Museum History
The house, where is located Sytin museum, is a building of the first quarter of the 19th century, and has historical and cultural value, as an example of Moscow profitable housing construction at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.
After the revolution of 1917, the apartment had been used as an editorial office of «Bednota» newspaper. Nowadays, the apartment is a museum named after Ivan Sytin. The apartment was allocated by the state to Ivan Sytin and his family. The main flat contains five rooms, in two of which — in a dining room and in an office, has been recreated as a memorial setting with furniture, household items, paintings and sculptures, books and photographs.
In the first room, at the entrance to the apartment, is situated a Coworking hall, which hosts temporary exhibitions and events. Another two halls show us samples of printed productions, which have been produced in mass circulation in the printing houses of the I. D. Sytin for over 50 years. Also, in these halls exhibits historical documents, showing the unique talent of Russia’s largest publisher and educator of the XIX century.
Recreated memorial space allows visitors to make a journey to the past, plunge into the atmosphere of a Moscow apartment at the beginning of the twentieth century, and get acquainted with the urban culture of that period.
THE APARTMENT BELONGS TO IVAN SYTIN
The apartment was provided to citizen Sytin with a family of 15 people by the resolution of the Commission on Unloading of the city of Moscow dated 9th of February 1928. The square was previously occupied by the newspaper «Bednota». Apartment № 274 was occupied by numerous descendants of I. D. Sytin until the end of the 70s of the XX century.
In 1976, at the request of the USSR State Publishing House, the Moscow City Council provided I.D. Sytin’s relatives with other apartments, and transferred the memorial apartment to the balance of the USSR State Publishing House to create an exposition. The idea of creating a museum in the apartment belonged to his son Dmitry and daughters — Anna and Olga. In 1977 the relatives left.
The museum was first opened in the apartment in 1986, its work was organized by the Board of the Society of Book Lovers of the RSFSR.
On 29th of September 1996, the ANOC (Autonomous Non-profit Organization of Culture) «I.D. Sytin’s Apartment Museum» was created. According to the charter, «…was established on the basis of voluntary property contributions in order to provide services in the field of culture.»
It included a memorial apartment in which Ivan Sytin lived from 1927 to 1934, with fragments of the interior that developed during his lifetime, the archive of Sytin and his children, the library of publications of the I. D. Sytin Association.
At the same time, a security obligation was received — the apartment was recognized as a newly identified monument of history and culture. The initiators, united into a joint—stock company, have been preserving and maintaining a unique collection of monuments of material culture and valuable documents of the late XIX — early XX century for more than 20 years.
Furniture, household items, Sytin’s personal belongings, paintings and artistic addresses, in accordance with the conclusion of experts, were registered by the Moscow City Council’s Department of Culture as monuments of material culture of the late XIX — early XX century. The museum was actively visited in the 90s for several years on the wave of interest in the history of Russia before 1917, in the history of entrepreneurship as such.
The museum’s funds contained about 2,000 copies of printed publications, more than 50 pieces of furniture and furnishings, as well as part of the Sytinsky family archive.
THE I. D. SYTIN MUSEUM-APARTMENT HAS BEEN OPENED AS PART OF THE N.A. OSTROVSKY STATE MUSEUM — CULTURAL CENTER «INTEGRATSIA»
In 2016 the unique collection of the museum, at the request of the members of the Autonomous Non-profit Organization of Culture «I.D. Sytin’s Museum-Apartment», was transferred to the city of Moscow and became part of the N.A. Ostrovsky State museum-cultural center «Integratsia», located in the neighboring house №.14 on Tverskaya Street.
