The house at Liteiny Ave, 19, built in 1804, is known as the mansion of the Counts of the Musyn-Pushkin family who owned it from 1856 to 1917.
This small elegant mansion was famous in the capital for its exquisite receptions and salons, arranged by the Countess Lyubov Alexandrovna. An art collection of graphs was situated here. According to the family legend, Alexei and Alexander Musin-Pushkin were childhood friends of Leo Tolstoy and even became prototypes of the brothers Ivin in the story "Childhood".
After the revolution, the mansion was nationalized, and since the 1930s there were book funds, and then the building was given to the library. The name of M.Yu. Lermontov was awarded to the library in 1964 in honor of the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian poet.
Today the library of M.Yu. Lermontov became one of the famous cultural centers of St. Petersburg. On the first floor of the library there is an "Open Living Room" - an exhibition, cultural, entertaining and educational space. It organizes lecture series on various topics, a course on St. Petersburg history and fashion history, lectures on sociology, design and urban studies.
In the White hall exhibitions, creative evenings, book presentations, film screenings are held regularly.