In the 19th century, the house of merchant Kotomin was one of the most popular places among representatives of the St. Petersburg intelligentsia. Famous poets and writers such as Pushkin, Lermontov, Chernyshevsky, Dostoevsky and many others gathered for a cup of tea in the cozy Wolf and Beranger confectionery, which was located in the building.

It was from here that Alexander Sergeevich and his faithful friend Konstantin Danzas went to the Black River, where a fatal duel for the poet took place ( http://kudago.com/spb/place/mesto-dueli-na-chernoj-rechke/). Some time later, Mikhail Lermontov read his famous poem “On the Death of a Poet” to his friends for the first time in Kotomin's house.

Here, in the Wolf and Beranger confectionery, in the spring of 1846, Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky met the revolutionary Petrashevsky. The writer attended meetings of Petrashevtsy, read works banned at that time. For this, he was sentenced to death a few years later, but the sentence was commuted to hard labor.

By the way, before the house we know, there was a wooden building on the site that belonged to Admiral Crews, a faithful associate of Peter the Great.