After the death of the composer and his wife, the apartment became communal for 50 years, but all the original objects and furniture were carefully preserved by the descendants of the composer. On December 27, 1971, the memorial museum was opened in the apartment on Zagorodny on their initiative, which, according to the authenticity of the interiors, stands on a par with the largest composer museums in Russia: The Tchaikovsky House Museum in Klin and the A.N. Scriabin Apartment Museum in Moscow.


The museum recreates not only the appearance of the Rimsky-Korsakov apartment, but also the creative atmosphere that reigned in it. For many years, this house has been one of the centers of St. Petersburg's cultural life. Rimsky-Korsakov's guests — composers Glazunov and Lyadov, Rachmaninov and Taneyev, artists Serov and Repin, singers Chaliapin and Zabela–Vrubel — took an active part in musical evenings, which were called "Korsakov's wednesdays". When Fyodor Chaliapin came here, sometimes up to 100 guests gathered in the living room, and the neighborhood children who lived on the floor above even lay down on the floor, trying to hear the voice of the famous singer.