Description of the attraction
The house-museum of one of the most talented and famous Russian writers, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, is located in the old town of Staraya Russa, which belongs to the Novgorod region. The house stands on one of the banks of the Pererytitsa River.
The exposition area of the museum is 170 sq. m, and the approximate number of visitors per year is about five thousand. The structure of the museum has a specialized scientific library. The most valuable and unique collections are genuine things of the writer and his creations, published during his lifetime.
It is known that Fyodor Mikhailovich called his house "our nest", because nowhere, except this house, was he so calm and good, and to a greater extent, writing was favored. The settlement in the house of the Dostoevsky family happened quite by accident. In 1872, the family decided to spend the summer in Staraya Russa, where they stayed in the small house of a priest named Rumyantsev. The following year, the Dostoevskys rented a wooden two-story house on the coast of Pererytitsa, which belonged to retired colonel A. K. Gribbe. The owner of the house died in the spring of 1876, after which Fyodor Mikhailovich decided to buy the house and the adjacent garden from his heirs. It was this house that became the writer's first purchase of real estate, because before this incident his family lived in rented apartments.
In the acquired house from Dostoevsky, his third child was born, who was named Alexei, after which the house became a truly family nest, and the city of Staraya Russa gave his family the desired peace and quiet away from the city noise. At this time, "Demons", "The Brothers Karamazov" and some other works were written.
In the winter of January 28, 1881, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky died suddenly, but despite all the difficulties, his legal wife Anna Grigorievna also came to the beloved city of Staraya Russa. In 1914, she made her last visit to the family home on the river bank.
May 4, 1909 became the date of foundation of the house-museum named after F. M. Dostoevsky. In 1918, the city council of Staraya Russa ranked the writer's house as an "inviolable historical and literary monument." After this statement, the house was fully transferred to the free use and full order of the Old Russian Department of Public Education. It is worth noting that the house of the Dostoevsky family is well preserved, having survived not only the famous revolution, but also the Civil War. Throughout 1931, a memorial plaque was installed on one of the walls of the house, on which the years of life and residence in this house of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky were indicated.
History decreed that during the Great Patriotic War Staraya Russa was almost completely destroyed. The Dostoevsky House-Museum became one of those structures that could survive. Although the post-war state of the house could be noted as particularly deplorable, the house was still completely preserved, and years later, in 1961, it was successfully restored. An important help in the restoration of the house was played by a certain Rushanin Glinka V. M., who was a writer and also an employee of the famous Institute of Russian Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. In 1971, thanks to the initiative of one of the residents of Staraya Russa, GI Smirnov, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great writer, a new exposition was opened, which became a solid foundation for the museum. The first director was G. I. Smirnov.
Today the house-museum named after F. M. Dostoevsky is a part of the Novgorod State United Museum-Reserve. The museum is open to visitors throughout the year.
On the second floor of the house there are six rooms in which the family lived - it was furnished according to the descriptions of the writer's guests and relatives; here are the personal belongings of all family members: documents, photographs, furniture. There are service rooms on the ground floor of the house. The lower living room has been adapted for local history exhibitions. It is here that numerous literary and musical evenings are held.
