Today, Gogol’s House in Moscow is the only museum in Russia in memory of the great Russian writer. The works of Nikolai Vasilievich were highly appreciated by contemporaries during the life of the author. They were studied and continue to be studied in educational institutions of the country. And theatrical productions and film adaptations are still carried out both in Russia and abroad.
And with all this, a small museum named after N.V. Gogol appeared in the capital only in 1974. Finally, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great classic, in 2009 in the capital, a real museum and cultural complex worthy of his name was inaugurated. The address of the "House of Gogol" in Moscow: Nikitsky Boulevard, 7A.
Why in Nikitsky?
Gogol first came to Moscow in 1832. He was 23, and he had already published several of his works, including Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka. Since then, he, a traveler and a fidget, often returned to his beloved city and stayed with friends.
The last four years of his life, he worked in the estate of Count Alexander Tolstoy, where he was invited by his family. The former Tolstoy estate, and now the “Gogol’s House” in Moscow on Nikitsky Boulevard, is the only survivor of the houses the writer has ever lived in when he arrived in the city. Here he created his latest works, burned some chapters of “Dead Souls” in the fireplace, and immediately died from an unknown illness in 1852.
For housing, the Tolstoy allocated the writer three rooms on the ground floor. The care and attention with which he was surrounded gave Nikolai Vasilievich the opportunity to live and work quietly.
But, unfortunately, there were negative events during this period that inflicted severe emotional trauma on him. Contemporaries did not accept his new book, the proposal for marriage to Anna Vielgorskaya was rejected, the funeral of pregnant Ekaterina Khomyakova, a very good friend, broke his mental strength. This led to a crisis from which the writer could not get out.
Gogol's health was undermined, Nikolai Vasilievich faded away. The invited doctors were unable to make a diagnosis, and on the night of February 12 he was gone. Ten days before his death, he, awaiting death, put his papers in order and burned the manuscripts of the unfinished work.
The history of the “House of Gogol” in Moscow
In 1966, a library drove into the former Tolstoy estate on Suvorov (now Nikitsky) Boulevard. It was created in 1923 at the initiative of N.K. Krupskaya and over the past years has repeatedly changed premises, names and subordination. Subsequently, it became the second most important library of the city, and she needed a large and dignified room.
In 1974, on the ground floor, those three small rooms where the writer once lived were allocated for the construction of the N.V. Gogol Museum in them. The situation was helped to recreate the memoirs of his contemporaries. Antiques, furniture, books and, of course, lifetime editions of the writer were purchased. Five years later, library No. 2 was named after Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol.
At the very beginning of the 21st century, the city government supported the initiative to create the Gogol’s House complex in Moscow, which would include library information and museum funds.
In 2009, March 27, dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the writer, the opening of this cultural and scientific institution.
Museum exposition
Today, the Gogol House-Museum in Moscow occupies six rooms on the ground floor of the building. The decoration of the halls was attended by highly professional specialists. To create compositions, both traditional techniques and modern multimedia and audiovisual means were used.
According to the authors of the project, in every room there is a thing that belongs to the writer, which is central and contains the essence of the design of the entire hall.
Museum Halls
In the hallway is a travel chest. To emphasize the significance of the symbol of Gogol's travels through cities and countries in search of plots and heroes of books, the authors placed it on a glass stand. On the hanger hangs the writer’s outerwear, a black cape with a drape and a top hat, so we remember Gogol from his paintings and films.
The living room furniture belonged to the Tolstoy family, but the selected items are associated with Nikolai Vasilievich. Here the writer met with guests, old acquaintances and friends, met with young authors. Immediately he read his works to the audience. The attention of visitors in this room is drawn to the author's books on the table and to the fireplace in which the manuscripts were burned.
The office served Nikolai Vasilievich and a bedroom. Therefore, there is a strange thing for such a room - a screen. And the writer worked at two “workplaces”. Drafts he did, standing at the desk. During work, he walked around the office, read or pronounced fragments aloud, sometimes even played them, as in a theater. He was engaged in correspondence of the work at the table. The main item in this room, of course, is the desk. And on it, probably, for inspiration is a portrait of Pushkin.
The authors dedicated one of the rooms to the comedian The Examiner. Decorated like a theater room, with a curtain and banquets along the wall, she pays tribute to Gogol's brilliant comedy. The author himself did not accept the production of the play, but the audience of the Maly Theater really liked it.
The memory room in the “Gogol House” in Moscow is located where the Tolstoys relocated the sick writer. She was the warmest in the house. Here Nikolai Vasilyevich died. Here stands a sofa - the deathbed of a great writer and lies his death mask. In the mournful hall on the walls hang paintings from the burial places of Gogol. As you know, there were two of them. Buried in the Holy Danilov Monastery, his ashes were reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery in connection with the liquidation of the monastery cemetery.
The Hall of Incarnations is a very unusual place for a classical museum. In an innovative form, with the help of exhibits, the authors showed ambiguous impressions made by Gogol's works and characters.
Complex library
The library fund owns print publications of various orientations: fiction and scientific literature, periodicals in all branches of knowledge. But special attention, of course, is given to the humanitarian direction, the works of Nikolai Vasilievich and materials about the life and work of the writer.
Here you can find audio and electronic books, sheet music, thematic collections. For the convenience of readers, an electronic catalog has been created. The library has a lecture hall, children's studios, concerts and other events.