Smolnya Memorial Estate

In 1910, 8 years after Mikhail's death, the Mickiewiczs finally acquired their own house in Smolnya. Mother Anna Yuryevna lived in it (her life ended there in 1929), uncle Antos (died in 1918), sisters of the poet Mikhalina, Alena, Maria, brothers Vlad, Mikhas and Joseph.

When the house was being built, Yakub Kolas was in Minsk prison, and only on September 19, 1911 he came there for the first time. Poor and desolated seemed to the poet Smolnya. To make it at least a little more comfortable, Yakub Kolas planted trees in the estate. The lindens planted on his first visit still grow in the memorial estate today. Young Yakub Kolas and Yanka Kupala sat under these lime trees during their first meeting in the summer of 1912.

Yakub Kolas visited Smolnya several times in 1911-1914, where work continued on the poems “New Land” and “Symon-Music”, a number of poems, stories were written.

In 1967, a branch of the Yakub Kolas State Literary and Memorial Museum was opened in Smolnya. Museum Square consists of two parts: memorial and literary. The memorial house, where the brother of Yakub Kolas Iosif Mitskevich and his family lived for a long time, was museumified for the 90th anniversary of the birth of Yakub Kolas in 1972.

The interior of the memorial house was restored according to the memories of the poet's relatives. Ethnographic items reflect the peasant life of those times; the spirit of the Mickiewicz family is preserved there. Bread and a threshing floor have been restored in the estate, and a literary exposition is located in the constructed two-story building, which introduces the poet's childhood and youth, his further life and creative path. Letters of Yakub Kolas to fellow countrymen, photographs, valuable documents, rare editions of the poet's works, original materials will not leave indifferent those who visit this special and dear to every Belarusian corner.