House-Museum of F.M. Dostoevsky

In 1872, the Dostoevsky family, on the advice of friends, decided to go to Staraya Russa for the summer. They settled in the house of the priest Rumyantsev, and already in 1873 Dostoevsky rented a two-storey wooden house on the embankment of Peryatitsa. The house belonged to retired Lieutenant Colonel A. K. Gribbe. Soon Gribbe died and in May 1876 Dostoevsky bought the house with the garden from his heirs. The house became the first real estate property of the writer. Until that time, the Dostoevsky family lived only in rented apartments.

In this house on August 10, 1875, their fourth child, Alexei, was born in their family. The house became a real family nest, and Staraya Russa itself was a place where the writer received the desired solitude and silence away from the bustle of the capital. Here was written “Brothers Karamazov”, “Demons” and other works.

After the death of Dostoevsky on January 28, 1881, his wife Anna Grigorievna continued to come to Staraya Russa. She last lived here in 1914.

The date of foundation of the museum is considered to be May 4, 1909. In 1918, the Old Russian City Council declared the house “an inviolable historical and literary monument”. The house was transferred to the “full and gratuitous use” of the Old Russian Department of Public Education. The House of Dostoevsky survived the Revolution and the Civil War. In 1931, a commemorative plaque was installed on it.

Old Russa was almost completely destroyed during the Great Patriotic War. The Dostoevsky House is one of the few that miraculously survived. However, his post-war condition was extremely deplorable. However, the house was preserved and restored by 1961. This is a considerable merit of the rubanin Vladislav Mikhailovich Glinka - writer, employee of the Institute of Russian Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. On the initiative and with the lively participation of a resident of Staraya Russa G. I. Smirnov (1921-1983) in 1971, on the 150th anniversary of the writer’s birth, an exposition was opened, which became the basis of the museum. G. Smirnov himself became its first director.

On May 4, 1981, the Dostoevsky House became the writer’s house-museum in its entirety and was opened to the public. On the second floor of the house in six rooms in which the family lived, according to the memoirs of his wife, daughter of the writer, as well as people who visited them, the atmosphere surrounding the Dostoevskys was completely restored, authentic things of the writer and his family members, photos, documents, lifetime editions of his works, furniture of that time are presented.

On the first floor of the house there are office space. The lower living room is used for exhibitions, literary and musical evenings. International literary readings are held there every year.

The house-museum is part of the Novgorod State United Museum-Reserve (NGOMZ) and is open to visitors all year round.