The collection of the Penza Literature Museum includes not only the personal belongings of writers but also manuscripts of their books. The exhibition features the manuscript of the novel “The Inn” by the famous Penza writer Pyotr Ivanovich Zamoysky.

Pyotr Zamoysky developed a passion for literature at an early age. He wrote poems, renditions of famous songs, fables, and short stories. Born into a peasant family, he had to tend cattle instead of attending school and perform all kinds of difficult farm chores. “To be honest, I often got into trouble because of my writing. Once, a man almost killed me with a horse shaft… I wrote a poem about him… he was a terrible troublemaker. I wrote about a scandal with his neighbor, and he was ready to hit me,” the writer recalled in his memoirs.

As a young man, the future writer moved to Penza and found a position as a waiter at the inn of merchant Yevstifeyev. Later, he recalled, “At the inn of Yevstifeyev in Penza, I wrote about the merchants who stayed there and about other waiters. This inn was my education. How many people I saw there!” Pyotr Zamoysky worked as a waiter for three years and after that was transferred to the “clean parlor” where he waited on merchants and officials who subscribed to various magazines. It was from these magazines that Zamoysky learned about life, science, and art in the Russian capital. It was at this inn that he read his works in front of an audience for the first time and even received his first literary commission. One of the regular visitors asked him to write a poem for his bride. In 1915, Pyotr Zamoysky left Penza, hoping to “see Moscow, so exciting and mysterious.” Ten days later, however, he was forced to return to his home village. Upon return, he was drafted into the army.

It was his youthful memories of working in an inn that inspired him to write the eponymous novella. In this work, the writer managed to capture the unique atmosphere of life in early-20th-century Penza.