State Museum of K.A. Fedin

Saratov Oblast
Saratov region, Saratov, 154 Chernyshevsky Street.
Phones: +7 (8452) 23-07-32, +7 (8452) 23-06-05
Web site: http://fedinmuseum.ru/

After the death of Konstantin Fedin, his daughter Nina handed over to the city of Saratov a lot of materials left over from her father, which formed the basis of the museum's permanent exhibition. You can now see paintings, sculptures, graphics and interesting rare books in the museum. For example, you can see Yaralash, the very first periodical album of caricatures, published in 1846, and a guide to the Alps, published in Paris with hand-painted illustrations. The museum continues to expand. Over the course of thirty years, the collection has grown by more than 60,000 items. Today it is the only museum in the Lower Volga region dedicated to the history of 20th century literature. The museum displays Fedin's personal belongings and pieces of furniture, perfectly recreating the feel of the era. The museum’s pièce de résistance is Russia’s first House of Russian Literature of the Twentieth Century exhibition, as well as a collection of autographs of the great Russian writers of the 19th century: Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Chekhov, Nekrasov. Konstantin Aleksandrovich kept letters and autographs of prominent writers and poets of the Silver Age, rare photographs and documents, and paintings and drawings by remarkable artists. Among them is the work of the Soviet graphic artist and illustrator of works of Russian and foreign classical literature Nikolai Kuzmin, and the work of famous Russian artist Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, among others.

The State Museum of Konstantin Alexandrovich Fedin was opened on June 27, 1981 in Saratov, the writer's homeland, four years after his death. The building where the museum is located has an interesting history and is considered the oldest in the city. It was built in the 18th century as a guard fortification on the outskirts of Saratov. It served as a transit point for prisoners who were sent to serve their sentences. For several years after that, it housed a police department. Finally, in the middle of the 19th century, the Sretensky men's elementary school was opened in the building, where Konstantin Fedin came to study at the age of nine. At the age of 15, the future writer secretly escaped to Moscow to study at the Kozlovsky Commercial School. Four years later he entered the institute, and at the age of 21 he published his first work in the New Satyricon magazine. A year later, he went to Germany to immerse himself in studying the German language. At this time, the First World War began and the writer became a civil prisoner of war. It was in Germany that Konstantin Alexandrovich began working on the novel Wilderness. Having returned to Moscow, he was appointed editor-in-chief of the Syzran Kommunar newspaper, and he also published his stories in the Otkliki magazine and wrote novels. Interesting fact: Konstantin Fedin attended the Nuremberg trials as a correspondent for the Izvestia newspaper. Two years later, he became a professor at the Gorky Literary Institute. At the age of 75 he received the title of Hero of Socialist Labor. Konstantin Alexandrovich Fedin died on July 15, 1977.

The museum has a tradition of holding the All-Russian Fedin Readings every year on February 25-26. For this event, the opening of a thematic exhibition dedicated to one of the aspects of the writer's activity is being prepared. The museum covers all the important dates relating to the history of Russian literature. For example, towards the end of 2020, an exhibition entitled On the Appointment of a Poet was held to coincide with the 140th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Blok. The museum staff organize interactive theatrical programs and master classes for children in order to involve all generations in the history of Russian literature.