Later fate of the apartment was dramatic. It was a depressing spectacle, like most of Leningrad communal flats: blackened ceilings, deep burns in hardwood floor, dirty wallpaper lagging off the walls, endless row of individual electric meters.

In 1960 it was decided to turn the communal flat into the memorial apartment. Staff of the Museum of Theatre and Music was eager to start their work. The original interiors were restored. Chaliapin’s former housekeeper Polina Khvostova and her husband Nikolay, the cook, remembered in detail “how it was” and helped to arrange furniture, paintings and things properly. Collection of the museum grew quickly. Letters, photographs, paraphernalia, a number of paintings were acquired from children of Feodor Ivanovich and Leningrad theatres gave to the collection some costumes, show bills and furnishings from Chaliapin’s dressing–room. In 1975 the exhibition was ready for opening. Still, during the Soviet regime the name of Chaliapin was absent at the signboard of the memorial apartment, officially it was called «Department of Russian opera theatre». The museum received its current name only in times of perestroika thanks to Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva.

In February of the 1998, the year of the 125th anniversary of F. Chaliapin, the museum has opened its doors to the wide audience once again after seven years of restoration and reconstruction. In the course of their work the specialists have restored the hallway, dining and sleeping rooms, big and small sitting–rooms; interior of Chaliapin’s dressing room in Mariinsky theatre was also re–created in his former apartment. Letters and photos, show bills and programmes, personal belongings and houseware, paintings and drawings, theatre costumes and set designs of Chaliapin's performances tell about the main events of life and career of the great singer. The museum also stores collection of weapons, which Maxim Gorky presented to Chaliapin.

Of particular interest are paintings of renowned artists A. Golovin, K. Korovin and A. Yakovlev depicting Chaliapin in ordinary life and on stage. Here one also can see the famous portrait by B. Kustodiev (1921). Chaliapin was fond of that work and took it with him abroad. His daughters Marfa and Marina had given the portrait to the Museum in 1968.

 Адрес: Graftio St., 2B, St. Petersburg 197022, Russia
 Телефон(ы): 8 (812) 234-10-56