State Memorial Museum of Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava

About museum

On Dovzhenko Street in Peredelkino, Bulat Shalvovich Okudzhava (1924–1997) spent the last ten years of his life. Here he wrote many of his later poems, stories and the autobiographical novel 'The Abolished Theatre', which received the Booker Prize in 1994. The house hosted many guests, journalists, friends and neighbors. In the rooms of the small Finnish cottage the original furnishings have been preserved: on the walls paintings gifted by artists, engravings brought back from foreign trips, and the table where friends and neighbors gathered. The study contained photographs of writers and poets, close friends, family photos, the dacha library and the writer's desk. All the bookshelves and the daybed were made by Bulat Okudzhava himself. There was also the famous collection of bells, which began with a gift from Bella Akhmadulina. In 1998, thanks to the efforts of many admirers, the People's Museum of Bulat Okudzhava was opened. In 1999 it became state-owned, and the director was elected to be the poet's widow — Olga Vladimirovna Okudzhava.