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   Kuskovo – an 18th century Estate
Open 10–18.00, in winter (October – March) 10.00–16.00. Closed on Monday, Tuesday; the main palace is closed in wet and cold weather. Leo Tolstoy Memorial Estate in Moscow
The house features numerous portraits of the family, including one of Tolstoy's lively and artistic daughter Tatyana by the famous Russian painter Ilya Repin, and one of the writer's wife Sofia Andreevna by Valentin Serov. Visitors can wander round the various bedrooms of the author's children, have a look at the servants' quarters and browse round the upstairs family salon, where Tolstoy regularly received the composers Scriabin, Rakhmaninov and Rimsky-Korsakov and read his latest works to the writers Chekhov and Gorky. Tolstoy's study features a heavy desk and dark leather furniture, which seem appropriate to the author's gloomy literary output during the 1880s. Here he wrote "Resurrection" and his famous novella "The Death of Ivan Ilyich". Open 10–16.00, closed on Monday. Anton Chekhov MuseumThe prolific and highly regarded Russian dramatist and master of the short story, Anton Chekhov, lived in the pink two-story house on Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya street with his family between the autumn of 1886 and the spring of 1890. In his years at this house the newly-qualified doctor developed into a serious writer and created, among other works, his first play, "Ivanov" (1887) and over 100 short stories. The house-museum was perhaps the place of Chekhov's most fruitful period. Visitors have the opportunity to see Chekhov's study and consulting room, his modest bedroom and that of his student brother and the contrastingly ornate family salon. Much of the dining room is now devoted to an exhibition of original manuscripts, letters and first editions of Chekhov's works. As he became better known, he was visited by many leading figures of the Russian cultural life. The Chekhovs called this picturesque building "a cupboard". The personal belongings of Chekhov and his family, as well as typical furniture of the 1880s, have been used to create an impression of what the interior looked like when they occupied it. The display includes the first editions of the writer's books. There are photographs of Chekhov and his contemporaries and also of various performances of Chekhov plays. Fyodor Dostoyevsky Museum
Maxim Gorky Museum
Boris Pasternak Dacha MuseumTwenty kilometers southwest of Moscow, Peredelkino today attracts many tourists who wish to see Boris Pasternak's dacha. Now called the Pasternak House Museum, the wooden dacha has been kept as it was in Pastenak's days. Built by his father Leonid in 1937, the Pasternak dacha was opened as a memorial museum for the poet in 1990. The dacha's dining room features numerous sketches and portraits by the writer's father as well as Pasternak's own collection of fine Georgian ceramics. Visitors can wander through the glassed-in veranda where the poet used to entertain guests or have a peek at Pasternak's study-bedroom, whose shelves are filled with Russian encyclopedias and English novels and where he wrote "Dr. Zhivago". One can see the iron bed where he died of lung cancer in 1960. The poet was buried in the local village cemetery beside four other members of his family. The graveyard is a short walk from the dacha. Leo Tolstoy Memorial Estate in Yasnaya Polyana
The Tolstoy house is a modest two-story building preserved in much the same manner as it was before the writer's death in 1910. It is a unique house since genuine furniture and personal belongings of its inhabitants have been preserved to our days. Lovers of Russian literature will find it interesting to see the study of the writer where "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" were written. A short walk from the main house is Tolstoy's unmarked grave – a raised grassy patch fenced off by cherry trees. The museum boasts of an interesting collection of Russian paintings by Kramskoy, Repin, Ghe, Serov, Leonid Pasternak. It also possesses sculptures, family portraits, and photos. Yasnaya Polyana keeps the traditions and the atmosphere of the past but lives in the present. Visitors can walk about its picturesque parks, enjoy the beauty of linden and birch tree alleys and the mirror-like surface of the ponds. One can acquire the feeling of inner freedom here and fall in love with things dear to Leo Tolstoy.  |
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Kuskovo is a big palace and park ensemble in the former Counts Sheremetevs’ country estate. It is a typical example of 18th century summer residence. The Formal French gardens with marble statues are intact. The estate was designed as a site for receptions, celebrations and other festivities. More than 20 unique monuments of architecture with beautiful interiors have been presented, including a Dutch Palace, an Italian Palace, a Grotto, a Greenhouse where the Porcelain Museum represents a unique collection of Russian, Soviet and foreign porcelain, majolica, china, pottery and glassware is exhibited.
Some 6000 authentic belongings of the Tolstoys, interiors revive the spirit and atmosphere of the family that lived here. The museum was opened in 1921 and is housed in the building where Tolstoy and his family spent the winter months between 1882 and 1901. The writer purchased the two-story house at Khamovniki in 1882 to placate his wife, who was tired of provincial life and feared that their children's education was suffering.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s father was a doctor at the Mariya Hospital, and young Dostoyevsky spent the first 16 years of his life there. Dostoevsky was born in the hospital on November 11th 1821 to a poor but devoutly pious family, whose father constantly aggravated their situation with alcoholism and violence. After a trying childhood and the death of his mother in 1837, the young Dostoevsky left the family home and was sent to St. Petersburg to attend the Academy of Military Engineering, since his father was a retired military surgeon himself. Much of the museum's reconstruction of Dostoevsky's home was based on the writer's own diaries and descriptions of his childhood. Visitors can see the tiny bedroom which he shared with his brother and the modest drawing room which was considered so important to the family's social standing that Dostoevsky's parents were prepared to sleep in a narrow bed, jammed between a screen and a washstand. The museum, established in 1928 contains some of his personal belongings, a charming array of wooden toys and schoolbooks and the family library of classic Russian and European, as well as furniture from his father’s apartment, documents, and first editions. Also on display are portraits of Dostoyevsky, autographs, and documents.
Alexey Gorky’s house-museum is located in S. P. Ryabushinsky’s mansion. The mansion, built in 1900–1903, is a classic example of what we call Art Nouveau. F. O. Shekhtel, an academician of architecture, erected the asymmetric two-storied building with a massive porch for a wealthy industrialist Stephan Pavlovitch Ryabushinsky. The latter was a banker and a manufacturer and held a high position among businessmen of the capital. He also possessed one of the best icon collections in Russia. Between the flat roof and the yellow glazed brick walls is an exotic floral mosaic frieze. The irrationality of the facade combines perfectly well with the rationality of the interiors. The paneled interior rooms are grouped around the splendid carved-stone staircase. This building was the home of famous Soviet writer Maxim Gorky from 1931 until his death in 1936. This is one of a few places where you can still see an original luxurious interior. The museum exhibitions illustrate Gorky's family history and his life and work under the Soviet rule. One of the exhibitions presents more than 200 Japanese ivory and wooden miniatures collected by Gorky. In 1965 the writer’s museum was opened in the mansion.
Known during his lifetime as the "Second Tsar," Leo Tostoy was, along with Dickens, one of the first international literary celebrities. Yasnaya Polyana was Leo Tolstoy's summer country estate. Located 240 kilometers south of Moscow, the complex is one of the Russia's most famous literary landmarks and houses the Tolstoy House Museum and Tolstoy Literary Museum. Yasnaya Polyana is a typical Russian estate of a nobleman that gives a vivid idea of everyday life of its inhabitants and helps us penetrate into the life and traditions of the epoch that gave birth to this great man. It was here that this famous writer was born, spent most of his life and is buried.
