«Domik Kashirina» ("Kashirin's Little House") is a museum of the childhood of Alexei Maximovich Gorky, opened on January 1, 1938, in the historic home of Nizhny Novgorod townsman Vasily Vasilyevich Kashirin at Postal Descent, 21. The building is a federal-level monument of history and culture and is part of the Gorky State Museum.[1]
History of the House
V. V. Kashirin — the writer's grandfather, foreman of the dyers' guild and a member of the City Council — moved to Nizhny Novgorod Balakhna and in 1852 purchased a house from the townspeople Mozharovs on the descent from Ilyinskaya Street. No documentary records of the building's construction have survived. The house is a single-story log structure, clad with boards and unpainted, with five rooms: a kitchen, the grandfather's room, the grandmother's room, the room of Mikhail (the Kashirins' eldest son), and a podklet — a lower utility room. It was in this podklet that little Alyosha Peshkov lived with his mother, who had come from Astrakhan, from August 1871 to the spring of 1872.[1][2]
Significance and Exhibition
The Kashirin House is a place associated with Gorky's childhood years (1871–1872) and the primary setting of his autobiographical novella Childhood, which the museum itself describes as "a kind of encyclopedia of Russian characters and the national way of life."[1] The museum offers several themed guided tours: "Alyosha Peshkov in the Merchant-Class Kashirin Family," "Daily Life and Customs of Nizhny Novgorod Townspeople," and "The Novella Childhood — An Eternal Russian Book"; the museum's collection includes editions of the novella in various languages.[1] The estate courtyard retains its outbuildings — a dyehouse, a barn, and a carriage house; in total the museum holds 154 objects belonging to the Kashirin-Peshkov family, including an icon of the "Tikhvin Mother of God" and a wooden spoon from the mid-nineteenth century.[2]
In 1956 the museum administration decided to install a monument to the writer in the courtyard. Following a competition, the project of sculptor A. V. Kikin was selected; in 1957 the sculptural composition "Alyosha Peshkov," depicting Gorky as a child, was unveiled in the courtyard Fedorovsky Embankment.
Opening Hours and Address
The museum is located at Postal Descent, 21 — on one of the historic descents from Ilyinskaya Street Rozhdestvenskaya. It is open on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 09:00 to 17:00 (ticket office until 16:30); Tuesday and Wednesday are days off. The adult ticket price is 300 rubles, the concessionary ticket 200 rubles; children under 7 are admitted free of charge.[1]
Sources
- museumgorkogo.ru — Domik Kashirina — State Museum of A. M. Gorky
- gorkiy-lit.ru — Museum of A. M. Gorky's Childhood "Domik Kashirina" (Nizhny Novgorod)