The village of Vshizh in the Zhukovsky district of the Bryansk region is located on the territory of an ancient Russian city that existed from the 9th to the 13th century. In this village, there is the Church of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, which is housed in the building of a former parish school.

This school was built in 1886 by the zemstvo, which was an elected local self-government body in the Russian Empire. Zemstvo schools were divided into two types: single-class with a three-year course for fifty students with one teacher, and two-class with a four-year course designed for fifty or more students with two teachers. The choice of school type depended on the number of children in the village, the need for education, and the financial capabilities of the local zemstvo administration. There was also a wooden church in the name of the Transfiguration of the Lord, built in 1763 by the landowner of the village of Dyatkivichi, Yakov Vasilyevich Machikhin, but it was destroyed during the Soviet era.

The church was located next to the parish school. Its existence is remembered by a huge 300-year-old linden tree, a surviving ornate church cross, a four-meter icon on canvas, and a photograph from the Soviet era, which are displayed in the museum.

In June 1999, the building of the parish school was reconstructed into the Church of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God and the Museum of the History of Vshizh.