Opening hours of the Dostoevsky Museum.

From Tuesday till Sunday from 11.00 till 18.00.
Closed Mondays.
Ticket windows shut one hour before the museum closes.
Adress: 191002, Saint Petersburg, Kuznechny Pereulok, 5/2.
Official web site of the Dostoevsky Museum.

Historical Note of Dostoevsky Museum:

Fyodor Dostoevsky and St. Petersburg, an indissoluble union. It was here that the great Russian writer lived most of his life and set his most famous novels, feeding on the magical atmosphere that only this city of the land and sea could offer. Dostoevsky lived in many different apartments and never stayed anywhere for more than three years but he always had an obsession with houses on a corner near to a church that provided him with the opportunity to see two different streets and listen to the sound of bells, which he greatly loved.

The house museum is located in an apartment on Kuznechny Lane particularly important for the writer as he lived there at the beginning of his career when he wrote his first stories and in the last three years of life, from 1878 to 1881, during which he produced his masterpiece, The Brothers Karamazov. Unfortunately, after his death, the building of the museum fell into disrepair and was rebuilt by the Soviet regime as residential accommodation. The authorities only felt the need to renovate the apartment in the mid 1960s before the museum was finally  opened to the public in 1971.

To re-create the atmosphere, original descriptions from the memoirs of Dostoevsky’s wife Anna, some manuscripts of the author’s friends and photographs taken by photographer V. Taube after the writer’s death were used. The Museum is situated on the second floor and contains many personal items that belonged to Dostoevsky including a watch that still marks the hour of his death. Compared with his previous residences it is more cosy and less ascetic and there are also some objects of great value including a china tea service and an English sofa on which the writer was accustomed to resting during the many sleepless nights spent at his desk. It will also be interesting to see the extensive library with some of the Dostoevsky original manuscripts and posters of plays based on his works.