Musin-Pushkin House (Saint Petersburg)

The Musin-Pushkin House is an historic building in Saint Petersburg, located at number 104 on the Moyka River Embankment. It is also known as "A. I. Musin-Pushkin's House", and was built during the 18th and 19th centuries. The building's present appearance dates from 1848.
History of the site.
The first known owner of the site was State Councillor Anisim Semenovich Maslov, the chief procurator of the Senate. The site was later owned by Frantz Volodimerovich Gardner – a merchant who owned a rope factory in the Vyborgskaya Storona district of the city. In September 1755 the house was acquired by Nikita Akinfiyevich Demidov – a wealthy metal-industry entrepreneur who owned factories in Nizhny Tagil – from Gardner's widow. N. A. Demidov owned the estate for nearly 30 years, until 1782. In 1782 N. A. Demidov sold the house to Prince Grigory Potemkin, who immediately mortgaged it to Aleksei Musin-Pushkin. Musin-Pushkin acquired ownership of the estate in 1784 when Potemkin fell into arrears with his mortgage payments. Musin-Pushkin owned the mansion until 1798.
The next owner of the site with all the buildings and the garden was M. A. Kusovnikov, a merchant. In the 1804 city register the plot was placed in the fourth Admiralty division of the first block. The plot was numbered 46 and valued at 50,000 rubles. By the time of the 1822 register, the estate was owned by E. V. Kusovnikova, and was valued at 65,000 rubles. The house appears in Friedrich von Schubert's 1828 plan of the city, its appearance having altered slightly after the construction of an annex near the Moyka and a building along the left border of the plot of land as seen from the Moyka river. This building extended nearly up to the end of the plot and abutted the buildings of the Lithuanian castle. Two buildings parallel to each other stretched along "Ofitserskaya ulitza" (Officers' Street), where building 31 is now located. By 1828 that part of the estate was owned by the provisioning department of the Ministry of War, which remained its owner until 1842. In 1834 in accordance with E.V. Kusovnikova's will her granddaughter Yelena Petrovna Varentzova became the owner of the estate. That year street numeration was introduced, and the plot was designated as number 95 on the Moyka embankment.
In 1842, Y. P. Varentzova (Truveller) sold part of the plot to the Saint Petersburg City Duma, so that they could construct a street separating a prison building from local houses. In 1850 Y.P. Truveller made an official request asking St Petersburg's military Governor-General that the lane between her house and the Lithuanian castle be named "Zamkovy" (Castle lane). But the lane was named "Tyremny" (Prison lane) at the highest behest.
In 1850 the house was sold to court counsellor, baron Alexander Borisovich von Vietinghoff, who presented the estate to his daughters Elizaveta and Ekaterina in 1870. In 1882 baron Rikhard Pavlovich von Vietinghoff became the owner of the whole plot, which at that time was numbered 102 on the Moyka embankment.
The site was renumbered again in the late 1880s, becoming 104 on the Moyka embankment. In 1894 von Vietinghoff's three daughters became the owners of the house and the plot, and in 1897 one of the daughters – Alexandra-Elizaveta Rikhardovna von Einsiedel, the wife of a major in the Royal Saxon Army – became the sole owner. In 1913 she sold the whole site to the Council of the Reformed Church schools. In 1918 the houses on the Moyka embankment were confiscated "on behalf of the Commissariat of the city household due to the default in payment on the part of the owners, who hadn't paid city taxes in 1917 and 1918".
Construction history.
The view of the mansion with the garden was shown for the first time on Saint-Hilaire's plan: "a wooden house on a stone foundation with two risalits ("risalit" is a projection of a house) at the garden side is depicted in the back of the plot. On the right-hand part of the plot one can see that a one-storeyed stone annex facing the Moyka embankment is joined with the main house with a passage. There is a garden with a summerhouse, pavilions and a pond." A heavily sticking out projection with a broken pediment can be seen in the centre of the main façade. There is a symmetric staircase with four flights of stairs and a balustrade in the centre of the back façade. The main yard is located in front of the house, a pompous beautiful railing separates the yard from the Moyka embankment. The scientist and memoirist Yakob Shtelin wrote in his Notes of Arts in Russia about the unique iron portico, which the owner of metal-industry factories Nikita Akinfievich had set at his house on the Moyka embankment between both driveways to the yard from the street.
In 1773, Demidov leased the house to a plenipotentiary ambassador of His Majesty king of Great Britain. In the concluded contract there was a description of the house: "... situated in Admiralty division on the Moyka river opposite stone storehouses for timber. There is a big rich wooden house with all furniture in the middle of the plot. There is a kitchen in the yard and annexes for household servants to the left of the house, near the Moyka river. There are two cellars – an ice-house and a winter cellar, a stable with ten stalls, a carriage house, ... this house has got a garden with different prolific fruit... "
The plan of 1798 shows that Musin-Pushkin wasn't occupied much with alterations. The shape of one of the corners of the main building was changed a little, while the passage to the annex facing the Mojka and annex itself remained unchanged. Looking at the engineering drawings from the City Council fund one can follow the further history of alterations of the mansion. The main house remained intact until 1913 when the right-hand part of the new building of the Reformation church school replaced it (architect A.A. Gimpel). A conservatoire music school is in this building nowadays (pereulok Matveeva 1; Matveev lane 1). The garden and the household structures didn't survive.
First considerable alterations of the mansion look are connected with the names of Yelena Petrovna Truveller, her husband engineer-captain Robert Ivanovich and his brother retired engineer-major Vasily Ivanovich. A new three-storeyed stone house – nine axes along the Moyka and seven axes along the lane – was built in the style of Classicism at the corner of the Mojka embankment and the newly laid lane. Simultaneously another house was built in eight axes, with more unpretentious decoration, abutting right against the three-storey house from the lane side.
In 1847, the Truvellers decided to have storeys added to the L-shaped annex, which face the main site of the Moyka with two storeys, of the old house. They commissioned the architect N. P. Grebenka to do it. Simultaneously a new part of the house symmetrically replicating its structure was attached to the left side of the annex. Thus, the annex was completely included in the new house, only having the window decoration style changed from Baroque to Neo Renaissance. Two storeys were added to the part of the annex which faced the yard. But that part of the annex didn't lose its connection with the old wooden house on the stone basement. The Baroque window decoration of the back facade of the annex wasn't changed and has survived till the present day. A two-storeyed stone laundry built in the 18th century joins the old house with one side and the front annex with the other (the laundry building also has survived).
In 1848, the existing house on the left, the Truvellers had that house built in 1836, was completed with participation of the architect R. B. Berngard in the Classicical style. That house fully merged with Grebenka's house (with three storeys at the front facade and four storeys at the yard facade). Thus, the final look of the house was formed, and it has been unchanged till nowadays.
Famous residents.
Frantz Yakovlevich Gardner, the future founder of the porcelain factory in Verbilky village, lived for several years at his uncle in the house on the Mojka embankment. There is a reference to "a foreign merchant Englishman Frantz Gardner's mansion behind the river Mja" in 1737 Admiraltejsky (Admiralty) Island household census. The 1737 census indicates that Frantz Gardner was 40 years old and he had a nephew Frantz Gardner aged 27.
A.I. Musin-Pushkin lived for 17 years in that house, from 1782 till 1798. Nearly all his children were born there, and his main brainchild – the famous collection of Russian antiquities – was created there. Members of "Lovers of Motherland History Study Group" attended meetings there. Formed by Musin-Pushkin, the study group was based upon Vasily Tatishchev's (V. N. Tatischev) theoretical views: I. N. Boltin and Ivan Yelagin (I. P. Yelagin), historian-archivists N. N. Bantysh-Kamensky and A. F. Malinovsky and many others were members of the study group. They gathered to discuss historical and linguistic issues, and the owner willingly allowed them to use his materials. Nikolay Karamzin (N. M. Karamzin) was also associated with the study group. The main purpose of the study group was to preserve a wide range of ancient sources about history and culture of the Russian State and to use that range in social and scientific circulations. Due to Musin-Pushkin, zeal for artefacts of the past got – for the first time in Russia – hitherto unseen scale, organization and insistence to find various sphere of sources, including materials for history of 18th century. Yaroslav the Wise (Yaroslav Mudry's) Russkaya Pravda ("The Russian Truth"), Vladimir II Monomakh's "Moral", Musin-Pushkin's own work about Tmutarakan princedom's location and Laurentian Codex (Lavrenty's annals) were made ready for publishing there. After all, it was exactly there where the pearl of his collection – the famous The Tale of Igor's Campaign – was kept and made ready for publishing. In the first publishing in 1800 "The Song ..." was titled "The ironic song about Novgorod-Seversky appanage prince Igor Svyatoslavovich's campaign against the Polovtsians. The Song was written in old Russian language at the end of 12th century and it was transferred into presently used dialect."
The period of highest flourishing in Musin-Pushkin's state, public and collecting activities fell on his residence in Saint-Petersburg in the house on the Moyka embankment. He became a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1789), he was the president of Imperial Academy of Arts (1794-1797), the head of the Holy Synod (1791-1797), actual Councillor of State (1784), actual Privy Councillor (1793), the managing director of foreign coreligionists school (1789). Catherine the Second patronized him. His colleagues from the Academy were attracted to his house because of his presidency in the Academy of Arts and his collection of works of art. Musin-Pushkin was the chairman of the committee of the Academy of Sciences which awarded gold medals. It is known that the committee was usually in session at his house.
According to E. I. Krasnova, who got the Antsiferov Prize and is the author of many scientific historical discoveries, Musin-Pushkin's study and his richest collection were placed in the stone annex. Doctor of History V. S. Sobolev and director of Russian State Navy Archive Doctor of History E. V. Anisimov, who is a senior research assistant of Saint-Petersburg Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, support that point of view: "his collection, including 'The Song of Igor's Campaign', was exactly in the annex which faced the Moyka embankment".T The annex was assigned to Musin-Pushkin's working space, while his large family occupied the main house. By 1793 Musin-Pushkin had got more than 1700 manuscripts available, the richest collection of book rarities.
In 1840s, Louise Kessenih-Graphemes, a famous woman-bearer of the order, the keeper of "Red Tavern", also kept a dancing school in the house on the Moyka embankment. Louise Kessenikh, being the mother of two children, concealed her sex to become a participant in the Napoleonic Wars in 1812-1815 as a Prussian uhlan cavalry sergeant. During one of the campaigns she captured an enemy officer and six soldiers. She was awarded an Iron Cross for that exploit. Since 1817 Louise lived in Saint-Petersburg and was involved in private entrepreneur activities.
Grigory Grum-Grshimailo (1860–1936), a Russian entomologist, best known for his expeditions to Central Asia (Pamir, Bukhara, Tian-Shan, Kan-su, and Kukunor), West Mongolia and Tuva, and the Russian Far East lived in the house from 1906 to 1913.
From 1912 till 1917 Lybov Valerjanovna Golovina's family lived in that house. She was a chamberlain's widow and countess Gogenfelzen's sister. Countess Gogenfelzen – Princess Olga Paley – was Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia (Pavel Alexandrovich Romanov's) morganatic spouse. The Grand Prince was Emperor Nikolas the Second's youngest uncle. L. V. Golovina's daughter Maria Evgenevna (also called "Munya") was in the inner circle of people close to Grigori Rasputin. During the preliminary investigation of the case of his murder she testified that G. Rasputin and prince Felix Yusupov had met 5 years before that in the Golovins' apartment on the Zimnaya Kanavka (Winter Channel,) 6 (the Golovins lived there at that time). And in 1916 they met again in the Golovins' apartment on the Moyka embankment, 104. After that Yusupov under pretence of his chest pain made closer contact with Rasputin getting ready for murdering him. Olga Vladimirovna Lokhtina, an actual Councillor of State's wife, lived together with the Golovins in the house on the Mojka river. O.V. Lokhtina left home in 1910 because of her family's irreconcilable attitude to Rasputin. Lokhtina had been his admirer since 1905 when he cured her of a hazardous disease. Lokhtina was the editor of G. E. Rasputin's book "Pious Thoughts" published in 1912 in Saint-Petersburg and carried out many secretarial duties for him. She seldom went out because of her mentally unhealthy condition.
Viktor Viktorovich Sobolev (1915–1999) lived in the house 104 on the Moyka river. He was a Russian and Soviet astrophysicist, an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1981), the founder of Leningrad astrophysicist school, the author of the famous Course of theoretical astrophysics, a Hero of Socialist Labour (1985), a bearer of the Order of Lenin and a bearer of two Order of the Red Banner. Judging by the aggregate contribution to emission transfer analytic theory, V. V. Sobolev and his school are beyond comparison in the world of astrophysics. V. V. Sobolev not only made a fundamental contribution to each of the main partitions of that theory, but also was at the origins of five of those partitions. V. V. Sobolev lectured and headed the astrophysics sub department at Leningrad State University (Saint Petersburg State University). His monograph "Moving Sidereal Covers" (Leningrad State University publishing house, 113 pages) became the classics of theoretical astrophysics. Simultaneously V. V. Sobolev worked on a voluntary basis at the Astronomical observatory of Leningrad State University as director. After that he was the head of the astronomy Branch of the department of mathematics and mechanics of Leningrad State University. Due to his efforts, one succeeded in reforming the astronomy Branch of Leningrad State University to Astronomical Institute. Nowadays Astronomical Institute of Saint Petersburg State University bears the name of V. V. Sobolev.
Protective status of the house.
Till 2001 the house 104 on the Moyka embankment was on the books at the State Control, Usage and Protection of historical and cultural artifacts Committee. The house was "in the list of newly discovered objects of historical, scientific, artistic or other cultural value" and was in the United protection zone of central districts of Saint-Petersburg. In 2001 the house was struck off the list.
In 2015 (the Year of Literature) an application was made to the Committee about including the house 104 on the Moyka embankment – as having features of a cultural heritage object – in the United State Register of cultural heritage objects (historical and cultural artifacts) of peoples of the Russian Federation and about setting a memorial plaque on the house. The initiative was sustained by leading core institutions and organizations of Saint-Petersburg. Among them – the Institute of Russian literature (the Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the National Library of Russia, the Saint Petersburg Union of Artists, the Architects' Union of Saint-Petersburg, Art historians' and Art critics' Association of Saint-Petersburg. The initiative was also sustained by A. A. Kovalev, a deputy of Saint-Petersburg legislative assembly.
The house in art and literature.
Karl Friedrikh Knappe, A. I. Musin-Pushkin's colleague at the Academy of Fine Arts, depicted in his watercolour the house during Musin-Pushkin's ownership. One can see a massive railing just behind the Lithuanian Castle, and behind the railing in the back of the plot – a fragment of the front façade of the old house, which was purchased by Musin-Pushkin from Demidov.
A description of the Golovins' way of life in the house on the Moyka (from V. A. Zhukovskaya's notes about G. Rasputin):
In 1984, film director Vitaly Melnikov shot a full-length colour television feature film "Another Man's Wife and a Husband under the Bed", based upon early short-stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (F. M. Dostoevsky). The film was shot at Lenfilm film studio. The shooting was made on the Moyka embankment against the background of the house 104.
One can find depictions of the house in works by Alexandre Benois (A. N. Benois) and Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva (A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva).