Layout of Pushkin's Apartment with Comments by V. Zhukovsky: 1. Study: (a) the sofa on which Pushkin died; (b) his large writing table; (c) the arm-chair in which he liked to work; (d) book-shelves. 2. Drawing-rooms: (a) the coach on which Natalya Nikolaevna slept at right. 3. Antechamber: (a) the coffin with Pushkin's body stood here. 4. Dining-room: (a) folding screen was set up over there to separate the drawing-room where Natalya Nikolaevna stayed. 5. Passage: (a) the location of the roustic table moved to bar the door; (b) the minor narrow door to admit strangers. 6. Pantry with store-room: those who came at night to inquire about Pushkin during illness gathered here while the antechamber door was kepi locked.
Дом на Мойке с 1806 г. принадлежал семье Волконских. Здесь жил Сергей Волконский, будущий декабрист. В 1826 г. Мария Волконская уезжала отсюда за мужем, сосланным в Сибирь приговором по делу декабристов. А. С. Пушкин снимал квартиру 1-го этажа и прожил здесь с сентября 1836 г. по январь 1837 г.
House on the Moika quay - the Volkonsky family's property since 1806. The future Decembrist Sergey Volkonsky lived in this house. In 1826 Mariya Volkonskaya departed from here to follow her husband sentenced to exile in Siberia for having taken part in the Decembrists' uprising. Pushkin rented the ground floor rooms and lived here from September 1836 till January 1837.
Вестибюль дома
Entrance-hall
„…Настоящее место писателя есть его ученый кабинет… независимость и самоуважение одни могут нас возвысить над мелочами жизни и над бурями судьбы", - писал Пушкин в статье о Вольтере осенью 1836 г.
"…The true place for a writer is his study… independence and self-respect alone can help us to surmount the trivialities of life and the storms of fate", Pushkin wrote in his article on Voltaire in the autumn of 1836»
Портрет А. С. Пушкина. С оригинала О. Кипренского, 1837 г.
The portrait of Pushkin. A copy from O. Kiprensky's original dated 1837
„Посылаю тебе твоего предка с чернильницами",- писал II. В. Нащокин, отправляя Пушкину в подарок этот чернильный прибор
"I am sending your ancestor wilh ink-pots to you", wrote P. V. N'ashchokin in dispatching this inkstand as a keepsake to Pushkin.
Гостиная
Drawing-room
Будуар Н. Н. Пушкиной
Natalya Nikolaevna's boudoir
Столовая
Dining-room
Буфетная комната
Pantry
Жилет А. С. Пушкина, в котором он стрелялся на дуэли, свеча с отпевания тела А. С. Пушкина и перчатка П. А. Вяземского. В записке П. А. Вяземского, вложенной в витрину, сказано: «Для хранения в Остафьево. Жилет Александра Сергеича Пушкина, в котором он дрался 27 января 1837 года, свеча с отпевания его. Перчатка моя - другая перчатка была также брошена в гроб его Жуковским. Александр Тургенев был отправлен с гробом".
The waistcoat Pushkin wore in duel fighting, a candle from Pushkin's body burial service and P. Viasemsky's glove. P. Via-semsky's note in the show-case reads as follows: "To be handed over for keeping in Ostafievo. The waistcoat Alexander Sergee-vich Pushkin wore in fighting the duel on January 27, 1837, a candle from his burial service. The glove is mine-the other one was put in his coffin by Zhukovsky. Alexander Turgenev escorted the coffin".
Каминные часы в кабинете Пушкина. 2 часа 45 минут дня-время смерти поэта
Mantelpiece-clock in Pushkin's study 2: 45 p. m.-Pushkin died at this time
Посмертная маска А. С. Пушкина, снятая скульптором С. Гальбергом 29 января 1837 г.
Pushkin's deathmask moulded by sculptor S. Gal-berg on January 29, 1837
Медальон с прядью волос Пушкина. При нем записка писателя И. С. Тургенева: „Клочок волос Пушкина был срезан при мне с головы покойника его камердинером 30 января 1837 года на другой день после кончины".
A medallion with Pushkin's lock. The accompanying note by the writer I. Turgenev reads: „This lock of Pushkin was cut from the head of the deceased by his valet in my presence on January 30, 1837, the day after his death."
The "Pushkin's last apartment" museum in House No. 12 on the Moika quay in Leningrad is a branch of the Pushkin АН-Union museum. The Pushkin apartment museum was opened to visitors in 1925, its furnishings and layout being based on the recollections of the poet's contemporaries about his last residence and on a plan sketch drawn by V. Zhukovsky in 1837. The museum exhibition includes seven rooms - pantry, dining-room, drawing-room, bedroom, nursery, antechamber and Pushkin's study.
"Here is my address: Princess Volkonskaya's house on the Moika quay near to the Konyushenny bridge", Pushkin wrote to his father in the autumn of 1836. But only a few months later this address was to become known all over St. Petersburg. On January 29, 1837 at 2:45 p. m., Pushkin's friends stopped the clock in the study of his apartment - the poet breathed his last. In those January days of 1837 thousands of people came to the house on the Moika quay to pay their last tribute to Pushkin. One did not have to explain the address, it was all clear from a hint. According to contemporaries, cabmen knew where to drive when simply told: "To Pishkin".
Pushkin's last apartment… It had witnessed the most difficult, cruel months of his life and struggle for "independence and selfrespect", ending in the duel with D'Anthes, and those forty six hours that followed it, the last hours of a man who was mortally wounded and knew he was dying - the hours of great suffering and great courage.
Today the rooms in Pushkin's last apartment have been restored to their former appearance as remembered by the poet's friends and contemporaries. The suite of rooms comprises the bright-side quarters - dining-room, drawing-room, bedroom- overlooking the Moika quay, and the study and the nursery with their windows facing the court. All are adjacent rooms giving access to one another where, one may guess, Pushkin was bereft of the quiet so necessary to him for work.