M. Gorky Literature and Memorial Museum in Samara is the only literature museum in the city. Founded on July, 12th, 1941 it was located in Stepan Razin Street, 126 - Gorky's former place of residence. A museum in the A.N.Tolstoy mansion house (Frunze Street, 155) was set up in 1983 as an affiliated branch of the literature museum. The basis of the museum exposition includes numerous archive documents which belonged to A.N. Tolstoy and his mother, also a writer, A.L. Tolstaya (Bostrom): letters, diaries, photos, books, personal possessions. The museum owns more than 10 thousand documents and items connected with the life and creative activity of A.N. Tolstoy and his family. The keystone of the exposition is the apartment where the future writer lived with his parents. The atmosphere of the household takes its visitors to the late 19th - early 20th century small town estate.

    In addition, the museum possesses a large collection of manuscripts, documents and other items connected with creative activity of prominent Russian writers who lived in Samara Region (N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky, S.G. Skitalets, A.A. Smirnov (Treplev), M. Gorky, A.S.Neverov, etc.).

    Besides the expository and scientific activity, the museum functions as a literature center, where presentations of various city literature editions, magazines and almanacs, as well as conferences and meetings with working writers are traditionally held