tolstoy and babushkas

Went to Tolstoy's house today. They say that it's been "preserved," when actually they mean "restored." Of course it was in good condition to begin with, but the wallpaper was taken down and then re-papered to make it look more like it would have when they lived there. And the hallways and outside of the house were repainted. But all in all, it was an awesome experience.

It reminded me very much of Colonial Hill, but much bigger and with servants' quarters. Slightly squeaky floorboards, a lovely old-house feel... They had placed placards by each of the rooms, describing the room's purpose and function, written in Russian and translated into English.

And it's funny-all of the Russian-English translations in museums and such always sound off. And I couldn't figure it out until today. The Russian language has only one past tense, whereas English has several ways of saying the same thing- "were writing," "wrote," "had written." So the placards said things like "Tolstoy was writing in this room every day, from 9-10 am until 3-4 pm," and "The younger children had studied German with sister Alexandra in this classroom." The free word order of Russian language occasionally popped up, but it's not as much of an issue as I thought it to originally be- they have free word order, but the English word order is the one most frequently used.

The house has a lot of personality. Eight children, two parents, ten staff. That's twenty people living under the same roof, although perhaps not all at the same time-I think that the eldest married and moved out not long after the younger were born... A dining room, a corner room, family bedrooms, storage rooms, two drawing rooms, one living room, one guest room, three staff bedrooms, Tolstoy's study (with his original writing materials...), and more. Next to his study, Tolstoy housed his shoe-making materials. Ashley-Tolstoy made shoes, too!

Throughout this museum (classified in guide books as a "house museum") and throughout all museums, babushkas sit. They eye tourists warily as they haul out the massive cameras they don't know how to use from the backpacks that hold at least two Nalgenes and chide them when the flash goes off, cry "девочка!" when you step too close to the cordoned-off area and set off the automatic alarm that no one can see, and fuss at you in Russian until you realize that they want you to put little blue slip covers over your shoes to walk through the house, which has its original flooring. One such babushka sat in one of the babushka chairs outside of Tolstoy's study. And she kept nodding off. You know that one class where you can't keep your eyes open? And regardless of whether you want to or not, your head drops forward and you have to keep hauling it up? This babushka kept trying to wake herself up-crossing one leg and then the other, coughing, etc. But she kept nodding off... my friends told me later on that this same babushka had attempted to explain to them (in Russian, despite coming to the conclusion that they couldn't speak it) how each of Tolstoy's shoe-making devices worked. I found this funny.

I can't tell you how many times I have been yelled at by a babushka. Either because I forgot my key and had to go down to get one from the babushka who buzzes people into the building, or because I got too close to the antique carriage in the Kremlin Armoury and set off the alarm, or because I walked away from the coat check without taking my number with me. I love this part of Russian culture, despite being yelled at.

Going to see a few different shows this week-I believe Richard III is going to be one of them and I am psyched to see a Moscow production of it. I'll be thinking of you, my Richard 3 lovelies, and the massive amounts of blood, bobby pins, and bottle caps... And the safety pins, which I am still finding in my purple bag...

love.

m