Maxim Gorky House-Museum in Arzamas

About museum

The A.M. Gorky Museum was opened in 1982 in the old Podsosov merchants' house in the center of Arzamas. In 1902 A.M. Gorky lived here with his wife and family while placed under public police supervision. Visitors can see the memorial interiors — the study, the dining room, and E.P. Peshkova's room, where the plays 'Dachniki' (The Dacha Residents) and 'The Man' were begun, and where the play 'The Lower Depths' was completed. It was here that the magnificent words were uttered: 'Man — it is magnificent, it sounds proud!' Gorky liked the town, as he mentioned in letters to his friend K. Pyatnitsky. His impressions of Arzamas became material for Gorky's novellas, plays, essays and short stories. Writers who visited the house included L. Andreev, S. Petrov, E. Chirikov; the director of the Moscow Art Theatre V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko; and artists L. Sulerzhitsky and S. Sorin. Gorky's godson Z. Peshkov lived here; he later became the first Russian general of the foreign legion.