One of the quiet and intimate delights of Moscow is the plethora of literary and memorial museums where Russia's writers, artists, scholars and scientists once lived and worked. Often preserved exactly as they were 100 or more years ago, with all their illustrious owners' possessions, they are curated – if such a cold word can be used to describe this loving care – by another of Russia's treasures: older, well-educated and well-spoken museum guides. They will happily spend an hour telling you about the daily lives of Alexander Pushkin, Marina Tsvetayeva or Anton Chekhov, quoting from their works, sharing a bit of gossip about naughty children or unfaithful spouses, and bringing to life Moscow's intellectual and artistic past.
One such museum is the Alexei Tolstoy Apartment Museum, located in what were once the servants' quarters of the magnificent Art Nouveau mansion built for the banker Stepan Ryabushinsky in 1900 (where the writer Maxim Gorky lived from 1931 to 1936).
Count Alexei Tolstoy, who was related to both Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev, emigrated after the Revolution but returned to Soviet Russia in 1923 to make a brilliant career as a popular novelist and playwright. He is known for "Aelita" (the first science fiction novel written in Russia), children's books and historical fiction, especially his trilogy about Peter the Great, which virtually every Soviet schoolchild read.
When the so-called "red count" returned from exile, he filled his apartments with antique furniture and paintings found in commission shops, at what the museum curators call "palace sales" (imagine a garage sale at the palace of the Grand Duke) and in warehouses full of expropriated imperial booty. As the museum guides point out, "He was a count -- he had exquisite taste." The result of his scavenging is an elegant, eclectic mix of art and furnishings that will delight antique lovers, such as Wedgwood china decorated in unusual orange-red and electric blue designs that Tolstoy bought to match an 18th-century silk paisley tablecloth; chairs that once belonged to Tsar Paul I from the Engineer's Castle in St. Petersburg; and extraordinary art dating from the 16th century, including a painting of the temptation of St. Anthony, believed to be by Hieronymus Bosch, that once -- as legend has it -- graced the walls of Pushkin's family home in Mikhailovskoye.
Tolstoy lived here from 1941 until his death in 1945, but the thread from the past held fast for decades: His widow lived in the apartment until 1982, and another relative lived in the apartment next door until just a few months ago. Perhaps because of the family's continued presence, the apartment still feels lived in, despite the current clutter of furniture and objects from Tolstoy's study, which is under reconstruction.
The museum has yet another delight: It is the venue for the Amadeus Musical Theater, which holds concerts in a small, columned hall decorated with part of Tolstoy's art collection. The theater, founded in 1996 by a group of enthusiasts eager to stage some of Mozart's lesser-known works, has performed in several of Moscow's palace halls, such as the Ostankino Estate Theater and the Sheremetev mansion on Sukharevskaya Ploshchad. Now led by artistic director Oleg Mitrofanov, the theater has found a new home among Tolstoy's treasures. Their 10th season opens on Wednesday with works by Johannes Brahms and Edvard Grieg. The highlight of the season's performances is Mozart's "The Magic Flute," scheduled for early September.
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