Memorable Dates of Russia: Exhibition project “Mikhail Prishvin: The Main Book”, marking the 150th anniversary of the writer, opens in Moscow

From February 2, 2023, the Dal State Museum of the History of Russian Literature (Moscow) presents a large-scale exhibition about the life and work of the Russian writer and thinker M. M. Prishvin (1873–1954), timed to coincide with his 150th anniversary. The exposition opens in the Lyuboshchinsky – Vernadsky House.

Mikhail Prishvin was widely known in Soviet times as the author of works about nature, hunting stories. To his contemporaries, he left prose published during his lifetime, and to his descendants – extensive Diaries that he kept for half a century: from 1905 until his death. The confessional diary narration contains key events of several epochs of Russian history: from World War I and the revolution to the death of Stalin. The first volume of the Diaries was published in 1991, and the last one, eighteenth, was released more than a quarter of a century later, in 2017. During these years, a rethinking of the role of Prishvin in the history of Russian and world culture began, and the first translations of the Diaries into foreign languages were printed. The unprecedented (over 14 thousand pages) volume, and most importantly the content of the Diaries revealed the true scale of the talent of the Russian writer, publicist, and philosopher.

Besides writing, photography was an integral part of the Prishvin method of exploring nature and surrounding life. Since 1925, photography has constantly accompanied his artistic work. Over three decades, Prishvin took thousands of pictures. The writer was engaged in photography, as well as a diary, until the last days of his life.

The anniversary exhibition presents the result of a long-term study of the phenomenon of Mikhail Prishvin in its various facets. The title of the exhibition The Main Book contains several semantic levels: these are the Diaries, which the writer himself considered his main creation, and the book of nature, which he tirelessly studied, and his own life built by him.

The first section of the exhibition is dedicated to the biography of the writer against the background of the historical upheavals of Russia in the late 19th – first half of the 20th century. The second section explores the artistic world of Prishvin. The exhibition provides a unique opportunity to see Prishvin’s authentic diaries and personal belongings: a desk, a typewriter, a camera, hunting accessories, optical instruments for observing nature, etc. The exhibition also showcases books from Prishvin’s library and an extensive collection of photographs.

The exhibits are complemented by audio and video installations, art objects. One of them is the “electronic grove”: the bark of the trees is formed by the writer’s texts, and through the “eyes” of the trunks one can see Prishvin’s macro photographs of nature. A separate space is devoted to interactive zones: in the children’s room, young visitors will learn about the works of Prishvin in a playful way, and in the book room guests will be able to re-read the works of the hero of the exhibition.

The exposition is based on the materials from the collections of the Dal State Museum of the History of Russian Literature featuring exhibits from the collections of the Turgenev Oryol United State Literary Museum, the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, as well as from private collections.