Tolstoy and Pushkin, their homes without them, plus the history of wooden houses in Moscow

Nowadays, wooden buildings in Moscow are rare but those that still stand are being done up and given a special status so that they are not allowed to be taken down. All restoration work also has to be carried out in keeping with the original style of the structure.

According to Moscow historian Alexander Usoltsev, it is important to preserve these buildings in order to get a true picture of what Moscow looked like 100 or 200 years ago. Such two-storey buildings have columns, annexes and carved window frames.

“For centuries, Moscow had been a city full of wooden structures. If earlier on, even at the onset of the 20^th century, these houses were considered nothing special, now the few that are left, in our ever changing city, that are related to historical events, unique ones, we would like to preserve for the future generations,” said Alexander Usoltsev.

Andrei Sytin Estate

5/10 Sytinsky Pereulok, Bldg. 5

In 1804, Brigadier Andrei Sytin of the Izmailovo Regiment became the owner of a house in central Moscow. The wooden structure was Moscow Classicism style, with a suite of rooms along the main façade and a mezzanine floor on the courtyard side. The façade was adorned with a portico with four Corinthian columns.

The house miraculously survived the events of 1812. Later on, the façade was complemented with windows with Empire style frames and mouldings. In 1832, the house changed owners and, collegiate assessor Nikolai Khozikov took it over. During that period of time, two wooden porches on a stone foundation were added to the building from the courtyard side.

The house did not escape the events of 1917, when it got  turned into a communal house. The interior was stripped and the wooden floors and decorations were neglected. However, between the years 1978 and 1985 it was largely restored back to how it once looked. In the 1980s, USSR Fisheries Ministry department workers occupied the building and from 1990s and 2000s the building was completely deserted.

A major restoration project as part of the “1 rouble per square metre” investment programme began in December 2016. The job took 2 and a half years to do. Renovators did up window apertures and walls, recreated the pattern of the oak flooring and white-stone staircase. They also restored the facades and uncovered seven windows on the ground floor. Sytin’s house is a cultural landmark of federal importance.

House in Yelokhovsky Proyezd

5 Yelokhovsky Proyezd

According to historians, the fire of 1812 destroyed almost two thirds of all of the houses in Moscow. Another property that survived the devastating blaze can be found in Yelokhovsky Proyezd.

Over a period of the past 200 years or so, the building has been redsigned quite a few times. Initially it belonged to Major Andrei Demidov, the grandson of the mine owner and philanthropist, Prokopy Demidov. After the events of 1917, the house was taken over by the Directorate for the Moscow City Railways. Between the 1960s and 1970s, it housed communal accommodation.

It took three and a half years to recreate the historical look of the building and its interior. Experts threated the beams and repaired the roof and did up the old window apertures, dormer windows plus the  chimneys. Using archival material of the descriptions and the remains of certain decorative pieces, they recreated the white-stone of the semi-basement, and the white-stone belt course. New metal canopies – perfect copies of the original ones that were lost – were installed above the entrances.

The interior of the mansion was also restored back to its original early 19^th century appearance. The stoves that used to heat the building were also repaired and some of their tiles patched up.

Vasily Pushkin’s House

36 Staraya Basmannaya Street

Alexander Pushkin’s uncle, Vasily Pushkin, lived in this small mansion on Staraya Basmannaya Street. However, he did not own the house but rented it from Pelageya Ketcher, the wife of the owner of a surgical instrument factory. The building was never intended to be leased.

Nowadays it’s the Vasily Pushkin House Museum, a branch of the Alexander Pushkin State Museum. There’s a permanent exhibition there and also guided tours. However, for a long time it was closed. In 1998, the place that had been neglected started to be restored and the Russian Design and Technology Institute at that time had to be moved.

Between 2012 and 2013 researchers and restorers began to work on this historical and cultural landmark. They restored the design and interior of the building and the façade took on its original 19^th century look. Using old photos, the fence and the gate, were reinforced with wooden stakes.

In 2013, the house won the Moscow Renovation competition. One thing Pushkin researchers still cannot agree on is whether in fact the poet actually visited this house after his exile to Mikhailovskoye and his meeting with Alexander I as Vasily had another mansion, on the corner of Staraya Basmannaya Street and Tokmakov Pereulok and it is still unknown which of the two houses Alexander Pushkin visited.

“Each wooden house is unique in its own way. The house that was rented by  Vasily Pushkin was not something exceptional in terms of architecture, Moscow had many such houses. Its value stands in its history and the people who resided there,” Alexander Usoltsev said.

Leo Tolstoy’s city mansion

21 Lva Tolstogo Street

Leo Tolstoy bought the old Khamovniki estate from collegiate secretary Ivan Arnautov in 1882. The main wooden house was built between 1800 and 1805. It was surrounded by a large garden with a gazeebo. It was the garden that attracted the writer and he bought the house to enjoy nature while being away from Yasnaya Polyana.

Tolstoy lived in Khamovniki until the spring of 1901, and spend his summers in Yasnaya Polyana. In his Moscow mansion, he wrote some 100 works, including Resurrection, The Kreutzer Sonata, and The Death of Ivan Ilyich.

After the revolution, Vladimir Lenin’s ordered that the nationalised estate be done up and so in 1921, a memorial museum dedicated to the writer opened in the wooden house. It is currently part of the Leo Tolstoy State Museum.

The mansion has constantly needed repair work and in the early 2000s, it even got electric lighting. In 2011, the façade and interior were renovated.

Lopukhin-Stanitskaya House

11/8, Prechistenka Street, Bldg. 1

This is another house related to Leo Tolstoy. This Empire style building houses the writer’s literary museum. It contains a major literary exhibition about the life and works of Tolstoy.

The structure has retained its historical design and facades. However, it seems Tolstoy had never been there, let alone lived there.

The estate’s main building as constructed between 1817 and 1822 for the guards of Lieut. Vasily Lopukhin. The house was then passed down to his sons, Abram and Vladimir, and then belonged to the elder brother. In 1920, museum collections and artifact related to the life of Leo Tolstoy were moved to the Lopukhin estate. The first exhibition was held to commemorate the death of the writer. The building is currently not only a museum, but also an architectural landmark of federal importance.

Hospital wards in Ogorodnaya Sloboda

9 Ogorodnaya Sloboda Pereulok, Bldg. 1

Near Chistye Prudy, on Ogorodnaya Sloboda Pereulok, there is a small two-storey building. It is the former wards of the Myasnitskoye branch of the Chernorabochaya Hospital. It was built in 1875 and it was Alexander Meingard’s (Meinhardt) project. The house was built to accommodate new patients and staff as the wards of the main hospital were too small and in disrepair, and diseases could spread quickly among patients.

The records of 1914 say that both storeys were used for women’s wards. After 1917, the building was used as the hospital office, and in the 1930s, it remained the only building of the hospital. All the others were taken down.

This building is a rare example of Moscow’s wooden architecture of the 19^th century. In 2016, it was recognised as an architectural landmark.

Polivanov House

9 Denezhny Pereulok

Alexander Polivanov’s house is a landmark of the wooden Classicism style of post-fire Moscow. It only has one floor with columns on the façade and a mezzanine. It was designed by the architect Afanasy Grigoryev after the fire of 1812. The wooden house looks like it is made out of stone. This was not unusual at the time. Frequently wooden houses had imitation veneer so that the building would look more expensive.

In addition to the main house, the estate had a one-storey annex and a wooden fence with carved gates that connected them. The centre of the building has a six-column portico of the Tuscan order, typical of wooden Classicism structures. Between 1835 and 1836, a friend of Alexander Pushkin, a member of the Arzamas society Stepan Zhikharev resided there. Some historians believe that the poet could have visited this house.

After the October Revolution, the building, like so many others, was divided into communal accommodation. During the Great Patriotic War, it housed the All-Union Radio Operator School. For some time after the war, people lived there, and in 2004, it survived a fire. Muscovites got together a petition to protect the house. Following this the architectural landmark was done up and painted the same colours as once upon a time.

“This is actually one of the first historical buildings whose fate the people of the city were concerned about. It was before the relevant agencies appeared and the use of the internet was still on the rise,” Alexander Usoltsev recalls.

Turgenev House Museum

37/7 Ostozhenka Street, Bldg. 1

This building is also known as ‘Mumu’s house.’ The estate on Ostozhenka Street belonged to Varvara Turgeneva, the mother of the writer Ivan Turgenev. He often visited this house, and after the death of his mother in 1850 he stayed there for two months to deal with bequest issues. The story that happened there later was told in his short story, Mumu.

In 2007, it was decided to create the Ivan Turgenev museum in this building. The two-storey house with a stone cellar is one of the oldest structures in Khamovniki. In 2018, it underwent major renovation work the foundation and bearing structures were re-enforced, and wooden panels , windows, doors, interior and facade were done up. The entrance was also widened and the area of the cellar increased. The wooden stairs between the first and second storeys that once had been there was recreated. A lift was also added, so that people with disabilities can visit the museum. The building is a cultural landmark of federal importance.

Eduard von Berens House

7 Gusyatnikov Pereulok, Bldg. 1

The estate of collegiate assessor Eduard von Berens was built in 1871 by architect Mikhail Fidler. Its design is unique as it does not have a main building or any annexes, but two symmetrical structures.

In 1905, the estate was rebuilt to house a school designed by Nikolai Blagoveshchensky. After the revolution, it became the property of the state and was used for communal accommodation. It is known that in the 1920s, future film director Grigory Roshal lived in one of the rooms.

In the 1960s, the estate lost the building on the left and it was then taken down due to the construction of a neghbouring house. In 2017, the building was renovated under the 1 rouble per square metre programme.

Kuskovo Estate Manor

2 Yunosti Street, Bldg. 1

This Russian Classicist building is a cultural landmark of federal importance, the main manor of the country leisure estate of Count Sheremetev in Kuskovo.

The house was built between 1769 and 1775 under the supervision of Moscow architect Karl Blank for summer receptions. The palace is constructed from larch wood and has a noble level and a mezzanine storey. In the semi-basement, there are wine cellars and a housekeeping area.

Despite being a wooden building, the design of the palace is typical of a stone building of the second half of the 18^th century. For instance, the façade is adorned with three column porticos: the central one is luxuriantly embossed.

According to experts, the Sheremetev palace has preserved well. In 2019, its facades, roof, columns and stone work were restored.

The estate is open to the public. There are also exhibitions held there and guided tours.