Buzeon Paper Museum in the Linen Factory

The Buzeon Paper Museum in the Linen Factory Estate was established in 2018. It is located in one of the old factory buildings of the 18th century, in the immediate vicinity of the main Manor House. Here you can get acquainted not only with the Goncharov factory, but also with the history of paper since its appearance in Ancient China. This museum is of great interest. 

The Buzeon is the first Paper Museum in Russia. It is located inside a long production workshop of a Paper Mill. The Linen Factory Estate of Goncharovs was destroyed greatly during the WWII. The house was in ruins and, perhaps, nothing would have been preserved here if it had not been the marriage of the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin to Natalia Goncharova. In 1999, on the 200th anniversary of Pushkin`s birth, the Estate was completely restored, and now you can get acquainted with the history of paper production here. 

The museum is divided into three zones. First you can get acquainted with the history of the appearance of paper in the ancient world. For the first time, paper appeared in China, and then in the ancient states of the Mediterranean. The second zone concerns the production of paper at the Goncharov Factory. The third zone is interactive. Here you can see old production machines that are still in working condition. 

Previously, paper was not made from wood, as it is now, but from the waste of the textile industry. This was the idea of the merchant Karamyshev, who in 1718 first founded a Linen Factory on this place for the manufacture of canvas. Then he created a paper industry. The raw material for it was the waste of the Linen Factory. Later, this enterprise passed to Afanasy Goncharov, and he achieved great success in this business. 

Numerous posters and drawings hang on the walls of the Buzeon Museum, as paper was made in various epochs, from ancient times to the period of the Industrial Revolution, when machines began to replace manual labor. There are many devices in Buzeon that were used to make paper. Goncharov`s paper production was one of the first to be mechanized, steam engines and hydromechanical presses were installed on it. 

There is a prototype of a Paper machine the Buzeon Museum. Also here you can see a really working mill. On it, the waste of textile raw materials was crushed and turned into a mass, from which paper was then made.  

In the Buseon Museum, this mill is operational, so visitors can hear with what incredible noise it works. You can imagine a constant rumble when several such mills were working in the workshop. Old machines and devices were brought to the museum from all Soviet research institutes and colleges, which made it possible to recreate the entire production chain. If desired, visitors can make a sheet of paper themselves using the technology of the 19th century.