Millionnaya Street in the XVIII-XIX centuries was one of the most prestigious in St. Petersburg. Running parallel to the Palace Embankment, it was adjacent to the Winter Palace and was built up with mansions of aristocrats. Princess Evdokia Ivanovna Golitsyna has been living in house number 30 since 1809. Forcibly married by Emperor Paul to the old prince, who was indifferent to her beauty, the princess lived separately from him. In the capital, she became famous not only for her rare beauty, taste and mind - Evdokia Ivanovna was the hostess of night literary salons, where a circle of selected people gathered - the literary elite of St. Petersburg, including Zhukovsky, Karamzin, Vyazemsky, Griboedov and young Pushkin, who was in love with the princess, who dedicated several poems to her. The princess's nightlife was explained by superstition: the famous fortune-teller Lenormand (who prophesied death in a duel to Pushkin and Lermontov) predicted her death at night in her sleep, and since then Evdokia Golitsyna went to bed at dawn.

In her salon, the author of the comedy “Woe from Wit” was first read. An interesting fact is that Griboedov himself admitted that he saw his play in a dream when he served as a messenger in Persia, and in the dream this comedy was much more beautiful than the one written by Griboedov in reality text, as many fragments have been forgotten. For example, the role of Famusov's wife disappeared. In 1823, Griboedov obtained permission from General Yermolov for a long leave to work on the play. Already in Moscow, a case occurs with him that formed the basis of the monologue “And the judges who...”: indignant at the servile attention with which the Moscow nobility listened to some chatty Frenchman, Alexander Sergeevich gave a fiery patriotic speech, which caused ridicule of the crowd and gave rise to gossip that Griboedov was damaged by reason.

By the way, “princesse Minuit” (“Princess of midnight”), “princesse Nocturne” (“Princess of the Night”), as she was called by numerous fans, was a real patriot: she defended the English and Russian Gallomanov all Russian, came to the ball in national costume, did charity work, believed that the leading role in history belongs to the people. Evdokia Ivanovna outlived her fans much, dying, as it was predicted, at night, but at the age of seventy years. Her house has survived to this day, although in Soviet times it completely lost its decorative elements.