House-Museum of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin

About museum

On October 25, 1968, a literary museum was opened on a charitable basis in the house where M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin had lived in the city of Kirov. Since 1971 it has been part of the Kirov Regional Museum of Local Lore.

In 2024 a new exhibition was arranged in the museum, based primarily on authentic 19th-century items.

The museum's exhibition tells about the reasons for M. Saltykov's exile, his life and activities in the Vyatka Governorate, and the events that helped him return to St. Petersburg. The main idea of the exhibition's authors is to show the influence of the impressions he gained during his years in provincial Vyatka on the writer's personality and work.

The house consists of five rooms: a dining room, a sitting room, a study, a bedroom and a servants' room. All of them serve as museum halls.

The first hall illustrates the official activities of M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin carried out in the Vyatka provincial administration; the second hall tells about the social life of the future writer in Vyatka.

In Saltykov's study visitors learn about his family, the courtship of the young official with Lizaveta Boltina, and local friendships. The next hall tells of his departure from Vyatka and his first major work 'Gubernskie Ocherki' ('Provincial Sketches'), created from local material. In the last hall, where servants lived during Saltykov's lifetime, now "live" the heroes of his immortal works: fairy tales, 'The History of a Town', 'The Golovlyov Family' and others depicted in artists' works.

The museum building, a monument of history and culture of federal significance, is located on a spacious estate in the very heart of the city, at the intersection of the main tourist routes.