Andrei Bolkonsky, as is well known, is a literary character, the hero of the epic novel "War and Peace." Could he really have had an actual house? Or is it simply someone with the same surname? These questions are asked not only by tourists visiting the city, but also by local historians, journalists, and regional scholars.
According to a favorite local legend, Leo Tolstoy modeled his Prince Andrei on a real person - Lieutenant General of the Russian Army Nikolai Tuchkov, who died in Yaroslavl in a hospital for officers.
After digging through the archives, local historians found out that this house on the Volga embankment did indeed house a hospital during the war. That is why it began to be called the "Tuchkov House" (although he never lived there), and later the "Bolkonsky House."
But whose mansion was it actually? Judging by its architecture, it is clearly an 18th-century family estate built in the spirit of provincial classicism. The archives revealed that the house was built by Collegiate Assessoress Anna Zezevitova, and it belonged to her until 1821. Later, it really did house a military hospital, but whether the prototype of Andrei Bolkonsky was ever there remains a mystery.
After the war, various organizations were housed here, and the house gradually fell into decline. It was only in the early 2000s, when it passed into private hands, that the mansion began to be restored. Today it once again dazzles with its splendor, attracting the attention of numerous tourists.
