One of the popular types of museums in the world is the memorial museum for modern and contemporary artists because people would love to know more about the life of celebrities that they have admired and loved. Several museums in the world are dedicated to the modern artists, including the one in the city of St. Petersburg that is dedicated to Russian American novelist Vladimir Nabokov.
St. Petersburg is the city of museums, as is described by the locals because of the number of museums and historical places in St. Petersburg. There are so many museums in St. Petersburg that if you want to visit all of them on your travel to Russia, you must spend more than a week on your trip to St. Petersburg. Among these museums, some of them are memorial house and dedicated museums to artists and celebrated figures in Russian history; one of the famous ones is the Vladimir Nabokov House Museum, which is dedicated to the Russ-American author of well-known Lolita and Pale Fire.
If you are as well one of the admirers of Vladimir Nabokov, we at the Star Travel Group recommend you visit the Vladimir Nabokov House Museum on Great Morskaya Street, which was the only house that the author had in his entire life. If you want to visit this museum on your travel to St. Petersburg, you can go there before or after your visit of St. Isaac’s Cathedral, which is only a few minutes of walk away and is one of the major attractions of St. Petersburg on Russia tour plans.
Although the apartment on Great Morskaya Street owned by many famous people, including Anton von Engelgardt and Aleksey Khitrovo, it’s strongly linked with the Nabokov family. Nabokov and his family had lived in the house from 1897 to 1917 when they forced to leave the country because of the revolution. Vladimir Nabokov had born and grown up in the house until the age of 18. He described his life in that house in one of his books, Speak Money.
Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov was a respected lawyer and politician who later became one of the influential leaders of the Constitutional Democratic Party. Since his father was a well-known politician, there were lots of political meetings held in the house, mostly on the ground floor, in which the reception room was located. The Nabokov house was a three-story building; the second level was occupied by Vladimir Nabokov and other children, and the first floor was occupied by Vladimir Dmitrievich and his wife Elena Rukavshnikova.
The Nabokov House owned by the Nabokov family until 1917, and after the revolution, it was occupied by several organizations, including the Northern Telegraph Company and the Academy of Architecture, which eventually led to the destruction of the house original interior layout and decoration. The Vladimir Nabokov House Museum was only opened in 1998 on the first floor of the house.
Although Vladimir Nabokov was born and had grown up in Russia until the age of 18, he lived most of his life outside of Russia and became an American citizen in 1945. He had started writing novels in 1926, and his first nine novels were in Russian, but he got international recognition when he began to write English prose. Vladimir Nabokov was also an expert lepidopterist and took many tours to hunt butterflies in Alps, Sicily, and Corsica. In 1976 he was hospitalized with fever, but doctors were unable to diagnose his sickness. He was rehospitalized in 1977 in Switzerland and died on the second of July and buried at the Clarens graveyard in Montreux.
Vladimir Nabokov had written 18 novels, which half of them were in English, and the most notable works from him were the Lolita (1955) and Pale Fire (1962). There are also many adaptations from his works, including several songs from his poetry and plays based on his novels.
The Museum of Vladimir Nabokov House was found in 1997 and began its work in 1998 in the childhood house of the novelist in St. Petersburg. Though there are none much left from the house he knew and described in his books, the museum administrators tried to re-create the original layout and interior of the house from when The Nabokov family lived there. The museum occupied the first floor of the house and entirely dedicated to the author’s life and career; the second floor is occupied by the editorial offices of daily newspaper Nevskoe Vremya.
The Nabokov House Museum is entirely dedicated to the author’s life and career and has collected loads of memorabilia from all over the world, including several manuscripts and edition of his works, his butterflies collection, his glasses, and several unpublished works of him.
The museum has a marvelous collection of Nabokov’s pencils, clothes, a Smith typewriter belonged to the author; several books belonged to the author’s library, including Mayne Reid’s The Headless Horseman, Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, and Mikhail Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time; Nabokov’s drawing of butterflies, which were his gift to his family and friends; the collection of his butterflies both the ones he had hunted himself and the ones he had purchased during his life.
The Vladimir Nabokov House Museum is one of the museums in St. Petersburg that you should visit if you’re also a fan of Russian literature or the author’s work because otherwise, you wouldn’t enjoy most of it on your travel to St. Petersburg.
We at the Star Travel Group recommend the tourists who have decided to visit St. Petersburg on their travel to Russia read our weblog to find out more about famous and not so popular attractions of Russia in St. Petersburg. Since St. Petersburg has so many attractions, both inside the city and in the suburban area, this information will help you to decide which historical places of St. Petersburg are more notable for you to visit during your trip to Russia. You can also learn about our guidance and tips about travel to Russia, including the most suitable places to shop in St. Petersburg, the top traditional Russian cuisine that you must try on your travel to Moscow, and other valuable information.
