The Maksim Gorky Literary-Memorial Museum was opened in 1940 in the former house where Aleksey Peshkov worked as a cook from 1886 to 1887 before adopting his penname of Maksim Gorky and becoming a famous author. Peshkov came to Kazan to enrol at the Kazan Imperial University, but when this became impossible he took up manual work in the city. The museum contains exhibitions on Gorky and his family as well as on Fyodor Shalyapin (also spelled Chaliapin), the famous Russian opera singer from Kazan.