Moscow House-Museums
Vasnetsov mansion, Tsvetaeva apartment and others
Renowned creative people such as writers, artists, and poets have always called Moscow home. Some considered the capital their hometown, while others moved here in their later years. Today, instead of such individuals' mansions and apartments, there are museums that preserve a wealth of interesting artifacts in their expositions. We have picked out the main house-museums in Moscow.
Lermontov lived in a house on Malaya Molchanovka Street from August 1829 to July 1832. It is the only surviving house in Moscow where the poet lived. In the museum house, the interiors from the early 19th century and antique furniture have been reconstructed, while the exposition describes various periods in the poet's life and work, from his early childhood to his life in the Caucasus. Among the notable exhibits are a rare self-portrait, watercolor sketches, and archived journals with poems.
In this wooden Neo-Russian mansion, built according to his own drawings, the painter lived from 1894 to 1926. To this day, the house has preserved both its original exterior and interiors. The museum collection contains about 26 thousand items — paintings and drawings by the artist, photographs, household items, manuscripts, and documents.
The actress moved to the mansion on Tverskaya Street in 1889 and spent thirty years of her life there. The exposition of the museum house describes Yermolova's works, as well as the world of Moscow's theater scene at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The actress' personal belongings have also been preserved: most of them are on display in her study, the interiors of which have been recreated based on archive photographs.
Marina Tsvetaeva and her family spent eight years in the lodging house on Borisoglebsky Lane — from 1914 to 1922. At the end of the 1980s, the building not only restored the memorial apartment but also opened a full museum complex with exhibitions on three floors. The collection of the museum house is mostly comprised of the manuscripts of the poetess and archival photographs, as well as a biographical exhibition about the work of Russian emigrants of the Silver Age. Tsvetaeva's apartment is on the third floor. There, several rooms reproduce the original, detailed interiors of a century ago.
Built by the industrialist Stepan Ryabushinsky near the Nikitsky Gate, this Moscow Art Nouveau mansion is also well known as Maxim Gorky's last home. The writer lived here for several years until his death in 1936, and in the post-war period, the building opened an apartment museum. The interiors of Gorky's study and bedroom have been preserved in near-pristine condition, and a special place in the memorial complex is occupied by the writer's rich library.
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