Museum Stations

In those far-off times, the railway station was the busiest place in the region, a place where the closed world of small settlements came into contact with progress and the vast outside world.

Train whistles, carriages, horses at the hitching post, telegraph and telephone services... This was Astapovo station at the beginning of the twentieth century, a name which resonates so much with the Russian people. Nowadays, the station goes under the name of Leo Tolstoy.

It was during the construction of the Bogoyavlensk – Dankov – Smolensk line in 1890 that Astapovo station was built. Its architectural appearance was somewhat different from other stations on the line. Here, along with brick constructions, there were also many wooden buildings, which is associated with the architectural style of the earlier former Ryazan-Kozlovskaya railway.

The line itself was built in two stages. In the same year, 1890, the Astapovo – Dankov and Bogoyavlensk – Lebedyan sections were commissioned. Then, in 1899, the line was extended to Smolensk.

Thanks to the ongoing construction of railway lines by the former Society of the Ryazan-Ural Railway, Astapovo station became a transport hub.

On 31 October 1910, according to the Old Style Julian calendar, Astapovo station gained worldwide fame. Fate would have it that on a cold autumn evening, the great Russian writer Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, who had become seriously ill on passenger train No. 12, disembarked and stepped onto the platform at 6:35 a.m. Here at the station he passed the last days of his life.

On 7 November 1910 Old Style, the whole world was shocked by the news of the great Russian writer’s death.

Vast numbers of telegrams from cities around Russia and the world arrived at the station’s telegraph office. As early as 10 November 1910, workers made a memorial plaque and installed it at the station master’s house. From there, the funeral train departed for Kozlova Zaseka station. Along the train’s entire journey – 400 versts or 427 kilometres – people stood along the railway line to see off Tolstoy on his last journey.

In 1918, Astapovo station received a new name – Leo Tolstoy.

WHAT TO SEE

The whole complex consists of all the buildings of the historical station and nearby houses, all of which have been restored to their original form.

The focus of the complex is the Leo Tolstoy Memorial and Literary Museum, which is located in the house of the station chief I. I. Ozolin – which is where Leo Tolstoy spent the last days of his life and where the writer made the last entry in his diary: “03.11.1910. That’s my plan. Do what you must, and let be what will be...”

Tolstoy’s sentiment became like parting words to us, his descendants. On 7 November 1910, his heart stopped in a house at Astapovo station, and from here he set off on his final journey to his estate at Yasnaya Polyana.

In 1939, the premises and contents of the building, including the memorial room in which the writer died, carefully guarded by the station’s staff, were transferred to the Leo Tolstoy State Museum, which today is a cultural object of special significance.

Now, there is a museum in Tolstoy’s memory and within the radius of its security zone is a complex of unique nineteenth century buildings –the historical station building itself, along with a church, residential buildings and an outpatient clinic.

In 2008, a new modern exhibition “Astapovo Meridian on the Threshold of Eternity” was launched.

HOW TO GET THERE

• By bus from Lipetsk to the Lev Tolstoy village.
• By car to the address: Privokzalnaya 12, Lev Tolstoy Street, Lipetsk District, Lipetsk Region, Russia 399870.