The Leo Tolstoy literary Museum on Prechistenka street opened on December 28, 1911, the year after the great Russian writer`s death. It was opened on the initiative of the Tolstoy society with the active participation of many famous creative people of that time. It contains manuscripts from the archives of Leo Tolstoy.
The noble mansion where the Museum is located was built in 1817. Then Moscow was rebuilt after the fire of 1812. The Lopukhin-Stanitsky house is a fine example of the Moscow Empire style with an antique portico and columns. The building is wooden. It is plastered and painted yellow.
If the Tolstoy house-Museum in Khamovniki stores Tolstoy`s personal belongings, then in the literary Museum you can see the writer`s manuscripts. Here you can see portraits of Leo Tolstoy`s ancestors and relatives. The Museum also has many portraits, photographs and sculptures of Tolstoy, from youth to old age.
Expositions in the halls of the Museum follow the chronology of the writer`s work. In the beginning the tale of his Childhood, the Sevastopol tales, Anna Karenina, the Resurrection, Father Sergius, and later work, which he wrote after moving to the Yasnaya Polyana estate. A separate large hall is dedicated to the novel War and peace. The Museum has many paintings and illustrations based on Tolstoy`s works.
The Tolstoy society regularly holds exhibitions here dedicated to the writer`s work. There are two halls where readings of the writer`s works, conferences, and meetings with writers, performances and chamber concerts are held.
