A literary and musical salon, dedicated to the birthday of Alexander Pushkin, was held in Marjino, the family estate of Stroganoff-Golitsyn. The place was not chosen by chance. Princess Galitzina, a prototype of "The Queen of Spades”, lived  in this manor for more than a quarter of a century.

[Galina Stepanova, New Owner of the Estate]:
"Pushkin was on friendly terms with the well-known Firs, a nickname for Prince Golitsyn, the grandson of Natalia Petrovna Galitzina. Prince Golitsyn lost the game and his grandmother revealed the secret of three cards to him. He told this story to Pushkin, and Pushkin wrote the famous" Queen of Spades."

All the contemporaries of Pushkin visited Marjino. And the friends of the poet - Firs, Tolstoy, and Glinka - often came here to hunt and lived in one room.

[Galina Stepanova, New Owner of the Estate]:
"If Pushkin's friends came here, so, perhaps, Pushkin visited this place himself. We do not know, but we think that such a visit was possible."

The culture of the estate is inconceivable without the poet’s works. He wrote the poems and epigrams into many albums. On the occasion of this event the director of Pushkin`s museum Sergey Nekrasov read the chapter from "The Queen of Spades.”  He describes this novel as mysterious and mystical.

The highlight of the evening was a speech by John Haynes from the United States. American Chaplain, he has that title, sang songs on poems by Pushkin.

In the U.S.A  the Russian poet is ranked on the same level as Shakespeare.
The organizer of the salon believes that Pushkin's poetry accompanies a person throughout their life.

[Vitaly Vasiliev, the organizer of the literary and musical salon]:
"You turn to Pushkin when you feel the first lyrical feelings, when you first start thinking about love and a woman. When the time comes to think about your country you can not do it without Pushkin again. No one said better than Pushkin about Russia. Well, again, when you enter into a kind of age of maturity and sum up at the end of the life, the best way is to do it with a book of Pushkin. "

Viewers say that these evenings give new life to works of the poet in contemporary cultural space.

[Dmitry Kazantsev, a guest ]:
"Such actions are necessary, they return us to the roots of our literature and our language."

The guests enjoy the concert and a quiet regular life in the estate.

[Larisa Yozhick, a guest]:
"Here is the magnificent homestead property Marino. It allows a person to feel the atmosphere of the past century and to dip into these beautiful sensations of the concert, music and reading the works of Pushkin."

[Elena Vladimirova, a guest]:
"I can imagine in such a place that Alexander Sergejevich could walk here, he might write the following verses here."


NTD, St. Petersburg, Russia