Museum of Leo Tolstoy on Borodino field

A small Museum of Leo Tolstoy is located in a former hotel, built in 1860 at the Spaso-Borodino monastery. It is dedicated to the creativity of the great Russian writer and his work on the novel War and Peace.

Leo Tolstoy began working on the novel War and Peace in 1863. In 1867, Tolstoy came to Borodino field and lived for several days in this hotel near the monastery. The main theme of the novel: the historical fate of the Russian people in the Patriotic war of 1812. The events of the novel cover the period from 1805 to 1820. 

In the Leo Tolstoy Museum, you can view the exhibition in two halls. The first room tells about Tolstoy`s works and the period when he, a young artillery officer, participated in the fighting in the Caucasus.

It also tells about the days that Tolstoy spent on the Borodino field. He wanted to describe very accurately the scenes of the battle of Borodino, so he went a lot from one height to another, making notes and drawings. I had a lot of contact with veterans who lived in a hut near the Raevsky Battery.

The second room is completely dedicated to the novel War and Peace. There are many manuscripts, sketches, engravings, portraits. They are dedicated to both the characters of the novel and real people who fought on the Borodino field. All this gives a complete picture of how the author worked on the novel. Many materials are dedicated to the main characters of the novel: Pierre Bezukhov and Andrey Balkonsky.