Museums on Ostozhenka and Prechistenka. State Museum of A. S. Pushkin. How the museum developed

State Museum of A. S. Pushkintoday it is one of the recognized cultural centers of Moscow and Russia. In addition to the main museum, the State Museum includes five more branches: Memorial Apartment of A. S. Pushkin on Arbat, Memorial Apartment of A. Bely on Arbat, Museum of I. S. Turgenev on Ostozhenka, House-Museum of V. L. Pushkin on Staraya Basmannaya and Exhibition halls in Denezhny Lane. The main museum complex is located in a remarkable architectural monument of the early 19th century - the urban noble estate of the Khrushchev-Seleznevs on the street. Prechistenka, 12/2.

The historical mansion houses permanent exhibitions “Pushkin and His Epoch” and “Pushkin’s Fairy Tales”, exhibition halls, a reading room, concert and conference rooms. Here, on Prechistenka, there are museum funds with open storage of rare books, paintings, graphic and miniature portraits of the 18th-19th centuries, porcelain, bronze, art glass and ceramics, and genealogical materials. The Open Storage of the State Historical Museum also includes unique private collections donated to the Moscow Museum of A. S. Pushkin - “Library of Russian Poetry by I. N. Rozanov”, “Collection of P. V. Gubar”, “Cabinet of T. A. Mavrina and N”. . V. Kuzmina”, “Cabinet of drawings by Nadya Rusheva”. The Atrium is intended for large-scale cultural events - a manor courtyard covered with a glass dome, which united the buildings of the museum complex into a single space in 1999, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of A. S. Pushkin.

In 2012, the State Museum of A.S. Pushkin celebrated its 55th anniversary. The government decree on the creation of the State Museum of A. S. Pushkin in Moscow was signed on October 5, 1957. Having emerged as part of the State Literary Museum and finally gaining independence, the Moscow Museum of A. S. Pushkin in a surprisingly short period of time (3.5 years) prepared for the opening of its first exhibition, which opened on the poet’s birthday, June 6, 1961.This wonderful exhibition presented the new Pushkin collection, collected by that time by the museum staff. It formed the basis of Moscow Pushkiniana. The museum immediately became extremely popular. Visitors were attracted by many things - the opportunity to get acquainted with materials about the life and work of Pushkin in beautiful and cozy rooms, and the joy of communicating with outstanding cultural figures.

The creation of a museum is always the work of enthusiasts and devotees. And the museum also arose thanks to amazing people who were inspired by the genius of Pushkin. Here are the names of some of them: N.V. Baranskaya, E.V. Muza, S.T. Ovchinnikova, N.S. Nechaeva, E.V. Pavlova, G.D. Kropivnitskaya, N.M. Volovich, I. K. Etkin, M. I. Kostrova, F. E. Vishnevsky, A. S. Frumkina, L. I. Vuich, A. S. Tishechkina, N. G. Vinokur, V. V. Goldberg. And, of course, special mention should be made of the name of the man who became the head of a group of specialists and enthusiasts and laid the foundation for the great history of the Moscow Pushkin House. This - Alexander Zinovievich Crane, the founder and first director of the museum, who devoted his entire life to his brainchild, is a legendary person, intellectual, collector, author of numerous publications and books telling about the history of the museum.

From the first days of its work, the museum, which began practically without a single exhibit, began to receive numerous gifts associated with the name of Pushkin - portraits, books, manuscripts, engravings, porcelain, furniture. In a short period of time, the museum collection included gifts that have today become national Pushkin relics. Among them is a miniature portrait of Pushkin as a child (a gift from the artist V. S. Yakut), a watercolor portrait of P. F. Sokolov “M. N. Volkonskaya with her son" (a gift from V.N. Zvegintsov through I.S. Zilbershtein), a box of medicines with which Dr. N.F. Arendt came to the dying Pushkin (a gift from the great-grandson of the doctor A.A. Arendt). Over time, already established private collections began to come to the museum - for example, such priceless collections as the library of Russian poetry collected by I. N. Rozanov, the collection of books and objects of applied art by P. V. Gubar, the collection of engravings by Y. G. Zak.

One of the main directions of development of the museum in the 1970-1980s was the work on museumification of Pushkin’s places. In 1986, a branch of the GMP opened - “A.S. Pushkin’s Apartment on Arbat”. The museum staff developed exhibitions in the Wulf house in Bernovo, Tver region, where Pushkin came more than once to visit his friends, and in the estate of the princes Vyazemsky Ostafyevo, Moscow region, where Pushkin, Karamzin, Zhukovsky, and Gogol visited. Revived through the efforts of the museum at the very beginning of the 1990s as a branch of the State Museum, Ostafyevo has now turned into an independent museum of federal significance.
At the same time, a new branch was created in the museum, seemingly little connected with Pushkin themes - the apartment of Andrei Bely on Arbat, 55. Two factors played an important role in the creation of the new branch: territorial proximity - proximity to the Pushkin memorial on Arbat, and collections of the 20th century GMP. Using the example of the work of one of the most prominent representatives of poetry and literature of the Silver Age, Andrei Bely, the museum reveals the theme of continuing the Pushkin tradition.

In 1999, during the anniversary year of Pushkin, the museum was given house No. 36 on Staraya Basmannaya Street in the Nemetskaya Sloboda area, where the poet spent his first childhood years. The poet’s “Parnassian father,” his uncle Vasily Lvovich Pushkin, the famous poet of the early 19th century, lived in this house. Today, V.L. Pushkin’s house, where Alexander Sergeevich himself visited more than once, is under restoration. It is planned that here, in the branch of the State Medical Museum, there will be an exhibition that will tell about the work and life of V.L. Pushkin and convey the image of Moscow of Pushkin’s childhood.

The preparation and holding of the 200th anniversary of the birth of A.S. Pushkin played a special role in the history of the museum. By this time, the need for a major overhaul of the main buildings of the estate on Prechistenka and restoration of museum collections was increasingly realized. The GMP initiative received effective support from the Moscow government. In August 1995, Moscow Mayor Yu. M. Luzhkov visited the museum, which by that time was closed due to serious accidents and complete deterioration of engineering communications. He decided on a major reconstruction of the buildings and the construction of a new storage facility.

A team of architects created a project for the reconstruction and restoration of the estate, and in 1996 Mospromstroy began ambitious restoration and construction work. In a short period of time, the main wooden house of the estate and the service outbuilding of the 18th century were thoroughly restored, all engineering and technical communications were replaced, and an underground part of the museum was built, where a recreational area for visitors was located (wardrobe, buffet, souvenir and book stalls). The manor courtyard received a glazed ceiling, uniting the individual buildings of the estates into a single whole.
On December 1, 1997, on the grand opening day of the first stage of the museum, which became the first Moscow event on the eve of the anniversary of A.S. Pushkin, the rebirth of the museum took place. As a result of reconstruction, the museum, located in an old noble estate, turned into a multifunctional museum and cultural center for scientific, exhibition, concert, pedagogical and restoration and storage work. In addition to the exhibitions, exhibition, concert and conference halls, a library and reading room, and children's playrooms were opened for visitors. Among the restored manor buildings were the white-stone chambers of the 17th century, overlooking Chertolsky Lane, and the garden pavilion, where the Onegin restaurant is now open.In a short period of time, a huge amount of work has been carried out in the renovated museum. A system of new permanent exhibitions has been created: “Pushkin and his era” (the front suite of the main estate house), interpreting the biography and creative path of the poet in the context of culture, literature, history, and art of the Pushkin era; “The history of the Khrushchev-Seleznev estate.History of GMP" (ground floor); exhibition of children's playrooms “Pushkin's Tales” (outbuilding in the estate courtyard), designed for working with children. The artistic design of the new permanent exhibitions on Prechistenka and Arbat belonged to a team of authors headed by the legendary artist Evgeniy Abramovich Rosenblum in the museum community. The grand opening after restoration of the “Memorial Apartment of A.S. Pushkin on Arbat” with a permanent exhibition telling the life of Pushkin in Moscow took place on February 18, 1999.

The 200th anniversary of Pushkin became a triumph of not only Russian, but also European culture. The State Pushkin Museum has carried out a number of significant exhibition projects. The exhibition “Pushkin Visiting Balzac,” launched in 1997 in Paris, continued in 1998 with the exhibition “Balzac. Dandy and the Creator" in the exhibition halls of the museum; exhibition “Pushkin. Miscavige. Two Views,” exhibited in 1998 in Warsaw, became available to Muscovites in May of the same year; "Pushkin and Goethe"; "Pushkin and Heine"; "Pushkin and Greece"; "Pushkin and Eastern Culture". As part of the anniversary, large-scale and significant scientific, educational, publishing, and concert programs were implemented.

In preparation for the anniversary of A. S. Pushkin, a grandiose program of restoration of museum collections was implemented. Numerous objects of painting, drawing, bronze, and porcelain, now on display in permanent displays and exhibitions, were restored and essentially introduced into cultural circulation.

And in October 2007, the Moscow Pushkin Museum celebrated its 50th anniversary. For this date, very interesting and large exhibition projects were prepared (“Gifts and Donors”, “Russian Duel”, etc.) and two very important anniversary publications: the catalog album “Gifts and Donors” and the chronicle album “Moscow House of Pushkin. 1957-2007". At the ceremonial meeting held on October 5, the museum received many valuable gifts from individuals, ministries, departments, large corporations, and other museums. In 2008, as a visible result of the collecting activity of recent years, Prechistenka successfully hosted an exhibition of new additions to the museum’s collection, “Little by little, treasures are growing,” one of the halls of which was filled with anniversary gifts.

Based on materials from www.culture.ru

Big changes await Prechistenka: landscaping has begun here under the “My Street” program. The sidewalks will become more spacious, in the park near the monument to V.I. More trees will be planted for Surikov, a garden will be created in the courtyard of the endocrinology clinic, and near the art school named after V.A. Serov will plant a flower garden. Navigation signs with information about ancient estates will be installed in the pavement.

Road to the monastery and prestigious area

In the 16th century, the future Prechistenka was part of the road from the Kremlin to the Novodevichy Convent. But then the street was called Chertolskaya - from the Chertolye stream (Chertory, Chertorye), which flowed in this area. Moreover, it began at the Borovitsky Gate of the Kremlin and only at the beginning of the 19th century was divided into two parts - Prechistenka and Lenivka (Volkhonka).

Urban development along the street began to take shape in the last third of the 16th century, after Ivan the Terrible included this territory in the oprichnina. Prechistenka received its modern name in 1658 by decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. He often traveled to the Novodevichy Convent and decided that Chertolskaya was an inappropriate name for the street leading to the monastery. The Quiet One ordered the street to be renamed in honor of the icon of the Most Pure Mother of God of Smolensk, kept in the monastery.

Over time, Prechistenka became popular among the nobility. Here, for example, the courtyards of the Vsevolozhskys, Lopukhins and Khrushchevs were located. The names of these eminent homeowners are preserved in the names of the lanes adjacent to Prechistenka.

The street was heavily damaged by fire in 1812. “There are barely five houses on Prechistenka,” a contemporary wrote after the French left. But the nobles quickly regained their possessions. From the writer Mikhail Zagoskin we find the following assessment of the renovated street: “...Beautiful Prechistenskaya street, in which several huge stone houses would not spoil the Palace embankment of St. Petersburg...”.

In 1921, the street was renamed again, this time to Kropotkinskaya - in honor of the famous anarchist revolutionary. The previous name - Prechistenka - was returned in 1994.

Pearls of Prechistenka

White Chambers

At the beginning of the street are the White Chambers of the late 17th century. Initially, the owner of the house was Prince Prozorovsky, manager of the Armory Order. In the 18th century, the chambers were rebuilt twice. At the end of the 19th century, a tavern was opened there. Later, the building was adapted into a cinema, and then into a residential building. In 1972, US President Richard Nixon was supposed to come to Moscow. They prepared thoroughly for this visit: many dilapidated buildings were demolished in the center of Moscow. The White Chambers were also almost razed to the ground, but restoration architects intervened in time. Under all the superstructures they discovered an ancient foundation and defended the building. Soon the reconstruction of the architectural monument began, which lasted until 1995.

18th century manor

House 8, located opposite the White Chambers, is a city estate of the 18th century. But the building is based on chambers from an earlier period. In the middle of the 18th century, Lieutenant General Yakov Protasov, a participant in the Seven Years' War, became the owner of the site. He completed the chambers, giving the building a U-shape. In 1794, the estate passed to Princess Volkonskaya. Then the house changed several more owners, the last of whom were the Istomins. They redid the main façade according to the design of the architect Konstantin Busse.

Apartment house Kostyakova

The five-story building on the corner of Prechistenka and Vsevolozhsky Lane was built in 1910. It is made in the neoclassical style and on the second floor level is decorated with sculptural panels on antique themes. The owner of the house, a well-known philanthropist merchant Evdokia Kostyakova, used it as an income house. Pianist and composer Alexander Goldenweiser lived here, and composers Sergei Taneyev and Sergei Rachmaninov visited him. And a frequent guest of another resident, the artist Boris Shaposhnikov, was Mikhail Bulgakov.

By the way, it was near house 9 that the main character of “Heart of a Dog,” Professor Preobrazhensky, saw Sharik. During the events described in the story, the Tsentrokhoz store was located on the lower floor of the building, from which Philip Philipovich came out before meeting a chilled, hungry dog. Now the Central Energy Customs is located in building 9.

House of General Orlov

House 10 is based on vaulted chambers from the late 17th century. The pilasters and plinth made of white stone appeared in the 18th century. The building acquired its modern appearance in the second half of the 19th century. The platbands, door frames and balcony of the second floor were made in the spirit of classical eclecticism, capitals were added, pilasters of the Corinthian order and an openwork lattice above the roof cornice.

In 1834–1842, the owner of the estate was the Decembrist Mikhail Orlov. After his death, some of the rooms began to be rented out. One of the guests was the artist Isaac Levitan. He used the room both as a home and as a workshop. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a frequent guest of Levitan. At the beginning of the 20th century, the owner of the house was a major collector of paintings and porcelain, merchant and haberdasher Moritz Philipp. The tutor of his son Walter was Boris Pasternak. The writer moved to house 10 in 1915, but lived here for only a short time. On May 28, 1915, pogroms of shops and houses belonging to the Germans began. Apparently, Philip was also mistaken for a German citizen: his house was seriously damaged. Pasternak wrote that he lost books and manuscripts during the pogrom. After these events, Moritz Philipp and his family rented an apartment in Sheremetyevsky (now Romanov) Lane, Boris Pasternak moved with them. After 1917, the mansion was occupied by various public organizations.

Khrushchev-Seleznev Estate

At number 12 on Prechistenka there is one of the most beautiful houses in Moscow - the Khrushchev-Seleznev estate. The ensemble, built according to the design of the architect Afanasy Grigoriev, is an excellent example of Empire residential development. The basis for the estate was the basement, residential outbuilding and old chambers of the early 18th century, which survived the fire of 1812. In 1814, the remains of the destroyed estate were acquired by retired guard ensign Alexander Khrushchev and began to rebuild the building. A few years later, on the site of the burnt house there was a mansion surrounded by numerous outbuildings and a small garden.

In the mid-1840s, the estate was bought by the tea merchants Rudakovs, and in 1860 it passed to retired captain Dmitry Seleznev. At the beginning of the 20th century, his daughter gave the house to the Moscow nobility to establish a children's orphanage school. Since 1961, the estate has housed the A.S. Museum. Pushkin.

Apartment building Rekka

The six-story apartment building on the corner of Prechistenka and Lopukhinsky Lane was built by order of the banker and entrepreneur Yakov Rekka. The author of the project was the architect Gustav Gelrich. The corner of the building was accentuated with a semicircular bay window. Above it rose a clock tower, decorated with bas-reliefs and sculptures. The building dominated the surrounding two- and three-story buildings. The house was considered elite: it had elevators, sewerage, running water and bathrooms. In 1911, renting an apartment here cost 1,200 - 3,000 rubles a year.

The two apartments on the top floor were occupied by Alexander Faberge, a relative of the famous jeweler. He was a legal adviser at the Faberge firm. During the revolution, Alexander hastily left Russia, leaving behind all his property. Both apartments were converted into communal apartments. They housed Moscow artists, in particular members of the “Jack of Diamonds” group. The new residents were sure that jewelry left by the previous owner could be hidden in the apartment. According to some reports, one of the caches of silver was actually discovered during the reconstruction of the house in the 1980s. Then the building acquired a seventh technical floor, and the corner tower became part of the superstructure and virtually ceased to exist. In 2011, the house underwent a large-scale renovation.

Ermolov's house

The building at number 20 on Prechistenka is based on a mansion from the late 18th century. It was built for the famous doctor Christian Loder, known for his unusual method of treating ailments. He “walked” his patients in the fresh air, played music for them and gave them mineral water from crystal glasses. For this, both the doctor and his patients were called “idlers.”

A fire in 1812 destroyed the building, and after the war, a two-story mansion with a strict classical facade, characteristic of Moscow buildings, appeared in its place. The mistress of the house during this period was Countess Orlova. Every Muscovite knew about the firecracker “fool Matryoshka” who lived in the Orlovs’ house. In the warm season, rouged and dressed in old countess dresses, she sat at the garden railing, talking to passers-by and blowing them kisses.

In 1851, the house passed to the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, General Alexei Ermolov. After him, the estate belonged to the manufacturer Vladimir Konshin, and since 1900 - to the entrepreneur and millionaire Alexei Ushkov, who owned a large tea company with representative offices around the world.

From 1921 to 1924, the building housed Isadora Duncan's choreographic studio. She not only worked, but also lived in an old mansion. Sergei Yesenin settled here after his marriage to a dancer.

House of Prince Dolgorukov

The property at the corner of Prechistenka and Sechenovsky Lane has a complex shape, since its formation took place over a long period of time, it united smaller plots. The house of Prince Andrei Dolgorukov at number 19 was built in the 1780s. Initially, the central part of the building, topped with a belvedere with a dome (burnt down in 1812), was connected to the side wings by columned galleries on the arcades. This was a unique architectural solution for Moscow. Subsequently, through arches were laid. In the 1860s, the house was occupied by the Alexander-Mariinsky Women's School, founded by Generalss Chertova. In 1921, part of the Military Academy of the Red Army moved into the building. Now the mansion houses the Zurab Tsereteli Art Gallery.

Polivanova Gymnasium

The estate at 32/1 Prechistenka was rebuilt after the fire of 1812. The result was a very impressive structure, almost a palace. The street facade of the main house was decorated with an eight-column portico. Arched passages led into the courtyard. On the territory there are outbuildings, stables, a carriage house and a house church. When Griboyedov’s comedy “Woe from Wit” was staged at the Maly Theater, the interiors of this estate were taken as a model when creating the scenery. The house was owned by the guard cornet Pavel Okhotnikov.

In 1879, the house passed to the hereditary honorary citizens, the merchants Pegov. They remained owners until 1915. In 1882, the building was rented for the Polivanov gymnasium.

“In the seventies of the last century, two outstanding teachers of that time - Sofya Alexandrovna Arsenyeva and Lev Ivanovich Polivanov - established two gymnasiums in Moscow, in the Prechistenka area: Arsenyevskaya and Polivanovskaya. The connection between these schools was the closest; if the sons studied with Polivanov, the daughters were sent to Arsenyeva. The teaching was in most cases common, almost all the students knew each other, and, starting from the sixth grade, youthful romances arose between them. There were cases of sending notes in the coat pockets of the mathematician A.A. Ignatov, who, moving from lesson to lesson, did not suspect that he was playing the role of a carrier pigeon.” (From the memoirs of T.A. Aksakova)

Many famous people graduated from the Polivanovsky gymnasium, among them Vladimir Solovyov, Valery Bryusov, Andrei Bely, Maximilian Voloshin, Alexander Golovin and Alexander Alekhine. The sons of Leo Tolstoy studied here. Contemporaries said that he came to the gymnasium and argued with the teachers about Russian literature.

In 1915, the house passed to the wealthy businesswoman Vera Firsanova. In 1921, the State Academy of Artistic Sciences was located in the old estate. Now the building is occupied by children's art school No. 1 and children's music school No. 11 named after V. I. Muradeli. Polivanovsky evenings are held here on Prechistenka.

Photo by Ancora / fotki.yandex.ru

Prechistenka Street is one of the oldest Moscow streets. In addition, this is also one of the most beautiful and luxurious streets of the capital, keeping memories of famous aristocrats, richest businessmen and great writers and poets who inhabited it at different times. Perhaps, on no other street in Moscow can you find so many solemn and elegant mansions and luxurious apartment buildings as on Prechistenka. It’s not for nothing that this street and its surroundings are often compared to the fashionable suburb of Paris - Saint-Germain. Here, each house is the crown of creation, and the name of its owner is a separate page in the encyclopedia.

The history of Prechistenka is closely intertwined with the history of Russia, the history of Moscow. In the 16th century, on the site of modern Prechistenka Street, there was a road to the Novodevichy Convent. The monastery was built in 1524 in honor of the liberation of Smolensk from the Polish invasion. From the end of the 16th century, urban buildings began to appear along the road, and the resulting street began to be called Chertolskaya after a stream that flowed nearby, called Chertoroy by local residents. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich decided that such a name, associated with devils, was not appropriate for the street leading to the Novodevichy Convent, the monastery of the Most Pure Mother of God. In 1658, by order of the Tsar, the street was renamed Prechistenskaya, and the Chertolsky Gate of the city, which existed at its beginning, was renamed Prechistensky. Over time, the name of the street in colloquial speech was shortened to the pronunciation “Prechistenka”, and later the abbreviated name was established officially. At the end of the 17th century, Prechistenka Street became especially popular among Moscow nobles. Mansions appear on it that belonged to the aristocratic families of the Lopukhins, Golitsyns, Dolgorukys, Vsevolzhskys, Eropkins and many others. The best architects of that time worked on the construction of luxurious noble mansions, sometimes creating real palaces. From the second half of the 19th century, Prechistenka was chosen by Moscow merchants, and the merchant families of the Konshins, Morozovs, Rudakovs, and Pegovs appeared among the homeowners. The merchants, who had become rich in production and trade, did not want to lag behind the aristocracy in their desire to live beautifully, and the former manorial estates on Prechistenka are often rebuilt by new owners with even greater pomp and pomp. Luxurious apartment buildings were later built here, intended for rent to wealthy tenants.

Over the course of its history, the street changed its name several times; we have already mentioned some of these changes, but these are not all the transformations. In 1921, the street was renamed in honor of P.A. Kropotkin, a famous revolutionary anarchist, he was born in a house located in one of the Prechistensky lanes - Shtatny. Until 1994, Prechistenka was called Kropotkinskaya Street. In 1994, its historical name was returned to it.

Well, let's go for a walk along this most interesting street in Moscow.

White and Red Chambers (Prechistenka, 1, 1/2).

An idea of ​​the architecture of the earliest period of the existence of Prechistenka Street can be obtained thanks to the relatively recently restored White and Red Chambers, located at Prechistenka No. 1 and No. 1\2.

White Chambers of Prince B.I. Prozorovsky

The “White Chambers” belonged to Prince B.I. Prozorovsky, manager of the Armory Prikaz; they were built back in 1685 as the main house of his estate.

The three-story L-shaped house has a passage arch leading to its front yard. The type of house refers to buildings “on cellars”, that is, its lower floor is a basement partially buried in the ground, given over to household needs. The upper floors are the master's and dining rooms. It is interesting that the chambers were built not in the depths of the estate, but along the street; this location of the main house is rare for Moscow architecture of the late 17th - early 18th centuries.

The uniqueness of this building also lies in the fact that it has survived to this day. The fact is that at the end of the 19th century, when the walls of the White City were dismantled, many old buildings were also removed, most of the boyars’ towers did not survive to this day, but thanks to the miraculously surviving “White Chambers”, we have an idea about them.

The White Chambers were restored in 1995 and now house the Exhibition Complex of the Moscow Department of Cultural Heritage.

Red Chambers of Boyar B.G. Yushkova

Around the same time, at the end of the 17th century, the “Red Chambers” were built, which first belonged to the boyar B.G. Yushkov and the former main house of his estate, and later to the steward of the Imperial Court N.E. Golovin. Then this building passed into the possession of Golovin’s son-in-law - M.M. Golitsyn, admiral general of the Russian fleet, later appointed to the post of governor of Astrakhan. Perhaps it was in this house that Golitsyn’s son, A.M. Golitsyn, the future vice-chancellor of Catherine II, was born. From the middle of the 18th century, the “Red Chambers” passed to the Lopukhin family; P. Lopukhin, one of the active members of the Decembrist movement, lived here. After the Patriotic War of 1812, the owners of the building were mainly representatives of the merchant class.

The “Red Chambers” were built in the Moscow Baroque style; the main façade of the building was exquisitely and richly decorated. The initially three-story building (the top floor was later lost during reconstruction) was located at the highest point of the relief, towered above the surrounding area and, together with the “White Chambers,” was for a long time the dominant feature of the architectural ensemble of Prechistenka. The building of the “Red Chambers” faced Ostozhenka with its end, and the main facade, richly decorated, was facing the Chertolsky Gate of the White City. According to the tradition of pre-Petrine architecture, the lower floor of the chambers was given over to household needs, and the upper two floors housed a large chamber for receiving guests and the master's chambers. It was possible to get to the second floor of the building both by internal stairs from the lower and upper floors, and directly from the street, from a separate red porch located at the northern end of the house (for some reason this porch was not restored during the restoration).

In the 1820s, on the spit of Ostozhenka and Prechistenka, a two-story stone building with benches on the lower floor was erected, which for a long time obscured the “Red Chambers”. In 1972, the building, already fairly dilapidated by that time, was demolished in connection with preparations for the official visit to Moscow of US President Richard Nixon, along with it the “Red Chambers” and “White Chambers” were almost demolished, modified almost beyond recognition by repeated cultural layers and looked like completely ordinary buildings by the 70s of the 20th century. Fortunately, the architects managed to identify the architectural and historical value of both buildings in time, and the chambers managed to avoid the deplorable fate of destruction.

Vorbricher Pharmacy (Prechistenka, 6).

Pharmacy of Andrei Fedorovich Forbricher

Opposite the White Chambers, at Prechistenka 6, there is a mansion built at the end of the 18th century. The building was rebuilt several times by its owners, so it is difficult to say what it looked like originally, but the current appearance of the decor dates back to the second half of the 19th century. The facade of the building is decorated with Corinthian pilasters, which seem to divide the building into five equal parts. The central arched window is decorated with stucco decoration depicting garlands of fruits and flowers. The first floor of the building has quite large display windows - the building project was developed taking into account the prospect of placing retail enterprises in the building. The building has now been renovated while maintaining the appearance it acquired in the 1870s.

In 1873, the building was bought and a pharmacy was installed on the second floor by Andrei Fedorovich Vorbricher, a pharmacist from the famous Vorbricher dynasty, ranked among the nobility in 1882. There is an opinion that Andrei Fedorovich Vorbricher is none other than Heinrich Vorbricher himself, the founder of the Vorbricher pharmacist dynasty, master of pharmacy, pharmacist at the Imperial Moscow theaters on his own pay, who changed his name in order to become more akin to Russian culture.

The pharmacy still operates in this building.

City estate of Surovshchikov (Prechistenka, 5).

Outbuilding of the city estate of V.V. Surovshchikova

From the 18th century wooden manor built for Princess Saltykova-Golovkina, only an outbuilding and a couple of service buildings remain. After the princess, the estate was owned by the merchant V.V. Severshchikov. The surviving manor outbuilding was rebuilt in 1857, it was expanded, a second floor was added, and the small outbuilding turned into a nice mansion with stucco decoration and a cast-iron balcony above the entrance. In the depths of the site, which was previously part of the property, two two-story houses have also been preserved, which previously served as the side parts of the rear building of the estate. Also, a small park remains from the city estate of the merchant Surovshchikov.

In the 1920s, among other residents, Emelyan Yaroslavsky, the first commissioner of the Kremlin, the chairman of the aggressive “Union of Militant Atheists,” who was engaged in the extermination of religion - the opium of the people, and who initiated the destruction of churches, lived in this house. Yaroslavsky is the author of the atheist book “The Bible for Believers and Non-Believers”, as well as “Essays on the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)”

Rzhevsky-Orlov-Philip estate (Prechistenka, 10).

Estate of Mikhail Fedorovich Orlov

At the corner of Prechistenka Street and Chertolsky Lane there is a mansion built in the mid-18th century; it has at its base vaulted chambers with basements erected in the 17th century. This house has a very interesting history.

Built in the 18th century, the mansion belonged at different times to the Rzhevsky, Likhachev, and Odoevsky families. In 1839, the house was purchased by the famous general, hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Mikhail Fedorovich Orlov; it was his signature that was on the act of surrender of Paris in 1814. The brave general was the descendants of Grigory Orlov, the favorite of Catherine II, he was one of the founders of the Order of Russian Knights, which gave rise to secret communities of future Decembrists, in the ranks of which Mikhail Orlov himself found himself. In 1823, he was removed from his post as head of the division in Chisinau for the political propaganda of the Decembrist V. Raevsky, which he allowed in the military units subordinate to him. Later, he was completely dismissed and investigated in the case of the Decembrists and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Orlov was saved from exile to Siberia only by the intercession of his brother A.F. Orlov, who conducted the investigation into the December uprising and petitioned the emperor about the fate of his brother. Thanks to this patronage, Mikhail Orlov was able to return from exile in the village to Moscow in 1831, although he was already deprived of any opportunity to conduct political activities. He lived in the mansion on Prechistenka, 10 from 1839 to 1842 with his wife Ekaterina Nikolaevna, daughter of General N.N. Raevsky.

The Orlovs were friends with A.S. Pushkin. Even in Chisinau, Mikhail Orlov had a friendly relationship with the poet; they saw him almost every day, and to this day, among literary critics, debate continues about which of the two women was Pushkin’s “southern love” - Maria Volkonskaya or Orlov’s wife Ekaterina . Be that as it may, Pushkin captured the features of Ekaterina Nikolaevna in the image of Marina Mnishek in the poem “Boris Godunov”, and the poet dedicated the poem “Alas! Why does she shine with momentary, tender beauty?”, and he spoke of her as “an extraordinary woman.”

In 1842, Mikhail Orlov died, he was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery, and his house on Prechistenka passed to other owners.

In the 1880s, part of the former Oryol household was occupied by furnished rooms intended for rent to guests; one of them was hired by the artist Isaac Levitan, who had just graduated from the Moscow School of Painting. The room with a partition in which he was housed served as his home and workshop at the same time. There is evidence that A.P. Chekhov visited him in this house, with whom they were friends, having met back in the 1870s, as students.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the owner of the house was a Frenchman, a haberdasher merchant, and a famous collector of porcelain and paintings, M. Philip. In March 1915, Philip hired a home teacher for his son Walter, who became none other than the young Boris Pasternak.

After the 1917 revolution, the mansion housed various public organizations, in particular the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, many of whose members were killed as a result of Stalinist repressions. Today, the Rzhevsky-Likhachev-Philip house has been carefully restored and has been restored to its early 20th-century appearance.

Estate of the Khrushchev-Seleznevs / Museum of A.S. Pushkin (Prechistenka, 12).

Khrushchev-Seleznev Estate

The ancient noble estate at 12 Prechistenka, which is commonly called the Khrushchev-Seleznev estate, was formed in the second half of the 18th century, burned down during the fire of 1812 and was rebuilt. Since then, the manor house has almost completely retained its appearance acquired in the first third of the 19th century. Before the Napoleonic War of 1812, the house was owned by famous families of princes: the Zinovievs, the Meshcherskys, the Vasilchikovs.

Before the Patriotic War of 1812, this estate belonged to Prince Fyodor Sergeevich Baryatinsky, an active statesman during the reign of Catherine II, who, through his direct participation in the coup of 1762 and allegedly even the murder of Peter III, contributed to the accession of Catherine the Great to the throne. Having subsequently been close to the empress, he made a brilliant career at court, reaching the rank of chief marshal. Under Paul I, he was expelled from St. Petersburg and probably lived on his estates, including in Moscow, on Prechistenka, becoming one of the typical representatives of the wealthy non-servant nobility and nobles who left the court and lived out their lives, indulging in social life: trips , balls, visits.

Immediately after the death of Fyodor Sergeevich in 1814, his heir, for a not very significant sum, cedes the estate to a retired guard ensign, a wealthy landowner Alexander Petrovich Khrushchev, a close acquaintance of Fyodor Sergeevich. The amount of the transaction was small, since the estate was badly damaged in the fire of 1812, and all that remained of it was the stone basement of the main house and burnt outbuildings.

Alexander Petrovich Khrushchev belonged to an old noble family. During the Patriotic War of 1812 he fought as part of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, retired in 1814 and surprisingly quickly became rich, which caused numerous gossip in society. They said that he made his fortune through farming, which was considered indecent for a nobleman. He was the owner of estates in the Tambov, Penza and Moscow provinces.

Immediately after purchasing the ashes of the Baryatin estate, Khrushchev began building a new house on the preserved basement of the old one, and in 1816 Muscovites were able to see an incredibly beautiful empire-style mansion on Prechistenka. The new house, also built in wood, is smaller in area than the previous one, so wide terraces were created on the stone base, which received beautiful wrought iron fences and became an original feature of the house. The house is small, but it is so elegant, picturesque and at the same time solemn that it looks like a miniature palace. The two facades of the house, facing Prechistenka and Khrushchevsky Lane, are decorated with porticoes that differ from each other in architecture. The one overlooking Prechistenka is especially good; it is made in monumental forms, decorated with six slender columns of the Ionic order, visually separating the high arched window openings from each other, an excellent stucco frieze of plant themes and medallions. The house from the front facade is built with a mezzanine with a balcony. The side façade, more intimate, is accented by a portico that includes 8 paired columns, behind which there is a relief panel on the wall. In general, the design of the house combines the uniqueness of the composition with typical Empire details honed to perfection; numerous decorative elements are maintained in strict stylistic unity.

The Khrushchev-Seleznev estate. Front facade

The authorship of the project of Khrushchev’s house has long been the subject of numerous disputes; it was assumed that the author of this magnificent mansion was the famous architect Domenico Gilardi; it later turned out that the project was worked on by a student of Giovanni Gilardi and Francesco Camporesi - Afanasy Grigoriev, a talented architect, a former serf, who received his freedom in 22 years old and worked on the reconstruction of many Moscow buildings after 1812 together with Domenico Gilardi.

After the death of A.P. Khrushchev in 1842, his heirs sold the estate to honorary citizen Alexei Fedorovich Rudakov, a Verkhovazh merchant, a wealthy tea merchant, who decided to move to Moscow for permanent residence and transfer his trading company to White Stone. Thus, this manor house did not remain aloof from the social changes that A.S. wrote about back in the 1830s. Pushkin: “The merchants are getting richer and are beginning to settle in the chambers abandoned by the nobility.”

In the 1860s, the estate came into the possession of retired captain Dmitry Stepanovich Seleznev, a nobleman. But such a return of the estate to noble hands was already an unusual phenomenon for that time. Another rare phenomenon in the fate of the Khrushchev-Seleznev estate is that, despite all its numerous owners, the house was preserved almost unchanged - in the same form in which it was restored by Khrushchev. Except that the Seleznevs placed an image of their coat of arms on the pediment, which still adorns the building. All other repairs carried out repeatedly did not affect the appearance of the house - a rare case, happy for this magnificent mansion. Apparently, the exceptional artistic value of the house was so undeniable that no one even thought of changing anything in such a harmonious ensemble. Well, the high culture of the home’s owners probably played a certain role.

D.S. Seleznev was a very rich man; before the reform of serfdom, he owned 9 thousand souls of serfs, and the Seleznev family coat of arms was included in the “General Arms of Interest of the Noble Families of the Russian Empire.”

In 1906, the daughter of the owner of the house decided to perpetuate the memory of her parents and donated the estate to the Moscow nobility to house a children's school-orphanage named after Anna Alexandrovna and Dmitry Stepanovich Seleznev, which was located here before the 1917 revolution. After the October Revolution, the estate building was transferred from one institution to another, and there was just so much here: the Toy Museum, the Literary Museum, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Institute of Oriental Studies, and many others. In 1957, the Moscow authorities decided to create a museum of A.S. Pushkin, and in 1961 the museum was placed here, in a manor house restored specially for this purpose on Prechistenka, 12. It should be noted that the place for the museum of the great Russian poet was chosen very successfully, because the Khrushchev-Seleznev manor complex in its architectural features most closely matches features of the construction of Pushkin's time, in addition, A.S. himself. Pushkin probably visited the mansions of his relatives and friends on Prechistenka; perhaps he also visited this house No. 12. In the museum halls today the atmosphere of Pushkin’s era is recreated, the exhibition tells about the life and work of the poet, there is an extensive collection of books, paintings, applied art of the 19th century, manuscripts, and furniture.

Apartment building E.A. Kostyakova / Central Energy Customs (Prechistenka, 9).

Central Energy Customs

Literary associations with Prechistenka arise not only in connection with the Khrushchev-Seleznev mansion. Many events in Mikhail Bulgakov’s famous story “The Heart of a Dog” are connected with this street. For example, Professor Preobrazhensky meets the dog Sharik for the first time and treats him to Krakow sausage near house No. 9. Now the Central Energy Customs is located there. And during the events described in Bulgakov’s story, the Centrokhoz store was located, from which Professor Preobrazhensky came out before meeting the frozen and hungry dog ​​Sharik, who was watching him from the opposite side of the street.

The building in which the Central Energy Customs is now located is the apartment building of E.A. Kostyakova, built in 1910, presumably according to the design of the architect N.I. Zherikhov (in some sources the name of the architect G.A. Gelrikh appears). The neoclassical building on the second floor level is decorated with a number of sculptural panels on ancient themes. The artist Boris Shaposhnikov, a friend of Mikhail Bulgakov, once lived here, whom the writer often visited and thanks to whose person he probably decided to mention this house in his work.

Estate of A.I. Konshina / House of Scientists (Prechistenka, 16).

House of Scientists on the territory of the estate of A.I. Konshina. Entrance gate and modern building

The property on which the building with the address Prechistenka Street, 16 with the House of Scientists located in it is now located, at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries belonged to Ivan Petrovich Arkharov, who served as Moscow military governor in 1796-1797. In addition to his appointment to this position, Paul I granted him a thousand souls of peasants and this mansion on Prechistenka. Ivan Petrovich lived in the donated estate as a real master. Every day at least 40 people dined at the Arkharovs’ house, and on Sundays luxurious balls were given, which attracted the best Moscow society. Even Emperor Alexander I visited the estate, who had a feeling of great respect for Ivan Petrovich’s wife Ekaterina Alexandrovna, née Rimskaya-Korsakova.

In 1818, the Arkharovs' house, badly damaged in the Napoleonic fire, was bought by Prince Ivan Alexandrovich Naryshkin, chamberlain and chief ceremonial master at the court of Alexander I. Presumably, the Naryshkins restored the estate and moved to it in 1829 after the resignation of Ivan Alexandrovich. Under the Naryshkins, the life of the estate was organized in approximately the same way as under the previous owners: the same receptions, the same balls, well, except that the atmosphere became even more luxurious and sophisticated, because the Naryshkins were higher in rank than the Arkharovs.

Ivan Aleksandrovich Naryshkin was the uncle of Natalya Nikolaevna Goncharova, and when A.S. Pushkin married Natalya on February 18, 1831, and was the bride's father. Of course, the acquired kinship obliged A.S. Pushkin to make visits to the houses of his wife’s relatives, so Pushkin and Goncharova sometimes visited the Naryshkins at the estate on Prechistenka.

From the Naryshkins, the house became the property of their relatives, the Musin-Pushkins. It is interesting that the nephew of Ivan Aleksandrovich Naryshkin, Mikhail Mikhailovich Naryshkin, a former Decembrist, sentenced to hard labor and exile for participating in the uprising, illegally visited here, in this house on Prechistenka, with the Musins-Pushkins. And on one of these visits M.M. Naryshkin was visited by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, who at that time was working on the second volume of Dead Souls and was interested in the activities of the Decembrists in this regard.

Subsequently, the estate was replaced by two more noble owners - the Gagarins and Trubetskoys - before in 1865 it became the property of representatives of the merchant class - the Serpukhov merchants Konshins. In this sense, the estate on Prechistenka, 16 was no exception, and, like many estates in Moscow, after the abolition of serfdom, it passed from the impoverished nobles to the “new Russians” of the 19th century - wealthy industrialists and entrepreneurs.

Ivan Nikolaevich Konshin, who acquired the estate from the Trubetskoys, was a hereditary merchant, inherited from his parents the paper weaving and calico printing factory "Old Manor" and about a million rubles, which he, skillfully conducting commercial affairs, increased tenfold by the end of his life, and in 1882 even Together with his brothers, he received the title of nobility for the merits of their family “in the field of domestic industry for two hundred years.” The Konshina spouses had no children, so the entire ten-million dollar fortune and the factory after the death of Ivan Nikolaevich in 1898 remained in the hands of Konshin’s widow Alexandra Ivanovna, who at that time was already 65 years old. Realizing her inability to continue conducting commercial affairs, Alexandra Ivanovna liquidates her husband’s enterprise and sells the factory to his brothers. She herself continues to live secludedly in an estate on Prechistenka, surrounded by only a couple of people closest to her, and actively manifests herself only in charity. In 1908-1910, Alexandra Ivanovna, already at the rather advanced age of 77 years, suddenly started a large-scale reconstruction of the estate. It is difficult to say what prompted the lonely elderly woman to begin rebuilding the house of her estate, and even spending a huge amount of money on this project. According to contemporaries, the Konshin family lawyer A.F. Deryuzhinsky, Alexandra Ivanovna’s confidant, once during a walk noticed a dangerously large crack in the wall of the Konshins’ house on the side of Mertvy (Prechistensky) Lane, the appearance of which he did not hesitate to inform the owner of the house. Allegedly, this served as the decisive reason to demolish the old mansion and build a new house-palace in its place, which would be befitting the owner’s now noble status. Deryuzhinsky hires a familiar architect, Anatoly Ottovich Gunst, to rebuild the building.

Gunst took up construction on a large scale, without limiting his means. He designed and implemented the project of a real palace ensemble. Thanks to the vision of a talented architect and the almost unlimited financial capabilities of the customer, a building appeared in Moscow in 1910, which rightfully took one of the leading places among the most luxurious buildings of the early 20th century. The architect tactfully preserved the harmonious dimensions of the previous mansion, erecting a new house, as requested by the customer, according to the plan of the demolished one. He paid the closest attention to the decor of the building and especially its interiors. He placed accents in the building by placing a large attic above the cornice in the center and small ones on the sides, and evenly divided the extended façade with flat pilasters of the Ionic order, all of this was done in the best traditions of neoclassicism. And in the window frames, small fancy decorative stucco moldings, and a bas-relief panel on one of the walls of the house, features of eclecticism can be traced. The front facade of the house opens onto the garden, fenced on the Prechistenka side by a high stone fence with graceful arched niches, balustrades and flowerpots rising from above. The massive pylons of the entrance gate are decorated with sculptures of lions.

Estate of A.I. Konshina

The interiors of the building were truly luxurious, in the creation of which the architect showed himself to be a great master. Particularly beautiful were the Winter Garden with its skylight and glass bay window, the White and Blue Halls: there were Italian marble, stone sculptures, French bronze decorations, rich stucco ceilings, fancy chandeliers, and expensive parquet floors. The bathroom was also luxuriously furnished; all the plumbing fixtures were brought straight from England. The house did not lag behind in technical terms, it was literally “stuffed” with all kinds of modern equipment: water supply, sewerage, various devices, the house even had a special system of exhaust vacuum cleaners that worked through the ventilation holes. All this amazing beauty and technical innovations brought a sense of celebration to the last years of the pious widow’s life.

But, unfortunately, it didn’t take long to enjoy the magnificent Konshina Palace. 4 years after its construction was completed, she died. The palace was inherited by the relatives of Ivan Nikolaevich Konshin, who at the beginning of 1916 sold the Prechistensky estate for 400 thousand rubles to Alexey Ivanovich Putilov, a major entrepreneur and banker who was the chairman of the board of the Russian-Asian Bank and was also part of the management of fifty other reputable joint-stock enterprises and firms. But the new owner was not lucky enough to live in the magnificent estate for long - the October Revolution broke out, and all the banker’s property, including the palace on Prechistenka, was confiscated.

In 1922, the House of Scientists was located in the Konshina Palace. The initiative to create it belongs to Maxim Gorky. He allegedly explained to Lenin that the Moscow scientific community simply needed such a club. And the location for the House of Scientists was chosen on Prechistenka in connection with the large number of educational institutions, scientific institutes, libraries, and museums located nearby. The scientists were “sheltered” in no less than Konshina’s palace, here all the necessary conditions were created for them and an environment favorable for communication between workers of science, technology and art and for their relaxation. Needless to say, the communication and recreation of Soviet scientists did not have a positive impact on the condition of the once luxurious palace; of course, most of the magnificent interior decoration of the house was lost and damaged irrevocably and hopelessly. And it is impossible to talk about the addition of an additional building in the constructivist style to the palace building in 1932 except with regret - it simply disfigured the estate ensemble. Moreover, even if we ignore the issue of aesthetics, historical and architectural value, it is completely unclear why this new building was needed at all, even functionally, because the estate was large enough without it and was quite capable of satisfying any needs of the House of Scientists both at that time and now .

Estate of the Lopukhins-Stanitskys / Museum of L.N. Tolstoy (Prechistenka, 11).

Lopukhin-Stanitsky estate

As a striking architectural example of the Moscow Empire style, it is worth paying attention to the Lopukhin-Stanitsky estate, built in 1817-1822 by the architect A.G. Grigoriev. The estate consists of a plastered wooden main house built on a white stone base, stretching along the red line of the street, an outbuilding along Lopukhinsky Lane, service buildings inside the courtyard and a stone fence of the site with an entrance gate. The main building of the estate is very elegant, its monumental forms are harmoniously combined with the intimate scale of the building, everything in it is very proportional and natural. The street facade of the house is decorated with a light six-column Ionic portico; in the depths of it, behind the columns, on the facade one can see a relief multi-figure stucco frieze; the triangular tympanum of the pediment is decorated with a noble coat of arms. The estate building has almost completely preserved its original appearance and represents a unique example of post-fire Moscow development.

Lopukhin-Stanitsky estate. Portico

Since 1920, the Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy Museum has been located in the Lopukhin-Stanitsky estate. Here is the main literary exhibition telling about the work and life of the great writer. The museum houses the archives of the Russian educational publishing house “Posrednik”, founded on the initiative of Lev Nikolaevich, a collection of photographs taken by Sofia Andreevna, Tolstoy’s wife, and most importantly, Tolstoy’s manuscript fund, numbering more than two million pages of the writer’s manuscripts. Looking here, you can see with your own eyes Tolstoy’s personal belongings, his letters, original manuscripts of “War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina” and many other works of the writer.

Monument to L.N. Tolstoy on Prechistenka

In 1972, a monument to L.N. was erected in the garden near the museum. Tolstoy, whose author is the famous sculptor S.D. Merkulov. This monument was moved here from the park on the Maiden Field. Granite Tolstoy stands among the trees, bowing his head thoughtfully and putting his hands behind his belt, supporting his wide, flowing shirt. The look of his old man, wise with worldly experience, is deeply thoughtful and sad.

House of Isadora Duncan (Prechistenka, 20).

Isadora Duncan House

Among the buildings with which the fates of many famous people are connected, it is worth mentioning the mansion on Prechistenka, 20. It was built at the end of the 18th century, possibly according to the design of the famous architect Matvey Kazakov. In the middle of the 19th century, the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, the conqueror of the Caucasus, General Alexey Petrovich Ermolov, lived in it, and at the beginning of the 20th century, millionaire Alexey Konstantinovich Ushkov, who owned a large tea company “Gubkin and Kuznetsov”, which had representative offices not only in Russia, settled in the mansion. but also in all famous tea markets in the world: in London, India, China, on the islands of Ceylon and Java.

A.K. Ushkov, together with his relatives, patronized the Moscow Philharmonic and the Bolshoi Theater; the industrialist’s involvement in charitable activities helped him meet the Bolshoi Theater prima ballerina Alexandra Mikhailovna Balashova, who later became his wife. For his beautiful wife, Ushkov ordered the reconstruction of his mansion on Prechistenka and equipped it with a special rehearsal dance hall for her.

The year 1917 came as a surprise to the family of the businessman and ballerina, and the first 4 years after the revolution were not the easiest in their biography; only Balashova’s involvement in the world of high art and her close acquaintance with Boris Krasin, appointed to the post of manager of the Music Department of the People's Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR. Alexandra Balashova continued to perform on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater and in 1922 even took part in the theater's Paris tour. Probably, it was precisely these tours that gave Ushkov and Balashova the understanding that it was not necessary to put up with the new state of affairs in Russia; they brought some confidence in their future in emigration and the necessary connections. And in the same 1922, under the guise of traveling along the Volga, the couple left Russia forever. In Paris they settled on Rue de la Pompe, and Alexandra Mikhailovna continued her ballet career on the stage of the Grand Opera.

Already in France, Balashova learned that her mansion on Prechistenka with a mirrored rehearsal hall was given over to the dance school of the famous “sandal girl” Isadora Duncan, who had arrived in Russia. Ironically, it so happened that the house on Rue de la Pompe, in which Ushkov and Balashova settled upon arriving in Paris, previously belonged to Isadora Duncan. So the two great dancers unwittingly exchanged mansions. Duncan, who later learned of the exchange, laughed and called it a "square dance."

Isadora Duncan's house. Decor elements

Isadora Duncan is an American innovative dancer, considered the founder of free dance. Being a professional ballerina, she created a radically new direction in dance, abandoning classical dance costumes, she danced barefoot, dressed in a Greek chiton, which pretty much shocked the audience. Traveling around the world and performing, she gradually gained fame and continued to search with inspiration and creative enthusiasm for that dance “that could become a divine reflection of the human spirit through the movements of the body.” Constant creative research and experimentation, a special gift for expressing her emotional state and spiritual freedom through movements, an amazing intuitive feeling for music, naturalness, beauty and plasticity of performance helped Isadora Duncan find her dance and make it the subject of delight in huge halls. She gave several concerts in Russia in 1904-1905 and 1913. And in 1921 she received an official invitation from the People's Commissar of Education A.V. Lunacharsky to open his own dance school in Moscow. Lunacharsky, who lured the world-famous “divine sandal” to Russia, did not skimp on promises; one of the People’s Commissar’s promises was permission to dance in... the Cathedral of Christ the Savior! They say that Duncan passionately wanted to dance there, because ordinary theater spaces did not provide such space for the realization of her creative impulses and ideas. And in what other country, if not in Russia, where such dramatic changes are taking place, should we look for new forms in art and in life!? In addition, Duncan had really long dreamed of opening her own dance school for girls. And in Russia they promised to provide her with “a thousand children and a beautiful imperial palace in Livadia, in Crimea.” Believing the numerous promises of the Soviet authorities, Isadora came to the country of “vodka and black bread.” Some disappointment awaited her here: much of what was promised was never fulfilled, the great dancer did not have the chance to show her “pagan art” in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, she had to perform “only” at the Bolshoi Theater, she was not destined to see the Livadia Palace of Nicholas II . Isadora was given a smaller “palace” to create a school and personal residence - a luxurious mansion on Prechistenka.

In Moscow, Isadora Duncan met the Russian poet Sergei Yesenin, and their sudden love turned into the marriage of these two talented individuals. Duncan and Yesenin lived together in a mansion on Prechistenka. It was here that Yesenin created his “Confession of a Hooligan” and many other works. But the union of the eccentric dancer and the young poet did not last long; already in 1924, their marriage, which turned into a whirlwind of scandals, alcohol intoxication and misunderstanding, was dissolved. In the same year, Isadora leaves Russia and goes to France to escape from the emotional turmoil associated with parting with Yesenin and with her fading career, take care of her real estate and resolve issues of her shaky financial situation. Already in Europe, she receives news of Yesenin’s suicide. The life of Isadora herself ends tragically and absurdly. On September 14, 1927 in Nice, after having just created a new dance in the studio, inspired and in high spirits, she gets into the Bugatti 35 sports car, exclaiming “Farewell, friends! I’m going to glory!”, and within a minute she finds herself strangled with her own scarf, caught on the axle of the car.

At the Duncan school-studio, children, having learned about the death of their great mentor, danced Bach’s “Aria” on the day of her funeral, and it seemed that among the children’s figures Isadora Duncan herself was dancing in her flowing tunic, again telling people about her spiritual and tragic life ...

House of N.I. Mindovsky / Embassy of Austria (Prechistensky lane, 6).

House of N.I. Mindovsky

In 1905-1906, at the corner of Starokonyushenny and Prechistensky lanes, the architect Nikita Gerasimovich Lazarev built for Nikolai Ivanovich Mindovsky, one of the heirs of the famous dynasty of textile manufacturers Mindovsky, director of the board of the Volzhskaya Manufactory Partnership. This house can rightfully be called the best in the architect’s work. The mansion is the finest example of Moscow neoclassicism. The two wings of the building, stretching along the alleys, are united by a spectacular corner domed rotunda, surrounded by unusual squat and powerful paired columns of the Doric order. The street facades are decorated with large columned porticoes with enlarged entablatures, decorated with exquisite stucco friezes with mythological Greek scenes, corner palmettes on the roof and lion mascarons. The composition and style of the building clearly express the principles of neoclassicism, the restless silhouette of the mansion, and the somewhat exaggerated and even distorted proportions of the classic elements reveal the hand of a master who worked in the Art Nouveau era, when a certain denial of the harmony of the classics was already beginning. Some art critics, not entirely kindly, notice in the architecture of this house that the features of the Moscow Empire style are literally reduced to the grotesque. Be that as it may, it is simply pointless to deny the character of this mansion, its individuality and unique beauty; it is magnificent regardless of whether its individual features are perceived positively or negatively.

After the revolution of 1917, the Mindovsky mansion in Prechistensky Lane was transferred to the Red Army archive and the military-scientific archive, and in 1927 it was purchased by the Austrian embassy. After the annexation of Austria to Germany in 1938, the mansion began to be used as a guest house for the German Embassy. In August 1939, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop stayed in this house when he came to Moscow to discuss a non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union. And there is information, although not confirmed, that if the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact itself was signed in the Kremlin, then in order to avoid publicity, the secret agreement to it was discussed and signed here, in the former Mindovsky mansion. Another equally famous guest visited this mansion in October 1944 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill stayed here when he came to Moscow for negotiations with Stalin. In 1955, when the independence of Austria was restored, the Austrian embassy was again located in the Mindovsky mansion, which remains there to this day.

Mansion M.F. Yakunchikova (Prechistensky lane, 10).

Mansion M.F. Yakunchikova

The owner of the land on which houses No. 6, 8 and 10 on Prechistensky Lane are now located was Prince I.A. in the 18th century. Gagarin, however, his extensive estate, located on this site, like many houses of that time, was badly damaged in the fire of 1812 and has not survived to this day. In 1899, Gagarin's property was acquired by the newly formed Moscow Trade and Construction Society for the construction of three private houses on this site. The activities of this building society are extremely important and indicative of the nature of the development of Moscow at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. The goal of the society was the construction, with the involvement of young talented architects, of luxurious turnkey mansions with their subsequent resale to wealthy people. The construction of the property acquired by the company in Prechistensky Lane was conceived by the organizers as a kind of exhibition of “exemplary” villas in the new style; the mansions built here were original exhibits demonstrating the possibilities of the Art Nouveau style, and they were made in completely different, dissimilar directions modern

The author of the project for the house at 10 Prechistensky (Dead) Lane was the architect William Walcott, a native of Odessa, who came from a Scottish-Russian family. This building by the architect is the first example of a Moscow villa in the “pure” Art Nouveau style. The house is designed in a rational, slightly prim Scottish Art Nouveau style. Walcott built this building, being inspired by the work of the famous Glasgow architect Charles Mackintosh. Mackintosh's works were distinguished by their simplicity of form, extensive glazing and almost complete absence of decoration, and in this house built by Walcott, the same features can be traced: rectangular strict outlines, trapezoidal, not very protruding bay windows, large windows with thin sashes, a flat roof. The only feature that was nevertheless introduced by the Russian character, the love of self-expression through external showiness, is a slightly more varied decoration: forged balconies and fences, brackets supporting the roof, miniature stucco rosettes, majolica panels of green and brown tones with floral patterns, successfully harmonizing with a soft yellow-orange color of the facing bricks of the walls, and Walcott’s calling card - a female head framed by luxurious, intricately curly curls - the nymph Lorelei. Also notable in the decor are the entrance gate pylons, lined with green ceramics and topped with sculptures of female heads.

Mansion M.F. Yakunchikova. Entrance gate

The first owner of the house built by Walcott, even before the completion of construction, was Savva Mamontov's niece Maria Fedorovna Yakunchikova, the wife of Vladimir Vasilyevich Yakunchikova, the owner of brick factories and a textile factory. Maria Feodorovna took an active part in the activities of Savva Mamontov’s Abramtsevo art workshops, and the memorable relief ceramic decor of the house in Prechistensky Lane was introduced into the design of the house at her suggestion and made according to her own sketches in the ceramic workshop in Abramtsevo.

After the revolution, when the property, factories and workshops of the Mamontovs and Yakunchikovs were nationalized, Maria Feodorovna emigrated to Europe, in her mansion on Prechistensky Lane, first the Khamovnichesky Komsomol District Committee was located, then the library named after. N.K. Krupskaya. In the second half of the twentieth century, the Zairean embassy was located in the mansion. The building is currently undergoing lengthy renovations.

House-workshop of V.I. Mukhina (Prechistensky, 5a).

House-workshop of sculptor Vera Mukhina

Hidden in a green courtyard on Prechistensky Lane is a two-story house with a glass roof and wall. This is the house-studio of the famous sculptor Vera Ignatievna Mukhina. This workshop and apartment were provided to her in 1947. According to the descriptions, on the plank floor in the large hall, flooded with light, there was a turntable, reminiscent of a theater one, only smaller in size, and almost under the very ceiling there was a balcony, from where the master could conveniently view his creations. Now the building gives the impression of being abandoned, the glass wall is almost entirely hidden behind overgrown trees, and, unfortunately, the interior of the workshop cannot be seen from the street. But fantasy paints pictures of the past of this house, imbued with an atmosphere conducive to privacy and the creative process.

Mukhina did not always have such an excellent workshop. Until 1947, Vera Ignatievna lived and worked in Gagarinsky Lane, and then not far from the Red Gate, where she occupied a room on the second floor of the building, where she had to constantly lift stones and clay. It was there, in seemingly not very convenient conditions for sculpting, that the work that made Mukhina famous throughout the world was born - the sculpture “Worker and Collective Farm Woman,” which has become so firmly entrenched in our consciousness as a symbol of communist ideology and the Soviet era. In fact, Vera Mukhina herself was not very “convenient” for such a project; her biography did not particularly fit into the generally accepted framework of the Soviet system, so the rise of her career and recognition was, if you think about it, an amazing fact.

Vera Mukhina was born in 1889 in Riga into a wealthy merchant family. After the death of her mother, she spent her childhood and teenage years in Feodosia. At the end of his life, Vera’s father began to be haunted by commercial failures, and he almost went bankrupt, however, the family, which had never boasted of wealth before and always led the most modest lifestyle for a merchant, hardly felt this. Vera began to draw early, and her father, who himself was slightly interested in painting, noticed the girl’s abilities in time and contributed to their development: he forced her to copy Aivazovsky’s paintings and constantly hired teachers. After the death of her father, Vera and her sister Maria came under the guardianship of wealthy uncles and moved first to Kursk and then to Moscow, where Vera began to study painting in the studios of famous landscape painters K. F. Yuon and I. I. Mashkov, and also visited the studio of the sculptor self-taught by Nina Sinitsina. The Mukhina sisters in Moscow led a lifestyle generally accepted among the industrial merchants, who were already closely related to the nobility: they went out, danced at balls, took care of their outfits, flirted with officers; the girls moved in the highest Moscow merchant society and were familiar with the Ryabushinskys and Morozovs. But neither outfits, nor coquetry, nor trips brought Vera such pleasure and did not occupy her thoughts as much as creativity, and she more and more distances herself from the pleasures of the world and immerses herself in art.

In 1912, Vera received a severe injury that left a scar on her face, and her relatives, in order for the girl to unwind and recover from this incident, sent her abroad, where she continued her studies. In Paris, she attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and studied in a sculpture class with the famous French monumental sculptor E. A. Bourdelle. It was this experience that determined the main line in her work: she turned to monumental sculpture. In 1914, she traveled around Italy, studying Renaissance painting and sculpture. She returned to Moscow in the summer of 1914, just before the outbreak of the First World War. Together with her cousin, after completing nursing courses, Vera got a job as a nurse in hospitals and did this until 1918. At the same time, she continued to work on her sculptural works in her own workshop on Gagarinsky Lane, and tried herself as a theater artist, graphic artist, and designer. While working at the hospital, Vera met her future husband, doctor Alexei Zubkov, and their wedding took place in 1918.

After the revolution, Vera Mukhina returned to her creativity, interrupted by changes in the country, and became interested in creating monument projects. In sculpture, she was attracted by powerful, plastically voluminous, constructive figures, expressing in their forms the power and strength of nature; her works were imbued with symbolism and romantic pathos. It is said that her work “Peasant Woman” at the international exhibition in Venice in 1934 so impressed Mussolini that he even purchased a copy of it and placed it on the terrace of his villa by the sea. Such recognition by a famous foreign leader did not stop the Soviet authorities from taking up arms against Vera’s husband Alexei Zubkov and exiling him in 1930 to Voronezh, where Vera Ignatievna followed him. They were able to return from exile only thanks to Maxim Gorky, who highly appreciated Vera’s talent and helped smooth out the conflict between her family and the authorities.

Of course, Mukhina’s main creation was the large-scale sculpture “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” - a 25-meter statue weighing 75 tons, intended for the Soviet pavilion at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris. The ideological concept of the statue belonged to the architect Boris Iofan, who designed the Soviet pavilion for the Paris exhibition. According to this plan, the exhibition pavilion was supposed to act as a kind of pedestal for the monumental statue “Worker and Collective Farm Woman,” and Vera Mukhina won the competition for the design of this statue. And now - success, fame, money, a workshop-dacha in Abramtsevo provided for work! It is interesting that the prototype of the worker and collective farm woman depicted were the ancient “tyrant fighters” Nesiot and Critias with swords in their hands. At first, the statue of Mukhina depicted a naked girl and a young man, but then they decided to “dress” them and generally remade them several times, here the already always wary attitude towards Mukhina was fully reflected, endless complaints and denunciations flew “to the top”, in their absurdity sometimes reaching the point of curiosity. For example, once, when the statue was already being assembled at a factory in Moscow, the relevant authorities received information that the profile of enemy No. 1, Trotsky, was allegedly visible in the folds of the collective farmer’s skirt. Stalin himself came to the plant at night to make sure of this. The statue was illuminated with spotlights and headlights, but the enemy’s face did not appear, and the leader of all nations left in a couple of minutes without a sip. And after some time, the statue “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” went to Paris in giant boxes, where it created a real sensation, and its author, Vera Mukhina, became a world celebrity overnight. After the exhibition, France was literally inundated with various souvenirs depicting the sculpture - inkwells, powder compacts, postcards, handkerchiefs. The Europeans even considered buying the statue from the Soviets. But “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” was destined to return to their homeland and decorate the entrance to the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy (VDNKh), where it is still located.

Using the example of Vera Mukhina, we can see how thorny in the Soviet period was the path of a great artist who had his own convictions and knew how to defend them, how complex his relationship was with the authorities, who perceived art only as a tool for political agitation. Vera Mukhina was sincerely fascinated by the ideals of equality, labor, and health proposed by communism, but in her life and work it is impossible to find approval of the violence and despotism unleashed by the authorities under the pretext of achieving these ideals.

Apartment house of the heirs of N.P. Tsirkunov (Chisty lane, 10).

Apartment house of the heirs of N.P. Tsirkunov

In the apartment building of the heirs of N.P. Tsirkunov in the twenties of the twentieth century lived the writer Boris Zhitkov, the author of well-known stories for children, published in children's newspapers and magazines “Pioneer”, “New Robinson”, “Young Naturalist”, etc. But, in addition to this fact, the building is famous for its unique design facade, it was built in 1908-1909 according to the design of architect V.S. Maslennikova. The facade is asymmetrical and multi-layered, it is divided into three parts, each part of the facade has its own style, its own architectural theme. The left part of the facade is made in the style of northern modernism; it is stylized as a tower, on the walls of which there is imitation stone masonry, and the windows of the third floor have characteristic bevels in the upper part. The middle part, decorated with Corinthian pilasters and an ornamental stucco frieze and lined with snow-white ceramic tiles, is made rather in the style of classicism. The far right wing looks like the facade of a mansion in the Art Nouveau style with two towers, one of which is topped with an unusual dome in the shape of a helmet, like the ones worn by Russian heroes.

It is worth mentioning the biography of the architect of this building. Vitaly Semenovich Maslennikov was born in 1882 into a large family of a zemstvo teacher. From the age of 15, Vitaly gave lessons and worked part-time as a draftsman. Later he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and graduated in 1907 with a silver medal. Vitaly Semenovich was an active participant in the events of the 1905 revolution. Since 1908, after graduating from college, he worked as an assistant to a local architect; according to Maslennikov’s designs, several apartment buildings in the Art Nouveau style were erected in Moscow, including the one we see in front of us now. In 1909, Maslennikov went to Paris, where he studied architecture with Professor Cormonne; in 1913, he also visited several European countries, expanding his professional knowledge. After the revolution of 1917, in the 1920s, Maslennikova, together with his brother Boris Maslennikov, a famous Russian aviator who founded the first aviation school "Eagle" on Khodynka in 1911 and was recognized in 1923 as a "harmful social element", was exiled to Omsk. In 1932, the architect was transferred to Novosibirsk, to Sibmetallotrest, where he worked under supervision on the construction of the Sibcombine plant. In the same 1932, Vitaly Maslennikov became a teacher at the Siberian Construction Institute. The architect’s works include his collaboration on such famous buildings in Novosibirsk as the House of Science and Culture and the so-called hundred-apartment residential building on Krasny Prospekt, the project of which received the Grand Prix at the exhibition of arts and technology in Paris. The fate of Maslennikov’s brother Boris, an aviator, was even more tragic: after being expelled from Moscow, he first worked as an instructor at Sibaviakhim, then as the head of a special laboratory at Dalstroy, and in 1939 he was convicted “of espionage for Germany and anti-Soviet agitation” and sent to 8 years to Norilnag for forced labor. The life of the Maslennikov brothers is perhaps one of many examples of how talented people, passionate about their profession, often completely innocent, were subjected to repression during the Soviet period.

Manor A.D. Ofrosimova / Residence of the Patriarch (Chisty Lane, 5).

Manor A.D. Ofrosimova

The mansion, which has long been known in Moscow as the Ofrosimova estate, was built back in the 18th century for its first owner, Captain Artemy Alekseevich Obukhov, after whose last name Chisty Lane was called Obukhovsky or Obukhov before the revolution. This plot of land near Prechistenka passed to the noble family of Ofrosimov in 1796. In particular, since 1805, the owner of the estate was Major General, Chief Krieg Commissioner Pavel Afanasyevich Ofrosimov, and after his death in 1817, his widow Anastasia Dmitrievna Ofrosimova, a well-known person in Moscow secular society, was repeatedly mentioned in the memoirs of her contemporaries.

Anastasia Dmitrievna was famous in the capital's elite for her intelligence, frankness, determination, tough character and willfulness; she was extremely popular in the world. Ofrosimov was afraid not only of her own husband, whom, as she admitted not without pride, she had kidnapped from her father’s house and taken to the crown, but also of many high society persons - she could tell everyone everything she thought, they listened to her opinion, they craved her boss’s favor. According to P.A. Vyazemsky “Ofrosimova was a governor in Moscow for a long time in the old years, she had strength and power in Moscow society,” and M.I. Pylyaev described Nastasya Dmitrievna this way: “a tall old woman, of a masculine type, with even a decent mustache; her face was stern, dark, with black eyes; in a word, the type under which children usually imagine a witch.” There were many stories and anecdotes about Ofrosimova in Moscow and St. Petersburg. This colorful personality was immortalized in their works by two classics of Russian literature: in the comedy “Woe from Wit” Griboyedov brought her under the name of the old woman Khlestova, Famusov’s sister-in-law, and L.N. Tolstoy in the novel “War and Peace” - Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, boldly reprimanding Pierre Bezukhov and Prince Bolkonsky and foiling Natasha Rostova's plan to run away with Anatoly Kuragin. And although in these two works the authors present the heroines, whose prototypes were Ofrosimova, in completely different ways - one emphasizes her negative eccentricity, impudence and even ugliness, and the other evaluates her independence and soundness of thinking - in both heroines of these works of art, all of Moscow unmistakably recognized A.D. Ofrosimov.

After the fire of Moscow in 1812, the Ofrosimovs' manor house was rebuilt by the architect F.K. Sokolov, who completed the design of the estate according to a typical plan for Storomoskovsky noble dwellings: the main house located in the depths of the plot, and two outbuildings on either side of it. The estate was built in wood, all its buildings were built with mezzanines and decorated with porticoes on the street side - Ionic at the main house and Tuscan at the outbuildings. In 1847, the main house was expanded by adding side brick projections. After the reconstruction of the estate in 1878, the facade of the main building received the somewhat dry architectural design that exists today with eclectic elements, at the same time the internal redevelopment of the building was carried out and the interiors were changed, a glass lantern was installed above the internal staircase leading to the mezzanine. In 1897, a wrought-iron fence with massive pylons and two entrance gates stretched along the line of the lane.

Manor A.D. Ofrosimova

In 1899, Maria Ivanovna Protopopova became the owner of the estate. According to the tradition of merchant families of that time, the home ownership was registered in her name, although it was actually acquired by her husband, a major Moscow entrepreneur, banker and generous benefactor Stepan Alekseevich Protopopov.

When the Protopopovs were the owners of the estate, the left wing was rebuilt into a comfortable stone mansion, rented out to wealthy tenants. The Protopopovs themselves occupied the main manor house, and their daughter occupied the right wooden wing. On the pediment of the façade of the main house a magnificent monogram “MP” appeared, composed of the initials of the owner of the estate, Maria Protopopova.

In 1918, the estate was confiscated and used for housing and institutions. After the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Soviets and Germany in 1922, the estate in Obukhov Lane, which was then renamed Chisty, was given over to the residence of the German Ambassador in Moscow. It is interesting that the last German ambassador who lived here was Count Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg, known for the fact that on May 5, 1941, he told representatives of the Soviet authorities the exact date of the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, and a few years later he joined the German anti-Hitler opposition and was executed by the Nazis in 1944.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the former estate of Ofrosimova and the former residence of the German ambassador was subjected to thorough searches, sealed and empty until 1943, until it was transferred to the disposal of the Moscow Patriarchate. Today, this estate houses the working residence of the patriarch, which, along with the residence in the Danilov Monastery and the Patriarchal Chambers in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, is the representative office of Patriarch Kirill in Moscow. Now the monogram “MP” on the façade of the estate can rightfully be read as “Moscow Patriarchate”.

Prechistenskoye fire station and police station (Chisty lane, 2/22).

Prechistenskoye fire station

Next to the house where Isadora Duncan lived, at 22 Prechistenka, there was a fire station since the 19th century. The building in which it was located was built in 1764 according to the design of the architect Matvey Kazakov and originally belonged to Princess Khovanskaya; after 1812 it became the property of the relatives of the hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, General A.P. Ermolov, who lived in the neighboring 20th house. At the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, the house was built on and acquired a classicist style, the facade of the building in the center was decorated with a monumental risalit, decorated with slender Corinthian half-columns and pilasters, resting on a rusticated arched plinth, the loosened cornice of the risalit was in plastic harmony with alternating pairs of half-columns and pilasters.

In 1835, the mansion was purchased by the treasury to house the Moscow fire station, which was transferred from Volkhonka in connection with the start of construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior there. In addition to the fire department, a police detachment was also stationed in the building.

In the early 1840s, the fire station building was expanded with an addition, doubling the length of its façade. In the new attached part, the design used the technique of repeating the leading element of the old part of the building; here the same risalit was built, symmetrical to the existing one in the relatively new center of the building, this gave the house greater scale and representativeness. Also, a wooden fire tower was built above the center of the building (its construction was completed in 1843), which was a slender round tiered tower with a ring colonnade. Thanks to the high tower, the fire station house acquired a leading role in the city ensemble. The sentries surveyed the city from the tower and, if signs of fire were detected, they sounded an alarm signal, and immediately a team of firefighters rushed in convoys or on road to the scene of the incident.

Prechistenskoye fire station and police station. Photo from the 1900s

It is worth noting that Moscow fire departments have always had the best horses at their disposal. Moreover, each part kept horses of a certain color, for example, Tverskaya - yellow-piebald, Taganskaya - roan, and Arbatskaya - bay. To maintain an excellent “transport fund” of fire departments, there was even a custom to confiscate horses from street “reckless” drivers without a court order and give them for the use of firefighters. In addition, of course, the horses were carefully looked after. In the 60s of the 19th century, Moscow police chief Ogarev personally came to fire stations and, using his snow-white handkerchief, checked whether the horses were well cleaned. The first fire truck appeared at the Prechistensky fire station in 1908. It had a sliding staircase on top, however, it did not rise higher than the third floor, which by modern standards is not enough, but for that time such an innovation was simply a miracle. Having left to extinguish the fire at the same time as the horse-drawn convoys, the car almost immediately was seriously ahead of them and arrived on the spot first, so the fireman and the fireman, the paramedic and several of the most desperate daredevil firefighters always went out on alarm in the fire truck.

In 1915, to expand the fire department, an additional building was built on Chisty Lane, the design repeating the main facade on Prechistenka. The fire tower was dismantled in 1930 “as unnecessary.”

Mosaic in the courtyard of the town hall on Prechistenka

Today, in the building on Prechistenka, 22, the Main Fire Department for the city of Moscow is located, and all Moscow telephone calls to number 01 converge here, as they say.

The estate of Denis Davydov (Prechistenka, 17/10).

Prechistensky Palace of Denis Davydov

Initially, this luxurious manor house in Empire style belonged (since 1770) to the Bibikov nobles, one of whom - Chief General Alexander Ilyich Bibikov - was the commander-in-chief of the troops to suppress the peasant uprising of Emelyan Pugachev. A strong-willed and experienced military leader who strictly followed the instructions of Alexander Suvorov, he organized the matter in such a way that in a short time hordes of rebels were forced to flee from the Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Orenburg and Yekaterinburg they occupied. And later they managed to capture and execute Pugachev himself. By the way, the future owner of the Bibikovs’ estate on Prechistenka, chief police officer of the Moscow police Nikolai Petrovich Arkharov, also took part in the investigation of this exceptional case.

Nikolai Petrovich Arkharov was a very interesting person. He gained fame as a legendary detective, whose talent was heard even abroad; for example, the chief of the Parisian police was in such admiration for Arkharov’s abilities that he even once sent him a letter of praise, in which he expressed his sincere respect. The surname “Arkharov” awed the Russian criminal community. The expression “Arkharovites” is still in use among the people, applied today to hooligans, robbers and desperate people in general, but few people know that this expression came precisely from Nikolai Petrovich Arkharov with his rigid system of harsh and decisive measures to suppress crime and those subordinate to him a police regiment that kept the entire city in fear. Arkharov had exceptional analytical skills and powers of observation: with one glance at a suspect, he could accurately determine whether he was guilty or not. His amazing abilities for quickly and accurately solving crimes were also known in St. Petersburg; Catherine II herself turned to the Moscow chief of police for help when one day her beloved icon of the Tolga Mother of God disappeared from the house church of the Winter Palace. Arkharov found the icon the very next day. Another time, Nikolai Petrovich, without leaving Moscow, uncovered the theft of silver items committed in St. Petersburg; he figured out that the criminals hid the silver in the most unpredictable place - in the basement next to the house of the capital's chief police chief - where no one would have lost it. didn't bother looking.

Nikolai Arkharov made a brilliant career as an official, not stopping at the position of chief police chief of Moscow. Subsequently, he played the role of first the Moscow governor, and then the St. Petersburg governor.

By the way, next door to Nikolai Petrovich, on the same Prechistenka, lived his brother Ivan Petrovich, in whose former palace the House of Scientists, which we have already mentioned earlier, is now located.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the estate on Prechistenka again passed to the Bibikovs. It is acquired by General G.P. Bibikov, who was reputed to be a great lover of music and organized luxurious balls and concerts in it, which gathered all the Moscow nobility and the largest representatives of Russian bohemia. For example, Alexander Pushkin with Natalya Goncharova, Count Fyodor Tolstoy (an American, as he was called), Prince Peter Vyazemsky and many others were here. General Bibikov willingly introduced his serfs to art, for example, the famous Russian pianist, composer and conductor Daniil Nikitovich Kashin was none other than the serf musician Danilka from Bibikov’s estate.

During the Moscow fire of 1812, the estate was seriously damaged, and Nikolai Petrovich undertook to rebuild it. It was as a result of the restructuring he undertook that the mansion was built with a mezzanine, included in the complex composition of the main entrance, and stucco decorations appeared on the sides of the building's facade.

In 1835, Lieutenant General Denis Vasilyevich Davydov bought the house from Bibikov. This glorious hussar, partisan and poet was a native Muscovite; he was born in Moscow and spent his childhood and adolescence. His father, a wealthy landowner, foreman who served under the command of Alexander Suvorov, Vasily Denisovich Davydov, owned a large house with a garden here on Prechistenka (the house has not survived). Probably precisely because he spent his childhood here, Denis Davydov was drawn to Prechistenka; his own home was always located on this street or nearby. After acquiring the estate, Denis Davydov, as was then customary in high society, brought in a doorman, valet and other servants in the mansion. In a letter to his friend Alexander Pushkin, he proudly reported that he now had “a huge stone house in Moscow, window to window with a fire station.”

Everything seemed to be moving systematically towards the fact that the dashing warrior, who had retired, would finally begin to lead the measured life of a pensioner who had earned the peace. However, Davydov did not succeed in becoming an honorary homeowner, because it turned out that between the art of guerrilla warfare and the ability to competently manage real estate, “there are huge distances,” as Griboyedov’s Colonel Skalozub said. Just a year after purchasing the estate, Denis Davydov was literally exhausted by the endless problems of maintaining and maintaining a huge household. It became clear to Davydov that he was no longer able to maintain such a gigantic mansion. In addition, the proximity to the fire department and police was not at all a joy. From the watchtower of the fire station, the screams of the orderly and the ringing of the alarm bell were heard every now and then; along the cobblestones of the pavement, under the shouts and commands of the fire chiefs, fire convoys endlessly rumbled, hurrying on alarm or to training exercises; the police also did not lag behind in their zeal. What kind of peace is there!? It is not surprising that already in 1836 Davydov decides to sell the estate. Addressed to his friend Senator A.A. Bashilov, he composes a humorous petition with a request to buy his estate on Prechistenka for the residence of the chief police chief of the city (especially since one had already lived there before) for “only” 100 thousand rubles:

Nevertheless, in 1837, Davydov’s estate on Prechistenka found its new owner, was sold, and Denis Vasilyevich moved to his estate in the Simbirsk province and from then on visited Moscow only on short visits.

Later, the former estate of Denis Davydov changed owners several times. Here lived the famous Moscow doctor Illarion Ivanovich Dubrovo, a resident of a Moscow military hospital, who gave his life saving one of the patients. Anton Chekhov, admiring Dubrovo's act, made him the prototype of his character - Doctor Osip Dymov from the story "The Jumper".

Before the revolution, the famous women's gymnasium of Sofia Aleksandrovna Arsenyeva was located in the estate. At the same time, the no less famous men's gymnasium of Lev Ivanovich Polivanov was located in the Okhotnikovs' estate on Prechistenka, 32. Both educational institutions were respected and popular, and if parents sent their sons to the Polivanov gymnasium, their daughters almost always studied with Arsenyeva, and vice versa.

During Soviet times, the mansion of the Davydov estate was occupied by officials of the district committee of the Communist Party. Today the building houses a reputable commercial organization.

Apartment building S.F. Kulagina / House from “Heart of a Dog” (Prechistenka, 24).

House of Professor Preobrazhensky, or Kalabukhovsky House

Apartment building S.F. Kulagin is now better known as the house from the story “The Heart of a Dog”; it was in it that the main events of this wonderful work took place. The building was built in 1904. Architect - S.F. Kulagin. The owner of the house is Pavlovskaya Ekaterina Sergeevna. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the uncle of the writer M. Bulgakov, the famous gynecologist N.M. Pokrovsky, lived in this house; he served as the prototype for Professor Preobrazhensky. In the story “Heart of a Dog” this house appears as the house of Professor Preobrazhensky, or “Kalabukhov House”. Here, in this house, the newly minted citizen Sharikov laid claim to the legal “16 square arshins” of the professor’s apartment.

Apartment house of I.P. Isakov (Prechistenka, 28).

Apartment building I.P. Isakova

House No. 28 on Prechistenka Street was built in 1904-1906 in the Art Nouveau style by one of the largest architects of the new architectural movement, Lev Kekushev. The house was built as an income house, intended for wealthy tenants. Immediately after completion of construction, the building was purchased by the St. Petersburg merchant I.P. Isakov.

Isakov's apartment building on Prechistenka, along with Mindovsky's mansion on Povarskaya, can be considered the most striking examples of Moscow Art Nouveau. This house evokes a pleasant impression on many at first sight. It is very noticeable against the background of other mansions located on Prechistenka, and characterizes the transition from the world of “noble nests” built in the traditional classicism manner of that era to the world of mansions and apartment buildings of industrial and financial “oligarchs” of the late 19th - early 20th centuries , already being built in the new fashion trends of pampered, languid and whimsical modernity.

Apartment building I.P. Isakov. Decor elements

A distinctive feature of the architecture of the house can be called the asymmetry of the building plan, due to the configuration of the site: the rear part of the building, facing the courtyard, has 6 floors, and the front part, facing the street, has 5. Of course, the decor of the building, executed at a high artistic level, also stands out. There are a huge number of both small and large decorative elements: elegant patterns of frames of various shapes and sizes of windows, light and airy openwork forging of balcony grilles, bay windows protruding along the edges of the building, a large dormer window in the center, under the bend of a strongly protruding cornice, molded lace mesh frieze of the upper floor, sculptural images of two female figures with a torch and a book in their hands - allegories of knowledge and enlightenment. The decor of the house is distributed in such a way that it becomes richer with each floor, reaching its peak at the top. By the way, the initially wave-like shape of the cornice was emphasized by a statue that stood on the roof that has not survived to this day. In decorating the building, the architect used the basic techniques of Art Nouveau, combining them with neo-Baroque decor, which is characteristic of the French variety of Art Nouveau - Art Nouveau.

Dolgorukov Palace (Prechistenka, 19).

Dolgorukov Palace on Prechistenka

The Dolgorukov (Dolgoruky) Palace can be called one of the most beautiful buildings in Moscow of the Classical era. Its construction began in 1788, the construction was carried out by the famous architect Matvey Kazakov, who erected this luxurious mansion for the owner of the estate - a prominent military and political figure under Catherine II, general-in-chief and senator M.N. Krechetnikov. And in 1795, the Dolgorukov princes acquired the mansion and owned it for more than half a century.

In 1863, the Dolgoruky mansion was rented by the Alexander-Mariinsky School for Girls, founded with funds from the wife of General P.A. Chertov, commandant of Paris in 1814, cavalry lady V.E. Chertovaya and subsequently transformed into the Alexander-Mariinsky Institute of Noble Maidens.

In 1868, the estate was purchased by V.E. Chertova and became the full property of the institute.

After the 1917 revolution, the buildings of the former Dolgorukov estate were occupied by numerous institutions of the Military Department. By the period of perestroika, the Dolgorukov Palace, which had been given over to government organizations, had fallen into a fairly neglected state. Only in 1998, the architectural ensemble “Dolgorukov House” - “Alexandro-Mariinsky Institute” was finally restored under the leadership of the President of the Russian Academy of Arts Zurab Tsereteli. In 2001, the Exhibition Complex of the Zurab Tsereteli Art Gallery was opened there.

House of I.A. Morozova / Russian Academy of Arts (Prechistenka, 21).

House-gallery I.A. Morozova

The famous philanthropist and collector, representative of the dynasty of Russian industrialists Ivan Morozov acquired the estate at Prechistenka, 21 at the end of the 19th century. Having moved from Tver, where he was engaged in family business, to Moscow, he bought an old noble estate on Prechistenka from the widow of his uncle David Abramovich Morozov and began to gradually become involved in social life and the world of fine art, which would soon become the main passion in life for Ivan Morozov. Meanwhile, he does not ignore both business and public work. Ivan Abramovich arose an interest in art, most likely under the influence of his brother Mikhail and his entourage, which consisted mainly of actors, writers, and artists. Following his brother, Ivan also became involved in collecting paintings. His passion for painting begins with paintings by Russian landscape painters and gradually, as his own taste develops, moves to Western European authors, in particular, to French artists. He decides to place the growing collection in his mansion on Prechistenka, for which purpose in 1905 he begins rebuilding the entire building, hiring for this work the then fashionable architect Lev Kekushev, who, at the request of the customer, turns the rooms of the mansion into spacious exhibition halls. From that time on, Ivan Morozov’s passion for collecting paintings acquired definiteness and direction, and with even greater passion he began to systematically replenish his collection. According to contemporaries, the flow of paintings sent from Europe to the mansion on Prechistenka was truly fantastic in its volume. After 1914, Morozov's collection of paintings consisted of more than 250 works of the latest French fine art. Morozov was the owner of a whole series of paintings by Van Gogh, the best works of Renoir, and about two dozen paintings by Cezanne. The work of Russian masters in Morozov's collection was represented by more than a hundred works by Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Vrubel, Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin, Boris Kustodiev and other artists. Ivan Abramovich spends colossal sums on his hobby; he could afford such luxury and scope thanks to the income brought by the Morozov manufactory in Tver. The Western community of collectors, collectors and art connoisseurs remembered Morozov as “a Russian who does not bargain.”

Ivan Morozov planned to bequeath his enthusiastically expanding collection to the state. The revolution slightly adjusted these plans. The Tver manufactory of the Morozovs was nationalized, the mansion on Prechistenka and the collection of paintings from Ivan Abramovich were simply confiscated. The gallery he organized in his own home is renamed the “2nd Museum of New Western Painting,” and he himself, now the former owner of this treasury of fine art, is appointed, as if in mockery, as deputy custodian of his own collection. For several months he holds this position, guiding visitors around the museum, and lives with his family in three rooms allocated to them on the ground floor of their former manor house. In the spring of 1919, Morozov and his family emigrated from Russia to Europe. In 1921, Ivan Abramovich dies of acute heart failure.

His collection has survived, although it has undergone a number of changes, as a result of which some truly priceless paintings were sold to Western collectors, and some were almost destroyed. Now the paintings collected by Morozov are included in the collections of the Hermitage and the Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin. Today the Russian Academy of Arts is located in his house on Prechistenka.

Estate P.Ya. Okhotnikova (Prechistenka, 32).

Estate P.Ya. Okhotnikova

The so-called Okhotnikov estate, built on the verge of the 18th-19th centuries, then, after the fire of 1812, reconstructed. Initially, there was a wooden estate of the Talyzins on this site. In 1808, the officer and nobleman Pavel Yakovlevich Okhotnikov, who wished to move to live in Moscow, purchased the estate from the wife of Lieutenant General Talyzin and even began rebuilding it, but, probably fortunately, he did not do much. Fortunately, because in 1812 there was a general Moscow fire, which did not spare the houses on Prechistenka, including the estate purchased by Okhotnikov.

In 1816, Okhotnikov decides to restore the burnt estate and rebuild it in stone. As a result of this decision, a large three-story house was built, the main facade of which stretched along the street for more than 70 meters. According to some information, the author of the project for the new manor house was the famous architect F.K. Sokolov, although this is not known for certain, because The documents that have survived to this day only say that the builder of the house was a certain peasant Leshkin, with whom Okhotnikov had a contract for construction work. Despite the considerable length of the house, it is successfully divided into parts from the point of view of composition, highlighting the central eight-column portico of the Doric order, placed on the second floor of the building by placing its columns on the pylons of the first floor and ending with a beautiful pediment. The design of the columns of the portico stands out especially: the flutes - vertical grooves on the trunks of the columns - reach only half their height, while the top of the columns is left smooth. This interpretation of columns is unusual for Moscow architecture and has no analogues. And in general, the building, taking into account the excellent proportions of the facade and unusual interiors, can be classified as one of the most interesting buildings of late Moscow classicism.

After the death of Pavel Yakovlevich Okhotnikov in 1841, the estate became the property of his heirs. However, the abolition of serfdom in 1861 did not allow Okhotnikov’s relatives to live on the same scale; they were no longer able to maintain such a large house and were forced to rent it out and later sell it altogether.

In 1879, the estate came into the possession of the merchants Pegov. They owned it until 1915, when the rich timber merchant V.I. bought the estate from them. Firsanova. But it was not the owners who made this house famous, but the tenants. In 1868, a private men's gymnasium of the outstanding teacher L.I. Polivanov was located in a rented estate, whose graduates included many famous people. For example, it was completed by the sons of Tolstoy L.N. and Ostrovsky A.N., famous future poets Valery Bryusov, Konstantin Balmont and Andrei Bely, philosopher Vladimir Solovyov and many other famous people. Before the revolution, this gymnasium was considered the best men's gymnasium in Moscow. Nowadays, the building of the former gymnasium houses children's schools: art and music.

If you enter the courtyard of Okhotnikov’s estate, you may unexpectedly find yourself in an amazing, truly old-Moscow space that has nothing in common with the noisy life of a modern metropolis.

Estate P.Ya. Okhotnikova. Backyard

The courtyard is enclosed by two exceptionally picturesque semicircular two-story buildings, forming a so-called circumference, their upper floors are built in wood, and the lower ones are open arcades on white stone columns. These are the former stables of the estate. The wide openings of the arches in the lower floor are needed just for entry into the sleighs and carriages. Nestled between the stables is a nondescript two-story house, in which it is now almost impossible to recognize the former house church of the estate. Such small churches on the territory of their estates were often built for themselves by wealthy townspeople.

Samsonov-Golubev estate (Prechistenka, 35).

Samsonov-Golubev estate

The wooden house of the Samsonov-Golubev estate was built in 1813-1817. This is one of the few surviving wooden buildings of old Moscow. The house is built on a stone foundation - a semi-basement - and carefully plastered, so you can’t immediately tell that the mansion is made of wood. The mansion is decorated with magnificent stucco moldings and six slender Corinthian columns that support a stucco ornamental frieze under the pediment of the building. The ensemble of the manor house is complemented by a stone wing on the left, built in 1836, and the entrance gate; the right wing of the manor, unfortunately, has been lost.

Apartment building A.K. Giraud. (Prechistenka, 39/22).

Apartment building A.K. Giraud

An apartment building that belonged to A.K. Zhiro, built in 1892-1913. Andrei Klavdievich Giraud, the son of a famous merchant of French origin throughout Moscow, Claudius Osipovich Giraud, the founder of one of the largest silk industries in Russia, followed in his father’s footsteps, like his other two brothers, and was also a textile manufacturer, co-owner of his father’s silk factory in Khamovniki, nationalized after the revolution and called the “Red Rose”.

The apartment building on Prechistenka was built in two stages. The first stage - along Prechistenka - was built according to the design of the architect A.A. Ostrogradsky in 1892, the second stage - along Zubovsky Boulevard - according to the project of I.S. Kuznetsov in 1913. The facade of the house, facing Prechistenka, is eclectically decorated with stucco and sculptures. The sculptural composition of the aedicule above the entrance to the building stands out especially: under its pediment, leaning on the arched vault, lie two warriors - Hercules and Odysseus.

Apartment building A.K. Giraud. Decorative element - aedicule above the entrance

Apartment building A.K. Giraud. Hercules and Odysseus

At the end of the 19th century, Mikhail Vrubel rented an apartment from Giraud, who worked here on his painting “The Swan Princess,” one of his most epic creations, as well as on the equally famous clear-eyed “Pan.” Rimsky-Korsakov, who worked on the Moscow productions of the operas “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” and “The Tsar’s Bride”, often visited Vrubel in this house, the main roles in which were intended for the singer Nadezhda Zabela, Vrubel’s wife.

Founded in 1957, the State Museum of A.S. Pushkin is the first museum in the history of Moscow entirely dedicated to the creative path of the famous poet. The museum building occupies the territory of a former estate that belonged to the Khrushchev-Seleznevs. The estate itself underwent restoration in 1997, after which the museum acquired the status of a modern cultural center of the capital.

The main exhibition of the museum is called “Pushkin and his era” and has over 165 thousand museum exhibits. The museum’s collection contains not only works by A.S. Pushkin, but also objects of fine art of world significance - works by Kiprensky, Bryullov and Bakst.

In addition to the main composition, the museum offers a huge number of different exhibitions, events and concert programs for visiting. Their number increases every year. In addition to social entertainment, scientific conferences and seminars are held on the territory of the museum. In addition, the museum offers a special “children’s” program: theatrical performances, interactive programs and New Year’s parties.

The museum complex, in addition to the estate building, includes: the museum-apartment of A.S. Pushkin on Arbat, Andrei Bely’s museum-apartment, the house-museum of I.S. Turgenev and several exhibition halls in which visitors can see the works of contemporary artists.

The building itself of the former Khrushchev-Seleznev estate deserves a separate description. Built after the fire of 1812, the estate is recognized as one of the most beautiful buildings of the era. The building is a white stone mansion, decorated with carved columns, stucco molding, and has access to several terraces. The building was adjacent to several pavilions and picturesque gardens.

Operating mode:

• Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday-Sunday - from 10.00 to 18.00;
• Thursday - from 12.00 to 21.00;
• Monday and the last Friday of the month are a day off.

Ticket prices:

• full - 200 rubles;
• preferential - 50 rubles;
• family weekend ticket (no more than 4 people with children under 18 years old) - 350 rubles.

Many museums throughout Russia are dedicated to Pushkin, but the main one is the State Pushkin Museum (GMP) on Prechistenka. This institution has become the most important cultural center, uniting poetry lovers from all over the world.

Visitors will be interested in the museum's huge collections, its history, as well as the building in which the organization is located. The city authorities allocated the city estate of the Khrushchev-Seleznev nobles, an outstanding monument of architectural art of the early 19th century, for the museum complex.

The large house houses permanent exhibitions, a library, a reading room, and halls for concerts and press conferences. GMP is one of the few museum institutions that have fully opened their collections to visitors. Guests will see here collections of ancient books, paintings, graphics, bronze, ceramic and porcelain products.

At the Museum of A.S. Pushkin there are five branches: the museum-apartment of A. Bely, the museum-apartment of Pushkin on the street. Old Arbat, Turgenev Apartment Museum on the street. Ostozhenka, V. Pushkin's house on the street. Old Basmannaya and exhibition in Denezhny Lane.

Khrushchev-Seleznev Estate

The house in which the A.S. Museum is located Pushkin, was built in 1814 - 16. designed by architect A. Grigoriev. The customer was the guards officer A. Khrushchev. The Empire style mansion was surrounded by a beautiful courtyard with a small well-kept garden. The Khrushchevs were considered a wealthy family, and the entire flower of the Moscow aristocracy came to them with pleasure. It is possible that A. Pushkin also visited this house, although historians do not know this for sure.

The Khrushchevs owned the estate until 1840, when it was acquired by the Rudakov merchants. In turn, the Rudakovs sold the property to the Seleznev nobles. In 1900, the heiress of the estate from the Seleznev family organized an orphanage there.

During Soviet times, the estate was transferred to the Literary Museum, which was later transformed into the State Pushkin Museum.

Permanent exhibitions

The main permanent exhibition of the museum is “Pushkin and His Epoch”. This is a huge exhibition occupying 15 halls of the Khrushchev-Seleznev mansion. The exhibition was opened in 1997, on the eve of the 200th anniversary of Pushkin’s birth, which was widely celebrated in the country.

The creators of the exhibition used the biographical principle of its construction. Visitors will see more than 4,000 exhibits telling about different stages in the poet’s life, his environment, creative method, culture and the specifics of life in Pushkin’s era. Among the artifacts are authentic manuscripts of Pushkin, his books, personal belongings, paintings and graphics by artists who worked at that time; guests will see collections of items that belonged to relatives, friends and acquaintances of the great poet, antique furniture, and costumes from Pushkin’s times in full size.

The exhibition is not static; it is constantly updated and expanded due to gifts from philanthropists and purchases at the largest auctions in the world.

The exhibition “Pushkin and His Epoch” is divided into halls. First, visitors enter the “Pushkin’s Childhood” hall, which contains portraits of the poet’s parents, his grandmother, and nanny. Museum guests will see what toys children used in those years. The “Ballroom” displays N. Goncharova’s personal belongings; here visitors will learn a lot about the life and customs of the aristocracy of the early 19th century. The exhibition ends with the tragic hall “The Death of Pushkin,” which tells about the fatal duel and the reaction of contemporaries to the death of the man who is called the creator of the modern Russian language.

In 2015, the Pushkin Museum opened a second permanent exhibition – “Pushkin’s Fairy Tales”. The play and exhibition space is designed for children. Experienced teacher-tour guides work here with young Muscovites. The children will take part in a great adventure in the world of wonderful fairy tales by A. S. Pushkin, they will see the Scientist Cat, Ruslan and Lyudmila, Tsar Saltan, and a talking head. The exhibition is very lively, bright and interactive. Children will visit Buyan Island, Baba Yaga's hut, and the house of Pushkin's nanny Arina Rodionovna.

Crane's office

In the Khrushchev-Seleznev mansion there is a memorial office of the outstanding Russian Pushkin scholar A. Z. Kerin, which is part of the structure of the State Historical Museum. It was Crane who was the first director of the Pushkin Museum; he collected the key collections for the exhibition.

Visitors will get to know this amazing personality, a true servant of art. Pushkin was the meaning of life for Alexander Zinovievich. Even during a serious illness, he came to the museum, to his workplace.

Crane went through the entire war, took part in the battles for Warsaw and Berlin. Guests will see in the office the personal belongings of the Pushkin scholar, his manuscripts, documents, photographs, medals and orders.

Collection of Nadya Rusheva

One of the most popular and touching exhibitions of the Pushkin Museum is an exhibition of drawings by Nadya Rusheva. The schoolgirl, who was destined to live only 17 years in the world, was an incredible, brilliant artist. And Nadya’s favorite author was A.S. Pushkin. The girl drew hundreds of illustrations for the poet’s works, many of which visitors will see in the museum.

The collection was donated to the State Museum by Nadya’s mother, and since then the exhibition has been visited by hundreds of thousands of Muscovites and guests of the capital. Of particular importance are the illustrations for the novel in verse “Eugene Onegin”. Art critics recognize Rusheva’s drawings as the best visual embodiment of the heroes of Pushkin’s grandiose book. It is amazing that these works were created by a girl when she was only 8 years old.

The Pushkin Museum regularly hosts theatrical performances, quizzes, meetings with scientists and writers, creative evenings and concerts.