The exhibition “The Life and Legacy of Alexander Ertel” is located in the City Council Building — one of the subdivisions of the Ivan Nikitin Museum. The exhibition presents the writer’s biography in the greatest detail and introduces the visitors to his works, the most famous being the novel “The Gardenins; Their Retainers, Their Friends, and Their Enemies”. It became one of the most significant books of the late 19th century. “The Gardenins” was highly praised by Leo Tolstoy, who called Alexander Ivanovich Ertel an expert in the language of common people.
The writer maintained a friendly correspondence with the Russian writers Ivan Bunin, Anton Chekhov and Vladimir Korolenko and was actively involved in social life: in 1891–1892, he organized fundraising events to help the starving people and arranged soup kitchens.
The overwhelming majority of the exhibits and documentary materials are connected with Alexander Ertel’s life: the exhibition includes the writer’s desk, bookcase and library, as well as photographs from the family archives and documents (letters, business cards and bills from bookstores).
Exhibits are marked with AR stickers for identification purposes.