Exhibition “M. E. Saltykov‑Shchedrin in Vyatka: Life and Work”

About exhibition

In the restored museum building an exhibition introduces visitors to the Vyatka period in the life of the Russian classical writer M. Saltykov‑Shchedrin. The house consists of five rooms: a dining room, a sitting room, a study, a bedroom and a servants' room. The first room illustrates Saltykov‑Shchedrin's official duties carried out in the Vyatka provincial administration. The second room tells of the future writer's social life in Vyatka. In the study (room No. 3) visitors learn about his family, the young official's courtship of L. Boltina, and his local friendships. The next room (room No. 4) covers his departure from Vyatka and his first major work, “Provincial Sketches”, created from local material. In the last room, which housed servants during Saltykov's lifetime, the characters of his immortal works now “live”: his fairy tales, “The History of a Town”, “The Golovlyov Family” and others, as depicted by artists.