The museum displaying exhibits connected with the life and works of the Russian poet Nikolai Nekrasov (1821-1877) was opened in the poet's apartment in 1946. In 1985, the museum was thoroughly reconstructed, and the display of exhibits was modernized and enlarged.

Nekrasov lived here the last years of his life, from 1857 to 1877. The editor's office of the magazine Sovremennik (Contemporary) founded and originally published by Pushkin and the editor's office of the magazine Otechestvennye Zapiski (Russian Notes) were also here, in the poet's apartment. This apartment was frequented by Ivan Turgenev, Ivan Goncharov, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin and Leo Tolstoy. The poet's apartment was a center of St. Petersburg's literary and social life in that epoch.

The museum exhibits include the poet's personal belongings, the first editions of his works and illustrations to these works, photographs, autographs, works of painting, including the famous portraits of Nekrasov by Ivan Kramskoy and by Constantine Makovsky. In the rooms where Nekrasov's friend and assistant, Ivan Panayev, lived, you can see the exhibits dealing with the development of Russian journalism in the middle of the 19-th century.