If you typed in a URL, please make sure you have typed it correctly. In particular, make sure that the URL you typed is all in lower case. InSkinParams = new Array(); InSkinParams['srv_SectionID'] = '124015'; InSkinParams['srv_Keywords'] = 'home'; InSkinParams['srv_Categories'] = ''; InSkinParams['srv_UseSAS'] = 'false'; InSkinParams['sas_PauseAdTag'] = ''; InSkinParams['plr_InSkinID'] = 'myPageSkin'; InSkinParams['plr_ContentID'] = 'myContent1'; InSkinParams['plr_ContentW'] = '975'; InSkinParams['plr_FrameTop'] = '90'; InSkinParams['plr_FrameSide'] = '130'; InSkinParams['plr_FrameBottom'] = '90'; InSkinParams['plr_TotalW'] = '900'; InSkinParams['plr_TotalH'] = '600'; InSkinParams['plr_ContentType'] = 'PAGE'; InSkinParams['plr_HideElementsByID'] = ''; InSkinParams['plr_HideElementsByClass'] = ''; InSkinParams['plr_ExpandableDetached'] = 'true'; InSkinParams['plr_NoSkinInSkinResize'] = 'true'; InSkinParams['plr_AssumeSkin'] = 'false'; function addEvent( obj, type, fn ) { var obj = ( obj.constructor === String ) ? document.getElementById( obj ) : obj; if ( obj.attachEvent ) { obj[ 'e' + type + fn ] = fn; obj[ type + fn ] = function(){ obj[ 'e' + type + fn ]( window.event ) }; obj.attachEvent( 'on' + type, obj[ type + fn ] ); } else obj.addEventListener( type, fn, false ); } if ((navigator.platform.indexOf("Mac") == -1) && (navigator.platform.indexOf("Linux") == -1)) { addEvent(window, 'load', function() { var adjustment = 0; InSkinParams['plr_ContentH'] = jQuery('#InSkinPageContainer_' + InSkinParams['plr_InSkinID']).height() + adjustment; if (screen.width >= 1235) { InSkinLoad.init(InSkinParams); } }); }. 'IN RUSSIA,' according to Yevgeny Yevtushenko, 'a poet is more than a poet.' To which the writer Leonid Likhodeev retorted: 'Yes - and a cow is less than a cow.' Visiting the country, it may take some time to catch the wry humour with which its inhabitants face the tribulations of everyday life, but you can hardly avoid seeing evidence of the high status accorded to literary culture. In central Moscow, statues of Pushkin and Mayakovsky dominate the squares named after them, off what was once Gorky Street (now ul Tverskaya); and every other corner seems to carry its statue or plaque. The standard guidebooks mention at least a dozen writers' 'house-museums', while the Moscow street plan and guide published just before the end of the Soviet era lists 159 museums, statues or other sites associated with literary figures, from Leonid Andreyev to Ilya Erenburg. In addition, it directs you to well over 100 places associated with just one contributor to the national literature, that prolific man of letters Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (writing as V I Lenin).

His museum is now closed. That is one of the problems: most guidebooks to Moscow can no longer be relied on. In these circumstances, unless you are a specialist in Slavonic studies, it might seem a waste of an afternoon to walk some distance and risk losing your way, just to pore over Lermontov's handwriting But think again. Even a non-Russian speaker may get a thrill from seeing the table at which Tolstoy wrote Resurrection, and there are pleasures in literary tourism that have little to do with literature. You soon find out that, though writers may start their careers in garrets, they often end up with rather decent accommodation, which is lovingly preserved. Half a day or a day spent strolling around literary Moscow is a dip into Russia's cultural history that should compensate for any time lost to other forms of tourism.Every Russian literary museum has two things: soft overshoes to protect the parquet flooring, and several women of a certain age who sit in the corner reading Gone With The Wind in Russian and supervising the exhibits; they are usually ready to put down their books and provide information, and sometimes typewritten guides in different languages. But their wages must be minimal and it remains to be seen how long the new market economy can continue to support their consumption of American bestsellers, before replacing them with something electronic, or closing down the museum altogether.