About the region of Tula

Welcome to our homeland of Tula! You won’t find any statistics or dull numbers here – it is job for other open sources. Instead, we would like to tell you about our love to our home and, perhaps, to try and enamor you with it.

Tula is not only samovars, pryaniki, weaponry, accordions and Leo Tolstoy. We take our pride in them, sure, but let’s take a closer look on the culture of our region.

Modern Tula is diverse. Everyone can find an entertainment to his own taste. Be it local cuisine, flourishing by guidance of famous chefs, industrial and cultural clusters for both adults and teens, music and sports festivals, museum quarter, full of interesting exhibitions, beautiful and contemporary embankment, or the ancient walls of Tula Kremlin, renowned State Museum of Weapons, endearing Exotarium, hotels, maintained to the highest standard, trams, wheeling down the streets, and buildings of pre-revolutionary age, perfectly weaved with the modern houses – all of it is the part of the city.

But speaking of Tula region, we cannot talk only about Tula. Let’s explore its surroundings!

As soon as you leave the capital and find yourself, for example, in Mokhovye village, you can visit Kulikovo field – well-known from the history studies in school. Museum complex of the federal museum-reserve «Kulikovo field» not only presents the great war achievements of our country, but also feasts the eyes of its visitors with extraordinary architecture, made to look like a giant hill, covered in feather grass (2 acres of feather grass was planted specifically for this purpose).

The architect Sergei Gnedovsky was able to create a masterpiece of tragedy, revealing the old story of fierce battle and mending the walls of the museum into the landscape. Every step through thoroughly engineered halls leaves a lasting deep impression on every visitor.

Or we can go to Polenovo estate near the river of Oka – once a house of well-known artist Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov, created by his own design.

Polenovo is the estate of many contrasts. One way you will find untypical for Russian manors “Scandinavian” architecture, other – much more familiar century old pine trees, meadows, covered in lush grass, and breathtaking scenery.

Not far from the estate one can find the most beautiful village out there – Bekhovo village. Its main landmark – the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity – combines northern wooden architecture, ancient Russian architecture, references to the Jerusalem cathedrals and Novgorod motifs. Many famous artists, being friends of Vasily Polenov, engaged in creating unique murals and furniture for the church. One of them was Ilya Repin.

Speaking about estates, we cannot ignore Yasnaya Polyana – in which, speaking bookish language, “the great writer Leo Toltoy spent most of his life and wrote his most famous novels”. 300 000 people visit the Yasnaya Polyana estate annually.

This place is situated not far from Tula, in Shchekinsky district. Yasnaya polyana is not only the Tolstoy’s manor, which everyone wants to get into (even though it is a must). It also consists of fields, apothecary garden, forests, meadows and grasslands – these parts play the biggest role in impressing the visitors of the estate.

You also cannot forget about the estate of the Turgenev family, now being the museum complex “Bezhin Meadow”.

Bezhin meadow, located not too far away from the manor, was one of the places, in which Ivan Turgenev wrote his famous collection of short stories called “A Sportsman’s Sketches”. Through all these years it has barely changed; eyes of the guests will find the same hills, broad river, silver dew covering tall grass, as it was years before, and sometimes in the distance you can almost see a mirage of peasant children, watching over the herds.

The smallest town in country named Chekalin is also a part of our lovely region.

This city is nurturing its honorable roots of the province with satiated cats, drying laundry, weaving in the wind of the common yards, welcoming and friendly locals with almost fairytale-like babushkas, ready to feed you with the most heartwarming feast you’ve ever taste. Perhaps, it’s the best suited place on planet Earth, to understand the meaning and depth of the song “Городок” (Gorodok) by Anzhelika Varum.

The most important, essential part of the travel through Tula region – is its people.

Speak with locals, ask them things, you want to know more about – don’t worry, you will get your answers. In Belev you will hear sayings about their legendary pastille and, if you are lucky enough, you could even try their fragrant tea, straight from the samovar. In Odoev they will teach you how to paint their famous Filimonovo toys. In Bogoroditsk – tales of count Bobrinsky and Bolotov, whose scientific merits for Russia are comparable to those of Lomonosov, will guide you through your journey.

But let’s get back to Tula. In the city the most iconic places of visit would be Belousov’s park, gastronomical cluster “Iskra” (Spark) and Machine Tool museum in “Oktava”. On every corner of the capital of the region you can hear stories about well-renowned factories, which raised numerous generations of geniuses, masters, engineers and tough workers, who shaped worldview, culture and inner world of tulyaks.

Once there would be a non-fiction story, based on the magic of the industrial world of Tula, but for now all that is left – is to try and explore this millennial history of steam, fire and machinery by ourselves.

We don’t know, if we were able to make you fall in love with Tula, but we surely hope that at least now you are extremely interested. In the end, we would like to introduce to you some of the local expressions, used specifically by residents of our homeland. They will help you to understand the life of our city on the deepest level.

Autoline or just simply Line (in other parts of Central Federal District – minibus or marshrutka) is one of methods of travelling through Tula, regional cities and villages. Historically speaking, this name came from the eponymous transport company, that was founded in Tula in 1997. People say, there’s also term “laika”, but it’s either obsolete or never existed in the first place. If you hear this word from anyone, be sure, that they come from Tula.

Без ДвАдцати – is pronounced like “Bez DvAdtsati” and is equivalent of time expression “it’s twenty to (any hour)”. Even though in correct version the stress falls on the last syllable, Oldtimers of our region, to the pure horror of scholars of V.V. Vinogradov Institute of the Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciencies, put the stress on the first syllable. The most common pattern of the language of tulyaks.

Zhamki – is the type of small pryanik, made from remains of the big ones and lacking any filling. For many people living in Tula zhamki is a nostalgic remembrance of careless childhood. And even though use of this word was found also in Ryazan, Astrakhan and their surroundings, most common it became in Tula.

Monument of Mother-in-Law is the sculpture of a dinosaur near the old building of Exotarium. On paper it’s called “Monument of the Horse”, and it is unknown, who was the creator of a sarcastic name, that the statue wears now. On holidays “Mother-in-Law” gets special treatment – people dress the statue in dresses, give her flowers and pretty hats. It’s one of the most lovable monuments for local people.