The decision to establish a museum Akhmatova was adopted by the Board of Leningrad City Council in mid- 1988. Museum scheduled to open to the 100 th anniversary of Akhmatova next UNESCO celebrated 1989 as the year of Anna Akhmatova. In 1988, the Commission was established literary heritage Akhmatova at the Union of Soviet Writers, headed by M.A. Dudin , showed great interest to the idea of creating a museum Akhmatova. The initiative to create a museum connected Culture Foundation, created in the wake of the restructuring, the task of which was to support new initiatives related to the names of writers who have undergone from the Soviet authorities. Opening of the museum was to be part of the anniversary celebrations of Akhmatova, including scientific conferences, which started in Leningrad (Small Philharmonic Hall), then shifted to Moscow. It was decided to create a museum based on the Dostoevsky Museum as its subsidiary to facilitate organizational issues. All organizational work has assumed the director of Dostoevsky Museum Bella Nurievna Rybalko in order to open Akhmatova museum, and then to separate it as an independent one.
By this time Sheremetevsky Palace (Fountain House) has already been evicted Institute of Arctic and Antarctic, occupied since the beginning of the 1940s. For the Anna Akhmatova Museum was isolated garden outbuilding of 4 floors: on the third floor there was the apartment where Akhmatova lived from 1925 to 1952.
At this time interval – 1988 – 1989. Attention to the creation of the authorities of the Leningrad Museum was huge: they allocated the necessary funds, the meetings were held directly in the office of the Deputy Head of Culture at the general benevolent interest and participation. Nobody demanded specialized exhibit plans for approval, there was no censorship, and even a hint of it.
At the opening of the museum on June 24, 1989 the speech uttered by the chairman the Leningrad City Council V. Khodarev (staff wrote the text in advance). The opening was traditionally in the form of a meeting in front of the museum in the garden. Then the guests went to the rooms with new exposition (artist T. N.Voronikhin)
In the minds of some of our partners (eg, the German Society for the establishment of relations with the countries of Eastern Europe in Mainz) opening of the Museum of Anna Akhmatova was put in connection with the ideas of perestroika, the fall of the Berlin Wall in the same in 1989 and the establishment of new contacts between Russia and Western Europe.
Materials, documents, photographs, and original things of Akhmatova we started collecting immediately after the decision to open a museum. It was necessary to determine the circle of friends and contemporaries of Akhmatova in Leningrad and also in Moscow. Some names were known: in samizdat there was the collection of memories about Akhmatova.
They begin to find the names and addresses of those who were ready to communicate with the newly established museum. In some cases it was difficult to overcome the atmosphere of mistrust, others were more friendly, but always required some effort to establish contact and to induce people to part with things Akhmatova.
The main thing that amazed was: no government, anathema name of Akhmatova, no Zhdanovsk orders were unable to force these people to renounce devotee of respect for her memory of a drawer or mezzanines fetched her autographed books, photographs, manuscripts, authentic things that were kept as heirlooms.
On opening day we posted a list of names of those who helped us to open a museum: there were more than fifty names. Anna Akhmatova Museum at the Fountain House is not only the memory of her life in these walls, but the memory of a large circle of people who, despite public pressure almost half a century kept in their home archives of Akhmatova materials.
Today the collection of Anna Akhmatova Museum at the Fountain House has up to 50 thousand units. This collection of books: books writers of the Silver Age with autographed editions of Akhmatova, Fund of images (including documentaries), and a collection of manuscripts (as Akhmatova and her contemporaries), visual materials and original items.
Contact of the Museum with a circle of people, at home collections are stored Akhmatova materials continue. We are happy to offer those who are willing to fill up the museum's collection with the materials related to the history of Akhmatova life and the history of culture and society of Akhmatova time.
Hours:
Tue – Sun: 10.30 – 18.30
Cashier: 10.30 – 17.30
Wednesday: 12.00 – 20.00
Cashier: 12.00 – 19.00
Closed on Mondays and public holidays.
Dear friends, pay your attention, to the fact that the time and days of work of "The Museum of Anna Akhmatovaat in the Fountain House" can change, so before visiting it we recommend you to call +7 (812) 579 – 72 – 39
