Society and Culture: Pushkin Museum-Reserve launched an interactive exhibition marking the 190th anniversary of Pushkin's The Tale of Tsar Saltan

The Pushkin Museum-Reserve (Pskov Region) launched the interactive exhibition "There, we saw this wondrous scene...", devoted to the 190th anniversary of the creation of The Tale of Tsar Saltan by Alexander Pushkin.

2021 marks the 190th anniversary of the first completed Pushkin’s fairy tale – The Tale of Tsar Saltan, His Son the Renowned and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovich, and the Beautiful Princess-Swan.

For the first time, The Tale of Tsar Saltan was issued in 1832, in the collection Poems by A. Pushkin, but it had no separate edition during the poet's life. It is known that Emperor Nicholas I had the opportunity to read it before publication.

The exhibition marks the 190th anniversary of The Tale of Tsar Saltan. It consistently reveals various sections of the interactive exposition and makes it possible not only to remember or get the first knowledge of Alexander Pushkin's story but also to feel like a hero of a fairy tale. It provides the pictures of the maiden's room and tells about the everyday life of its owner, portrays an "unknown animal", helps Prince Guidon save Princess-Swan and defeat the kite. It also allows testing your knowledge by solving riddles, creating new illustrations for Pushkin's tale using a digital pen and much more.

 Illustrations of the late XIX - early XXI centuries made at the Kucherenko workshop, paintings by K. M. Stetsenko, A. R. Saifulina, N. A. Ramazanov, M. N. Orlova-Mochalova, and household items from the collections of the Pushkin Museum-Reserve recreate the world of Pushkin's fairy tale. The exhibition also includes various editions of the book, silhouettes of heroes and theatre costumes.

The rare book collection of the Pushkin Museum-Reserve provided valuable publications, including the 4th volume of Alexander Pushkin's works with The Tale of Tsar Saltan, published in Saint-Petersburg in 1838. It is the earliest Pushkin's edition in the museum.

The Tale of Tsar Saltan has always been the subject for study and inspiration of artists, actors, composers. It is the source for N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov's opera, which premiered in 1900, the ballet La Princesse Cygne (The Princess-Swan) with the music of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera (Opera de Paris, 1928), feature films and cartoons. Once again, it proves that the love for this Pushkin's work is enormous.