Pashkov's House

A combination of antique austerity and solemnity and true Moscow fancy make the Pashkov's house a masterpiece of distinctive Russian classicism. Is was built by architect Vassily Bazhenov in 1784 - 1786 at the request of Pashkov, a rich landlord. There is a magnificent white-stone palace known as the Pashkov's House, on the top of a hill at the very end of Mokhovaya St. In the mid-19th century, it was bought by a noble pensioner; and in 1862, the famous Rumyantsevsky Museum moved here from St. Petersburg. The museum was named after its founder - Count Nikolay Petrovich Rumyantsev, the chancellor at the court of Alexander I and a famous diplomat and patron of the art. Count Rumyantsev collected books and bought complete works of Russian and Slavic literature from his younger years. He had sailors buying ethnographic artifacts for his collection of Greek, Roman and Eastern coins, as well as unique manuscripts. Rumyantsev wished to make his collection public but the museum was established after his death. His brother handed the collection over to the Ministry of Public Education. In November, 1831 the Rumyantsev Museum was inaugurated in St. Petersburg. It was moved to Moscow in 1862 because of financial issues.

After the October Revolution the museum was broke up. In 1925, the paintings and sculptures from the collection were handed over to the Tretyakov Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts in Volkhonka. The collection of books became the core of the State Lenin's Library (82) (currently the State Russian Library) collection.

In the 1990s a monument to the famous Russian writer Fiodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was installed in front of the library.

Here is Volkhonka St. starts. It is rightly called a street of arts. The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the home of the Golitsin Princes, the Palace of Prince Trubetskoy are located here. Famous writers, actors and patrons of the arts used to live in this street.