GLINKA Mikhail Ivanovich (1804-1857), composer. Lived in St. Petersburg from 1817; in 1818-22, studied at the Noble Boarding School of the Main Pedagogical Institute (164 Fontanka River Embankment). Glinka's tutor was W.K. Kuchelbecker. He studied piano under J. Field and K. Mayer, and violin under the first violinist of F. Behm's Court Orchestra. In 1824-28, he served in the Chancellory of the Council of the Main Department for Transport Communication (9 Moskovsky Avenue). Visited the Bolshoy Theatre, attended concerts by P.I. Yushkov's orchestra, and the salons of F.P. Lvov and A.F. Lvov (4/7 Pochtamtskaya Street), E.K. Sivers (10 Pochtamtskaya Street), V.F. Odoevsky, the Vielgorskys, A.A. Delwig, and becoming acquainted with V.A. Zhukovsky, Alexander Pushkin and A. Mickiewicz. Began composing music, playing and singing his compositions any time he was given the opportunity, and published small plays and romances. In 1830-34, he toured across Europe. In 1834-44, with breaks, he again lived in St. Petersburg. He took advantage of his reputation as the first ethnic Russian musician, and went on to compose and stage classical operas: A Life for the Tsar (to E.F. Rosen's libretto, premiered on 27 November 1836, the birthday of Emperor Nicholas I at the solemn reopening of the Bolshoy Theatre after reconstruction due to fire) and Ruslan and Ludmila (V.F. Shirkov's libretto, premiered on 27 November 1842, also at the Bolshoy Theater). In 1837-39, he served as Kapellmeister of the Court Capella. It was in that period he came together with A.S. Dargomyzhsky, entered Zhukovsky's circle, gave performances at court and, having married, held his own musical evenings. In the late 1830s, he became friends with the Kukolnik brothers, wrote music to N. V. Kukolnik's tragedy Prince Kholmsky (1841), his romance Doubt, and a vocal cycle called Farewell to St. Petersburg to his poem. Composed sacred music, drafted "motif du chant national" (in 1992-2001 it became Russian Federation's national anthem), and dedicated a romance to Pushkin's verse I Remember the Wonderful Moment (1840) to the daughter of A.P. Kern, Ekaterina. In 1844, he left Russia, visiting St. Petersburg in 1848-49, 1851-52 and 1854-56. In 1850, at a charity concert at the Noble Assembly for the Poor Aid Society, Glinka's symphonic compositions - Recuerdos de Castilla (which later became A Night in Madrid), Jota Aragonesa and Kamarinskaya - were performed for the first time in the composer's absence. In 1851, Glinka acquired fame as the first Russian symphonic composer. During his last Petersburg period, Glinka's circle of friends underwent some changes. V.P. Engelgardt, to whom Glinka presented all his manuscripts, became his close friend; Glinka also became friends with D.V. Stasov and V.V. Stasov, with A.N. Serov, and frequented O.I. Senkovsky's residence. In the winter of 1854/55, he finished his Notes. His final large musical composition written in St. Petersburg was the third orchestral version of Waltz-Fantasy, which was performed for the first time at D. M. Leonova's concert given at the Alexandrinsky theatre in the spring of 1856. Glinka is the first Russian classic composer, and is considered the creator of the national Russian opera and Russian symphonic music. Odoevsky and Serov, the best of Glinka's critics, wrote many articles about his music and artistic credo during Glinka's lifetime. In the 1930s, the opera A Life for the Tsar, based on the Romanovs' family myth about the miraculous escape of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich, was rewritten as a people's tragedy (new text written by S.M. Gorodetsky) and from 1939 to the beginning of the 1990s it was performed under the name Ivan Susanin. Glinka rented a new flat almost every year. The majority of the buildings where he lived have not been preserved. In 1828-29 and in 1851-52, he rented a flat at the corner of Nevsky Prospect and Vladimirsky Avenue (2/49); in 1836-37 and in 1840-41 at the corner of Fonarny Lane and Glukhoy Lane (today Pirogova Street; building 8/3; memorial plaque installed); in 1837-39 he lived in the flat of the Capella (20 Moika River Embankment); and in 1841-1842 lived at 16 Bolshaya Meschanskaya (today Kazanskaya) Street. In 1848-49 he stayed with his son-in-law V.I. Fleri, director of School for the Deaf and Mute at the corner of Gorokhovaya Street and Moika River Embankment (54/18); in 1854-56 he lived on Ertelev Lane (today 7 Chekhova Street; memorial plaque installed). Originally buried in Berlin, his remains were moved in 1857 to the Tikhvinskoe Cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra (today the Necropolis of Artists ). On 8 March 1857, the Philharmonic Society organized a memorial concert to Glinka at the Noble Assembly. The State Academic Capella, the Small Hall of the Philharmonic (with a monument on the staircase) and a street close to the Mariinsky Theatre have been named after Glinka. In 1906, a monument to Glinka was opened on Teatralnaya Square near the Conservatory (sculptor R.R. Bach, architect A. R. Bach); a bronze bust (sculptor V.P. Pashchenko, architect A.S. Lytkin) was mounted in 1899 in the Alexandrovsky Garden. The All-Russian (previously All-Union) Glinka Vocal Competition has been held since 1960.

Works: Literary Heritage: in two volumes. Leningrad; Moscow, 1952-1953.

References: Глинка в воспоминаниях современников. М., 1955; Орлова А. А. Глинка в Петербурге. Л., 1970.

A. L. Porfiryeva.

PUSHKIN Alexander Sergeevich (1799-1837, St. Petersburg), poet, prose writer, playwright, historian, journalist. Studied at the Imperial Lyceum at Tsarskoe Selo (1811-17; memorial plaque; presently a memorial museum). It was the public performing of his ode Remembrances in Tsarskoe Selo at the Lyceum examination, presided by G. R. Derzhavin on 8 January 1815, that Pushkin consideres the beginning of his literary career. Upon graduation from the Lyceum Pushkin served at the Foreign Affairs Collegium. In 1820 was exiled from St. Petersburg to Chisinau (Kishinev), Odessa, subsequently to the village of Mikhailovskoe in the Pskov province. From 1827-31 occasionally visited St. Petersburg (stayed at the Demutov Traktir). In 1831 after marrying Natalia Goncharova moved to St. Petersburg. Pushkin was a member of the Arzamas society, Zelenaya Lampa (Green Lamp) circle; was closely associated with the Free Society for the Friends of the Russian Philology. Pushkin intermingled with numerous literary figures, was acquainted with А. А. Delwig, V. K. Kuchelbecker, P. Y. Chaadaev, V. A. Zhukovsky, P. А. Vyazemsky, N. М. Karamzin, Е. А. Baratynsky, K. N. Batyushkov, P. А. Pletnev, N. V. Gogol, А. S. Griboedov and many others. During different periods visited salons of Princess Е. I. Golitsyna, А. N. Olenina, Karamzina's salon, D. F. Fikelmon's salon, Odoevsky's salon, the Wednesdays of Smirnova-Rosset and others. Appeared in the Syn Otechestva, Biblioteka dlya chtenia journals, Polyarnaia Zvezda almanac, Severnye Tsvety almanac and others. Took active part in the publication of the Litaraturnaya Gazeta newspaper; founder of the Sovremennik journal. Pushkin's first book - the poem Ruslan and Lyudmila (1820), first poems collection Poems (1826), a lifetime collection of works - Poems by Alexander Pushkin in four volumes (1829-35), first separate full edition of Evgeny Onegin (1833), The Narratives Published by Alexander Pushkin (1834), Poems and Narratives by Alexander Pushkin in two volumes (1835) and many others were published in St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg is considered the city of the poet's early literary fame and the place where his last drama occurred. Pushkin was mortally wounded at a duel in the surroundings of St. Petersburg, in the vicinity of the Chernaya Rechka River [in 1937 an obelisk was erected at the supposed site of the duel (architect А. I. Lapirov, sculptor М. G. Manizer)]. The burial service was read in the Holy Face Church of the Court Stables (1 Konyushennaya Square; memorial plaque). Continuing the traditions of the 18th century, Pushkin harmonically merged diverse genres and styles both in poetry and prose, thus creating a new literature language and a new writing manner, which determined the development of Russian literature in the 19th and 20th centuries. For the first time in Russian literature Pushkin gave a complex, manifold description of St. Petersburg; the poet illustrates the city's past and present, revealing their continuity. The city becomes one of the characters of his works, and the literary phenomenon, later called Petersburg text, is established; it was cultivated in Gogol's, Dostoevsky's works, as well as of other writers. The St. Petersburg theme is closely associated with the evaluation of Peter the Great's reforms (the unfinished novel The Negro of Peter the Great , 1827; The Bowl of Peter the Great, 1835; preparatory material to The History of Peter the Gtreat, 1835; others); the architectural regalia embody the various aspects of Russian history and statehood (see, e.g., Mikhaylovsky Palace as a symbol of tyranny in the ode Freedom 1817, written according to the legend in the house of the A. I. Turgenev and N. I. Turgenev brothers at 20 Fontanka River Embankment); the city's manifold modern life is exposed (the aristocratic, high-society, cultural St. Petersburg in Evgeny Onegin's first chapter, saturated with topographic regalia; an insight into the life of Petersburg outskirts is given in the poem The House in Kolomna, 1830; and others). The image of St. Petersburg is impregnated in The Bronze Horseman with strong symbolic tension (Petersburg Narratives — according to Pushkin's genre definition) (1833; was first published in 1837 after the poet's death with considerable distortions). The explicit apologia of St. Petersburg develops in the poem into the theme of fatal menace and catastrophic downfall of the city over God's elements, the triumph of Peter the Great's historic genius, intellect and his will's creative potency, Russian glory, embodied in the image of St. Petersburg, stand as a rigorous and tragic ordeal measured by the sufferings of an individual. The narrative The Queen of Spades, (1834) with its fantastic atmosphere and a special genuine Petersburg type (Dostoevsky) of character played an important part in the evolution of the Petersburg Text technique in Russian literature (Princess N. P. Golitsina's House at 10 Morskaya Street is traditionally considered the house where Pushkin's old countess lived). Pushkin's Petersburg addresses are: from 1817-20: 185 Fontanka River Embankment (memorial plaque); 1831 - Tsarskoe Selo, Kolpinskaya Street (the town of Pushkin, 2 Pushkinskaya Street; memorial plaque; (today Pushkin summer cottage museum); 1831-32: 53 Galernaya Street (memorial plaque); 1832 — Furshtatskaya Street (the house has not survived, section of house 20); 1832-33: 26 Bolshaya Morskaya Street; 1833-34: 5 Panteleymonovskaya Street (today Pestelya Street), 1834-36 — 32, Frunzenskaya Embankment (today Kutuzova Embankment), (memorial plaque); 1836-37 —12, the Moika River Embankment (memorial plaque; today Pushkin memorial museum-flat). Pushkinskaya Street (since1881) and a number of streets in Pushkinsky, Pavlovsky, Kolpinsky, Kurortny, Krasnoselsky districts are named after Pushkin. In 1937-89 Birzhevaya Square was called Pushkinskaya. The Children's Library, the Russian State Academic Drama Theatre (see Alexandrinsky Theatre), the Russian Literature Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Pushkin's House), where the poet's manuscript legacy is reposited, a metro station and a number of other objects are also named after Pushkin. In 1937 Detskoe Selo (formerly Tsarskoe Selo) was renamed into Pushkin. See also the article Pushkin's monuments.

References: Гордин А. М., Гордин М. А. Путешествие в пушкинский Петербург. Л., 1983; Осповат А. Л., Тименчик Р. Д. Печальну повесть сохранить...: Об авторе и читателях Медного всадника. М., 1985; Иезуитова Р. В., Левкович Я. Л. Пушкин и Петербург: Страницы жизни поэта. СПб., 1999; Сурат И. З., Бочаров С. Г. Пушкин: Крат. очерк жизни и творчества. М., 2002.

Д. Н. Ахапкин, D. N. Cherdakov.

9 June. The first Lyceum graduates ("Pushkinsky") was held and the song "Farewell song of the pupils of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum" , text was written by Anton Delvig and music by the Lyceum music teacher Tepper de Fergusson, was performed.

The triumphal gate "To my dear comrades" was erected according to the design by V.P. Stasov, this gate celebrated the victory of Russian Army over Napoleon.


Major General Y.V. Zakharzhevsky became the Head of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace Board, independent of the Hof-Intendant Office. Thanks to his work, Tsarskoye Selo took the reputation of the one of the most comfortable city of the Russian Empire of the middle of the 19th cent. Zakharzhevsky worked at this post until 1865, his post was renamed as Chief Manager of Tsarskoye Selo.

18 October. The Cathedral of St. Sophia got the status of the Regiment Temple of the Life-Guard Hussar Regiment. Delwig Anton Antonovich
Stasov Vasily Petrovich
Tepper de Ferguson (Fergusson), Ludwig - Wilhelm
Zakharzhevsky, Ya.V.