Welcome to The L. Kassil Museum! The virtual excursion is prepared by the team “Starkids”, Rovnoe secondary school Saratov region

The city of Engels (former Pokrovskaya Sloboda)  - is a hometown of the children writer Leo Abramovich Kassil. He wrote about it: “In Russia we lived in Pokrovskaya Sloboda, on the Volga, opposite Saratov at the Market Place on the ground floor".

Leo Kassil had a deep affection for the hometown beginning with his romantic childhood. The writer dedicated the story “The Black Book and Schwambrania“ to the city of his childhood and his parents. The book brought him the international fame and worldwide recognition.

The museum exposition is located in an old house on 42 Kassil Street (former Atkarskaya Street).The Kassils lived there from 1918 to mid-50s. Leo Kassil himself lived in this house from 1918 to 1923 before his leaving for Moscow.

The museum is primarily made for children The museum is primarily made for children. Its exhibition aims to help visitors to see a special, noble world, created in L.A. Kassil’s works, to witness lots of his discoveries.

Here is the first room that greets us Here is the first room that greets us. It’s a restored part of a gymnasium classroom, where Leo Kassil studied. Old textbooks and teaching aids, stationery supplies and other things bring us back to the days of pre-revolutionary Russia.

In one of the rooms there is a scenery ship on which Leo with his brother dreamt and traveled to Schwambrania. Schwambrania is a fictional country opened by the two boys, Lyolya and Osya Kassils to hide in its comforting expanses from many troubles caused by the old world of adults.

The whole room is a fantastic world of childhood, that emerged in two boys imagination, opposed to the boring life in the provincial town.

The writer's father Abram G. Kassil worked as a doctor The writer's father Abram G. Kassil worked as a doctor. The hall shows typical living conditions of a provincial doctor’s house, which was also used as an office. Anna Josephovna, Leo Kassil’s mother, graduated from the Conservatory. She taught music lessons and spoke French fluently.

The living room is the largest room in the house where relatives and guests used to get together. Here they listened to classical music and poetry, respected their servants and did not destroy the children’s illusions. Great inventors and visionaries, the two brothers Lyolya and Oska used to call the house “our big steamer which is anchored in a quiet harbor of Pokrovskaya Sloboda."

Their father’s study they called "captain's bridge" (they were not allowed to go there).

The Kassils were a friendly family; love, respect and understanding always ruled there. Later in the story "The Black Book and Schwambrania" L. Kassil wrote: "We have been equipped with the classic golden childhood "- with the ideals taken from the books of " Golden Library ".

The atmosphere that prevailed in the doctor’s house, influenced the formation of Kassil’s character and the boy’s hobbies. It was here, where his child’s imagination, later embodied into his works, was formed.

The walls of the museum are filled with photos of the writer’s childhood and youth. Leo Kassil was a good student in the gymnasium, respected for it by his classmates. After 1917 the male and female schools had been combined and renamed into United Labor School, which Leo Kassil finished successfully.

The writer’s memorabilia (his desk and his chair from the office in Peredelkino), a wardrobe box, recreated by the analogy with the existing in the country, friends’ souvenirs and gifts, cartoons and congratulations introduce us to the world of Leo Kassil.

Leo Kassil was always notable for his generous sociability, sparkling humor, constant cheerfulness, deep intelligence. The exposition hall shows the extremely diverse world of the writer’s interests and his friendship. Among his close friends were writers and actors, artists and musicians, athletes and astronauts.

Not far from the house there is a monument to the writer, who was a visionary and dreamer in his childhood.

Sources http://sergio-tyurin.livejournal.com/110340.html http://museumkassil.sgu.ru/museum/history http://www.myshared.ru/slide/805438/