Going to a museum to learn about the great minds of Russia is marvelous, but what better captures the individual than the home? The houses or apartments of famous writers, politicians, or merchants throughout Moscow have been transformed into museums preserving their impact on the Russian history and the city itself.
We visited two such residence-turned-museums, sites devoted to Alexander Pushkin and Lyev Tolstoy, on the Night of Museums. The contrast in their character was striking and really helped to portray the differences between these writers.
The exterior of the Pushkin home and museum, complete with multiple stories and balcony.
The Pushkin museum was a complex two-story affair, with elaborate wood trim, different wings, and an interior balcony overlooking its own ballroom. Most of these features were probably sought by Natalya Goncharova, his high-class and extravagant wife.
The Arbat Monument to Pushkin and his wife, in formal attire.
She was a very popular figure of the aristocratic social circle of the day and naturally would have hosted as well as attended many of the soirees so glibly described by Tolstoy. The museum had a variety of small rooms and gave the impression that its décor would have reflected the original varied styles and bright colors. The entire building gave a feeling of charming character and sophistication, a constant goal and concern for Pushkin, who felt he was not appropriately well recognized nor received in society.
Facade of the Tolstoy Museum, being perhaps the fanciest part of it.
Tolstoy, although himself a son of a old, minor noble family and fairly wealthy individual, idolized the simple life, country lifestyle, and folk values and culture. He believed his own philosophy combating the 19th trends of displaying or even flaunting one’s wealth, preferring instead that people live with less of the extravagant waste and more with what they needed. His single-level museum spoke to this goal, being a single ring of rooms in shape where Pushkin’s twisted and turned. The furniture and décor were of a classic style for the period, but were far plainer, usually just a single color instead of patterned. It is not clear what space would be reserved for guests since most of the rooms looked just like the others.
Being able to visit these museums consecutively really helped to emphasize the differences between them, between their owners, and between those men’s intentions on how the home was to be used. Seeing such contrasting personalities in buildings so close together is, I must add, really fairly typical for Moscow’s patchwork architecture.
Information about the writer’s lives and beliefs found at the museums, assuming accurate understanding of what I read there.
