State Museum of A.S. Pushkin, Moscow, Russia

The State Museum of Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin is a Moscow museum dedicated to the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. The opening took place in 1961 in the building of the city noble estate of the Khrushchev-Seleznyovs, erected in the XIX century.

On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Pushkin in 1999, the main building and nearby outbuildings were united by a glass atrium, which formed the appearance of a single museum complex. As of 2018, the museum fund consists of more than 200,000 storage units and includes household items, the poet’s personal belongings, art collection and private collections. The museum includes the following branches: Alexander Pushkin Memorial Apartment on Arbat, Ivan Turgenev Museum on Ostozhenka, Vasily Pushkin House-Museum on Old Basmannaya, Andrei Bely Memorial Apartment and exhibition halls inMoney Lane .

History
In 2012, the State Museum of A.S. Pushkin celebrated his 55th birthday. Government decree on the establishment in Moscow of the State Museum of A.S. Pushkin was signed on October 5, 1957. Arising as part of the State Literary Museum and finally gaining independence, the Moscow Museum of A.S. For an amazingly short period of time (3, 5 years), Pushkin prepared for opening his first exposition, which opened on the poet’s birthday, on June 6, 1961.

In this wonderful exhibition, a new Pushkin collection was presented, collected by that time by the museum staff. She formed the basis of the Moscow Pushkin. The museum immediately became extremely popular. A lot of visitors were attracted by the opportunity to get acquainted with the materials about Pushkin’s life and work in beautiful and comfortable rooms, and the joy of communicating with prominent cultural figures.

The creation of a museum is always the work of enthusiasts, ascetics. And our 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. Muse, S.T. Ovchinnikova, N.S. Nechaeva, E.V. Pavlova, G.D. Kropyvnytsky, 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, the name of the person who became the head of the group of experts and enthusiasts and laid the foundation for the great history of the Moscow Pushkin House should be especially noted. This is Aleksandr Zinovievich Crane, the founder and first director of the museum, who devoted his life to his brainchild, the legendary man, intellectual, collector, author of numerous publications, books telling about the history of the museum.

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

One of the main directions of the museum’s development in the 1970s and 1980s was the work on the museumification of Pushkin places. In 1986, a branch of the GMP was opened – “A.S. Apartment Pushkin on the Arbat. ” Museum staff developed expositions in the Vulfov house in Bernov, Tver Region, where Pushkin came to visit his friends more than once, and in the estate of the Vyazemsky Princes Ostafyevo in the Moscow Region, where Pushkin, Karamzin, Zhukovsky, Gogol visited. Revived by the efforts of our museum in the very beginning of the 1990s as a branch of the GMP, Ostafyevo has now become an independent museum of federal significance.

At the same time, a new branch is being created in the museum, seemingly little connected with Pushkin’s theme – 55 Andrei Bely’s apartment on Arbat. Two factors played an important role in creating the new branch: territorial proximity – proximity to the Pushkin memorial on Arbat, and collections of the 20th century GMP. On 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 the continuation of the Pushkin tradition.

In 1999, in the anniversary year of Pushkin, the house was transferred to house No. 36 on Old Basmannaya Street in the German settlement, where the poet spent his first childhood. In this house lived the “Parnassian father” of the poet, his uncle Vasily Lvovich Pushkin, the famous poet of the early 19th century. Today the house of V.L. Pushkin, where Alexander Sergeyevich himself has repeatedly been, is under restoration. It is planned that here, in the branch of the GMP, there will be an exposition that tells about the work and life of V.L. Pushkin and convey the image of Moscow’s Pushkin childhood.

A special role in the history of the museum was played by the preparation and holding of the 200th anniversary of the birth of A.S. Pushkin. By this time, the need for a major overhaul of the main buildings of the estate on Prechistenka, restoration of museum collections was increasingly acutely recognized. The GMP initiative has 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 the complete deterioration of utilities. He decided on the overhaul of buildings and the construction of a new storage facility.

The team of architects created a project for the reconstruction and restoration of the estate, and in 1996 Mospromstroy began grandiose restoration and construction works. In a short period, the main wooden manor house and the service wing of the 18th century were thoroughly restored, all engineering and technical communications were replaced, the underground part of the museum was built, where the recreation area for visitors was located (wardrobe, sideboard, souvenir and book stalls). The manor courtyard received a glazed ceiling, combining the individual buildings of the manor into a single whole.

December 1, 1997, on the solemn day of the opening of the first stage of the museum, which was the first Moscow event on the eve of the anniversary of A.S. Pushkin, there was a rebirth of the museum. As a result of the 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 expositions, exhibition, concert and conference rooms, a library and a reading room, and children’s playrooms were opened for visitors. Among the restored manor buildings were the 17th-century white-stone chambers overlooking Chertolsky Lane, and the garden pavilion, where the Onegin restaurant is now open.

For a short period of time, a lot of work was done in the renovated museum. A system of new permanent exhibits has been created: “Pushkin and his era” (the front suite of the main manor house), which interprets the poet’s biography and creative path in the context of culture, literature, history, and art of the Pushkin era; “The history of the estate Khrushchev-Seleznev. History of the GMF ”(ground floor); exposition of children’s play rooms “Pushkin’s Tales” (outbuilding in the manor courtyard), designed to work with children. The artistic decision of the new permanent exhibits on Prechistenka and Arbat belonged to the group of authors headed by the legendary artist in the museum community, Evgeny Abramovich Rosenblum. The grand opening after the restoration of the “Memorial Apartment A.S. Pushkin on the Arbat “with a permanent exhibition telling in the life of Pushkin in Moscow,

The 200th anniversary of Pushkin was a triumph of not only Russian, but also European culture. State Museum A.S. Pushkin carried out a number of significant exhibition projects. – The exhibition “Pushkin visiting Balzac”, launched in 1997 in Paris, continued in 1998 with the exposition “Balzac. Dandy and Creator ”in the exhibition halls of our museum; exhibition “Pushkin. Miscavige Two Views ”, exhibited in Warsaw in 1998, became available to Muscovites in May of that year; “Pushkin and Goethe”; “Pushkin and Heine”; “Pushkin and Greece”; “Pushkin and Oriental 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 was implemented a grand restoration program of museum collections. Numerous objects of painting, graphic art, bronze, porcelain, which are now exhibited at permanent expositions, exhibitions, have been restored and essentially put into cultural circulation.

And in October 2007 the Moscow Pushkin Museum celebrated its 50th anniversary. Very interesting and large exhibition projects (“Gifts and Donors”, “Russian Duel”, etc.) and two very important anniversary editions: an album-catalog “Gifts and Donors” and a chronicle album “Pushkin Moscow House” were prepared for this date. 1957 – 2007 ”. At a ceremonial meeting held on October 5, the museum received many valuable gifts from private individuals, ministries, departments, large corporations, and from other museums. In 2008, as a visible result of collecting activities in recent years, Prechistenka successfully hosted an exhibition of new arrivals to the museum’s collection “Little by little, treasures grow”, one of the halls of which was filled with anniversary gifts. We are sure that the gifts will go to the museum in the future, and the museum will forever enter the noble names of donors in its history.

Collection
As of 2018, the museum fund includes more than 200,000 storage units, about 70,000 of which are private gifts, many of which came in the first years after the foundation of the museum. Among the most valuable exhibits are a miniature portrait of Pushkin in childhood, made by Vsevolod Yakut, a watercolor portrait of PF Sokolov’s work “ Maria Volkonskaya with her son” (a gift from Vladimir Zvegintsov through Ilya Zilberstein ), a medicine box with which Dr. Nikolai Arendt came to the dying Pushkin (gift of the great-granddaughter of the doctor Ariadne Arendt ). The direct descendants of the poet handed over to the museum a portrait of the nanny of his son Alexander, which was created by Sofya Lanskaya, as well as a photo portrait of the grandson of Sergei Alexandrovich, a horny lorgnet and lace cuffs, which belonged to the poet’s granddaughter Vera Mezentsova. Great-great-granddaughter of Pushkin Clotilda von Rintelen presented the museum with six images, and Natalia Merenberg – a draft manuscript of an autobiographical novel. On display is the only known portrait of Isaac Hannibal – Pushkin’s cousin, and the image of Pushkin’s granddaughter Natalia Dubelt by Ivan Makarov .

Other gifts include private collections: The Library of Russian Poetry of Ivan Rozanov, Pavel Gubar, Tatyana Mavrina and Nikolai Kuzmin, a collection of prints by Yakov Zak and porcelain Agrippina Vaganova. In the 2010s, the museum included a collection of objects of applied art from the late 18th – 19th centuries by the scientist Lev Kishkin, transferred to the museum’s archive by his widow Natalya Semikhatova-Kishkina . The art collection is represented by paintings by Vasily Tropinin, Orest Kiprensky, Karl Bryullov, Lev Bakst,Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Konstantin Korovin and others .

Hall Design
The renewed permanent exhibition “Pushkin and his era” opened in 1997 on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the poet’s birth and is located in 15 rooms of the main manor house. In total, more than 4000 storage units are represented: portraits, books, manuscripts, as well as objects of decorative and applied art . The author of the art project of the new exposition was the famous museum designer Eugene Rosenblum, according to whom the exhibition space was built according to the biographical principle.

Hall number 1 is called “Prologue” and is dedicated to the XVIII century – the era when the poet was born. Engravings of Russian and European masters, portraits of tsars, statesmen and thinkers of that time are exhibited in the room. So, visitors can see lifetime editions of writers: Mikhail Lomonosov, Denis Fonvizin, Alexander Sumarokov, Gabriel Derzhavin, Nikolai Karamzin.

Hall No. 2 “The Epoch of Pushkin” is dedicated to the events of the beginning of the 19th century, it presents relics characterizing the socio-political and literary atmosphere of the beginning of the 19th century: relics of the Patriotic War of 1812, documents telling about the fate of the Decembrists, copies of autographed books by contemporary Pushkin, documentary chronicle of the era. One of the most valuable exhibits is the portrait of the poet, lithographed by Gustav Gippius, underneath is an authentic Pushkin autograph. In the center of the room is a sculpture of a poet by Alexander Terebenev.

Halls No. 3-5 “Childhood. Moscow ”is dedicated to the writer’s childhood. Represented are the views of the city from the late 18th – early 19th centuries, portraits of the poet’s parents, friends and acquaintances of his family, household items, books from the early 19th century, furniture, as well as objects of decorative and applied art that make it possible to present the atmosphere of the Pushkin’s Moscow house.

The hallway under the oak staircase – Hall 6 – leads to the enfilade of the front halls. Ballroom at number 7 opens a circular suite of ceremonial rooms of the mansion. The exposition tells about the stay of Pushkin in the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, about his life in St. Petersburg, about the South and Mikhailov links. Hall No. 8 is arranged in the Large Living Room and is called “Eugene Onegin”, there are collected household items, portraits, books, and views of St. Petersburg and Moscow related to the novel.

Hall number 9 “Return to Moscow. Years of wandering ”is associated with the poet’s residence in the Tver region, Arzrum and Boldin. The exposition tells about the marriage of Pushkin, the marriage of his sister Olga Sergeyevna, as well as the return of the poet to Tsarskoye Selo.

Halls 10 and 11 are dedicated to The Queen of Spades and The Bronze Horseman. The rooms are connected with the environment of the Russian aristocracy and the bourgeoisie of the times of Catherine II, the role of Peter I in the history of the country. Hall No. 12 – “Traveling through the Pugachev Places”, Pushkin traveled along the path of Emelyan Pugachev: the Volga region, Kazan, Orenburg, Simbirsk. Hall № 14 “The Captain’s Daughter” is devoted to the peasant war of 1773-1775 years.

The last years of the poet’s life are displayed in the main hall No. 15, where portraits of the poet’s Petersburg environment, his personal belongings, books, documents and letters of the last days of his life, autographs of poems, a posthumous portrait and Pushkin’s mask are located. The exposition is completed by the entrance hall, in which there are floor clocks of the 19th century and a model of the Pushkin monument by Alexander Opekushin.

The second permanent exhibition “Pushkin’s Tales” was opened in 2015 and represents a play and exhibition space for children, where experienced guides and teachers work with them. A collection of drawings by Nadia Rusheva, a Soviet schoolgirl who is fond of Pushkin’s art, is exhibited in the hall. For 17 years, the girl painted about a hundred illustrations for the poet’s works.

In 2001, the memorial office of the first director of the museum, Aleksand Krein, was opened in the mansion, which also presents an exposition dedicated to the unification of the Pushkin Museum Museums in 2009. The memorial setting was recreated in the hall: a desk, an armchair, a lamp, a writing set, a folder for papers, and an ashtray with a pack of Pegasus cigarettes, which Crane often smoked. In the office there are bookcases, a home secretary from the Karelian birch, as well as several pieces of furniture from the Pushkin era of the early 19th century .

Exhibition

Pushkin and his era
The permanent exhibition “Pushkin and his era”, located in 15 rooms of the main house of the Khrushchev-Seleznev estate, was opened in 1997, on the 850th anniversary of Moscow and on the eve of the 200th anniversary of Pushkin. Built on a biographical principle, she talks about the works and days of the poet, about his contemporaries and heroes of his works, about the culture and life of Pushkin’s time. The exhibition features about 4,000 portraits, books, manuscripts, and decorative and applied arts. Many of them belonged to people from the Pushkin circle.

Museum collections, thanks to gifts, acquisitions from collectors and at international auctions, are constantly replenished. The most significant objects, after their study and, if necessary, restoration, are included in the permanent exhibition. So, in the halls “Pushkin’s Childhood” you can now see portraits of the godfather of the poet A.I. Vorontsova and “grandmothers” E.A. Yankova, who remembered Pushkin as a child well. The Prologue Hall in 2010 was replenished with 20 new exhibits at once.

Pushkin’s Tales
Children’s playrooms “Pushkin’s Tales” of the State Museum of A.S. Pushkin. January 13, 2015 new halls “Tales of A.S. Pushkin “opened its doors to visitors! Over the years of the museum’s existence, the exposition “Tales of A.S. Pushkin” was loved by young Muscovites. She was visited by tens of thousands of kids, their teachers and parents. During this time, the museum’s funds have been enriched, the experience of working with children has expanded, new forms of displaying museum items and work with visitors have appeared.

Memorial cabinet A.Z. Crane
The new permanent exhibition in the main manor complex on Prechistenka combines two important topics for the museum: Life and work of the first director of the Museum A.S. Pushkin – Alexander Zinovievich Kerin and the association of the Community of Pushkin Museums.

The first topic is dedicated to the founder and first legendary director of the Moscow Museum A.S. Pushkin, recreates the memorial space of the cabinet, in which Alexander Zinovievich Krein worked for more than 30 years. The atmosphere emphasizes the character of the owner. Alexander Zinovievich, who went through the Great Patriotic War from beginning to end and created one of the best Pushkin museums in the country, was, like many bright people of his generation, a neat, modest man and, above all, a man infinitely devoted to his work.

More than forty years have been devoted by A.Z. Crane “Pushkin’s service.” After graduating from school, he entered the literary faculty of the Institute of Philosophy, Literature and History (IFLI). After the third year, on August 7, 1941 he was drafted into the army and sent first to the school of junior lieutenants in Rostov the Great, and then to the Leningrad Military Engineering School, evacuated to Kostroma. Since 1942, he served as chief of the reserve of officers of the 61st Army of the 1st Belorussian Front. His military merits were awarded the orders of the Red Star and World War II and II degree, medals “For the capture of Warsaw”, “for the capture of Berlin” and other distinctions. After the war, Major Crane again returned to the student bench – now to the philological faculty of Moscow University. In 1947, having received an honors degree,

In April 1958, A.Z. Crane became the director of the A.S. Pushkin, with whom his whole subsequent life turned out to be connected. Taking a lively part in all types of museum activities, Alexander Zinovievich was at the same time the ideologist of the museum. The basis of his ideology was the belief that the Pushkin Museum is a temple, and the work in it is Pushkin’s ministry.

The exposition recreates the familiar range of things in the director’s office, everything that Alexander Zinovievich loved and could not do without. Here his work desk and chair; on the table there is a lamp, a writing instrument, a folder for papers, an ashtray with a pack of his unchanged and favorite Pegasus cigarettes. Next – a modest typewriter, on which Alexander Zinovievich himself printed his reports, scientific articles, friendly and official letters. The circle of his friendly and professional ties was enormous. AZ Crane had an amazing gift of uniting like-minded people around him. It was under him that the tradition of giving, which is now called the phenomenon of the A.S. Moscow Museum, has developed and continues to live. Pushkin. An extensive collection of GMFs today is moreThan a third of their gifts! And among them are absolutely unique and priceless items…

Complement the atmosphere of the memorial “Crane” space – a cabinet chandelier, under which the director worked for many years; bookcases – the works of Crane himself and dozens of copyright monographs; his personal home secretary bureau from Karelian birch and several other pieces of furniture from the beginning of the 19th century – the Pushkin era, to which Alexander Zinovievich was absolutely devoted.

On the walls are works of art that were once personally donated to Crane and loved so much that they were always before his eyes. Among them – a wonderful helio-engraving by V. Angerer according to Rizzoni’s original “Lovers of Antiquities” with a plot symbolic for a real museum owner – a collective gift from the staff to the beloved director; The drawing by Konstantin Sevastyanov “Pushkin in Tsarskoye Selo Park” made in virtuoso silhouette technique; pen drawing by Pavel Bunin “Faun with a pipe” signed by the author, etc.

There is a very significant item in the new exposition – “exhibit No. 1”, the very one from which the museum collection began. This etching is a portrait of A.S. Pushkin, created in the 1900s by the artist Mikhail Rundaltsov according to the original by O. Kiprensky, was listed under the number “one” in the book of museum receipts on September 24, 1958. The photographic numbers placed in the exposition tell about the history of the museum, about the history that had already gone down in the history of the first Pushkin exposition, about the legendary cultural figures who were among the museum’s close circle of friends. The second theme of the new exhibition is logically connected with the memorial and is dedicated to the Community of Pushkin Museums, many of which were developed with the participation and in contact with the Moscow Museum.

In Russia, the very idea of creating literary museums is connected with the name of the great poet. In 1879 in the Imperial Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum opened the first museum of A.S. Pushkin. And today, the most extensive network of Russian literary museums is the Pushkin museums. The prerequisites for the integration of Pushkin museums at the present stage were laid in 1989, when work began on preparations for the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the poet’s birth. After the collapse of the USSR, part of the museums of A.S. Pushkin ended up outside the country. In 2000, in the State Museum of A.S. Pushkin held a conference on the basis of the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the poet, where representatives of the Pushkin museums proposed to continue working together, teaming up to solve the most important and significant problems. On April 17, 2006, an Agreement on cooperation between the Pushkin museums was signed. Since 2009, the Community began its work on an ongoing basis.

Today, the Community of Pushkin Museums is an association of museums (literary, memorial, and local history) that tell about the life and work of A.S. Pushkin, the places where the poet lived or visited, the ancestors and descendants, as well as the literary heroes of his works – already has 22 museums.

A new recreation zone of the Community has been created in the new exposition, where visitors can get acquainted with the history and modern life of Pushkin museums. Information about them can be obtained from albums, guides, catalogs, which are collected in the new exhibition, from video materials posted on electronic media. Here you can just sit and relax, look through books, soak up the very spirit of Pushkin museums.

The estate of Khrushchev-Seleznev
The princes Baryatinsky, who owned the site on Prechistenka before the Moscow fire of 1812, sold the building, which was dilapidated after the fire, to the retired warrant officer Alexander Khrushchev. On his initiative, in 1814-1817, an empire mansion was erected on the site, designed by architects Domenico Gilardi and Athanasius Grigoriev. Near the main building, they equipped household premises and set up a small garden with decorative pavilions in the fashion of the time. In the 1840s, the estate passed into the possession of the family of tea traders Rudakov, and later to the headquarters captainDmitry Nikolayevich Seleznev. In the 1910s, his daughter transferred the estate to the Moscow nobility for an orphanage named after her parents – Anna and Dmitry Seleznev.

In 1814, the remnants of the estate destroyed by the war of 1812, which had previously belonged to the princes Baryatinsky, were bought by the retired warrant officer Alexander Petrovich Khrushchev. A few years later, on the site of a recent ashes by architects D.I. Gilardi and A.G. Grigoriev erected a beautiful Empire-style mansion, which was surrounded by numerous office buildings and a small garden with a pavilion and other architectural “ventures”. The “rich Khrushchevs” lived in an open house, and the Moscow nobility gladly went to their balls, dinner parties and dinners. The museum does not have documented evidence that Pushkin, who often visited this part of Moscow, visited this house. However, given the extensive connections of the Khrushchevs who hosted “the whole of Moscow”, it can be assumed that the poet was also here.

In the mid-1840s, the estate was acquired by the tea merchants Rudakov. Then she transferred to the noble family of retired staff captain D.N. Selezneva. At the beginning of the 20th century, his daughter, deciding to perpetuate the memory of her parents, transferred the estate to the Moscow nobility to establish an orphanage named after Anna Alexandrovna and Dmitry Stepanovich Seleznev in it.

After 1917, the estate housed various institutions whose work was associated with the preservation of cultural property. For seven years (1924 – 1931) the Museum of Toys was located here. In April 1940 View of Prechistenka street from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The beginning of the twentieth centurythe building was transferred to the Literary Museum to create a permanent exhibition in it dedicated to V. Mayakovsky. The planned opening date of the exposition coincided with the beginning of World War II, and the idea of “settlement” in Mayakovsky’s early 19th century mansion was not realized.

In the postwar years, the mansion belonged to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then it was again returned to the Literary Museum. In August 1949, the anniversary exhibition “A.S. Pushkin. 150th Birth Anniversary. ” After its closure, the academic institutions became the owners of the house for a while: first the Institute of Oriental Studies, then the Institute of Slavic Studies and Balkan Studies. Finally, on October 5, 1957, a government decree was signed on the creation of the A.S. Pushkin Museum in Moscow and on the transfer to him of a noble mansion on the corner of Prechistenka and Khrushchevsky Lane.

From 1924 to 1931 the Museum of Toys was located in the building. In 1940, the estate was transferred to the possession of the Literary Museum to create an exposition dedicated to Vladimir Mayakovsky. After 1945, the building was returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, and a few years later it was again transferred to the Literary Museum, which organized the State Museum of Alexander Pushkin.

Museum Foundation
In 1949, an exhibition was opened at the estate, organized by the State Literary Museum for the 150th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Pushkin. As part of the exposition, memorial items of the poet were presented, as well as a number of public lectures were organized. After the exhibition was closed, many cultural figures of that time, such as Leonid Leonov, Nikolai Tikhonov, Konstantin Fedin, Dmitry Blagoy, Samuel Marshak, Mikhail Isakovsky, Irakli Andronikov, Yuri Zavadsky, Pavel Korin, Galina Ulanova, Sergey Bondi, signed a letter to the Council of Ministers of the USSRrequesting the opening of Alexander Pushkin’s museum on the estate.

In 1957, the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR issued a decree according to which the Museum of Alexander Pushkin was created at the State Literary Museum, but a few months later the museum was declared an independent institution. The first director was Alexander Crane, during which large-scale work was carried out to prepare the first permanent exhibition. The Crane team also included researchers: Natalya Baranskaya, E.V. Muza, S. T. Ovchinnikova, N. S. Nechaev, 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 . The opening of the first exhibition took place in 1961, later it became the basis for a permanent exhibition. The museum fund was formed thanks to the acquisitions of museum workers, as well as the help of collectors Felix Vishnevsky, Jacob Zack and others. Thanks to the activities of Vishnevsky, the foundation included a pencil portrait of Ekaterina Bakunina by Orest Kiprensky in 1813, watercolor portraits of Elena Davydova and Vera Vyazemskaya by artist Alexander Molinare, as well as the image of comrade Pushkin Modest Korf, made by Eduard Gau. Jacob Zak also helped the museum in acquiring rare exhibits, and after his death in 1971, the museum completely acquired a collection of collectors, consisting of 4040 engravings and lithographs.

In the 1970-1980s, the activities of the museum were aimed at the museumification of Pushkin places and work on the creation of new branches. So, starting in 1986, Alexander Pushkin’s apartment on Arbat, the Wulf house in Bernov, the estate of the Vyazemsky princes in Ostafievo, and Andrei Bely’s apartment on the Arbat were opened. In 1999, the museum was transferred to the mansion number 36 on Old Basmannaya, in which the poet’s uncle Vasily Pushkin lived for a long time.

In 1996, a large-scale reconstruction of the building began under the leadership of Mospromstroy, engineering and technical communications were replaced in the building, the underground part of the museum was built, where the recreation area for visitors was located (wardrobe, sideboard, souvenir and bookstalls), and the manor courtyard received a glazed ceiling, combining the individual buildings of the estate .

On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of Pushkin’s birth in 1999, the museum hosted exhibitions: “Pushkin visiting Balzac”, “Balzac. Dandy and the Creator”, “Pushkin. Mickiewicz. Two views”, “Pushkin and Goethe”,“Pushkin and Heine”, “Pushkin and Greece”, “Pushkin and Eastern culture”. As part of the celebration of the poet’s anniversary, concert, publishing and scientific-educational programs were organized, as well as paintings from the museum fund were restored .

In 2007, the museum celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding, in honor of which the exhibition projects “Gifts and Givers” and “Russian Duel” were prepared.