In 1917, Ivan Alexeyevich Bunin was already a well-known Russian writer, but unlike many colleagues, he did not support the February Revolution, considering it a harbinger of future troubles. In October of the same year, he and his wife Vera Muromtseva-Bunina moved into her parents' apartment in the Baskakov house. This place became his Moscow address, where he spent several months under the new regime and began keeping a diary that later formed the basis of the novella "Cursed Days."

The house, built by architect Olgerd Gustavovich Piotrovich in 1914, was a multi-story building in the classical style. Previously, there had been a wooden house belonging to the widow of Major Kostomarov, where in the winter of 1829/1830, Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov lived with his grandmother.

The Bunins moved to Pozharskaya Street on November 9, 1917, when cadets, officers, and volunteers gathered at the Alexandrovsky Cadet School to fight against the Bolsheviks who had overthrown the Provisional Government. The main events of the November battle unfolded near the Nikitsky Gates, right under the windows of the Bunins' apartment. During these days, the doors of the house were barricaded, and residents of neighboring apartments took turns keeping watch to prevent any outsiders from entering. After the defeat of the cadets, Bunin cried all night, calling that day the most unfortunate of his life. He attended the funeral of the fallen White Guards and since then noted the terrible changes in Moscow: the decline of morality, looting, violence, and lawlessness in the streets.

Unable to live under the new regime, Bunin left Moscow on March 5, 1918. He never saw his older brother Yulia again, who died of exhaustion in 1921, and in January 1920, he was forced to leave his homeland forever.