55°39′28″N37°21′08″E / 55.65778°N 37.35222°E /55.65778; 37.35222
Peredelkino (Russian:Переде́лкино,IPA:[pʲɪrʲɪˈdʲelkʲɪnə]) is adacha complex situated just to the southwest ofMoscow,Russia.
The settlement originated as the estate of Peredeltsy, owned by the Leontievs (maternal relatives ofPeter the Great), then by PrincesDolgorukov and by theSamarins. After a railway passed through the village in the 19th century, it was renamed Peredelkino.
In 1934,Maxim Gorky suggested handing over the area to theUnion of Soviet Writers. Within several years, about fifty wooden cottages designed byGerman architectErnst May were constructed in Peredelkino by writers. The curator of the project was Soviet politicianAleksandr Shcherbakov.[1]
Among the first residents of the colony were poetBoris Pasternak, writersKorney Chukovsky,Isaac Babel,Alexander Serafimovich,Leonid Leonov,Ilya Ehrenburg,Boris Pilnyak,Vsevolod Ivanov,Lev Kassil,Konstantin Fedin,Ilya Ilf,Yevgeny Petrov, Soviet politicianLev Kamenev.[1]
On May 15, 1939, duringStalin'sGreat Purge, author and playwrightIsaac Babel was arrested at his dacha in Peredelkino.[2] Babel was taken by automobile to theLubyanka Prison, tortured, and eventually shot by theNKVD.
After World War II, twenty more writer's cottages were built. Among the new residents wereVeniamin Kaverin,Nikolay Zabolotsky (was not an owner but rented a cottage),Valentin Kataev,Alexander Fadeyev,Konstantin Simonov. Later more writers and poets moved to the village includingYevgeny Yevtushenko,Andrei Voznesensky,Bulat Okudzhava,Bella Akhmadulina and many others.[1] In 1965-1975 Soviet dissident writerAleksandr Solzhenitsyn often lived in Chukovsky's cottage.[3]
In 1952 due to the 75-year birthday ofPatriarch Alexy I of Moscow the residence ofMoscow Patriarchs was opened in Peredelkino. In 1995-2000 the residence was significantly extended.[4]
In 1988 the village received the official status of Historical-Cultural Reserve. The same year the Museums of Korney Chukovsky and of Boris Pasternak were opened in the correspondent cottages. In 1997 another Museum was opened in Bulat Okudzhava's cottage.[5]
Peredelkino is presumably one of the sources for the name of a factious writer's colony Perelygino fromMikhail Bulgakov's novelThe Master and Margarita. In the earlier drafts of the novel the name was Perevrakion - the village of liars. Perelygino has a similar meaning but it is slightly masked.[6] Note that Bulgakov places his Perelygino on theKlyazma,Bolshevo, which is where another writers' colony was. Thus, Bolshevo can be another source of Bulgakov's inspiration[7]
Portions of the 1990 filmThe Russia House were filmed in Peredelkino, including at Pasternak's house and his grave.[8]