, immediately kick it in the ass.
Hunting with friends
“He loves to ride through the meadows on horseback in a rubber cart,” said an elderly Shchepachikha resident. “We see him less often in the village, but when he passes by on horseback, he will definitely nod, or even stop, and ask how life is. He doesn't turn his head away from us.
They say that Nikita Sergeevich comes every year to the village festival and gives gifts to the locals.
Shchepachikha has long been accustomed to the faces of celebrities. At first, Sergei Yastrzhembsky visited Mikhalkov, they saw the presenter of “Morning Star” Yuri Nikolaev, a man similar to Vasya Rogov... And about three years ago, Medvedev flew to Mikhalkov by helicopter, stayed for two hours and flew away.
As soon as stars from Moscow arrive in Shchepachikha, they immediately go on a dairy diet. There are a couple of cows on the estate.
Hunting is Mikhalkov’s favorite pastime. An avid hunter from Pavlovo, who was at one time close to the court, told me about her. Valery Safronov is known for giving Nikita Sergeevich a set of hunting knives with sheaths decorated with scenes from his films.
“Mikhalkov’s hunting is at the highest level,” says Safronov. “He recruited highly professional huntsmen, they know the whole forest with their eyes closed. They are well armed, equipped with all-terrain vehicles and other equipment. Anyone can hunt, you just need to buy a ticket. At Mikhalkov’s it is 20–30% more expensive than at other farms, but it’s worth it. There are guest houses, a kitchen, and more animals.
Hunting on the estate is a long tradition. Nikita Sergeevich has his own places, which the huntsmen reserve only for him. There he hunts with friends. After the “Central Russian safari”, the participants gather, cook shul from the hunted game, sit down at a common table, tell jokes, in the men’s circle, naturally, they cannot do without drinking, and at dawn, cheerful, they have fun shooting bottles.
Valery Safronov is proud that he hunted with Dmitry Dyuzhev, “Mikhalkov’s favorite student.” Going hunting with Nikita Sergeevich’s guests is a happy chance for many; in a friendly atmosphere you can resolve personal issues with strongmen of the world this.
It happens, and it makes you angry
In Shchepachikha, no one will say anything bad about Mikhalkov, he is both king and god here: he provided gas, raised livestock, revived the sawmill, gave work. In the neighboring village of Tumbotino, many also work for him as security guards and rangers.
Nikita Sergeevich is sometimes seen in the Annunciation Church, he gives to the needs of the church, he is friendly with the rector, Father Andrei, who confesses him separately from everyone else in the altar. Mikhalkov is known for his piety. He donated money for the golden domes of the Resurrection Church, which is on the left bank of the Oka in Pavlovo, helps convent in Ababkovo. At the same time, Mikhalkov’s Orthodoxy is combined with an absurd character. As residents of Tumbotino say, on Easter one of the servants broke an egg on the fence, the director called him over, ordered him to bend over and kicked him...
Looks like Mikhalkov. The master did this not only at his estate, but also in Moscow.
our certificate
The Mikhalkov estate occupies 7 hectares and is valued at $15 million. On the territory there is a manor house, a chapel, a stable, a garage, a two-story guest house, and a pheasant farm. In addition, 29 thousand hectares of land were leased for 49 years to Temino Lesnoye LLC (headed by Mikhalkov’s assistant, producer Denis Baglay) - these are the Tumbotinskoye and Stepankovskoye forestries.
