The address on the Moika embankment, number 12, is familiar to every admirer of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. The lovely yellow mansion of Princess Volkonskaya, built in a classical style, was the poet’s last home for the final four and a half months of his life. During this period Pushkin faced hardship: financial troubles were joined by rumors of slander, which culminated in a fatal duel with Dantes. The poet’s last minutes were spent inside this apartment, and Pushkin’s St. Petersburg circle ends here as if by fate: from Moika 40, where his uncle Vasily Lvovich brought him from Moscow before the Lyceum, to Moika 12 where he gave his last breath and was buried.
When Pushkin moved in, he hoped to stay at least two years. He worked tirelessly to support a large family and to complete The Captain’s Daughter, edit a new edition of Eugene Onegin, compile materials for a history of Peter I, and prepare upcoming issues of Sovremennik. His mind overflowed with plans and aspirations. Yet everything was halted by a single aggressive anonymous letter that set a countdown in motion.
This apartment museum, like many others, breathes with life. Here one feels that the monument not made by hands is a passionate person with loves, flaws, joys, and troubles. The interiors and furniture have been carefully restored, and original Pushkin artifacts have been gathered: a table and an armchair, the sofa where the poet died, a lock of hair, a death mask, and pieces connected to his family and friends. Combined with the guide’s emotional storytelling, the experience creates a genuine sense of presence in history, sometimes so strong that visitors feel unsettled by the immediacy of ancient life.
Here is the front entrance… People’s Singer
Another atmospheric spot that invites visitors to ride a time machine into the era of Sovremennik and Otechestvennye Zapiski, revealing Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov not merely as a “Poet and Citizen” but as a living person. The space is meticulously recreated with many personal belongings of Nekrasov, offering a glimpse into the urban noble life of late 19th century Russia and the poet’s hobbies of that era. Like Turgenev, Nekrasov was fond of hunting, as shown by his collection of weapons and trophies. Even the fact that Nekrasov spent his final years mostly bedridden does not overwhelm with despair.
In this setting a trio formed: Nekrasov, Avdotya Panaeva, and the Panaev brothers, all engaged in literary and publishing work. The tension lay in the fact that the Panaevs were officially married while Avdotya Panaeva had long been Nekrasov’s common-law wife. This did not stop friendship and collaboration. The reception area of Sovremennik’s editorial office is mirrored in the “Panaevsky” rooms, a separate exhibit detailing the development of Russian journalism.
In this apartment Nekrasov wrote key works such as “Russian Women,” “Red Nose Don,” and “Railway,” likely inspiring visitors to pause at the window and observe the grand building with caryatids across Liteiny Prospekt. The prose of the time echoes through the street: the doorman’s figure appears in memory, no longer a mere informant but a symbol of the era’s social texture.
And Dostoevsky wanders around Razyezzhaya… Defender of the Humiliated and Insulted
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky spent 28 years in St. Petersburg, renting apartments tied to a shared pattern: corner houses at street intersections, with a view of steep domes or church spires from the window. The museum apartment in Kuznechny Lane matches this pattern, with a window that frames the domes of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Vladimir.
Though Dostoevsky did not relish St. Petersburg, finding it gloomy and mad at times, the city’s atmosphere fed his existential depth. The mystic, partly shambling city became a living character in his work—“Petersburg of Dostoevsky” both worshiped and cursed by him. Today the monument to the writer looks down from nearly two meters as if watching the river of people below, following his heroes with a patient gaze.
The final three years of Dostoevsky’s life were spent in the Kuznechny Lane apartment. There he produced the major novel The Brothers Karamazov. The museum area presents a monument section, while the apartment itself showcases recreated furnishings, original items, and books handed down from Dostoevsky’s grandchildren. A literary exhibition features manuscripts, lifetime publications, and photographs. Beyond guided tours, the museum hosts scholarly events, literary evenings, lectures, and performances based on the author’s works in a dedicated theater hall.
Every year on the first Saturday of July, Dostoevsky Day is celebrated in St. Petersburg. The city center comes alive with mini-performances, readings, and research, accompanied by atmospheric excursions tracing the writer’s footsteps.
Under the Roof of the Fountain House… The Spirit of the Silver Age
Anna Akhmatova, always a traveler through others’ spaces, called herself a nomad. Many poets of the era shared this restlessness—Mandelstam, Tsvetaeva, Khlebnikov. The Fountain House on Fontanka, part of the Sheremetev Palace complex, became a sanctuary for Akhmatova. It was a place where poetry existed beyond ordinary life, almost in a realm of its own.
Over 25 years Akhmatova lived there, with a break during evacuation. She wrote the Requiem, Poem without a Hero, and many other works, endured the arrest of her son, and faced sanctions against magazines Zvezda and Leningrad. The family later moved to Komarovo, while the Fountain House remained a living symbol of her output.
The museum opened in 1989 in the third-floor apartment that Akhmatova inhabited. The interior faithfully reproduces the 1920s and 1940s, housing the poet’s belongings, books, manuscripts, and photographs. The literary exhibition uses immersive technologies in a project called Museum + Theater, hosting creative gatherings and presentations. The museum participates in programs for accessibility, with entrance through the arch at 53 Liteiny Prospekt.
Between Pestel and Mayakovskaya One and a Half Rooms
The Joseph Brodsky Museum, housed in the Muruzi House at the corner of Liteiny Prospekt and Pestel Street, stands out for its focus on the poet’s ideas and spirit rather than his life alone. The museum is split into two areas: a memorial section in apartment 28, where Brodsky’s room is kept, and an exhibition space in the adjoining apartment 36, reached through the main door. Bright white ceilings meet brick walls and an Underwood typewriter guards the poet’s relics. On the shelves sit books paired with clips from his favorite films projected on an old Soviet TV screen. Outside the window, the Transfiguration Cathedral stands as a silent witness to his childhood pleasures of swinging on its chains.
A hall presents a video of Brodsky’s friends reading his poems, and a small amphitheater hosts readings. A room with a bay window shows walls half torn, with remnants of 60s wallpaper and a piano that once disturbed a neighbor’s sleep, a motif Brodsky explored in his verse. This is the famous room and a half: green-painted walls, Moorish-style panels, and a nearly empty space that underscores a central theme in Brodsky’s poetry—the weight of absence.
Tickets can be purchased via the museum’s website. The End of a Beautiful Era shop on the ground floor offers branded goods and collections of Brodsky biographies, poems, and essays. Access is through Korolenko Street, 14.
In literary criticism, the concept of chronotope describes the fusion of time and space where centuries converge in a single locale. St. Petersburg embodies this chronotope, inviting visitors to experience a layered sense of history. For travelers, a few days in St. Petersburg may become a longer, immersive journey. Plan 2–3 weeks to truly savor the city, and let its evolving layers reveal new facets of its cultural landscape.
Such visits year after year can become a tradition, whether for a theatrical premiere, a book festival, a riverside stroll, or a compelling exhibition. The Visit Petersburg portal helps navigate the city’s kaleidoscope of offerings, guiding readers to classic sites and emerging corners of the modern tourist map.