How many places do you know where you can not only visit the museum, having studied the writer's work, but also feel the creative atmosphere in which the great works of Maxim Gorky were created: “At the Bottom”, “Mother” and many other equally great works? Would you like to see and feel the atmosphere in which Maxim Gorky wrote his works?
Legendary Maxim Gorky
What do we know about the landlord? Today, Gorky Museum-Apartment in Moscow is located on Malaya Nikitskaya Street and is dedicated to the memory of Maxim Gorky. Let's talk more about the personality of the writer.
The real name is Alexei Maksimovich Peshkov, we all know him under the creative pseudonym Maxim Gorky. The future writer was born in the city of Kanavino, Nizhny Novgorod province on March 28, 1868 in a family of shipbuilders. Father and mother of Alexei Peshkov died early, after which Alex moved to live with his grandfather. From a young age, little Alexei had to go to work, because of which he did not receive proper school education. He was not taken to Kazan University, where he wanted to go, without primary education and without a certain amount of money, which he did not have.
Then Maxim Gorky became interested in the revolutionary mood and joined the ranks of the revolutionary-minded youth. But his new hobby led him to arrest. After a short arrest for contact with the revolutionary circle, Gorky went to the Caucasus. In the place of his stay, the writer engaged in self-education. After some time, Gorky returns to his homeland and begins his creative life with the story “Makar Chudra”. The story was published thanks to the efforts of a familiar journalist. Alexey Peshkov is published under the pseudonym Maxim Gorky.
The history of creating a pseudonym comes from the principles of a writer who promises to write only truth without embellishment, even if it has a “bitter aftertaste”. Thus began the difficult creative life of the writer.
After a while, due to political activity, Gorky moved abroad in 1906. Maxim lived for about seven years in Capri. But this was not the only trip abroad. So, after a while Maxim Gorky leaves Russia again in 1921 due to worsening health. But in 1932 he decided to finally return to his homeland, it was at this time that a ban on the departure of all citizens of the Soviet Union was introduced.
So, after the final return to their homeland, Gorky was granted by the government a mansion for permanent residence. In 1936, the writer died.
History of the Gorky Mansion (Museum-Apartment)
The mansion, which currently houses the Gorky Museum-Apartment in Moscow, begins its history in 1902 from the hands of the Russian architect Fyodor Shekhtel. It was built by a fairly wealthy man - S. Ryabushinsky. In this house, the Ryabushinsky family lived until 1917, until they emigrated from the country. After the departure of the main owners, the mansion passed into the possession of the city administration, which subsequently housed the publishing house, the All-Union Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, a psychoanalytic institute and a kindergarten. In 1932, the family of Maxim Gorky moved to the mansion of S.P. Ryabushinsky. The house was set aside as permanent housing.
After the death of the writer, the wife of Maxim Gorky, Nadezhda Alekseevna Peshkova, remained in the mansion. Since 1945, Nadezhda Alekseevna - the wife of Maxim Gorky - began to create a museum on the basis of the mansion in which she lived. The museum was created free of charge and was opened in 1965.
Museum Apartment Address
Gorky Memorial Museum-Apartment in Moscow is located at 6/2 Malaya Nikitskaya Street. The museum can be reached by metro and get off at the stations: Arbatskaya, Barrikadnaya, Pushkinskaya, Chekhovskaya and Tverskaya.
Museum working hours
Gorky Memorial Museum-Apartment in Moscow is open from Wednesday to Sunday. Opening hours: from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday are days off. The opening hours of the Gorky House-Museum in Moscow are built according to European standards with a focus on tourists.
Interesting excursions
The museum-apartment of A. Gorky in Moscow hosts many excursions. The subject of excursions is most often associated with:
- the work of Maxim Gorky;
- house architecture;
- the history of the house;
- the story of the creation of the writer's works.
The exposition of the house was restored from the thirties of the twentieth century. The situation has been completely recreated since the time of Maxim Gorky.
Interesting facts about the apartment museum
You can talk about the history of the mansion as much as you like until you study interesting facts related to the Maxim Gorky Museum-Apartment and history:
the house has a large library of Maxim Gorky;
- the entire exhibition was restored from the time of Maxim Gorky of the thirties of the twentieth century, until the furniture was restored;
- in the evening or cloudy weather, you can notice how the patterns in the chapel emit light, all this looks more than mysterious;
- It is interesting that Maxim Gorky himself lived on the first floor, and his family is separate from him on the second;
- later, historians learned that the writer’s state of health did not allow him to climb the steep stairs to the second floor, so he lived on the first;
- the construction of the mansion began in 1900, when the young millionaire S. Ryabushinsky was only 26 years old;
- the mansion has a secret Old Believer chapel, which is located in the attic of the mansion;
- there are unique stained-glass windows, parquet made of expensive wood, painted ceilings, beautiful chandeliers and stucco moldings.
Important events
The life of Maxim Gorky is associated with important events of Russia of the twentieth century. In the 1930s, Gorky’s apartment in Moscow was considered a cultural center, where literary evenings took place, which can now be compared with writers' clubs.
In this house, the son of Maxim Gorky died of pneumonia - this was the most tragic event in the writer's life. It was in this house that Maxim Gorky was preparing for the All-Union Congress of Writers, where he acted as chairman of the organizing committee.
In this house-apartment of Gorky in Moscow, such creative works as “The Life of Klim Samgin”, “Egor Bulychev” and others were born.
In this house there was a meeting of Maxim Gorky and Bernard Shaw, as well as with other, no less great personalities.
Description of the apartment-museum
The mansion was built in the Art Nouveau style. The architecture perfectly combines elements of Gothic, Moorish style and Japanese patterns. The exterior walls are faced with light brick. Often there are floral motifs.
The main secret in the architecture of the building is a secret floor, an unaware person will not see much difference in the structure of the building.
Museum-apartment expositions
Currently, the entrance to the museum is where the black exit to Spiridonovka street. The main entrance is closed. At the entrance to the Maxim Gorky House-Museum in Moscow, you pass into the hall with a staircase in the form of a wave on the second floor.
Everything on the ground floor resembles a marine theme, even a jellyfish-shaped chandelier with a turtle-shaped lampshade.
Door handles are made in the shape of seahorses. The mansion consists of the following rooms:
- secretarial, fully furnished with furniture of the 30s;
- the bedroom, where there is a bookcase for the evening reading of the writer, due to the fact that the writer lived in Italy for a long time, paintings were added to the interior depicting the sea shore of the place where Maxim Gorky lived;
- the study is the only place where everything is furnished to the taste of the writer, Maxim Gorky loved oriental motifs, they prevail in the room;
- the library is considered the most unusual room, including images of a garden with a pond;
- the dining room gathered not only family, but also colleagues, friends of the writer.
The second floor consisted of rooms where Maxim Gorky lived with his wife and daughter. It was in this room that the works of his beloved artist Mikhail Nesterov were exhibited: “Evening on the Volga” and “Sick Girl”.
The third floor consisted of an Old Believer chapel; it was there that it was planned to open a restoration department.
Visitors reviews
Everyone who visited the museum speaks of him with the warmest words. People are struck by the scale of the building. Someone notes that it is unusual that all visitors to the museum mark themselves in a special guest book, which over time has turned into a huge book of incredible size.
Many note the unusual architecture of the mansion, a plausible exposition of the life of the writer Maxim Gorky, and a creative atmosphere created during the life of the author of great works.
Visiting the exposition of the museum-apartment of A. M. Gorky, many noted the unusual atmosphere of joy and positive in this mansion. There were reviews that it was unusual to visit the place where the writer worked, where the creative life in the Soviet Union was changing before our eyes. Many, having learned that the writers gathered in this mansion, about whom we know about the great minds of that time, were very proud and were glad that they had visited the museum.
