L. Kolesnikov Old Lilac Garden

The territory of the present-day Sokol and Airport districts of the capital was not so long ago the village of Vsekhsviatsky, where dachas were located at the beginning of the last century. One of them belonged to the family of the self-taught breeder Leonid Kolesnikov. During the First World War and the Civil War, he worked as a military chauffeur and by duty often visited ruined estates, in the gardens of which grew lilacs. Fascinated by its extraordinary fragrant blossom, Leonid Kolesnikov decided to gather his own collection of amazing plants. He began to study botany on his own, started planting shrubs at his country estate and by 1923 had already gathered the largest collection of lilacs in the country, including hundreds of varieties of plants. Kolesnikov's lilac garden was extremely popular - Alexei Tolstoy, Nikita Khrushchev and Yuri Gagarin visited it. In 1952, the breeder was awarded the Stalin Prize for his extraordinary lilacs.