The exhibition of the Penza Literature Museum features a set of chess carved from walrus bone. It is displayed in the section dedicated to the writer Tikhon Zakharovich Syomushkin.

Tikhon Syomushkin, by his own admission, was in love with the picturesque landscapes of the land of Chukotka, then still “wild”, remote from civilization. In 1924, Tikhon Syomushkin first came to Chukotka, where he was engaged in active teaching. It was under his leadership that the first local boarding school was opened. Returning to this northern region for the last time in 1951, the writer hardly recognized Chukotka. According to him, in twenty years, among the rocks covered with snow, where a dog sled could hardly get through, slender rows of streets, two-story electricity-illuminated houses arose, along with motorized wharves with electrified cranes and transporters. If in the 1920s people got to Chukotka by cargo steamships after a month of living on the bunks of ship holds, by the middle of the century they were brought to the Russian Far North on board a comfortable express passenger ship.

The chess set, which once belonged to Tikhon Semushkin, is a fine example of bone carving, an ancient Chukchi craft. Russians became acquainted with this folk art as early as the mid-17th century while exploring new lands at the Bering Sea. Even then, in addition to traditional household items like arrowheads and needles, Chukchi carved figurines of animals, people, amulets, and made engravings with hunting scenes on the bones and teeth of sea creatures. From the 18th century, the technique of engraving on bones began to spread in Chukotka, where walrus tusks served as the principal material. The tusks featured carved pictures of whole stories about the everyday life of the people of this amazing land.

The first full-fledged workshop mostly dedicated to bone carving appeared in 1931. It was organized by the Chukchi master Vukvutagin, who united the skilled craftsmen of Chukotka, which became the starting point for the industrial development of the craft. At the same time, the range of bone products expanded, and the craftsmen began to produce chess sets, powder cases, and brooches, along with traditional animal figurines and other carved items.