In 1955, Sergey Sergeyev-Tsensky received a set of furniture — a sofa and three armchairs — from the Union of Soviet Writers for his 80th birthday and placed it in his study. The sofa with a high backrest is covered in light brown leatherette; there is a mirror on the top, flanked by glazed drawers; the armrests are shaped like bolsters. The furniture is an example of the Stalinist Empire style. It was called Stalinist because it was used to decorate the offices of Soviet party members and the creative elite of the 1930s–1950s.
One of the drawers holds a group of bronze-colored plaster sculptures, representing a small copy of the famous statue Laocoön and His Sons. The original sculpture is displayed in the Vatican.
On the second drawer, there is a wooden clock with the time set at 20:05 — the time of Sergeyev-Tsensky’s passing. On December 3, 1958, the writer died in his study in his Alushta home. In September, a few months before his death, Sergeyev-Tsensky was already seriously ill and returned to Alushta, where, despite doctor’s orders, continued to lead a hectic life, following the news, preparing a book about Pushkin, Lermontov, and Gogol, and answering letters.
