The great theatrical actor, director and producer Vsevolod Meyerhold was born in Penza and the house where the Meyerhold family lived was turned a memorial museum dedicated to Meyerhold in 1984. The interiors of several rooms have been restored to how they would have looked when the Meyerhold family lived there. Other rooms are dedicated to Meyerhold's career and display several personal items , as well as information on his imprisonment, torture and execution by firing squad by the NKVD in 1940. A theatre with its own troupe is also located in the house which holds performances on weekends. In the house's courtyard there is an interesting monument to Meyerhold which was unveiled in 1999.