Although you don’t often think of Russia as part of Europe, a walk in St Petersburg convinces you that, unlike Moscow, this is a city that looks more like Paris than Tehran. I mean look to your left! Then you go to the various cemeteries and you’re surprised at how many dead Russians you recognize. […]
Dead Russians: St Petersburg Composers & Writers
In another post, I claim that Russia before the Bolsheviks was much more European than we give it credit for. Its continued isolation in the 21st century, much of it self-inflicted, impoverishes us all. Nothing spells out Russia’s culture more starkly than the long litany of its famous dead. In St Petersburg you find buried […]
The Nabokov Museum in St Petersburg
Vladimir Nabokov, the writer best known for the controversial novel Lolita, was born in a wealthy family in St Petersburg on 22 April 1899. He lived at 47 Bolshaya Morskaya Street until he was 18 when he and his family fled after the Communist Revolution. He considered it his only home and never bought another, […]