Arbuzov House Museum (Kazan)

The House Museum of Academicians A. E. and B. A. Arbuzov is a memorial museum in the historic centre of Kazan, on Katanovsky Lane near Butlerov Street. It belongs to the A. E. Arbuzov Institute of Organic and Physical Chemistry of the Kazan Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences and tells the story of two chemists, father and son: Alexander Arbuzov (1873–1968) and Boris Arbuzov (1903–1991).

History of the house and the museum

The wooden mansion was built around 1913 in an eclectic style with Art Nouveau touches. Before the revolution it belonged to Maria Alekseeva, a niece of the painter Ivan Shishkin. Alexander Arbuzov's family rented the house in 1916 and never left: he lived here until his death in 1968, and his son Boris lived here with his family until 1955. During the Second World War the academicians Alexander Fersman and Alexander Frumkin, evacuated from Moscow, stayed here with their families.

The house was never rebuilt and keeps its original layout, finishes and architectural details. On 22 September 1971 a memorial flat-museum of A. E. Arbuzov opened here; the lane was then called Shkolny. By a decision of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences of 18 September 2001, ten years after Boris Arbuzov's death, it received its present name, the House Museum of Academicians A. E. and B. A. Arbuzov.

The Arbuzov academicians

Alexander Arbuzov was an organic chemist, a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1942, twice a Stalin Prize laureate and a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Boris Arbuzov followed his father into chemistry: he studied the transformations of terpenes, including the oxidation of unsaturated terpenes and the isomerisation of bicyclic terpenes, and in 1928 received the Butlerov Prize of the Russian Physico-Chemical Society. The family grave is on the first alley of the Arskoe Cemetery.

What to see

What makes the museum special is that the interiors were not recreated but survived as they were. The collection holds over 10,000 items, more than 8,000 of them originals: furniture from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the library, photographs, paintings by Alexander Arbuzov himself, manuscripts of scientific papers, letters from Soviet and foreign scientists, medals and awards. The exhibition covers about 150 square metres.

One part is historical and biographical, with documents and awards; the other is the family home. Visitors see the living room with its large chandelier, the dining room with a huge folding table, the bedroom with separate beds and a washstand, Boris Arbuzov's study, the kitchen, the summer veranda and the garden with an apple and a cherry tree planted by the family. Two small rooms are lined with shelves of books and foreign journals from the scientific library of Boris Arbuzov and his brother Yuri. Among the exhibits is an 18th-century clock Alexander inherited from his father; the staff say the kitchen still has one of the first Soviet refrigerators and a gas stove.

Getting there

The museum is at 8 Katanovsky Lane. The nearest stop is Butlerov Street (buses 29 and 90); Ploshchad Tukaya metro station is about 900 metres away on foot. Guided tours run on weekdays by appointment, so check the schedule in advance.