Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
53 Liteiny Prospekt.
&
812/571-0952.
www.akhmatova.spb.ru. Admission 200 rubles adults and chil-
dren 8 and over. English-language audioguide 115 rubles. Tues-Sun 10:30am-5:30pm. Metro: Mayakovs-
kaya.
263
Dostoyevsky House Museum
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's native city, which obsessed
and oppressed him, was a central theme in his work; it's only logical to honor him by
visiting one of the houses where he lived. This corner house in a gentrifying neighbor-
hood is one of the best-displayed and most tourist-friendly of the city's many house
museums. This is because Dostoyevsky is perhaps the most world-famous of the legions
of poets and writers who sprang from the intellectual and political ferment of 19th-
century St. Petersburg, even if Alexander Pushkin is more fondly admired within Russia.
For followers of the desperate characters of
Crime and Punishment
and
Notes From Under-
ground,
Dostoyevsky's house may seem unusually middle-class and almost cheery. Closer
examination reveals signs of the ups and downs that beset the writer throughout his
career, from debts to imprisonment for revolutionary activity. After finishing the
Brothers
Karamazov
in his study, with his wife Anna's unwavering assistance, Dostoyevsky died
here of lung disease. In an unsettling reference to his demise, the exhibit includes
cigarettes that he rolled himself. A note from one of his sons slid under the door
while the author was at work strikes a chord with any busy parent: “Daddy, give me a
candy. -Fedya.” Take advantage of the English-language audioguide, which lasts about
an hour.
5/2 Kuznechny Pereulok.
&
812/571-4031.
Admission 120 rubles adults, 60 rubles students and chil-
dren 8 and over. Audioguides in English 75 rubles. Tues-Sun 11am-5:30pm. Closed last Wed of the
month. Metro: Dostoyevskaya.
Nabokov Museum
Vladimir Nabokov lived here from his birth in 1899 to 1917,
when he fled the revolution with his family, first for Crimea and ultimately for the
United States. The museum is a small but revealing look at the man who produced some
of the 20th century's most searing, daring works (and not just
Lolita
). The family once
occupied all three floors of this neoclassical building, but now their remaining belongings
are crowded into the ground floor (the upper floors host a local newspaper office). Exhib-
its include some of Nabokov's first poems, penned in his school years, and notes or gifts
from family visitors such as H. G. Wells.
47 Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa.
&
812/315-4713.
Admission 100 rubles adults and children 8 and over.
100 rubles to take photos or video. Tues-Fri 11am-6pm; Sat-Sun noon-5pm.
14
Impressions
I make no claim
on this illustrious house,
But it has turned out that almost all my life
I have spent under the notable roof
Of the Fontanka Palace . . . I destitute
Came and destitute leave . . .
—Anna Akhmatova,
Sochineniye v Dvukh Tomakh
(Works in Two Volumes)
