The fourth International Conference “The Heritage of Classic Writers within the CIS. The Role of Literary Museums” took place at the Leo Tolstoy Yasnaya Polyana Museum in Russia.
Participants from Russia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan were welcomed by E. A. Tolstaya, the Museum Director.
Plenary sessions were held not only at the Yasnaya Polyana Museum but also at the museum’s branch at the Nikolskoye-Vyazemskoye estate and at the Volkonsky House.
On 9 September, the writer’s birthday, the participants took part in the traditional Slovo o Tolstom (A Word about Tolstoy) ceremony. Anyone could address the audience at the open microphone set up near the Leo Tolstoy House. Representatives from Tajikistan and Moldova took part in the event, while actor and director of the Griboedov Theatre in Tbilisi Valery Haryutchenko performed the Konstantin Levin’s monologue from the play Anna Karenina. Following the ceremony, the participants laid flowers at the grave of L. N. Tolstoy.
“Symbolically, the celebration of L. N. Tolstoy’s birthday has become the culmination of the conference programme,” Academic Director of Yasnaya Polyana Galina Alexeeva noted. Summing up the conference, she said: “We are very optimistic about the development and continuation of this project and plan to hold the next conference in 2027.”
The conference is organised with the support of the CIS Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation.