Pushkin Apartment-Museum (Moyka, 12)

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The story of the life and death of the greatest Russian poet has always interested his many admirers. To make an icon out of a genius or to see a person in him is the personal choice of each of us. For representatives of the second category, there is the Pushkin Museum in St. Petersburg.

Last housing

Pushkin did not have his own house or apartment in St. Petersburg. The mansion at 12 Moika Embankment, not far from the Konyushenny Bridge, belonged to the princes Volkonsky - the poet rented 11 rooms from them, which he entered with his family in September 1836.

This apartment was the last refuge of the poet: he lived here for only about five months. The walls of the house where Pushkin's apartment-museum (Moika, 12) is now located, witnessed the sad drama that led to the death of the great Russian poet. Mortally wounded in a duel, he died here on February 10, 1837, having ordered his wife to observe mourning for two years, and then marry a decent man.

According to numerous testimonies, the poet did not hold a grudge against his wife: he was invariably affectionate with her, always sought to protect. She touchingly looked after her husband until the last hours of his life. A wave of hate andthe reprimand that hit the young woman after the death of the poet was hardly deserved.

Long road to the museum

The exposition is devoted to the events of the last months of life, the path of which was rather thorny. In those days, no one knew that one day it would open at the address: Moika, 12, the Pushkin Museum-Apartment. Immediately after the death of the poet, many things were transferred to his friends and relatives, and the family moved to a village estate.

New tenants moved into the Volkonsky mansion. After 1900, it was converted into a tenement house (a great number of guests changed), and after the revolution of 1917 it was the kingdom of communal apartments. Many household items and furnishings were irretrievably lost.

Efforts have been made for a long time to set up a Pushkin Museum. Moyka, 12 - an address that was ideal for this. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, the Pushkin House was created at the Imperial Academy of Sciences, which was entrusted with the mission of collecting disparate exhibits. His employees managed to buy a library (3700 volumes) from the poet's grandson - it is now presented in the museum. There were also negotiations with a Parisian admirer of Pushkin (as they would say now, a fan). He collected in his apartment an impressive collection of personal items, autographs, portraits of the poet and his family. These things began to return to their homeland only after the death of the collector, in 1925.

Grain by grain

Museum employees are true enthusiasts of their work. Everything that could be found in various funds was carefully collected. Byaccording to the surviving evidence and documents, the furnishings of the apartment in which the Pushkin Museum is located (Moyka, 12) have been restored to the extent possible in modern conditions.

Some things really survived. In the cupboard there is a decanter made of ruby glass, in which the poet kept his favorite Madeira, and next to it on a tray are the remains of family silver: a spoon and a ladle. Behind the glass you can see a tiny shirt, in which the poet's son was baptized, and a fragment of the fabric with which the walls were upholstered (wallpaper was not yet practiced in those days).

The poet's office and library are reproduced with special love. Here are over 4 thousand volumes that he personally collected, as well as about ten thousand more books in 17 languages.

Pushkin's desk, his favorite "Voltaire" armchair with dark pink upholstery, a travel chest and a saber donated by friends have also been preserved. Another exhibit that the Pushkin Museum (St. Petersburg, Moika, 12) is rightfully proud of is the poet's favorite inkwell, decorated with a figurine of a black woman in golden trousers and with a pickaxe. Alexander Sergeevich himself was proud of his origin, never missed an opportunity to emphasize the characteristic features of his appearance, so he liked the trinket.

The original pen, which the poet held in his hands, is placed in a sealed box with a transparent lid. Apparently, there were many who wanted to hold on to the "magic" stationery.

Subject of the Emperor

There are several canes in the office, with which Pushkin traveled along the pavementsNorthern capital. Among them is his favorite, made of bamboo, with a button of Peter I instead of a knob. Contrary to everything that was told about the poet in Soviet schools, he was not at all such a fighter against tsarism. And the monarch did not commit atrocities beyond measure - he was very far from the rulers of the USSR.

It is known that Pushkin, being on his deathbed, asked Nicholas I for forgiveness for the duel and received a gracious answer with the obligation not to leave the poet's family forgotten. This note is kept among its exhibits by the Pushkin Museum. Moika, 12 - the last address of the poet, so the letter is in place.

By the way, the emperor kept his promise, thereby giving rise to a new round of gossip about his love affair with Natalya Nikolaevna (with whom only this eternally pregnant woman was not connected). Apparently, Monica Bellucci is right when she says that people can forgive a person's mind and even talent, but not beauty.

Museum display

Among the exhibits of the museum, lifetime portraits of the poet himself and his contemporaries, painted by famous Russian artists, are of great value. The canvases of famous painters - Aivazovsky, Repin, Myasoedov and others, dedicated to the Pushkin theme deserve special attention.

Now the Pushkin Museum (Moyka, 12) includes 9 rooms. Downstairs, on the ground floor, two rooms are dedicated to the introductory memorial exhibition - the guide introduces visitors to the last months of the poet's life, to the chain of events that led him to the Black River. Here you can see the original anonymous insulting letter, whichPushkin received (and believed that Dantes sent him), portraits of seconds, a copy of the challenge (and the conditions of the duel), as well as a pair of dueling pistols.

The exposition of the museum is built logically: the drama unfolds from hall to hall and ends in the very small room in which the coffin with the body of the deceased poet stood. Numerous admirers came here to say goodbye to him, there is also a death mask, a medallion with a curl of the poet's hair. Such an unusual request was made by Turgenev - the museum (Moika, 12) shows his note, according to which the hair was cut off on the second day after the death of the poet by his valet, who thus earned gold. Against the wall opposite, behind the glass, you can see the vest and white glove in which Alexander Sergeevich shot himself.

Reason for the duel

I must say that the whole story of the duel is not as simple and schematic as it is described to schoolchildren. The role of Natalya Nikolaevna in the tragic story is interpreted by some hotheads as negative, but, according to the numerous characteristics of her contemporaries, she was a quiet woman, she did not shine at all with secularism. At the time of the birth of the "stormy romance" with Dantes, Goncharova was once again expecting a child - and her pregnancy was by no means cloudless.

Perhaps Pushkin's condition was influenced by the situation in the world: such a whirlwind of dirty insinuations swept up around his wife that he felt obliged to respond to it.

Truth and myths

Anonymous libel thatreceived by Pushkin and several of his friends, where the poet was called "cuckold", became the decisive reason for the duel. Alexander Sergeevich attributed authorship to the young Heckeren, but the real culprit has not been identified to this day. Numerous biographers multiply versions.

Some blame Idalia Poletika (second cousin of Natalia Nikolaevna) for what happened. Say, it was she who had an affair with Dantes, and the naive Pushkina served as a cover for the intriguer, for which the poet undeservedly paid.

Others "agreed" to frankly delusional versions that Heckeren was a foreign spy, and Pushkin undertook to eliminate him, since he was involved in a secret service.

Trust the professionals

To hear a coherent version of what happened from the lips of experts, you need to go to the address: Moika, 12. Pushkin's apartment, which has become his last refuge, can tell a lot to a person who is ready to watch and listen. The guides in the museum deserve the highest praise. By itself, it is quite small, so mainly excursions are served.

As a result of the only strictness established by the Pushkin Museum (Moika, 12), photos of the exhibits that are in the basement cannot be seen on numerous Internet resources - photography is prohibited here. In the rest of the rooms it is allowed to use a camera or a camera, for this you will have to pay a symbolic amount for today.

The museum is open daily, from half past ten in the morning until six in the evening, the day off is on Tuesday. Shouldkeep in mind that the ticket office is open until 17-00, after this time you can’t get inside, so it’s better to plan a trip in the morning.