For everyone interested in Pushkin's work, the address Moika, 12 is well-known. On the Moika embankment, in the former home of the Volkonsky princes, is the only memorial museum-apartment of the poet in St. Petersburg. Here he spent the last four and a half months of his life.

Museum History

The three-story yellow mansion with a classical facade was one of the first stone buildings in the city, built in the 1730s for Peter I's secretary. It changed owners frequently until it was acquired by the Volkonsky princes. Pushkin, who was friends with Sergey Volkonsky, rented the first floor of the house for his family in 1836, consisting of 11 rooms.

After his death, his widow distributed the furniture and soon left the apartment to go to her brother in the Kaluga province. Subsequently, the apartment changed tenants multiple times and by the early 20th century had changed significantly.

By the 100th anniversary of Pushkin's birth, the City Duma wanted to acquire the building but limited itself to a memorial requiem. After the October Revolution, employees of the Pushkin House of the Academy of Sciences attempted to create a museum in the apartment, but unsuccessfully, as the house was occupied. Only in 1925, thanks to the efforts of a group of Pushkin scholars and staff from the Russian Museum, a museum opened in the apartment, consisting of several rooms. There was no talk of recreating the historical interior; artworks were exhibited that told about the life and work of the poet.

By 1927, the first museum exhibition was opened, featuring over 200 paintings and graphic works with portraits of Pushkin, his family, and views of St. Petersburg. A bust stood at the site of his death, and a death mask lay on the writing desk. This became possible thanks to Mikhail Dmitrievich Belyaev, the museum director, but in 1930 he was arrested and exiled from the city. A bust of Stalin appeared in the museum. Only the study was recreated, aided by a drawing by Zhukovsky, who sketched the layout of the apartment.

By the 1980s, the apartment was fully restored to how it might have looked during the poet's lifetime. The last tenants were relocated, and all three floors, wings, and the stable were transferred to the museum-apartment. Three years were spent on recreating the interiors. To find the true color of the walls from the early 19th century, restorers removed 8 layers of paint, returning the building to its historical yellow color.

On February 10, 1987, the memorial museum-apartment opened to visitors.

The Fatal Duel

In the basement, the story of the duel that became fatal for the "sun of Russian poetry" is detailed. His opponent, 22-year-old Georges Charles Dantes, came to Russia from France to make a career. He was sponsored by Louis Gekkerne, the ambassador of the Netherlands, who made him his adopted son.

The charming young man flirted left and right and became seriously infatuated with the poet's wife, Natalia Nikolaevna, born Goncharova. Married at 16, by 22 she had given birth to four children but continued to shine in society. She did not respond to the frivolous Frenchman's advances, simply enchanting with her beauty and femininity.

Rumors spread quickly in fashionable St. Petersburg, and soon detractors declared Pushkin a cuckold. In November 1836, he received an anonymous letter with the mocking title "Patent for the Title of Cuckold," hinting at his wife's infidelity. This overflowed the cup of his patience. Interestingly, it has never been determined who authored the note. The poet suspected Louis Gekkerne, as it was rumored that he harbored not only paternal feelings for his adopted son.

Pushkin challenged Dantes to a duel. He agreed but requested a two-week postponement. During this time, he proposed to Ekaterina Goncharova, Natalia Nikolaevna's sister. Pushkin was forced to withdraw his challenge. However, marriage did not prevent Dantes from pursuing a married woman, humiliating her sister.

Alexander Sergeyevich sent Louis Gekkerne an angry letter, threatening scandal if his son dared to encroach on his wife's honor again. In response, Gekkerne, on behalf of Dantes, challenged him to a duel "at the earliest opportunity." Pushkin accepted the challenge and insisted on deadly conditions: 20 paces apart, 5 paces from the barrier, no one has the right to fire first, shoot until one of the two is wounded or killed.

The poet, known for his hot temper, had challenged to duels more than 20 times but had never fired first or shed blood.

On January 27 at 5 PM, the fateful duel took place in a clearing near the Black River. Dantes fired first, wounding Pushkin in the stomach. Raising himself on his arm, he fired back, hitting Dantes in the arm. Upon learning of his injury, Pushkin exclaimed, "Bravo!".

There was no doctor present at the duel, and Pushkin's second, Danzas, failed to bring any means of assistance. Pushkin was doomed and died two days later in his home. The divan on which he spent his last hours is in his memorial apartment. He endured the agony from the wound stoically, not groaning or complaining so as not to upset his wife. A crowd of admirers gathered around the house on the Moika, necessitating a guard.

In the museum-apartment, there is a painting by Kozlov titled "Pushkin in the Coffin," created from his sketch at the poet's coffin.

After his death, Natalia Nikolaevna wore mourning for 7 years and only remarried when she was convinced that the suitor genuinely loved her children. Dantes was exiled from the country and made a brilliant career in France.

Museum Exhibition

The exhibition of the museum-apartment is unique, having been assembled over decades. Items arrived here in various ways, many were simply donated.

The study is the most accurately restored, filled with authentic furniture and personal belongings of the poet. The Gothic-style clock shows 14:45. According to legend, it stopped when he died.

The bookshelves are reconstructed, and the 4,000 volumes in 14 languages are authentic, purchased by the poet. The writing desk has survived; according to contemporaries, it was always cluttered with papers and books. There is also an armchair and a sofa that came here from the Hermitage. After genetic testing of blood traces, its belonging to Pushkin was established. For comparison, a vest soaked in his blood and a lock of hair were used. The black vest he wore on the day of the duel was preserved by Pyotr Vyazemsky.

Alexander Sergeyevich collected a collection of walking sticks. Two of them are displayed in the museum. Contemporaries reported that one of the canes weighed 4 kg, which Pushkin carried to maintain his hand's strength and accuracy until he once threw it into a pond, vowing to return.

Pushkin loved beautiful things and kept up with fashion. A true dandy, he paid attention to "the beauty of nails." He had long, well-groomed nails, visible in portraits. Steel scissors with a nail file are displayed in the museum.

One of the most memorable exhibits is the Nashchokin House, a miniature copy of the house of Pushkin's friend Pavel Nashchokin. The house reproduced the interiors of the era, and all details worked: pistols fired, the samovar boiled water, and the piano played. Nashchokin spent so much money on it that he could have bought a real house. He wanted to bequeath this mini-wonder to Natalia Nikolaevna. To Alexander Sergeyevich, Nashchokin gifted an inkwell with a little black boy in memory of his African great-grandfather A.P. Hannibal, a companion of Peter I.

In the museum's exhibition: a bell for summoning servants, a jewelry box, a box for papers, smoking pipes, a wallet, and a paper cutter. The following belonged to Natalia Nikolaevna: a jewelry box, a beaded wallet, a flower holder, a crystal perfume bottle, and wedding shoes. She embroidered one of the wallets specifically for her husband.

The museum-apartment is a branch of the oldest literary museum in Russia, the All-Russian Museum of A.S. Pushkin, which includes the Lyceum and its dacha in Tsarskoye Selo, the museum-apartment of Nekrasov on Liteiny, and the museum-estate of Derzhavin on the Fontanka.

The apartment at Moika, 12 has become a pilgrimage site for lovers of Russian literature and a person without whom it cannot be imagined. The crowd of his admirers here still does not diminish.