Moscow Guide
The Zemlyanoy Gorod
Gorky's house
Opening time: Wed & Sun 11am–5.30pm
The Gorky House-Museum (dom-muzey A.M. Gorkovo) is worth seeing purely for its amazing decor, both inside and out. Still widely known as the Ryabushinsky mansion, the house was built in 1900 for the art-collecting chairman of the Stock Exchange, Stepan Ryabushinsky, who fled after the Revolution. If not unquestionably the finest Style Moderne creation of the architect Fyodor Shekhtel, it is certainly his most accessible, as the others are now embassies.
Its glazed brick exterior has sinuous windows and a shocking-pink floral mosaic frieze, while inside there's hardly a right angle to be seen, nor a square foot unadorned by mouldings or traceries. It seems ironic that this exotic residence should have been given to such an avowedly "proletarian" writer as Maxim Gorky, who lived here from 1931 to 1936. The first room you encounter belonged to his secretary, who screened his visitors and reported to the NKVD. In Gorky's own study, notice the thick coloured pencils that he used for making notes and revisions. His library is installed in Ryabushinsky's salon, whose ceiling is decorated with stucco snails and flowers. Repeated wave-like motifs are a feature in both the parquet flooring and the ceiling of the dining room, while the crowning glory is a limestone staircase that drips and sags like molten wax, as if melted by the stalactite-lamp atop its newel post. The ugly wooden cabinets on the stairs were installed at Gorky's request; as he confessed to his daughter, Style Moderne was not to his taste. Notice the pillar on the landing, whose capital is decorated with giant lizards. The upstairs rooms are plainer and devoted to Gorky memorabilia, including his Chinese gown and skullcap.