Moscow Guide
The northern suburbs
The Dostoyevsky Museum
Opening time: Wed & Fri 2–7pm, Thurs, Sat & Sun 11am–6pm; closed last day of each month
Price: R40
The Dostoyevsky Museum (muzey-kvartira F.M. Dostoevskovo) occupies a small, gloomy house in the grounds of the Mariya Hospital for the Poor, granted to Dostoyevsky's physician father when he worked here. As his salary wasn't enough to maintain the standards expected of them, the family was dogged by financial worries, compounded by the doctor's alcoholism and violence (he was eventually murdered by his own serfs). After Dostoyevsky himself died in St Petersburg in 1881, his widow and brother preserved many of his possessions as the foundation of the memorial museum opened in 1928, which now features a reconstruction of his childhood home, based on Dostoyevsky's own diaries and descriptions of his youth.
He and his brother shared a tiny room filled by steel trunks and a tiled stove where they played with toy soldiers and a hobby horse, and had their lessons at the card table in the living room. A drawing room was so crucial to the family's social standing that their parents were prepared to sleep in a narrow bed behind a screen, jammed beside a washstand and a baby's crib. The museum also exhibits the parish ledger recording Dostoyevsky's birth in 1821, and his quill pen and signature preserved under glass. If you're particularly interested in his life, it's possible to arrange a guided tour in English (R1200 group rate) by phoning a day or two ahead ( 
681 10 85).