Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
two and a half years of his life, while he wrote
The Brothers Karamazov
. Visiting is quick
and simple. You could rent the audioguide or buy the English guidebook, but I found that
the multilingual laminated cards in each room were enough explanation. The babushki
who run the place put a new half-cup of tea on Dostoyevsky's desk every morning. An ex-
tra exhibition room shows photos of Dostoyevsky, his family, and the St. Petersburg of his
times.
Dostoyevsky chain-smoked, wrote all night, slept until noon, edited his work in the af-
ternoon, and then had dinner with his family, whom he adored. Unlike Pushkin, an aristo-
crat who lived in the wealthy part of town near the czar's palace, Dostoyevsky came from a
middle-class background and wrote about the lives of the poor. He favored this grittier sec-
tion of St. Petersburg, which kept him in touch with the world of his subjects. Dostoyevsky
had recovered from a gambling addiction and was gaining recognition as a writer when he
moved here, but he suffered badly from epilepsy and emphysema, and died at the age of
60.
CostandHours:
160 R, audioguide-170 R, English guidebook-200 R, photo permit-70
R; Tue-Sun 11:00-18:00, last entry 30 minutes before closing,
www.md.spb.ru
. The mu-
seum is at Kuznechny Pereulok 5, across the street from the Kuznechny Rynok market and
a block from Metro: Dostoevskaya or Vladimirskaya.
