The house in which Leo Tolstoy and his family lived is unique because the wooden building built in 1805 survived a fire in 1812. Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy's estate also saw almost the entire color of the Russian creative intelligentsia. Repin, Serov, Korolenko, Chekhov, Gorky, Rachmaninov, Chaliapin, Scriabin often visited here...

The spacious house with a large garden reminded more of village life than of the capital - that's why Tolstoy fell in love with it. You can still walk in the garden with lime and maple alleys today, some trees have been growing here for the third century and remember the former guests and owners of the house. In Khamovniki, Tolstoy experienced one of the most difficult events in his life - excommunication, and here he wrote Resurrection, the novel The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Kreutzer Sonata and other works - In total, he created about a hundred texts here.

The value of the estate lies in the fact that about 5,000 artifacts belonging to the writer and his family have been carefully recreated by the hands of restorers and employees. The museum still stores furniture that the writer bought for a housewarming party. He lived in this estate for nineteen difficult years (from 1882 to 1901). His children, Alexandra and Ivan, were born in it, and in 1886, a tragedy occurred in the family — his son Alyosha died.

After the writer's death, his son Sergei settled in Khamovniki.

The museum staff are trying to preserve not only the external situation, but also to maintain the atmosphere that reigned in the family. Master classes for children and adults in handicrafts, music, painting are held here, and church and folk holidays are celebrated with guests according to all due customs.