House-Museum of I.V. Babushkin

2015 will celebrate its 45th anniversary. Initially, it was a branch of the Totem Museum – the Ivan Vasilyevich Babushkin Memorial Museum. It was in this house that Vanya Babushkin lived with his uncle Ivan Platonovich Sysoev for three years, from 1880 to 1883.

In the first period of the museum’s work, two upper halls were involved: in one of them there was an exhibition dedicated to the life of Ivan Vasilyevich, and in the other – a recreated atmosphere of the village life in which he grew up. For many years, Ivan Vasilyevich Babushkin was considered a cult personality, but during the perestroika, the museum underwent changes: the exposition about Babushkin was removed, and the memorial museum turned into a historical and local history museum.

Now about Ivan Vasilyevich and his involvement in the Ledeng land is reminiscent of a photo exhibition in the museum exposition "Russian hut", which collected pictures of the relatives of the revolutionary, including the former owner of the house. Visitors to the museum, especially the younger generation, must be told about the famous countryman. The museum believes that children should know about Ivan Babushkin, because he is part of the history of their small homeland.

The second exposition is dedicated to another eminent countryman – Pavel Belyaev, who, on March 10, 1965, together with Alexei Leonov, went into space on the Voskhod-2 spacecraft. The exhibition was designed in 2005 by artist Oleg Pakhomov. Here is the history of space exploration by man in photos, newspaper clippings, there are also personal belongings of Pavel Belyaev - a coat, a pen, a notebook. In 2010, in connection with the 45th anniversary of the flight of Pavel Belyaev, the museum hosted a regional conference “Man begins with a dream”. To this date was timed and announced by the museum creative competition, whose participants showed ingenuity and imagination in the construction of rockets from a variety of materials, as well as composed poems and even made videos.

In one of the halls of the lower floor there is an updated exposition on the history of the village. Here is the main attributes of Ledeng saltware, and everyone can try what the taste of salt of local origin. In addition, traditional salt shakers – an indispensable kitchen utensils – are collected in the exposition “That’s the salt”.

The museum dedicated the 65th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War to the exposition “To Live in the Centuries” about the heroes-Babushkinites who participated in the events of those terrible years. Here are letters to relatives and friends, and photos, and a gramophone with records of military songs, a cigarette case, a gymnast ... Some of the soldiers’ belongings were provided to the museum by the Vologda Search Team, some were brought specifically for the exhibition by residents of the village and the district.

The museum presents paintings by local artist Yevgeny Shabunin, and also has a large collection of spinning wheels, towels and doormats. Bright homespun Ledeng floorboards, made in different parts of the area, decorate the walls of the entire first floor of the museum.

For many years, the Earthlings club has been going to the museum for classes, where amateur local historians meet.

The museum in the village named after Babushkin as an island of silence and tranquility amid the noise of nearby roads and the bustle of running somewhere days, everything here breathes history and love for its small homeland.