Museum-apartment of A. A. Blok

Blok’s Museum-Apartment is a memorial museum of the poet, located in the historical center of St. Petersburg, in the house where he spent the last nine years of his life. The small museum opened in the fall of 1980 and today has the status of a branch of the city’s historical museum. It is housed in a four-story building built in 1874. It was a profitable house of merchant M. E. Petrovsky, where Petersburgers of average wealth rented housing.

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Video: Blok’s Museum-Apartment

Contents

Highlights

Alexander Alexandrovich Blok moved into this apartment in the mid-summer of 1912. In those days, Dekabristov Street was called Ofitserskaya Street. The poet and his family lived in the house number 57 until his death in 1921, and this period is considered one of the most fruitful in Blok’s creative legacy. Here he wrote many poems and articles, the drama “The Rose and the Cross”, as well as the famous poem “The Twelve.”

After the poet died, his belongings, extensive library, manuscripts, books, photo archive and documents belonged to Blok’s widow Lyubov Dmitrievna. After her death in 1939, the Blok archives ended up in the Pushkin House, the academic Institute of Russian Literature. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Pushkin House staff held several exhibitions, and visitors were able to see part of the Blok archives for the first time. And finally, on the 100th anniversary of the poet, a Blok museum-apartment was opened in the city.

When Blok and his wife moved into the new housing, they settled in an apartment on the fourth floor. The poet chose it because of the good view from the window. With the advent of Soviet power in the city began to carry out compaction of “bar housing”, so the couple began to live in a small apartment on the second floor, which since 1918 was rented by the poet’s mother.

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The collections of Blok’s museum-apartment are divided into three sections and are housed on two floors of the building. The doors of the museum are open any day from 11.00 to 18.00, and on Tuesdays – until 18.00. The day off is Wednesday. The expositions can be viewed independently and as part of group excursions. For school children there are separate thematic excursions, quest games, children’s puppet show and entertaining master classes.

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Memorial part

Apartment No. 21 on the fourth floor is decorated as a memorial apartment. In it you can see authentic pieces of furniture and furnishings, as well as things that belonged to the poet. A great interest of visitors is the poet’s study and the room of his wife. The memorial exposition also includes the dining room and bedroom.

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Part of apartment number 21 is given to the exposition telling about Blok’s environment. This section of the museum is the newest of all, it was created in 2008. Here are exhibited materials about relatives on the maternal line – the Beketov family, as well as relatives on the father’s side. Very interesting are the exhibits concerning other poets of the beginning of the last century who visited Blok’s apartment – Fyodor Sologub, Zinaida Gippius, Valery Bryusov, Anna Akhmatova, Sergei Esenin and Andrei Bely. Apartment No. 21 is decorated like open fords and houses authentic documents, lithographic portraits, old photographs, icons and books.

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Literary section

In apartment No. 23 on the second floor, A. A. Blok spent the last year and a half of his life. The museum collection exhibited here tells about the biography of the poet and his creative heritage. The small apartment has found a place for Blok’s personal belongings, manuscripts and drawings, and a special place is given to books published during his lifetime.

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How to get there

Blok’s museum-apartment is located in the city center, in the house No. 57 on Dekabristov Street, near the embankment of the Pryazhka River. It takes 30-40 minutes to walk to the museum from Spasskaya or Sennaya Ploshchad metro stations. The closest to the building are buses No. 2, 6, 22, 70, 71, as well as shuttle buses No. K-1, K-2, K-6K, K-169 and K-306.

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