The name of Ivan Tsvetaev, professor at Moscow University (1847-1913), is firmly connected with the Museum of Fine Arts founded by him in Moscow (now the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts). Having devoted more than 20 years to the creation of it, Tsvetaev left his descendants not only the Museum itself, but also his unique experience captured in letters. Tsvetaev's long-term correspondence with Yuri Stepanovich Nechaev-Maltsov (1834-1913), a major industrialist, philanthropist and main donor to the creation of the Museum, is an important monument of Russian culture at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.