On November 19, 1919, the now-famous House of Arts opened on Nevsky Prospect in the former palace of the St. Petersburg wealthy man Eliseev, where the declining Studio relocated in a renewed composition. The House of Arts in those distant times was an active cultural center. The overwhelming majority of its new residents were young, but each had already learned the price of hardship. Many came here, to the Moika, from the fronts of the civil and world wars. Gorky wrote about them: "They are overloaded with impressions of the chaotic existence of Russia and have not yet quite learned to cope with their richest material." It took the experience and insight of Gorky to imagine what these people could write. This huge mansion faced three streets: the Moika, Bolshaya Morskaya, and Nevsky. The three-story Eliseev apartment, provided to the House of Arts, was large and spacious. It had several living rooms, several oak dining rooms, and several comfortable bedrooms; there was a snow-white hall, all in mirrors and stucco decorations; there was a bathhouse with a luxurious anteroom; there was a buffet; there was a tiled magnificent kitchen, as if specially created for large writer gatherings. There were small rooms for servants and various other premises, in which the writers settled: Alexander Grin, Olga Forsh, Osip Mandelstam, Akim Volynsky, Ekaterina Letkova, Nikolai Gumilev, Vladislav Khodasevich, Vladimir Pyast, Viktor Shklovsky, Marietta Shaginyan, Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky… And not only writers: sculptor Ukhtomsky (curator of the Russian Museum), sculptor Shchekotikhina, artist Milashevsky, the sister of artist Vrubel, and others. Also, three Studio members settled here, those who had already become involved in writing: Leva Lunts, Slonimsky, and somewhat later — Zoshchenko.

A library was opened, public lectures began, the Studio was revived, which started working with tenfold energy, and they began publishing a magazine called "House of Arts." In 1920, Mayakovsky arrived at DISK from Moscow and read his poem "150000000" here to great success. Gorky performed several times. Alexander Blok appeared several times. Koni's performances were frequent. Naturally, DISK was a magnet for many emerging authors. By 1921, the most talented among them stood out: Vsevolod Ivanov, Nikolai Nikitin, Nikolai Tikhonov, Konstantin Fedin, Veniamin Kaverin. Each of these newly minted authors kept in worn suitcases, bags, briefcases, crumpled sheets of paper covered with stories, essays, novellas, poems written all over. It was impossible to get manuscripts to readers, as book printing had almost ceased. The House of Arts became a place for their friendly meetings. They longed to communicate with each other, to read their works aloud. They discussed these works for hours in one of the small rooms of the House of Arts — the most inconvenient, cold, and cramped — in Mikhail Slonimsky's small room.

It was here that Zoshchenko's talent blossomed, here his first fame began. Here he read the just-written "Stories of Nazar Ilyich, Mr. Sinebryukhov." Admiring the multicolored verbal fabric of this peculiar cycle of novellas, the Studio members repeated to each other entire passages from "Victoria Kazimirovna" and "The Dead Place." Many words and expressions from these stories, as well as from the story "The Goat," which they learned at the same time, they incorporated into their everyday speech, applying them repeatedly to the circumstances of their own lives.

"Why are you disturbing the disorder?" they said. "Enough of your swinish behavior." — "Dullness and weak technique development." — "A person endowed with qualities." — "My dear pants." — "The second lieutenant is something, but a scoundrel." — "So what am I supposed to do?"

These and many other quotes from the works of the young writer sounded among their circle like proverbs. Listening to bad poetry at the House of Arts, they said: "Dullness!" And if someone had a misfortune: "He got a dressing down." In general, in the first years of his literary work, Zoshchenko was surrounded by an atmosphere of love and sympathy.

At that time, he first found his literary path and finally worked out his own very complex and rich style. Talented young men, people with high spiritual demands, welcomed him warmly into their circle. He became more cheerful, more sociable, and it seemed that the heavy sadness that had tormented him all those years had temporarily receded. True, even then there were periods when for whole days Zoshchenko was overwhelmed by melancholy, and he, secluded in his unheated room, hid from all outsiders. But this was rare, in exceptional cases. Usually, among new friends who highly appreciated his talent, he gave full rein to his humor.

If, walking down the corridor, you heard bursts of loud laughter behind the door of Mikhail Slonimsky's room, you could confidently say that Zoshchenko was there: either reading his new manuscript or telling some funny episode. You would enter and see everyone crowded around him, laughing like the Zaporozhians in Repin's painting, while he sat with an impassive face, as if unaware of the reason for the laughter.

This was how the House of Arts lived. Naturally, like any "dormitory," it was not free from petty sensations and affairs, sometimes even minor quarrels and gossip, but overall life was very dignified, inwardly noble, and most importantly — as I have already said — imbued with the genuine spirit of creativity and labor. That is why people from all over Petersburg flocked to it — to breathe its pure air and simply enjoy the comfort that many lacked. In the evenings, numerous lights were lit in its windows — some visible from the Fontanka itself — and it seemed like a ship sailing through darkness, blizzard, and bad weather. For this, Zinoviev dispersed it in the autumn of 1922.

…The House of Arts existed for about two years.

Olga Forsh, who wrote an entire story about it, called it: "The Mad Ship." This ship repeatedly struck underwater rocks and ultimately sank completely as soon as Gorky left Russia.

Sources:

Bernhard Ruben, Zoshchenko

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Дом_искусств

http://literatura5.narod.ru/disk.html

https://biography.wikireading.ru/264462