The K. Tsiolkovsky Memorial House Museum
Details
Kaluga Oblast
79, Tsiolkovsky Str., Kaluga
Phones: +7 4842 746180
Web site: www.gmik.ru/otdely/dom-muzey-k-e-tsiolkovskogo
Once in the museum, you can visit the origins of the "cradle of cosmonautics", see and feel how K. E. Tsiolkovsky, the founder of cosmonautics, lived and worked. In the museum, most of the items belonged to the outstanding scientist and his family, including models of the airship shell, tools, household items created by the hands of Tsiolkovsky.
Expositions
The exposition of the Memorial House-Museum of K. E. Tsiolkovsky tells about the life of the Tsiolkovsky family, about the work and experiments of the scientist. The interiors, courtyard and garden are recreated as they were during the life of the Tsiolkovsky family in this house.
First, the visitor enters a small oblong room that served as a reception and dining room, where the family gathered at the dining table.
From the entrance hall, a door on the left leads to the living room. The room has a beautiful stove-bed, decorated with old Kaluga tiles. In winter, she saved the whole family from the cold.
The door to the right from the hallway leads to the room of the eldest daughter of Tsiolkovsky Lyubov Konstantinovna. Since 1923, she became her father's personal secretary, conducted correspondence, made translations, selected and took notes on the materials necessary for her father.
In the small kitchen, a homemade lantern made by Konstantin Eduardovich hangs on the stove, and on the shelves are kitchen utensils used by the hostess of the house, the wife of the scientist Varvara Yevgrafovna.
On the second floor there is a study of Konstantin Eduardovich. The things located in the room were repeatedly touched by the hands of the great scientist. He made many of the tools himself.
The spacious and bright veranda served as Tsiolkovsky's workshop. Here you can see a workbench, a lathe, shelves with tools and books, a machine for corrugating metal, models of airships, homemade pumps.
History
In the house where the outstanding scientist and founder of theoretical cosmonautics Konstantin Tsiolkovsky lived for almost 30 years, the first exhibition opened a year after his death - on September 19, 1936. It was of a scientific and memorial nature. The scientist's relatives handed over his personal belongings, manuscripts, books, letters of Tsiolkovsky, and pieces of furniture. In addition, the visitors got acquainted with the scientific and technical ideas of Tsiolkovsky, with the achievements in the field of aeronautics, aviation and rocket technology.
In the autumn of 1941, when the city was occupied by the Nazi invaders, German soldiers settled in the house-museum. Despite the fact that some of the most valuable exhibits were saved, many memorial items, books, and photographs were destroyed. Immediately after the liberation of Kaluga, repair and restoration work began in the museum. On March 8, 1942, the museum received its first visitors-soldiers of the Red Army
After restoration and repair work in 1968, the house-museum was opened with a new exhibition as a biographical and memorial museum.
Interesting Facts
All the rooms of the House-Museum of K. E. Tsiolkovsky have been restored in their former form. Most of the memorial exhibits are authentic, belonging to Tsiolkovsky himself or members of his family.
After the flight of Yuri Gagarin, cosmonauts had a good tradition, supported by S. P. Korolev, to visit the House-Museum of K. E. Tsiolkovsky to pay tribute to the great Russian scientist who opened the way to the stars.
On the second floor of the house, you can climb the stairs, which cosmonauts compare to a space ladder, and there you will find yourself next to the "door to outer space" - as the scientist's family called the door leading from the veranda-workshop to the roof, on which Tsiolkovsky conducted astronomical observations and experiments.