How to visit Tolstoy’s house, Yasnaya Polyana Museum

Yasnaya Polyana (Russian: Ясная Поляна) (“bright clearing”) was an estate of Leo Tolstoy, located twelve kilometers southwest of the Russian city of Tula. The writer was born and buried. He also wrote his award-winning novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Jasnaja Polyana is now a popular tourist attraction.

Immediately after the death of Tolstoy, the house was transformed into a museum, initially led by his daughter Aleksandra Tolstaya and even now is the director of the museum is a descendant of him. The museum contains Tolstoy’s personal property and his library of 22,000 works.

Belong to the museum next to his house he founded the school for peasant children and the park where Tolstoy is buried. During World War II the Germans captured the estate and Robert H. Jackson, the (American) prosecutor, said during the Nuremberg trials that they had destroyed the property and had desecrated the tomb of Tolstoy. The main elements were already evacuated before the Soviet government. After the war the estate and the house restored to how they looked when Tolstoy was still alive.

How to go to Yasnaya Polyana from Moscow ?

The State Museum and Estate of Leo Tolstoy “Yasnaya Polyana” is just 200 kilometers south of Moscow. A three-hour ride by bus or train takes you from Moscow directly to the “little towers”, which symbolize for many years the museum at Yasnaya Polyana.

Yasnaya Polyana is a phenomenon of the historical and cultural heritage of Russia. With its authentic buildings, surrounded by picturesque woods, gardens and parks, it is a typical Russian country estate that gives you an insight into the traditional Gutsleben Russia in the 19th and 20 Century are.

Whether you are a first time visitor to visit or if you are already arriving for the umpteenth time: Time and again you will have the simplicity and awareness of Tolstoy’s house and all impressed with it.