A Man Who Lives in the Museum: Dr. Uli Zislin Gifts Russian Culture to Rockville This story was published in the July/August 2012 issue of Montgomery Magazine.

By Andrei Romanov | Photography by Victoria Whitaker

More often than not, the most peculiar places you discover provide the most memorable experiences. In a city that prides itself on its multicultural awareness, there is such a place. It’s an oasis of another culture, and one that has yet to be discovered by the local population.

The Washington Poetry & Music Museum, established in 1997, is also home to a man of passion and vision. Part of what Russian writer and poet Vladimir Nabokov termed “the wave of Russia gone out of its shores” that “spilled all over the world,” Dr. Uli Zislin brought with him as much of Russia as he possibly could. He simply couldn’t leave behind the books, photographs, paintings, recordings and personal items of his favorite poets that he had been collecting for years. This became the foundation for the only private museum of its kind in the country.

Hidden in Zislin’s modest rental apartment on Veirs Mill Road in Rockville, the museum is dedicated primarily to five of the great Russian poets of the late 19th- and early 20th-century Silver Age: Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, Osip Mandelstam, Marina Tsvetaeva and Nikolai Gumilev. Zislin’s priceless collection of their work and associated ephemera is a true feast for lovers of Russian culture and a cultural discovery for everyone else.

The Communist regime tried to stomp out the influence of the Silver Age by banning and censoring work, and these poets suffered tragically for their art. Osip Mandelstam was sentenced to a gulag and died at age 47 in 1938. Marina Tsvetaeva suffered through exile, isolation, the arrest of her husband, daughter and sister, and the execution of her husband; in 1941, she committed suicide at the age of 49. Nikolai Gumilev was executed in 1921 when he was 35. Anna Akhmatova, who had also been Gumilev’s wife, was subjected to continued repression by the Stalinist regime: Their son was expelled from the university and sentenced to 10 years in a gulag, and her work was condemned and censored for most of her life. Boris Pasternak, best known outside of Russia as the author of Doctor Zhivago, lived through a massive campaign against him by the Soviet State that hastened his death. Their manuscripts and books, documents and letters, photographs and paintings were confiscated and destroyed during searches.

Fortunately, the work of these persecuted poets was distributed and recited clandestinely among the intelligentsia and published abroad, most notably in the U.S. Zislin was among those few in the Soviet Union who knew and cherished their masterpieces. His lifelong interest in these masters and his sense of moral duty to them and the people deprived of an opportunity to enjoy their works became the driving force behind his U.S. museum.

Now in its 15th year, the museum has recently expanded to include materials related to the poets of the earlier, 19thcentury Golden Age, as well as famous Russian composers. Walls are lined with books, pictures and posters, and artifacts grace every table, shelf and stand. Highlights include rare book editions, manuscripts, autographs, biographies, letters, translations into many languages, portraits, photographs, audio recordings and video film. Visitors will be amazed to discover a two-volume 1891 edition of poems by Mikhail Lermontov; a bronze medal issued in 1899 in commemoration of Alexander Pushkin’s centennial birth anniversary; eyeglasses worn by Anastasia Tsvetaeva, a writer and sister of Marina Tsvetaeva; a sheet from the manuscript Amor, a novel Anastasia Tsvetaeva wrote in a gulag, and a pen she used to dedicate copies of her books.

Over the years, the museum has received many donations—so many that today, part of the collection is in storage. Zislin has no room for anything else. Really there is not much room for the man who lives in the museum. After a 2005 visit to the museum, a poet and descendant of the famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, who is also named Alexander Pushkin, wrote the following epigram:

Mesmerized by Uli’s passion,
Captivated by his zeal,
I am troubled by one question:
Where’s his room in this museum?

Cultivating Culture
Zislin’s passion extends beyond the walls of his private museum. To commemorate the Russian poets’ legacy and in recognition of the support they received in the U.S., Zislin founded the Alley of Russian Poets in D.C.’s Guy Mason Park. Started in April 2003 as a row of five trees dedicated to each of the museum’s Silver Age poets, the alley has grown to include trees dedicated to the poets of the Golden Age and includes a stone commemorating five Russian composers—Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninov, Igor Stravinsky, Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev.

Each year in October, Zislin organizes the Tsvetaeva Bonfires to continue the tradition of Tarusa, a Russian village, where sisters Marina and Anastasia Tsvetaeva spent their childhood summers. People gather to remember Marina, reciting her poems and adding their own tributes. James Foy, a retired professor from the Georgetown School of Medicine who is also a physician-poet, notes that last year’s “recitations by young students from the local Russian School were an important contribution, touching and from the heart.” Oct. 7, 2012 will mark the 17th Tsvetaeva Bonfire in Washington, D.C.

Seeing the level of interest that American visitors have for his museum and how little the general public knows about Russian culture, Zislin has decided to donate his collection to his home city of Rockville. He hopes it will become the foundation of a Museum of Russian Culture. “There exist museums dedicated to Russian music or Russian literature, but nowhere in the world is there a comprehensive Museum of Russian Culture,” says Zislin.

Foy remarks, “The world has recognized Russian music, drama, ballet and letters as an essential ingredient in education and entertainment. Uli is an ambitious emissary for the tradition and is determined to further its claims on our intellect and in our hearts.”

For more information or to schedule a time to visit the Washington Poetry & Music Museum, visit www.museum.zislin.com

This story was published in the July/August 2012 issue of Montgomery Magazine.

Arts & Fun Current Issue Highlights Andrei Romanov, Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, Dr. Uli Zislin, Golden Age poets, Marina Tsvetaeva, Nikolai Gumilev, Osip Mandelstam, Rockville Maryland, Silver Age poets, Tsvetaeva Bonfires, Victoria Whitaker, Washington Poetry & Music Museum