The collection of the house-museum contains a photo of famous writers of the late 19th century — the early 20th century: Maxim Gorky, Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak, Nikolay Teleshov, and Ivan Bunin. The picture was taken by their friend, Dr. Leonid Sredin on April 16, 1900 in Yalta. Each participant of the meeting left his signature at the bottom of the photo.

The writers gathered at Sredin’s dacha in the Crimea. Local intelligentsia as well as writers and musicians from the capital came there. In 1900 alone, Anton Chekhov, Alexander Kuprin, Sergey Yelpatievsky, Konstantin Stanislavsky, Sergey Rakhmaninov, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko and others were Sredin’s guests.

By the time the picture was taken, Maxim Gorky and Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak had known each other for almost 10 years. They first met in St. Petersburg, where the Ural writer moved in 1891.

Gorky mentioned Mamin-Sibiryak several times in his critical articles and essays with admiration. He noted his talent, unusual, memorable language and believed that his work was important for the people of the Urals and for the entire culture of the region.

Ivan Bunin met Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak at a literary event in December 1895. They were published in the same magazines — “New Word” [“Novoe Slovo”], “Russian Wealth” [“Russkoye Bogatstvo”], “Reading to Children” [“Detskoye Chteniye”] and others, so they often met at work. The colleagues soon became friends.

The writer Nikolay Teleshov organized a literary circle “Sreda” in St. Petersburg for 20 years. Famous metropolitan writers, critics and journalists gathered in his house. Mamin-Sibiryak was among the guests.

In 1912, the members of the circle “Sreda” congratulated Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak on the 40th anniversary of his creative work. Thirty-nine writers signed the welcome letter. Ivan Bunin and Nikolay Teleshov were among them. The letter is displayed at the exposition of the house-museum.