Abramtsevo

a country estate near the town of Zagorsk, Moscow Oblast. From 1843 it was the estate of the Ak-sakovs; from 1870, that of S. I. Mamontov; and since 1918, a museum.

In the park adjacent to the wooden mid-18th-century manor, which was enlarged in 1870–78, there are buildings designed in the “Russian style” by V. A. Gartman (“The Studio,” 1872), I. P. Ropeta (“Fairy-tale House,” 1873), and V. M. Vasnetsov (church, 1881–82, and “Hut on Chicken Legs,” 1883). S. T. Aksakov was visited by N. V. Gogol’, I. S. Turgenev, and M. S. Shchepkin at Abramtsevo. During the last three decades of the 19th century, Abramtsevo was an important center of artistic life; there was great interest in Russian history and culture there, and an attempt was made to revive folk art. The artists V. M. Vasnetsov, I. E. Repin, V. D. and E. D. Polenova, V. A. Serov, M. A. Vrubel’, K. A. Korovin, M. V. Nesterov, and many others lived and worked at Abramtsevo; expert wood carvings (1882) and majolicas were created, marked at times by features of the “modern” style. K. S. Stanislavsky, F. I. Chaliapin, and others took part in the amateur theatricals at Abramtsevo, which served as a basis for the Moscow private Russian opera. The exhibits at the museum include the private study of S. T. Aksakov, information about the life of the Aksakov family, Gogol, and Turgenev, and works of the artists connected with the Abramtsevo circle.