The opening of the Alexander Pushkin Museum in Kyiv took place in May 1990 and was timed to coincide with the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the poet’s birth. The exhibition is based on the private collection of the philologist and writer, a resident of Kiev, Yakov Berdichevsky, who throughout his life collected materials relating to the life and work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. In 1987, Yakov Berdichevsky, preparing to go to Germany, donated his collection to the city, setting the condition – to create a museum of Alexander Pushkin in Kyiv. The authorities did not allocate land for the museum for a long time and only after the Pushkin Museum merged with Kiev History Museum, the city council transferred the ownership of the museum to a small mansion on Kudryavskaya Street, building 9, which was erected in 1816 and completed in the 1850s. Although Pushkin never visited that mansion, the museum was nevertheless set up in this room. The mansion was in a deplorable state, but it was restored. Among the so-called Pushkin places in Kyiv, one should name the house of the Raevsky family on Grushevsky Street, building 14 and the Green Hotel in Pechersk, which no longer exists. The current museum building is famous for the fact that Mikhail Bulgakov spent his childhood there.
The main part of the museum’s collection consists of exhibits from the first half of the 19th century. Among the most valuable and remarkable exhibits are books with signatures of Pushkin’s friends and contemporaries, and political works by famous statesmen of that time. The museum’s exhibition presents lifetime editions of the poet’s works, in particular individual chapters of the novel “Eugene Onegin”. This novel was published in parts (“notebooks”) for 7 years, until the full text of the work was ready in March 1833 (this edition also occupies a place in the exhibition). Also, the museum presents the first editions of “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, “Southern Poems”, “Bakhchisarai Fountain” and “Prisoner of the Caucasus”.
The museum has a full-length statue of the poet, made by sculptor Alexander Terebenev in 1837, which was purchased for $300 from the wife of an unknown sculptor – the money was collected by the entire museum. An interesting exhibit is the publication of the Sovremennik magazine, on which Pushkin worked. The magazine retains Krylov’s censor’s permission. One of the notable exhibits of the collection is Napoleon’s book, presented to the great commander by his surgeon Sabatier.
Where is the Alexander Pushkin Museum?
Kudryavskaya street, 9
10:00-18:00, closed: Monday, last Thursday of every month
044 272-42-06