The Tolstoy Center on Pyatnitskaya-12 is a Leo Tolstoy State Museum department in Moscow.
The Center hosts major thematic and stock exhibitions from the museum’s collections, museum programs for children, evening meetings with cultural figures, and concerts.
The building is an architectural monument of the late 18th century (erected in 1789-1795) and is notable for being part of some buildings, one of which was built in 1857-1858. It was rented by young Tolstoy, who returned from the Crimean War. By that time, he was already a famous writer.
Life in Zamoskvorechie brought Tolstoy closer to A. N. Ostrovsky, A. A. Fet. M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, B. N. Chicherin, and the Aksakov brothers visited Tolstoy in Pyatnitskaya.
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. He received nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906 and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902, and 1909; the fact that he never won is a major controversy.
Born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828, Tolstoy’s notable works include the novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1878), often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction.
He first achieved literary acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth (1852–1856), and Sevastopol Sketches (1855), based upon his experiences in the Crimean War.
His fiction includes dozens of short stories such as “After the Ball” (1911), and several novellas such as The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886), Family Happiness (1859) and Hadji Murad (1912). He also wrote plays and philosophical essays.
Working days: Day off – Monday. Tuesday, Thursday, Friday – from 12:00 to 20:00, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday – from 10:00 to 18:00.
Address: Moscow, st. Pyatnitskaya, 12. Nearest metro: Novokuznetskaya, Tretyakovskaya.
