The exhibit is one of the earliest works by the famous Omsk microminiaturist artist Anatoly KonEenko. The replica of the commandant’s house was crafted exclusively for the first exhibition of the Dostoevsky Omsk Literary Museum.
The replica was restored based on the surviving drawings of the commandant’s house which was one of the oldest stone buildings in the city. The construction of the stone commandant’s house which belonged to the architectural ensemble of the central part of the second Omsk fortress was completed in 1799. It housed the commandant’s office. Apart from that, the commandant himself with his family lived here. The replica is based on the drawings from 1801. The building is U-shaped and comprises 20 living compartments. The household outbuildings are located in the yard: a wooden stable, a carriage house under a canopy and a kitchen with a barn. The left wing did not survive, interiors were reconstructed. The largest room is the only part of the original layout that has been preserved. It probably was a living room where the commandant received his guests. The facade windows faced the parade square where military exercises, inspections, and parades took place. The last commandant of the fortress was Alexei de Grave /’gra: ve/ who provided special patronage to Dostoevsky during his imprisonment.
Once, the writer came to the house. In 1859, on his way from SemipalAtinsk never to come back to Siberia again, he visited Alexei de Grave. Dostoevsky recalled that he was accepted ‘as an equal’ in the house. Later he wrote, ‘I stayed in Omsk for three or four days <…> I visited my old friends and supervisors, such as de Grave and others.’ The writer knew the commandant’s wife, and referred to her in one of his letters as “my kind acquaintance, noble and intelligent woman”.
In 1983, Dostoevsky State Omsk Literary Museum was opened within this building. The central part of the exhibition is dedicated to the life and works of Dostoevsky, mainly to his Omsk imprisonment (1850–1854). Convicted with regard to the case of the Petrashevsky Circle, the writer spent four years in the Omsk fortress. The basement floor of the museum houses a restored fragment of the Omsk prison barrack from the mid-19th century.
