In the "Description of the Russian imperial city of St. Petersburg" 1794 Marble Palace is called "one of a kind." Built it Rinaldi on behalf of Catherine II - so the Empress wanted to thank for all the good Count Grigory Orlov. Use royal gratitude graph did not have time: he died two years before the completion of the construction, and the Marble Palace (so named because of the abundance of marble in the decoration of its facades and interiors) remains the property of the royal family. In the end, the palace has got one of the sons of Nicholas I, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich - except Marmara, he owned and Pavlovsk and Strelna. It is in Strelna, in 1858, the Grand Duke had a son, who became the most famous owner of the Marble Palace.KR was one of five children in the family of Konstantin Nikolayevich. Their life in the palace was strictly regulated - they spent time on the "child half" surrounded by nannies and tutors. Own apartment on the first floor of the Marble Palace KR received only after the age of majority, in 1878 - at this point, as an officer of the frigate "Svetlana", he managed to take part in the Russian-Turkish war.At the time of the literary activities of the Grand Duke has very few people knew. His first book he published only in 1886, and he is not enrolled in the sale and was sent to "congenial" people like feta, Polonsky, Turgenev and Goncharov. But in the design of their homes, KR showed distinctly literary tastes: the main room of his apartment in the Marble Palace - the cabinet and library. Cabinet KR remained intact, despite all the twists and turns that took place with the Marble Palace - in 1937 became the princely residence of the Lenin Museum (Leningrad middle-aged recall with pleasure, that they are taken to the pioneers), and only in 1992 was transferred to the Russian Museum.