December 2020 in St. Petersburg, Russia a museum opened in honor of poet Joseph Brodsky. Ever since the grand opening, the museum has been working on adding to the collection. Earlier in the summer, they brought in the desk Brodsky used in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Brodsky spent most of his life in the communal home in St. Petersburg, inspiring many of his essays and poems. Russia values showcasing places of significance for various influential people of their society, which led to the intention to open the museum.

The idea first came about when Brodsky died in 1996. However, other residents lived in the apartment building, which prevented Brodsky’s home from becoming a museum sooner. The communal apartment had separate rooms, but shared common spaces including the kitchen and bathroom. Therefore, the museum would need to be placed on hold until all of the residents relocated to respect their privacy and avoid having visitors walking through the kitchen as they try to cook.

To honor Brodsky’s legacy, a few of his close friends Mikhail Milchik and Yakov Gordin started the preparation of taking over the apartment complex. They bought out many rooms over the course of the years. The residents of those rooms took the sum offered and relocated. One resident, Nina Fyodorova, refused to leave her home and would not trade it in for any amount of money.

On Brodsky’s 75th birthday, Fyodorova allowed the apartment to be an open-house, drawing in a large crowd with the line wrapping around the block.

To appease the public Brodsky’s friends tried setting up a webcam in his old room. It had some success, but the people wanted to actually go in and see the room as a museum.

Fyodorova lived in the apartment for all 80 years of her life and couldn’t part with it. Finally in 2017 an adjacent apartment opened connected to the previous complex. Fyodorova moved to the other side of the wall and the museum was finally able to begin the process of finalizing.

Gordin kept many papers, books and furniture of Brodsky’s when Brodsky moved to Brooklyn. After holding on to the items for many years, he donated the belongings to library archives or other museums in 1990.

The museum opened in December, containing a minimum amount of items to display such as books, photographs and small pieces of furniture. Tickets were sold rapidly and a lot of people had to wait weeks before they could even get a ticket.

Fortunately other museums lent the private St. Petersburg artifacts for temporary displays. In June, the museum received Brodsky’s desk that was used in Brooklyn as one of the temporary displays. The staff members assembled the desk and quickly added it to the showcase.

Fyodorova lives peacefully on her side of the wall enjoying her private life and not having to worry about visitors walking through her kitchen for the museum. If the lights were to flicker or suddenly turn off in the museum most likely Fyodorova would be responsible as she has the control panel on her side of the wall.