Dostoyevsky House in Staraya Russa, Literary museum in Staraya Russa, Russia

Dostoyevsky House in Staraya Russa is a two-storey wooden house on the embankment of the Pererytitsa river, bought by the writer in 1876 and opened as a memorial museum on 4 May 1981. Its six memorial rooms on the upper floor are furnished after the recollections of his wife Anna and of guests, with family furniture, photographs, documents and period editions. The ground floor holds an exhibition hall used for literary and musical evenings; the museum covers 170 m² and keeps over 8,000 items.

Dostoyevsky first came to Staraya Russa in 1872 and bought the house in May 1876, his first property. His wife Anna opened two memorial rooms there in 1883; the house was nationalised after her death and became a museum in 1981. In 1969 an exhibition had already opened in two ground-floor rooms.

The house keeps the name "Dom Grushi" for the building almost opposite, across the Pererytitsa, where Agrippina Menytsova lived; she served as the model for Grushenka in "The Brothers Karamazov". The museum also runs walks through Staraya Russa tracing the novel's settings, and since 2018 a separate museum in the town is devoted to that single book.

The museum is in the center of Staraya Russa and easy to reach on foot from the main streets. Guided tours are available, often in Russian, so visiting with a guide or some background reading beforehand helps to get the most from the rooms.

"The Brothers Karamazov", one of the most read Russian novels worldwide, was largely written in this house, and Staraya Russa itself served as the model for the fictional town in the story. Some of the local streets, buildings, and residents can still be recognized in the characters and settings of the book.