M O S C O W Interview with Leonid Shishkin - Passport magazine

ans have asked the question: what is older, the town or the craft?
Excavations on the spot of the former Kremlin have determined
that embroidery with gold threads was practised here even before
the Mongol invasion.
Embroidery was used by tsars, boyars and senior clergy
for decorating their clothes, as objects of interior design
and for cult purposes. Many boyars’ wives at court had their
own workshops, but seamstresses from Torzhok had always
been trendsetters. Here is a well-known fact: in order
to embroider the porphyra (a purple gown of a monarch)
for his coronation ceremony, Alexander II commanded that
30 of the best needlewomen from Torzhok be brought to
St. Petersburg.
The golden age of the craft occurred in the 18-19 th centuries.
A gold embroidery factory still works in the town. It was
there that they made beautiful costumes used in such movies
as War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Now they embroider
clothes, military banners, Russian coats-of-arms, church
shrouds, glasses, cosmetic cases and other objects.
Many outstanding personalities of the past visited Torzhok,
among them Tolstoy, Gogol and others. The great Alexander
Pushkin, on his way to his village, stayed here more than 20
times. Even if Torzhok had not been known for its architecture
and gold embroidery, this fact would have been enough to
make it famous. There is a very nice museum of the poet in
the town.
On one of his visits, Pushkin bought some embroidered belts
and sent them as a gift to a lady-friend in Moscow. He then
June 2010
Travel
asked her whether she wore the belts and whether Moscow’s
women of fashion were envious.
Pushkin stayed in Pozharsky’s inn. Its fame started with one
of his letters. The beginning of the letter was written in prose,
but the part describing Torzhok was nothing but wonderful
poetry. Pushkin wrote about the inn and highly praised the
cutlets that he ate there. During the 19 th century, they were
enormously popular all over Russia and even abroad.
To be in Torzhok and not to try Pozharsky cutlets is impossible.
I tried them. They were tasty but that’s all that I
can say. Unfortunately the original recipe was lost. P
1