The Sukhotins were a noble family whose members held various positions in government service, primarily in the naval sector. Their ancestral estate was located in the village of Kochety in the Oryol province.

Construction of Kochety began at the start of Peter I's reign and gradually expanded. In the early 18th century, a brick house with a small wing of ten rooms was built next to the wooden house of their ancestors. The estate served as a summer residence, and at different times, it hosted writers, artists, and officials from the capital. Among them were Leo Tolstoy, the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers, Fet, and Ivan Turgenev. In winter, the house remained empty and unheated, as the owners left for Moscow, where they had homes, or less frequently to St. Petersburg on business. Rumors circulated that ghosts appeared in the vacant house, leading to many legends.

Sometimes the owners stayed in the village until Christmas, organizing theatrical performances in the hall with curtains and decorations, inviting neighbors and relatives. In one play, an angel descended to earth in a cradle, and the sound of flowing water was created using a samovar. At the center of the estate was a park that gradually developed. There was an orchard, a greenhouse, and a shed with berry plantings. The forest around the estate was cleared, and alleys with decorative trees appeared. Turgenev, an admirer of parks, loved the local plantings. The alleys ran between apple tree clumps, and from the linden 'star' by the house, a perspective of century-old firs began.

At that time, coniferous trees were a rarity in this region, where ash, oak, aspen, and poplar predominated. However, in the early 19th century, the manager of a neighboring estate, F.H. Meyer, established a nursery for seedlings, and firs, cedars, chestnuts, and thuja began to appear in the estates. This variety of trees, combined with linden and maple, created an impressive sight.

This information has reached us through the stories of people who remembered Kochety in its pristine form, such as N.P. Puzin and N.K. Matveev, as well as from the diary of Valentin Bulgakov, who visited the Sukhotins in 1910, and the unpublished memoirs of L.M. Sukhotin. In the 'upper garden' stood the gazebo 'Malakhov Kurgan,' where retired sailors loved to gather.

The Sukhotins were impressionable people, and their home accumulated books in foreign languages, while paintings by Borovikovsky, Rokotov, and Myasoedov hung on the walls. In 1904, S.P. Diaghilev visited Kochety in search of rare portraits for an exhibition and selected several unique paintings.

Kochety, the Sukhotin estate, where Leo Tolstoy often visited in the 1900s, was described by V. Bulgakov as an ancient estate with a vast territory and a beautiful park. The manor house was one-story but spacious and cozy. The decor was characterized by simplicity and elegance, and the inhabitants of the house were hospitable and kind.

To this day, the manor house has not survived; only a few outbuildings remain. In the early 1990s, restoration was planned, but the project was never realized. In 2006, a commission from the 'Yasnaya Polyana' museum visited the estate for possible restoration and inclusion in tourist routes. However, upon seeing the neglect and destruction, the commission quickly left.