History

In the year 1867, an engineer, specialist in railway building, General Aleksej Melnikov, who had arrived to Vilnius to build a railway Petersburg-Vilnius, bought the Markuchiai estate from Polish doctor Ignacy Godlewski.

In the year 1867, A. Melnikov started building a new summer cottage in the bought estate. It was finished in 1868. 

When Varvara Melnikova was marrying to Vasily Moshkov in 1875, A. Melnikov presented to her the Markuchiai estate as a dowry. 

A. Melnikov‘s daughter settled down in the Markuchiai landed estate for permanent residence not right away. After a divorce with Vasily Moshkov in 1877, she lived for some time in Petersburg. Having married to Grigory Pushkin, she departed to live to Michailovskoje, where lived until the year 1899. The proprietress was staying at Markuchiai only temporary – most often for a summer rest. The estate was taken care of and administered by her appointed plenipotentiaries.

Varvara and Grigory Pushkins moved to Markuchiai only in 1899, after selling their estate in Michailovskoje.

A number of summer cottages were built on the estate land, which G. and V. Pushkins rented to profit. Not only summer cottages, but also plots were rented, on which restaurants, cafes and shops were being established. 

In 1905-1906, a police-station was established on V.Pushkina’s means at the Markuchiai estate. In 1910, the estate was included in the city boundaries.

During German occupation, V. Pushkina lived for several years in Petersburg. The occupation caused a considerable damage to the Markuchiai estate. The economy of the estate fell into decay: several houses were demolished; some summer cottages, a stable and other buildings were reduced to ashes. A lot of forest was cut down. The park of the estate, orchard, and furniture of the dwelling house suffered a great damage: a valuable Grigory Pushkin’s collection of hunting trophies and arms, a great deal of paintings, books, and other things were lost.

When in the year 1917, Varvara Pushkina returned to Markuchiai from Petersburg, she didn’t find the former splendour anymore. The fallen into decay estate wasn’t able to restore. V. Pushkina had to struggle saving the estate from a final bankruptcy till her death.

From the year 1920, parcelling out the Markuchiai estate in small pieces became an everyday occurrence: lacking any continual source of income, except her late husband’s pension, but unable to abandon the landlady’s habits, V. Pushkina was selling plots till her very death. A whole Markuchiai suburb emerged on once belonging to her but sold land, some ten streets sprung up. The suburb drew near to the very central farmstead. 

In the last years of her life, she was using only a little bit more than 3 ha of the estate land – in fact only the central building of the Markuchiai estate and its approaches left in her possession. 

V. Pushkina died in 1935, leaving the estate in debts and the routine of court disputes. After her death, a business of the estate was run by her commissioner V. Nazimov, who prepared a liquidation plan and started its realisation. 

However, the Second World War started before long, Lithuania became a part of the USSR: a state system and forms of ownership changed. Landed estates in the Lithuanian SSR were nationalised.