Tea Plantation, Krasnodar Territory

Black and green tea have been cultivated here since 1947. This is one of the northernmost tea plantations in the world.

Wandering through the labyrinth of tea bushes feels like stepping into the heart of Asia.

Visitors can take a guided tour and sample local teas and jams.

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From Private Collection to National Heritage

Our volumteer attended a lecture at the Tretyakov picture gallery and shares her impressions:

The Tretyakov merchant family collected Russian art. Their mission was to promote Russian painters and their work. In the late nineteenth century, they donated their collection to Moscow and took part in running the gallery. After the 1917 Revolution and the nationalization of all their property, the Tretyakovs remained an integral part of the Tretyakov Gallery. It is worth mentioning that the Soviet government took special care of the Tretyakovs’ brainchild, which later turned into a large museum complex. Some members of the family preferred to leave the country, while others stayed or even decided to return. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the State Tretyakov Gallery remains the most famous and popular museum in Moscow (Picture 1 shows the gallery's entrance).

The administration, patrons, employees of the gallery, and enthusiasts not only replenish the collection and organize numerous exhibitions, but also study the Tretyakov family history and educate visitors about the lives of the gallery's founders and their descendants. A number of lectures about Pavel Tretyakov and his family members take place in one of the gallery's halls (Picture 2)..

One of the lectures is dedicated to Pavel Tretyakov’s younger daughters—Lubov and Maria (Pictures 3 and 4 show them as children). Their lives were closely connected with art, the gallery, and extensive travels. Both of Lubov’s husbands were painters, so she acted as their manager and muse. Maria translated the gallery’s catalog into different languages and also focused on photography. She accompanied her husband on his expeditions and captured local beauty. After the Revolution, they fled to Europe. In 2020, their archives were returned to Russia and now belong to the museum’s collection.

Some items from the archives are sure to draw the attention of photography lovers. Maria, an amateur photographer and an avid traveler, showed her friends and family a sort of photographic slide. She possessed a slide projector prototype (Picture 5) that cost a fortune at the time and is priceless now. The same could be said about her “slides,” which depict scenes of daily life from the early twentieth century in the Russian Empire and other countries (Pictures 6 and 7). These objects allow descendants to feel the rhythm and atmosphere of that era.

The main message of the lecture is this: besides the dry content of textbooks, history has something else to offer. A more attractive side of history lies in art objects, personal letters, photos, and family stories. These objects contribute to the preservation of historical memory just as effectively as other methods.

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