Historical and local History house-Museum of Cossack culture

Kardailovskaya toy is another brand of the Orenburg region. The house-museum of the Nesterenko Cossack family makes clay figurines, the author's toys of local historian Valery Beshentsev, in the village of Ilek, Orenburg region, lively and inviting to conversation, surprise and admiration.

As the head of the branch of the Ilek Regional Museum, he doesn't have his own office or even a corner in a spacious four-room house. There is only a low old armchair and a stool by the front door, where he does not drink tea, but makes new clay Cossacks day after day. His wife even brings him lunch here for work. The artist comes home at nine o'clock in the evening in winter, and even later in summer. That's why the museum looks rich. Miniature Cossacks and soldiers took the most advantageous places here. So far, the author does not sell his products, although any tourist wants to take home the symbol of the Ilek land after the tour, which the manager also masterfully conducts.

Valery Grigorievich shows local schoolchildren who are happy to come to the museum the material from which elegant exhibits are made. He talks about the production technology. He makes arrangements with schools to have no more than seven or eight people in a group. Then children perceive a fascinating historical story better. Looking into the most beautiful house in the village of Kardailovo (let the rest of the residents not be offended by us), we learned about the museum's new idea. His dream is to create a museum of the "Captain's Daughter" in the village of Nizhneozernoye. The first clay exhibits are already ready: Mironov, Grinev, Shvabrin. But Masha is not here yet, because Valery Grigorievich specializes in men's military Cossack toys. The master also hopes that a courtyard will appear near the house museum in Kardailovo, where larger-scale exhibits will be displayed. – Our Orenburg region has always been considered as the land of rural workers, now it is the land of the gas industry, – the author explains his idea, – but, in my opinion, since we are descendants of Cossacks, Cossack culture is not alien to us. And without these traditions, our national identity cannot exist.