The Museum of the Tsvetaev Family in Tarusa is dedicated not only to Marina Tsvetaeva, but also to the whole family when they came to Tarusa from Moscow at the end of the 19th century. It was the happiest time for Marina Tsvetaeva. She grew up in a family of wealthy parents, surrounded by love and care.
The Tsvetaev family came to Tarusa every summer from 1892 to 1902. Marina Tsvetaeva was born on October 8, 1892, and the next year she was brought to Tarusa for the summer. Every summer, the Tsvetaevs rented a large house with an attic, preserved from the landowner`s estate. This area of Tarusa was called Pesochnoye.
In 1902, Marina Tsvetaeva`s mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and the whole family went to Europe for 4 years, where Maria Alexandrovna Main was treated in boarding houses, and Marina and her sister Anastasia lived with her. They visited France, Switzerland and Germany.
In 1904, the Tsvetaev family returned to Russia and in the summer of 1906 they again came to the villa in Tarusa. However, the mother`s treatment did not help, and she died in Tarusa in 1906. Marina Tsvetaeva was 14 years old.
The house with a mezzanine on the high bank of the Oka river, where the Tsvetaevs lived in Tarusa, has not been preserved. Now in its place are the House of Writers and the Silver Age Hotel. However, in Tarusa, the House of Tio has been preserved, which the sisters Marina and Anastasia visited very often. This house was bought in 1899 by Marina Tsvetaeva`s maternal grandfather, Alexander Danilovich Mein.
After the death of his first wife, he married Susanna Davydovna, a governess from Switzerland, for the second time. In 1899, he died, and Susanna Davydovna inherited this house. Marina Tsvetaeva remembers very well how she and her sister came to visit their aunt, whom they loved very much. She spoke Russian poorly, so she pronounced the word “tetya” (aunt in Russian) as "Tio" and this house was called "Tio House".
When the sisters Marina and Anastasia Tsvetaeva came to Tarusa from 1907 to 1910, they stayed in the Tio House for the whole summer. In 1910 Marina was already 18 years old and the next year, 1911, she went to the Black Sea to Koktebel to visit Maximilian Voloshin. There she met Sergei Efron, whom she married in 1912. Then almost every summer they tried to go to Voloshin`s House in Koktebel. Now Voloshin`s Museum is open there, but many exhibits are dedicated to his friendship with Marina Tsvetaeva.
The exposition of the Tsvetaev Family Museum in Tarusa
The Tsvetaeva Family Museum was opened in Tarusa in 1992, on the centenary of the birth of Marina Tsvetaeva. By this time, the Marina Tsvetaeva Museum in Moscow had already opened, as well as the Marina and Anastasia Tsvetaeva Museum in Alexandrov. In 1992, in addition to the museum in Tarusa, the Marina Tsvetaeva Museum in Bolshevo was opened. The Tsvetaeva Museum in Yelabuga was opened much later, in 2003.
Expositions have been created in four rooms of the house: The Arrival of the Tsvetaevs in Tarusa, the Tsvetaevs` family, the Tsvetaevs` Entourage in Tarusa, Grandfather`s study and the Life and Work of Marina Tsvetaeva.
The exhibition has many photographs, letters, manuscripts and books, as well as a model of the Tsvetaevs` villa in Pesochny, which has not survived to this day. From Marina Tsvetaeva`s personal belongings, you can see books, a needlework table, a fan, a mirror and an inkwell. There are also letters from Ivan Tsvetaev (Marina Tsvetaeva`s father) to Vasily Polenov. Polenovo Estate is located on the other side of the Oka River, near Tarusa. They were friends and collaborated when Ivan Tsvetaev created the Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow.
