The 18th century gave many indulgences to the lays serving the tsar, a decree of 1727 allowed 2/3 of the officers and conscripts to be released to their estates to put the economy in order. Since 1736, the service life of the nobility was limited to 25 years, it was allowed to leave one of the heirs on the estates to conduct business on the estates. In 1740, the nobles were allowed to choose between military and civil service. Layer formation begins local nobility living permanently on their estates.

The Manifesto of February 18, 1762 "On the Liberty of the Nobility" completely freed the nobles from the obligatory military service. The legal registration of this nobility was finally completed by the provincial reform of 1775 and the Charter of the nobility of 1785, which gave the nobility significant personal, property and class privileges. The concept of nobility is defined in it as “a consequence flowing from the quality and virtue of the men who ruled in antiquity, who marked themselves with merits, by which, turning the very service into dignity, they acquired a noble denunciation for their offspring.”

The main part of the nobles owned 20 souls of serfs and less - 59%, the owners of 20-100 souls - 25%, 16% were landlords, in whose households there were 100 souls of serfs.
By the middle of the 19th century (according to the population census of 1858), the well-being of the nobility had increased significantly. The share of nobles of the first group decreased (39%), the number of nobles of the second group (20-100 souls) increased to 34%, as well as those who owned from 101 to 1000 souls (21%). Very wealthy large landowners were only 1.3%. The stateless nobles made up 3.5% of the nobility.

Late XVIII - mid XIX centuries - the time of the transformation of the estate into a special phenomenon of Russian and world culture. Nobles of average income were most interested in culture - literature, theater, painting, history, socio-political theories. The golden age of Russian culture is largely fueled by precisely this layer of the nobility in 18-19 thousand families from whose ranks the talents came out.

Direct communication with the peasants was very important - folk songs, dances, nourished the noble culture, which was reflected in the work of A.S. Pushkin, P.I. Tchaikovsky and many others. It should be noted that the fading of the estate culture was also reflected in the work of painters. The brightest of them was V.E. Borisov-Musatov.

Let's return to the manor and park complexes near Moscow. The nearest of them are now included in the city, the distant pearls of landscape gardening art are strung on river valleys. There are more of them near the capital, the presence of roads and features of the natural landscape also played a role in the arrangement of manor and park complexes. So, in Meshchera near Moscow, they are rare, and the elevated, with diverse landscapes of the territory - the Smolensk-Moscow Upland and the Klin-Dmitrov Ridge - are densely dotted with very picturesque manor and park complexes. A significant number of estates arose south of Moscow on the Moscow-Oksky slope, dissected by numerous rivers.

During the construction of the estate and park complex (as a rule, in river valleys - up to 85% of all estates of the Moscow region were located precisely in them or on their sides), a significant transformation of the landscape and its individual components - vegetation, hydrogeographic network, i.e. rivers, lakes , ponds. The smallest changes were large forms relief, architectural and planning solutions for the construction of estates and their parks adapted to its features, although small and medium-sized landforms could change, build on or be cut off depending on the circumstances.

Manor building in XVIII-XIX centuries was an essential factor in the transformation of nature at the local level. The change in all natural components in the estates followed the path of increasing natural diversity. The results of these changes during the creation and subsequent development of estate and park complexes are noted in the form of two trends in the development of landscapes: an increase in the landscape diversity of the territory and an increase in the fragmentation of natural components with an increase in aesthetic and landscape diversity within the estates. The successive transformations of landscapes, its "inspiring" resources, transformed the natural landscape into a cultural one.

A cultural landscape is a specific territory with certain natural conditions, which has been mastered for a long time by a person who has changed it as a result of his economic social and intellectual and spiritual activities. The space of the cultural landscape is always filled with symbols and meaning. Its surroundings - forests, meadows and fields - were often preserved as a natural setting.
Erected on the borders of several landscapes - valley, glacial, etc. in the most picturesque places of their possessions, the estates pleased the eye not only with original monumental buildings, but also with a skillful combination of natural and man-made.

The master's house, as a rule, was built in the most elevated place, the temple was also located here, a river flowed nearby or there was a system of ponds. The parks were famous for their collections of various tree species. In the estate of Uvarovka-Porechye in the upper reaches of the Moskva River in the park there were several hundred trees and shrubs, often very exotic, such as arborvitae, cypress and others. Some of them carefully wrapped themselves in horns in cold period of the year.

The world of the Russian estate is made up of the ratio of natural, landscape motifs and spatial, artistic, architectural and planning. In cases where the monotony of the natural landscape did not allow the use of structural elements of the relief, artificial reliefs were created - hills, ridges, and the like.

Among the estates near Moscow, and there were more than a thousand of them in the Golden Age of the heyday of the estate culture, at present there are over 700 ruined buildings and parks, from which one alley has been preserved, and even that is not completely, there are over 700. Some of them can be judged from the paintings of artists ( for example, the image of the Grigorovo estate in the painting by A.K. Savrasov).

The estates of the Moscow region carried the features of the city and rural cultures, were a kind of "information centers". The estates that arose near the capital differed greatly from each other in terms of the nature of the building scope, artistic design techniques and their purpose. Many features of the future complex were determined in advance: whether it would be a recreational estate or an estate adapted to more or less permanent housing and housekeeping. In the Moscow region, the pleasure estates of Ostankino, Kuskovo, Kuzminki, Arkhangelskoye crowded closer to the city. On the contrary, the farther from Moscow, the more economic estates appeared, the architecture and parks of which had a relatively simple appearance. It is obvious that there were a majority of such estates.

classic homestead European Russia was formed at the end of the Petrine era, and its specificity was determined in the process of abandoning the form that was cultivated near St. Petersburg. As a rule, the Moscow region freely combined several functions that balanced each other: it was both a pleasure residence and a place of quiet solitude and economic enterprise active owner. Despite all the variety of estates collected in the suburbs, one can easily find their common features. So, the center of the estate was residential buildings: the master's house and outbuildings, for young people, for guests, for the servants serving the master's house. Next to them were outbuildings intended only to serve the household needs of the owner and his family. Nearby was a church, often older than manor buildings.

An old aphorism - the theater begins with a hanger, you can add - the estate begins with a park. On the manor plans, carefully drawn by the obliging architects of that time, a geometric network of orthogonal, intersecting at right angles, diagonal alleys, radiating from the main house in rays, appeared. There were alleys, the intricate curves of which were more reminiscent of wide paths, emphasizing the features of the relief. The alleys led to viewpoints of the landscape. From them, the distances and the expanse of immense spaces, so beloved by the Russian people, were opened. It is impossible not to recall two aphoristic statements by D.S. Likhachev: “Russian man is a landscape man” and “Russian estate is a gate to nature”.

The destruction of estates did not begin in 1917, but much earlier - with the abolition of serfdom in 1861. Gone free work force, impoverished nobility. He was replaced by merchants-entrepreneurs. They bought estates for their needs, tried to manage the economy "with profit." They cut down forests, saved on the maintenance of gardens and parks. The change of masters and its results are beautifully described in classical Russian literature (“ The Cherry Orchard» A.P. Chekhov).

The beginning of the destruction and plunder of the estates took place in the first years of the 20th century. The first Russian revolution set millions of peasants in motion. "In fairness", "equally" to divide and distribute. At the head of the defeat, arson and looting of estates were often wealthy peasants - kulaks, most of all dragging furniture, icons, paintings, and various utensils from the estates. They took it according to the principle - everything in the economy will fit.

The instability of the power of the Provisional Government also dealt a blow to the estates of the Moscow region. At the same time, the manor house of A. Blok in Shakhmatovo was put into fire spray Decrees Soviet power about the preservation of the heritage of the past played a positive role - giving the best estates for rest houses and sanatoriums for the party and economic nomenclature. The attention of the public to the state, preservation and use of values ​​inherited from the accursed "past" was attracted by the Society for the Study of the Russian Estate (ORU), established in 1922, one of the leaders of which was A.N. Greek In 1930 he was arrested and convicted. His remarkable work, dedicated to the estates of the Moscow region - "A wreath of estates" - was published as a separate volume in one of the issues of the anthology "Monuments of the Fatherland".

Save the estates in years civil war, the poverty of a huge part of the country's population, which was seen even in museums of noble estates as "people's bloodsuckers", and not people of culture who collected and preserved many valuables, including icons, paintings, etc., was difficult. There were no funds for the maintenance of museums in the estates, the money was needed for the industrialization of the country. The removal of objects of interest from estates to local centers and Moscow, with the intention of placing them later in museums, did not give much effect, although some art treasures thus was preserved, but a very significant part of them was nevertheless plundered and disappeared. positive example provided by the Dmitrov Museum. The future academician, historian A.K. Tikhomirov and items from the Olgovo estate adorned the museum. He created a series of remarkable works on the historical geography of Muscovy, widely known in Russia and abroad.

The removal of things and archives from the estates forever deprived them of their materialized cultural content, living life generations, the manor culture collapsed. The placement of children's and recreational institutions in the estates, their employment for the needs of peasant farms led to the destruction of architectural, planning and economic features, as well as the interiors of the estates.

Nowadays, the former manor and park complexes - "noble estates" serve the inhabitants of the country as rest houses, sanatoriums, museums, government residences. Some of them were bought by individuals. The transfer of estates to private hands is possible, a perfect example is the Serednikovo estate. Today this estate is leased from a descendant of Lermontov - his namesake - Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov. The authors managed to visit the main house of the estate. Here, in the central hall of the manor house, seminars and classes are held for students of the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute on philosophical and cultural topics.

Estate-museums, for example, Muranovo, are in excellent condition. Even many years of restoration did not ruin this estate. The descendants of the Tyutchev family headed this museum and estate complex. Many estates near Moscow keep the memory of great personalities or significant events in the life of Russian culture.

Today, many people have a question, what will remain in the 21st century from the Russian estate as the greatest phenomenon of the world and national culture. The century that has just passed can be characterized as a time when the role of the estate was waning, first as an active participant in a living culture, and then as a heritage phenomenon. Attempts to somehow involve it in modern socio-cultural processes have not yet brought much success. After the disappearance of the Russian estate as a naturally occurring living institution, which was characterized by such features as the presence of an owner - a landowner interested in the fate of this estate, as a variety of functions that relied on traditions and, at the same time, showed interest in innovation, as an institution , which determined the special attitude of Russian society to nature. Then, already at the end of the 19th-beginning of the 20th century, many began to consider the estate as a source of nostalgic moods. This was the reason for the emergence of estate history literature. Silver Age, and in the post-revolutionary period - to turn many estates into museums. On the other hand, there were people who quickly appreciated the practical value of the estate. These are the functions of the estate that were associated with the organization of the most various areas social life and, above all, relaxation. At the same time, if at the beginning of the 20th century dacha settlements arose on the territory of many estates or they were split into many smaller estates, then in Soviet time rest houses, sanatoriums, art houses and pioneer camps began to be located in old estates.

Museums remained only in a few estates. The rest were handed over to the workers as trade union health resorts. However, most of them remained unclaimed. Naturally, such estates quickly collapsed. What is happening today with Russian estates? Museum-reserves and museum-estates are best kept. At present, there are about 40 estate museums in Russia, and the same number of estates are preserved in the form of reserve museums.

The use of a number of estates in the form of sanatoriums, rest houses, boarding houses, hospitals and children's camps continues. This form of protection of historical monuments has always been not very sparing towards them. The example of the majority of estates near Moscow, where sanatoriums and resorts were located, testifies to this trend. Estates: Mikhailovskoye (Sheremetievs), Glinka (Bryus), Vysokoye (Volkovs). This list is extremely large. However, in the 1990s, when most departments and enterprises went bankrupt or were unable to maintain such institutions, the massive destruction of estates began. Let's name two of the most striking cases. It's high in Smolensk region and Pavlishchev Bor in Kaluga.

Third traditional form the use of old estates is their use for offices of state farms and collective farms, school institutions and clubs. As a rule, these estates are the first candidates for destruction.

And what are the new forms of using estates? Most often only one is named. This is the transfer of estates to private or corporate ownership. The tagoka is often referred to as a public-private partnership. At the same time, either a long-term lease or the introduction of a trust form of management similar to a national trust is meant. All this is supposed to be done in the absence of regulations.
And now I would like to return to the Russian estate as a remarkable phenomenon of world and Russian culture. To begin with, it is necessary to determine the scale of the phenomenon, so some statistics.

A brief table on the change in the number of landlord estates (in thousands), obtained by scientists of the Institute Russian history RAS testifies to the following quantitative indicators: 1550 - 16; 1600 - 17; 1650 - 21; 1700 - 23; 1737 -32; 1800 - 35; 1858 - 50; 1877 - 59; 1895 - 61; 1905 - 55; 1917 - 39(40). Of course, if we take into account all the estates, and not just noble ones, then the number of estates by 1917 remained close to their number at the end of the 19th century. The clear leaders in the number of estates were: Smolensk, Ryazan, Tula, Tver, Moscow, Yaroslavl, Kursk, Kaluga, Kostroma, Pskov and Novgorod regions. The number of estates located there varied from 3 to 1300.

After 1917, the number of estates was constantly decreasing. These are mass arsons and their devastation in 1918. Let's at least remember sad fate all the estates associated with the name of Pushkin and his friends in the Pskov region: Mikhailovskoye, Petrovsky, Trigorskoye, Voskresenskoye, Deriglazovo. Then - collectivization, wars, the absence of real owners, most often, oblivion and uselessness. Now we can hardly name several hundred, or even dozens of estates, where not individual estate buildings or the remains of a park have been preserved, but integral ensembles.

For most of the public former estates appear as littered areas. Places where wonderful palaces once stood, surrounded by gardens and parks, are perceived today as "badland", as objects that not only do not represent any interest for tourists, but also cause irritation with their desolation and the resulting feeling of hopelessness.

Fortunately, in recent years, interest in the estates has revived again. In 1992, the Society for the Study of the Russian Estate was recreated. The estate has become an object of study not only for art critics and architects. great attention began to be given to the history of the formation and development of estates, manor landscapes, the economy of the estate, libraries and art collections, the relationship of the owners of the estate with the church, with neighbors and peasants.

It should also be noted that quite a few first-class manor ensembles are still preserved. Many of them have become museums. In Moscow, these are Kuskovo and Ostankino (Sheremetevs), Lyublino (Durasovs), Kuzminki (Golitsyns).

Many rich, perhaps even luxurious estates created by large landowners, representatives of the most noble Russian families, have been preserved in the Moscow region. Among them: Arkhangelsk (Yusupov), Sukhanovo Volkonsky, Valuevo (Musin-Pushkin). All these estates are by no means less significant than Kuskovo, Ostankino, Kuzminki, Cheryomushki, which entered the boundaries of Moscow. There are many wonderful manor complexes in provincial Russia. These are Znamenskoye-Raek in the Tver region, Aleksino in Smolensk, Maryino in the Kursk regions, etc.

But Russia was famous not only for large and significant estates. Small estates located there gave a special charm and charm to the Russian national landscape. Unfortunately, only a few of them have survived to this day. The most fortunate were those estates owned by prominent representatives of Russian culture, which made it possible to organize museums in them. An example of such an estate is Muranovo, the estate of E.A. Baratynsky and F.I. Tyutchev. It was here that one of the first literary estate museums was created. Not far from Muranovo is located Abramtsevo, the estate of Aksakov and Savva Mamontov, a place associated with the names of remarkable Russian writers, artists, composers. No less famous is Melikhovo, the estate where A.P. lived for several years. Chekhov.

In the developed research institute of cultural and natural heritage named after D.S. Likhachev's strategy for the development of the museum-reserve system is supposed to significantly expand the network of estate museums associated with the life of remarkable Russian artists, writers, poets, and statesmen. It has already been said that memorial houses-museums and estates are traditional objects on the basis of which museum-reserves are created. And this is very important, because within the framework of the museum-reserve (museum-estate) not only memorial house or the estate itself with its buildings, but also the manor park, the surrounding landscape with forest areas and agricultural land located in it. This allows you to save the entire memorial historical landscape, which absorbed the memory of the life and work of people who had a fundamental influence on the development of the Russian state, Russian culture and science. This trend is clearly seen in the processes of transformation of well-known estate museums into large museum reserves, which currently include not only the memorial estate itself, but also a significant surrounding area, neighboring historical rural settlements.

In accordance with this strategy, the development of the State Memorial Historical, Literary and Natural Landscape Museum-Reserve of A.S. Pushkin "Mikhailovskoye", State Memorial and nature reserve Museum-estate L.N. Tolstoy " Yasnaya Polyana”, State Memorial and Natural Museum-Reserve I.S. Turgenev "Spasskoe-Lutovinovo", State Museum-Reserve M.A. Sholokhov and others.

At the same time, despite the creation of a number of museum-reserves of this type, their number is still not enough. Many prominent politicians, cultural figures, scientists of Russia, who are the pride of the country, do not yet have their own museums (although there are sufficient prerequisites for this - memorial houses, remains of estates, park ensembles and other historical objects have been preserved). It is also very important to preserve the surviving amazing layer national heritage associated with estate culture. The creation of museums and museum-reserves in them is, perhaps, the only way to save and socio-economic use of these heritage sites.

The manor-park cultural landscape should be separated from the modern surrounding landscape by a buffer zone. The cultural landscape pleases the eye, it does not tire with monotony and monotony. This is the very video ecology that designers and architects are striving for. Undoubtedly, it is necessary to preserve not only the estate itself, but also its natural surroundings. This requires a zone of transition from the manor-park cultural landscape to the surrounding spaces. To study and preserve the heritage of the country estate culture is our patriotic duty and one of the parts of the national idea, over the formulation of which politicians rack their brains. As noted above, landscape gardening landscapes can today be used not only as museums, but also as museum and protected areas, as well as tourist and recreational areas. Belonging to various municipalities, they should serve as resting places for residents of settlements, as well as places where unobtrusively, on stands and shop windows, the way of folding manor and park complexes is shown.

Based on the proposals of the regions, the recommendations of scientists and specialists involved in designing in the field of culture, a list of promising territories for education was proposed memorial estate museums and museum reserves. Among them, it is worth highlighting the places associated with the life of the composer A.P. Borodin and the founder of Russian aviation N.E. Zhukovsky in the Vladimir region, the Lotarev estate "Vladimirovka", where Igor Severyanin often visited and worked (Vologda region).

IN Kaluga region special attention worthy of the Gorodnya estate, associated with the life of the Golitsyns and the work of the architect Voronikhin, as well as Troitskoye, the owner of which was the first President Russian Academy Sciences E.R. Dashkov.

The Kursk region keeps the memory of the remarkable Russian poet A.A. Fete (the valley of the Tuskar River and the environs of the village of Vorobyovka) and about the estate of E.E. Lansere, an interesting artist and a representative of a wonderful family that gave Russian culture excellent painters and graphic artists.

Of particular note are the places where once there were estates of such remarkable figures of Russian culture as G.R. Derzhavin (Zvanka estate in the Novgorod region), E.A. Boratynsky (the estate of Mara in the Tambov region), N.A. Lvov (the estate of Nikolskoye-Cherenchitsy in the Tver region), N. Gumilyov and A. Akhmatova (the estate of Slepnevo in the Tver region) and many other remarkable figures of Russian art. Special interest represent territories covering large areas and associated with the life of many cultural figures. Among them, one should mention the Udomelsky district of the Tver region, where many remarkable Russian artists worked: A.G. Venetsianov, I.I. Levitan, S.Yu. Zhukovsky, A.V. Moravov, A.S. Stepanov, N.P. Bogdanov-Velsky, V.K. Byalynitsky-Birulya. Of particular interest is also the Staritsky district of the Tver region, where there is a whole network of estates and villages associated with the name of Pushkin (Bernovo, Pavlovskoye, Malinniki, Glinkino, Kurovo-Pokrovskoye, Krasnoye, Bratkovo, etc.).

Of course, this list is far from complete. It only testifies to the fact that there are the most serious reasons not only for preserving the existing estates, but also for recreating the lost ones, associated with names glorious for Russian culture and history.