I can bet there isn't a single foreigner in Russia who is not at least the tiniest bit curious about Vladimir Lenin, the famous - or infamous - socialist ideologist responsible for the Bolshevik Revolution. Many towns and numerous streets in Moscow and the regions used to carry his name, but not many had a direct historical link to him. One exception is an old Russian estate, Gorky, which was later renamed Gorky Leninskiye because Lenin turned the estate into his countryside residence from 1918 to 1924.

Located 30 km south of Moscow, it is one of the most significant historical memorials in Moscow Oblast, and continues to draw thousands of locals and visitors.
When planning your trip, make sure you have a large group of friends willing to come along: The trip will take most of the day, and most likely you will end up walking quite a bit. Located on the breathtaking banks of the Pakhra River among 200-year-old pines, the place calls out for long strolls. The narrow paved roads that wind around the park and into the woods have become a favorite of local cyclists.

As you enter the territory of the Gorky Leninskiye Estate-Museum, you will see a modern-looking white-marble building with tall columns. This is the Lenin Museum, built in the late 1980s. In addition to the exhibits that focus on Lenin's life, the museum displays items from the estate's pre-Lenin era. Various thematic exhibitions are organized from time to time. Inside the museum, a cozy cafe offers simple snacks for the starved visitor.
It's a shame to spend a gorgeous summer afternoon indoors, so check out the wide meadow that leads away from the museum toward the estate's groves.

A long birch alley - appropriately named the Lenin Alley - was one of his favorite spots for afternoon walks. As you pass through an old grove of lime trees, you will notice an old building atop a hill, a small lake down below and a tiny strip of the Pakhra River.
The scenery is so beautiful it is no wonder people started settling here hundreds of years ago. Archeologists have discovered more than 40 artifacts, which they say belong to the ancient Russian tribe of Vyatichy that lived in the area. In the 16th century, an Italian who was close to the tsar acquired the land.

Most of the buildings you see here now date back to the late 18th century and have undergone a number of reconstructions. They acquired their modern appearance when they belonged to their last owner - Zinaida Morozova-Reinbot. She bought the estate in 1909 and invited a famous architect, Fyodor Shekhtel, to fix it up. Shekhtel decorated the main building with a Corinthian portico and set up a large winter garden. The facades were renovated in the then-fashionable neoclassical style. In 1905, after the death of her husband, famous Russian industrialist and arts patron Savva Morozov, Morozova-Reinbot spent a sizable chunk of her million-ruble fortune on the estate. Her second husband, Moscow Mayor Alexander Reinbot, had nothing against his wife's choices.
Thanks to Morozova-Reinbot's refined taste, the estate's visitors can enjoy some extremely beautiful artworks by Russian and European painters and sculptors.

In July 1918, the Gorky Estate was made into a sanatorium for the Moscow Communist Party Committee. Lenin first visited the place in September 1918, and he liked it so much he asked to be sent here for a post-op treatment. Together with his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, he settled in a northern outbuilding originally built for guests of the estate. "Who is that singing?" Lenin once asked as he heard a female voice singing opera selections in the park. This turned out to be none other than Morozova-Reinbot, who had continued to live in the estate even though it no longer belonged to her.
Lenin allocated her a good four-room apartment in Moscow, but after Lenin's death she had to move to the Ilyinskoye village near Gorky Leninskiye.

Theater director Konstantin Stanislavsky arranged for her to receive a pension from the Soviet government. Morozova-Reinbot lived a long life and died in 1947. Her grandson, famous Soviet journalist Savva Morozov, dedicated many warm pages to her in his book, "My Grandfather Died Young." It was no coincidence that Gorky was chosen as the Soviet leader's residence. The estate had a telephone connection, an electrical power supply, a water-heating system and a large library. On Lenin's orders, part of his personal library was brought to Gorky. It comprised 3,000 books in Russian, English and German and included such Russian classics as Pushkin, Gogol and Saltykov-Shchedrin and Lenin's favorite foreign writers, Shakespeare, Goethe, Heine and Jack London.

Krupskaya read London's famous short story "Lust for Life" to Lenin here on the night he died. Lenin lived in Gorky for two years until his death in January 1924. His Communist comrades and the locals carried the coffin with his body four kilometers to the nearest railway station. The Mourning Alley at Gorky commemorates this moment. If not for Lenin, the estate would not have kept its original appearance, exactly the way it was under the previous owners. The museum is open daily, except Tuesday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.