Tolstoy's Yasnaya Polyana, Samovar Capital of Russia, the 1514 Kremlin & the Arms Factory of Peter the Great
📍 Tula, Russia📅 3-day itinerary
The city that gave Russia its samovars (the copper hot-water urn manufactured in Tula since 1778 — so synonymous with the city that "taking a samovar to Tula" means carrying coals to Newcastle), its pryanik gingerbread (the printed spiced dough made from secret recipes since the 17th century) and the weapons of the Russian military (Peter the Great's 1712 arms factory that produced the Mosin-Nagant, the PPSh-41 and the AK-47's ammunition) — and 12 km south, Yasnaya Polyana, where Tolstoy wrote War and Peace at a small desk by the window and is buried under an unmarked earth mound in the birch forest exactly as he requested.
The 1514 Red-Brick Kremlin Built by the Same Italian Architects Who Built Moscow's Kremlin — Then the Only Samovar Museum in the World (300 Samovars from 1778 to the Soviet Era) — Then the Arms Museum Where the Factory Workers Manufactured PPSh-41 Submachine Guns During the 45-Day Wehrmacht Siege of 1941
The Desk at Yasnaya Polyana Where Tolstoy Wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina — the 22,000-Volume Library — the Boots He Cobbled Himself as a Physical Labour Discipline — and the Unmarked Earth Mound in the Birch Forest Where He Is Buried at the Spot Where, as a Child, He Buried the "Green Stick" That He Believed Contained the Secret to Universal Human Happiness
The Battle of Kulikovo (1380) Where Dmitry Donskoy's First Victory Over the Golden Horde Began the End of 240 Years of Mongol Domination Over Russia — Fought on the Plain Between the Don and Nepryadva Rivers 140km South of Tula