State Literature Museum
From Moscowiki
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Tuesday, Thursday, Saterday from 11:00 until 18:00
Closed: Sunday, Monday, the last day of the month
Moscow Museum Guide
[edit] Description
State Literature Museum is the biggest museum of literature in Russia and one of the largest museums in the world. It was founded in 1921 and has 12 branches that occupy several old beautiful mansions in Moscow and Moscow region.
Four houses of the museum present the full history of the development of literature in Russia from ancient manuscripts and first printed books to nowadays. The main building is situated on Petrovka Street in Vysokopetrovsky monastery since 1934; three special departments of the museum occupy three other picturesque mansions of Moscow. They exhibit the history of Russian literature of the 17th – 19th centuries, Silver Age (the period of 1920s, the heyday of Russian poetry) and of the 20th century. State Literature Museum also unites eight branches; these are house-museums of prominent Russian men of letters: Mikhail Lermontov, Alexander Hertsen, Fedor Dostoevsky, Anton Chekhov, Anatoly Lunacharsky, Alexey Tolstoy, Boris Pasternak and Korney Chukovsky. They illustrate the way of life of outstanding talented people of the past.
[edit] Museum’s Collection
The Museum’s collection counts more than 1 000 000 exhibits: unique editions, manuscripts and typescripts by prominent writers, rare pieces of art, photographs, and other items connected with the history of Russian literature, classical and modern. There is also a unique collection of writers’ voice records (starting with Lev Tolstoy). The exposition of the main building on Petrovka Street includes a collection of some chronicles and first hand-written books, mostly on historical or religious subjects, since they were rewritten through centuries in Russian monasteries. The first publisher in Russia was Ivan Fedorov; his first editions are here on the show, as well as popular literature of the 18th-19th century and first Russian magazines.[edit] Photos
