Sunday excursion to the Mikhail Zoshchenko Apartment Museum

Small urban museums are unusual and exclusive places. There are quite a lot of such museums in the city, but they seem to hide in the shadow of the big museums - those whose descriptions include the words "world-famous", "one of the largest in the world" and the like. Small museums are dedicated to only one page of history and culture, only one person or only one event in the past. Some of these museums are unknown even to old-timers. You may live on a neighboring street and pass by many times, but never notice the modest plaque on the wall of the building.

Fortunately, a few years ago small museums began to contact each other and came up with the idea of holding a city-wide festival called the Small Museum Forum. During the forum, small museums hold open days, organize additional excursions, master classes, lectures and other events. But the main thing is that you can finally find information about small museums gathered in one place. It is unrealistic to visit all the small museums in a few days of the festival, there is not enough human power for that. But there is no need to, because nothing prevents you from looking at posters, photos and deciding which museums are worth visiting when you have free time.

One of the city's small museums, which I had planned to visit, is the museum-apartment of the writer Mikhail Zoshchenko. Mikhail Zoshchenko settled in the so-called "writer's house" on the Griboedov Canal embankment in 1934. In the 1930s, Mikhail Zoshchenko was a popular Soviet writer and the state allocated him a comfortable four-room apartment on the fourth floor. But in the 1950s he changed this apartment to a small two-room apartment, in which he lived until his death in 1958.

Mikhail Zoshchenko wrote small satirical stories. The protagonist of these stories is an unusually amusing philistine, with a naive view of the world around him. These stories were printed in periodicals and enjoyed great popularity. Like many other writers, in his youth Zoshchenko tried several different professions before realizing his calling.

The main event that had an important impact on the writer's later life was the First World War. Mikhail Zoshchenko went to the front in 1914 at the age of 20. For his participation in the fighting during World War I, Zoshchenko was awarded five orders. he was wounded and was poisoned by war gases, this poisoning later became the cause of the developed heart defect.

After returning from the front, Mikhail Zoshchenko met his future wife Vera Kerbits. They lived together for 41 years. Their relationship was complicated, in the last years they were more like friends than spouses. After the death of her husband, Vera Zoshchenko (Kerbits) repeatedly appealed to various authorities with a request to create a museum of writer Mikhail Zoshchenko, she made a lot of effort to preserve drafts, books, interior items. The 1950s were a time of disgrace for Zoshchenko, he was expelled from the Writers' Union, lost his literary income, lived in poverty and was in great need. The idea of creating a museum did not find support at that time. The museum was created only in 1992.

The museum consists of two rooms. The first room is the writer's study, the interior is restored with maximum accuracy, all things are authentic. The second room belonged to the writer's wife, in it the literary exposition is unfolded. The museum staff includes for visitors the only surviving record of Mikhail Zoshchenko's voice. One of the showcases is occupied by bottles with fragrances specially created for this museum. One opens the tightly fitted cork, inhales and is transported to distant, bygone times.

I walked slowly down the stairs of the old house, thinking and reflecting on my impressions. And then, on the landing between floors, I saw a telephone set with a dial disk. The sign with phone numbers suggested calling one of the apartments in the building to hear the voice of the writer who lived there. Mikhail Zoshchenko's apartment museum is now part of a large literary museum dedicated to the 20th century. This apartment building has been partially transformed into a museum space.