Konstantinovo Things to Do

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There is “a house with an attic” belonged local landowner L.Kashina nearby to the S.Yesenin's memorial house-museum on the opposite side of the rural area.
It stands in a wonderful park of bushes of lilacs and jasmines. Now it is a museum of a poem "Anna Snegina" which welcomes numerous admirers of poetry of Sergey Yesenin.
This building is among a few, kept in the village since Yesenin's times. It is famous because creativity of the poet is connected with it.

To L. Kashina

Head of green tresses
And maiden breast,
Why on the pond, birch,
Your gaze do you rest?

What does the wind whisper,
Sand intone?
In your braid-boughs will you
Set a moon-comb?

Your secret wood-thoughts
Disclose to me!
I love your sad tones
On autumn eve.

"Curious friend," in reply
The birch said,
"Tears here by starlight
A shepherd shed.

"The moon cast shadows
Beneath green trees.
He held me, clasping
My bare knees.

"And sighed, as my branches
Rustled above:
Till next year's cranes come
Farewell, my love!' "
1918

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The chapel in honor of the Holy Spirit was restored in the center of the village in 2002 opposite to the Church of Our Lady of Kazan. Architect S.Varganov.

You can watch my 3 min 55 sec HD Video Ryazan-Konstantinovo Yesenin slide-show out of my Youtube channel.

Waken me early tomorrow,
Dear mother, patient and kind!
I'll go past the boundary barrow
To welcome a friend of mine.

In the forest today I noticed
Weel-tracks where a cart had rolled
The breeze below dark cloud blowing
Is ruffling the arch of gold.

It will race by tomorrow at daybreak,
With moon-cap ducking under a bush,
And her red tail playfully waving
The mare through the meadow will rush.

Waken me early tomorrow,
Turn the light on in our best room.
They say I'11 become an illustrious
Poet of Russia soon.

You I shall laud and the visitor,
Our stove, cock and humble home...
And the milk that your russet cows give
Shall over my verses flow.
1917

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There is “Izba” or a hut under a hatched roof in a garden among apple-trees and cherries.
Yesenin's family built it after a fire in August, 1922.
There is a unique apple-tree which was kept since that times.
During this big fire Yesenin's house has burned down almost completely.
The parents of the poet with his younger sister Aleksandra lived in this modest dwelling two years, while they built the new house in 1924.
The barn constructed in 1913 is kept.
Sergey Aleksandrovich spent many nights in a barn.
He wrote a lot of poems here…

I'm tired of home life, sighs they heave
As buckwheat fills the far field yonder.
My country cottage I shall leave,
A vagabond and thief, I'll wander.

Through daytime's curly locks I'll step,
Some wretched meagre dwelling seeking.
Against me my best friend shall whet
The knife that's from his boot-top peeping.

The yellow highway is entwined
With spring and sunlight in the meadow
And she whose name I deem divine
Shall also drive me from the threshold.

I'll come back to my father's home,
With other's joy my pain relieving,
And hang myself upon my sleeve
Beneath the window one green evening.

Grey willows by the wicker fence
Shall bow their heads in a fine flurry
And every dog be start barking when
My unbathed body shall be buried.

The moon meanwhile shall float on by,
Its long oars in lake waters dipping,
And Russia just the same survive,
Be dancing in the street, and weeping.
1916

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In the center of the village, opposite to the Church of Our Lady of Kazan, under crones of sprawling willows, there is a timbered “low house” with three windows on wide side.
It keeps memory of the Great Russian poet Sergey Aleksandrovich Yesenin.
140 years passed since then when in 1871 the grandfather of the poet Nikita Osipovich Yesenin bought the ground here.
Recreated memorial conditions carry us in far 1920th when the poet often came to the native house.
You will see a little kitchen with tableware, a bedroom with the icon in the red corner.

Land I love…

Land I love! Of stacks of sunshine
Locked in cosy pools I dream.
How I'd like to lose my bearings
In your symphonies of green.

Fields are lined with chasuble-clover,
Mignonette and flowers wild,
And tike nuns telling their rosaries
Are the willows meek and mild.

Thick mist from the marsh has risen,
Heaven's yoke of burning smells.
Thoughts I treasure I keep hidden,
In my heart the secret dwells.

Everything I greet and welcome,
Glad my feelings to display.
To this land I've come, intending
Very soon to go away.

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This is the Church where Sergey Yesenin was baptized.
The Church was first mentioned in 1619.
The stone Church was constructed in 1779.
In 1937 local authorities placed a warehouse for grain in the Church.
Since 1972 the building of a temple was transferred to a museum and after restoration it was used as a showroom.
In 1990 under the petition of parishioners the church of Our Lady of Kazan was returned to the Ryazan diocese.

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The history of the school in Konstantinov begins in 1879 when peasants and local landowner S.G.Kuprijanov submit the application on opening school, and the rural society endows for this purpose 60 roubles.
Within summer of 1898 the new school building for 120 pupils was erected.
Sergey Yesenin finished this school in 1909.
This school existed till 1952, and then it was disassembled for economic needs of collective farm. The modern structure was restored in 1994 as a part of a museum complex.

In XIX c there were a classification: village with church and elementary school was called "selo", the village w/o - "derevnya".
So, Konstantinovo is a selo.

In elementary school pupils study just few things - to read, to write and the God's Law. To continue education they should leave parents house at the age of 12 and go to the town. S. Esenin continued his shcool education in the town - Spas-Klepiki (about 100 km from Konstantinovo)

Lidia Kashina is a prototype of the literary hero - Anna Snegina.

Kashin estate has very spectacular position - on the high bank of Oka river, with nice park around.

Typical Russian peasants house of XX c. Looks rather modern from outside. You can find thousands of such houses across the country.

Quite contract to the interior of izba is the interior of the estate. Kashin was not very rich family, just could be called "middle class". But the difference with peasants hut is in hundred times.