38. Dostoevsky House
The eminent 19th century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky lived in many different apartments around St. Petersburg, but his final residence (from 1878 until his death in 1881) was just a few blocks east of where I've been living in the Tolstoy House. His widow Anna made it her life's work for decades to preserve his legacy, and this house museum (opened in the 1970s, many years after her demise) is partly a result of those efforts.
This small museum has three galleries: the six-room apartment where Dostoevsky lived with his wife and children (sparsely decorated with some period furnishings and a variety of Dostoevsky's possessions), a modern room that features illustrations and a few artifacts related to his published works (this area did not make much sense without the audio guide), and a separate gallery that displayed modern photography from around St. Petersburg.
The highlights were definitely Dostoevsky's study, kitchen, and nursery. His top hat, the containers of loose leaf tobacco he used to roll his cigarettes, the art on his walls: these gave a sense of the man as an individual and personalized one of the greatest writers in Russian history. English-language information cards in each room provided the historical context for what the room was used for, the significance of the objects on display, a bit of his family history, and the connection of the rooms and artifacts with the last years of Dostoevsky's literary output. Although a small museum, this was a great way to learn about the more down-to-earth Russian lifestyle of the mid- to late-19th century - far removed from the magnificent excesses of the Yusupov Palace, for example.
I've not read much Dostoevsky (perhaps a bit in high school in the '90s, although I can't recall any specifics), but I have been reading his short story "White Nights" this week, during the height of St. Petersburg's White Nights season. Seeing where he spent his final years finishing his novel "The Brothers Karamazov" certainly pushes that work much higher on my list. And, I'd like to read his novella "The Double" after recently enjoying the 2013 film adaptation starring Jesse Eisenberg.
This small museum has three galleries: the six-room apartment where Dostoevsky lived with his wife and children (sparsely decorated with some period furnishings and a variety of Dostoevsky's possessions), a modern room that features illustrations and a few artifacts related to his published works (this area did not make much sense without the audio guide), and a separate gallery that displayed modern photography from around St. Petersburg.
The highlights were definitely Dostoevsky's study, kitchen, and nursery. His top hat, the containers of loose leaf tobacco he used to roll his cigarettes, the art on his walls: these gave a sense of the man as an individual and personalized one of the greatest writers in Russian history. English-language information cards in each room provided the historical context for what the room was used for, the significance of the objects on display, a bit of his family history, and the connection of the rooms and artifacts with the last years of Dostoevsky's literary output. Although a small museum, this was a great way to learn about the more down-to-earth Russian lifestyle of the mid- to late-19th century - far removed from the magnificent excesses of the Yusupov Palace, for example.
I've not read much Dostoevsky (perhaps a bit in high school in the '90s, although I can't recall any specifics), but I have been reading his short story "White Nights" this week, during the height of St. Petersburg's White Nights season. Seeing where he spent his final years finishing his novel "The Brothers Karamazov" certainly pushes that work much higher on my list. And, I'd like to read his novella "The Double" after recently enjoying the 2013 film adaptation starring Jesse Eisenberg.
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