Gorky’s House is one of the best buildings located in the center of Moscow, in its old part, close to the Boulevard Ring. It was built by famous Russian architect Fyodor Shekhtel for another well-known person, the millionaire Sergey Ryabushinsky, the founder of the first automobile plant in Russia. Ryabushinsky had been living there till the 1917 revolution and then left for emigration. The house was recalled by the city’s authorities and granted to Russian writer Maxim Gorky after he returned to Moscow from Sorrento where he was on treatment. There, Gorky had been living from 1932 through to his death in 1936.
Gorky’s house is modern style. It’s known among Muscovites as the house with beautiful iris mosaics on it.
The museum was created thanks to Nadezhda Alexeevna Peshkova, a widow of Gorky’s son, who had been living in this mansion through to 1965. In this house, the original Gorky’s library is being kept, like his other belongings as well. The museum employees managed to keep that very interior which Gorky witnessed although many things were gone or destroyed when the Ryabushinsky family left the house. By the way, the magnate's family were Old Believer, and even now the guests may visit the original Old Believers’ chapel located in the attic and stylized like an ancient church. But the main decoration of the house is the famous waved staircase made of Estonian marble which symbolized an uneasy situation in Russian society at the beginning of the 20th century.
Nowadays the Gorky’s house has a back entrance. The entrance is completely free of charge although one has to pay for taking photos inside.
