Yelets is a city in the Russian Federation, the district center of the Lipetsk region, located along the banks of the Sosna River (the right tributary of the Don), 78 km west of Lipetsk. The population is 118.9 thousand people (2001). For the first time Yelets is mentioned in the chronicle under 1146 as a fortified point for protection from the Polovtsy at the border of the Ryazan principality. The name of the city comes from the Russian dialect word "elets" - "oak or spruce line, thicket, grove".
In 1483 Yelets withdrew to the Moscow state. Since 1591, it has been a guard post on the southeastern borders of the Russian state. The status of the city of Yelets received in 1778. In the second half of the 19th - early 20th century, Yelets was almost not inferior to the Eagle, was a major center of trade in bread and fabrics. The city was famous for the production of leather, tobacco products, the manufacture of Yelets lace. Yeletska lace was distinguished by a soft contrast of small vegetable and geometric pattern and a thin openwork background. Since 1960, lace is produced at the Yelets combine of art crafts, transformed in 1974 into the association "Yelets lace". Yelets is one of the few cities of the Lipetsk region included in the list of cities of the Russian Federation with valuable historical and architectural monuments. Among the most important monuments of Yelets architecture are the Ascension Cathedral of the 19th century, residential buildings and city estates of the 18th - first half of the 19th century, the building of a tobacco factory (19th century).
The Elets Museum of Local Lore is one of the best museums of the Lipetsk region. It was founded in September 1918 by Yelets natives - writer M. M. Prishvin and teacher A. N. Safonova. The exposition of the museum gives an idea of the geological history and minerals of the Yelets region, the flora and fauna, acquaints visitors with the events that took place on the territory of the Yelets land from ancient times to modern times. Widely presented information about the life and work of Yelets natives: Marco Vovchok, D. I. Pisareva, N. A. Semashko, M. M. Prishvin. The art department of the local history museum is interesting with the paintings of Western European and Russian masters of the 18th and 19th centuries, including I. K. Aivazovsky, P. A. Fedotov, V. D. Polenov, V. V. Vereshchagin. The Literary and Memorial Museum of I. A. Bunin, whose childhood and youth were associated with the Yelets Land, is located in a typical city house of the late 19th century. The value in the exposition of the museum is represented by the reconstruction of the Bunin family estate in the village of Ozerki, original manuscripts, personal belongings of the writer. In Yelets there is a house-museum of the composer T. N. Khrennikov (a native of Yelets).
