The Literary and Memorial Museum named after M. Gorky in Samara opened on June 18, 1941, in a house on Razin Street, 126, where Gorky lived from May to December 1895. The museum is now located on Frunze Street, in the estate where the future writer Alexei Tolstoy lived in 1899 and 1901 while studying at the Samara Real School. The archive of the Tolstoy family forms the basis of the museum's permanent exhibition, the central part of which is the memorial apartment. The atmosphere of the halls immerses visitors in the ambiance of a provincial town at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. However, the museum's interests are not limited to Tolstoy alone. Since its founding, it has been collecting information about all 20th-century writers connected with Samara and the Volga region. It also actively studies the contemporary literary process and culture as a whole. For example, the project 'World, Text, Museum,' dedicated to new forms of museification and the presentation of contemporary literature, won the 'Changing Museum in a Changing World' competition in 2012.

The Samara Literary Museum, as it is referred to in the media, hosts lectures, seminars, and creative meetings dedicated to literature, contemporary art, architecture, and photography. In addition, the museum offers numerous entertainment and educational programs for children, including a new interactive exhibition dedicated to the famous fairy tale 'The Golden Key' by A. N. Tolstoy.