Description of the attraction
The Pushkin Memorial Museum on Arbat was opened on February 18, 1986. The opening of "Pushkin's Apartment on Arbat" was timed to coincide with the anniversary of Pushkin's wedding.
In 1831, in January, intending to marry, Pushkin decided to rent an apartment on the second floor of a house on the Arbat. The two-storey stone house built in the Empire style belonged to the family of the provincial secretary N. N. Khitrovo. The apartment that Pushkin rented was five-room. The cozy living room was decorated in a smart way. The walls are covered with an outlandish purple velvet-like wallpaper with printed flowers. In this apartment, on the eve of the wedding ceremony, Pushkin arranged a "bachelor party". Here on February 18, 1831, Pushkin brought his young wife. The Pushkins lived here until mid-May 1831.
The famous house on Arbat has a rich history. PI Tchaikovsky went to this house to visit his brother. V. V. Mayakovsky and Meyerhold, as well as Tsiavlovsky, a famous Pushkin scholar, have been here.
In Soviet times, the house was a theater of the Soviet army. The avant-garde theater promoted the idea of renewing theatrical art. The theater was directed by V. L. Zhemchuzhny. The theater was supported by Lunacharsky. Its artistic council included Mayakovsky and Meyerhold. Among the actors was then a very young Erast Garin. After the theater was closed, the building housed the Military Tribunal of the Moscow Military District.
The Memorial Museum, opened in 1986, occupied the entire two-story building. On the ground floor there are halls with an exposition dedicated to the theme "Pushkin and Moscow". Hall No. 1 on the first floor introduces the architectural appearance and life of Moscow at that time. Here you can see the engravings made by various authors after the original engravings by Gerard Delabart, as well as lithographs made in 1825 by the French author Auguste Cadole. Lithographs depict a young Moscow, rebuilt after the fires. The expositions in halls two through four are devoted to Pushkin's connections with Moscow culture. From Mikhailov's exile, Pushkin returned to Moscow, the city of his birth. Moscow was less official than Petersburg, and the poet felt more at ease here. Moscow greeted Pushkin with delight. His appearances in theaters, at balls, evenings and dinners did not go unnoticed.
The next halls of the exposition are devoted to Pushkin's relations with the Moscow literary community and journalists, publications of Pushkin's works. In Moscow at that time there were already magazines of different directions: "Moscow Telegraph", "Vestnik Evropy", "Telescope", "Moskovsky Vestnik" and others. All of them paid a lot of attention to Pushkin's work.
Halls 5 through 8 are dedicated directly to Pushkin's life in the Arbat house. The rooms of the Pushkins have been recreated on the second floor. Unfortunately, the original furnishings have not survived. Of the items belonging to Pushkin, in the museum there is only a desk with an ink set-figurine. The interiors of that time were recreated by the creators of the museum. The Pushkin Rooms are the main memorial value of the museum on Arbat.
