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EDITOR's _Apologia pro sua vita_. I thank Sam Schuman, a founding father of
the Nabokov Society, and Sandy Klein, eagle-eyed purveyor of Nabokoviana
from the world press to NABOKV-L, for pointing out (contra my original
Ednote) that VN's name DOES appear in the article. Another reader rightly
takes journalist Gutterman to task for for calling the family mansion "an
apartment."
----------------------------------------->
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> EDNOTE. Saint Petersburg, the city of Nabokov's birth, is
> celebrating its 300th anniversary. Although VN is not mentioned here,
> the article provides a mini-summary of the city's literary history that
> provided N's context.
>
>
> St. Petersburg Boasts Literary History
>
>
> By STEVE GUTTERMAN
> Associated Press Writer
>
> May 30, 2003, 4:47 AM EDT
>
> ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- The once-squalid square that served as
> the setting for the classic Russian novel "Crime and Punishment" is now
> home to a McDonald's.
>
> Nearby, a dilapidated stairwell leads to the dented metal door
> of what some devotees of Fyodor Dostoyevsky say was, in the author's
> mind, the apartment of the book's protagonist, the ax murderer
> Raskolnikov.
>
> A glance through a narrow crack between the door and jamb
> reveals a darkened attic cluttered with detritus, and the walls on the
> landing outside are covered with graffiti addressed to the fictional
> killer by his nickname Rodya.
>
> "Rodya, we're with you," one person scrawled.
>
> "Don't do it," another wrote in English.
>
> It's one of the many literary landmarks in St. Petersburg, a
> city whose grandeur and grit have inspired Russian writers for three
> centuries. On Friday, the city will mark its 300th anniversary and host
> world leaders during the celebrations.
>
> "St. Petersburg is like a magician -- it has a powerful
> attractive force and fosters creative work," said Svetlana Konoplyova, a
> retired Russian literature teacher who works at a museum honoring the
> beloved poet Alexander Pushkin in the apartment where he died after a
> duel in 1837.
>
> "This city is the cultural capital of our Russia," said
> Konoplyova, who minds one of the rooms at the museum, watching
> schoolchildren and tourists from across Russia tread respectfully
> through the apartment like the crowds that came to wish Pushkin well as
> he lay dying.
>
> Pushkin's epic "The Bronze Horseman" took its subject from a
> statue of city founder Czar Peter the Great that will be the backdrop
> when President Vladimir Putin greets foreign leaders Friday.
>
> In the poem, a poor clerk imagines that the rearing statue --
> which evokes both the creative energy and the ruthless autocracy of the
> czar who wrenched Russia toward Europe -- has come to life and pursues
> him through the city during a devastating flood.
>
> Pushkin had complex relations with the autocrat of his time, and
> the clash between authority and creativity played out in the lives of
> other writers who lived and worked in St. Petersburg under the czars and
> later the communists, when it was called Leningrad.
>
> The chaos of the city during the Bolshevik Revolution comes
> alive in the verse of Alexander Blok.
>
> Anna Akhmatova, a leading 20th century poet whose husband was
> shot and son imprisoned by the communist authorities, mixed her fierce
> love for the city with a bitter disdain for its new masters, calling it
> her "blessed cradle" but comparing it to a "drunken harlot" under the
> Bolsheviks.
>
> Akhmatova stayed in Leningrad until her death, but writers who
> left could not shake the memory of the city. Vladimir Nabokov, who
> emigrated to America, wrote evocatively of his childhood in an apartment
> not far from the Bronze Horseman statue.
>
> For Russian writers who mistrusted the West and deplored Peter's
> effort to thrust Russia into Europe, St. Petersburg was a monstrous
> city.
>
> In his apocalyptic novel "Petersburg," set in 1905, Andrei Bely
> wrote of the city, trapped between East and West, dropping into a hole.
>
> Defenders of St. Petersburg have an explanation for Bely's
> animus: He was from Moscow.
>
> _____
>
> Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8.
> <http://g.msn.com/8HMCENUS/2746??PS=> Get 2 months
>
>
>
the Nabokov Society, and Sandy Klein, eagle-eyed purveyor of Nabokoviana
from the world press to NABOKV-L, for pointing out (contra my original
Ednote) that VN's name DOES appear in the article. Another reader rightly
takes journalist Gutterman to task for for calling the family mansion "an
apartment."
----------------------------------------->
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> EDNOTE. Saint Petersburg, the city of Nabokov's birth, is
> celebrating its 300th anniversary. Although VN is not mentioned here,
> the article provides a mini-summary of the city's literary history that
> provided N's context.
>
>
> St. Petersburg Boasts Literary History
>
>
> By STEVE GUTTERMAN
> Associated Press Writer
>
> May 30, 2003, 4:47 AM EDT
>
> ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- The once-squalid square that served as
> the setting for the classic Russian novel "Crime and Punishment" is now
> home to a McDonald's.
>
> Nearby, a dilapidated stairwell leads to the dented metal door
> of what some devotees of Fyodor Dostoyevsky say was, in the author's
> mind, the apartment of the book's protagonist, the ax murderer
> Raskolnikov.
>
> A glance through a narrow crack between the door and jamb
> reveals a darkened attic cluttered with detritus, and the walls on the
> landing outside are covered with graffiti addressed to the fictional
> killer by his nickname Rodya.
>
> "Rodya, we're with you," one person scrawled.
>
> "Don't do it," another wrote in English.
>
> It's one of the many literary landmarks in St. Petersburg, a
> city whose grandeur and grit have inspired Russian writers for three
> centuries. On Friday, the city will mark its 300th anniversary and host
> world leaders during the celebrations.
>
> "St. Petersburg is like a magician -- it has a powerful
> attractive force and fosters creative work," said Svetlana Konoplyova, a
> retired Russian literature teacher who works at a museum honoring the
> beloved poet Alexander Pushkin in the apartment where he died after a
> duel in 1837.
>
> "This city is the cultural capital of our Russia," said
> Konoplyova, who minds one of the rooms at the museum, watching
> schoolchildren and tourists from across Russia tread respectfully
> through the apartment like the crowds that came to wish Pushkin well as
> he lay dying.
>
> Pushkin's epic "The Bronze Horseman" took its subject from a
> statue of city founder Czar Peter the Great that will be the backdrop
> when President Vladimir Putin greets foreign leaders Friday.
>
> In the poem, a poor clerk imagines that the rearing statue --
> which evokes both the creative energy and the ruthless autocracy of the
> czar who wrenched Russia toward Europe -- has come to life and pursues
> him through the city during a devastating flood.
>
> Pushkin had complex relations with the autocrat of his time, and
> the clash between authority and creativity played out in the lives of
> other writers who lived and worked in St. Petersburg under the czars and
> later the communists, when it was called Leningrad.
>
> The chaos of the city during the Bolshevik Revolution comes
> alive in the verse of Alexander Blok.
>
> Anna Akhmatova, a leading 20th century poet whose husband was
> shot and son imprisoned by the communist authorities, mixed her fierce
> love for the city with a bitter disdain for its new masters, calling it
> her "blessed cradle" but comparing it to a "drunken harlot" under the
> Bolsheviks.
>
> Akhmatova stayed in Leningrad until her death, but writers who
> left could not shake the memory of the city. Vladimir Nabokov, who
> emigrated to America, wrote evocatively of his childhood in an apartment
> not far from the Bronze Horseman statue.
>
> For Russian writers who mistrusted the West and deplored Peter's
> effort to thrust Russia into Europe, St. Petersburg was a monstrous
> city.
>
> In his apocalyptic novel "Petersburg," set in 1905, Andrei Bely
> wrote of the city, trapped between East and West, dropping into a hole.
>
> Defenders of St. Petersburg have an explanation for Bely's
> animus: He was from Moscow.
>
> _____
>
> Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8.
> <http://g.msn.com/8HMCENUS/2746??PS=> Get 2 months
>
>
>