SERGEEV Konstantin Mikhailovich (1910 - 1992, St. Petersburg), dancer, ballet-master, pedagogue, People's Artist of the USSR (1957). In 1930-61, after graduating from the Leningrad choreographic School under V.I. Ponomarev, he became a danseur for the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre. He mostly played lyric and romantic roles. He took over the role of Romeo from Romeo and Juliet after L.M. Lavrovsky, and Eugene from The Bronze Horseman after R.V. Zakharov. His other roles included Siegfried in The Swan Lake by L.I. Ivanov and M.I. Petipa, and Desiree in The Sleeping Beauty, Albert in Giselle, and Jean de Brien in Raymonda by Petipa. He was G.S. Ulanova's partner in 1930-40s, and N.M. Dudinskaya's after the war. In 1946 he became ballet-master, and in 1951-55 and 1960-70 acted as the main ballet-master of the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre. In 1973 he became art director of the Choreographic School, which was renamed the Academy of Russian Ballet in 1991, when Sergeev became its first President. Through his career, he created new choreography for ballets by Pepita and Ivanov, staged Cinderella by S.S. Prokofiev (1946; the Stalin Prize, 1947), By the Path of Thunder by K. Karaev (1958), The Distant Planet by B.S. Maisel (1963), and Hamlet by N.P. Chervinsky (1970). Some of the dancers to take part in his ballets include Dudinskaya, G.T. Komleva, Y.V. Solovyev, V.M. Panov, K.I. Fedicheva, and A.I. Sizova. He was awarded several Stalin Prizes (1946, 1949, 1951). From 1951 until 1992 he lived at 2 Kamennoostrovsky Avenue (memorial plaque installed). He was buried at Literatorskie Mostky.

References: Богданов-Березовский В. М. Заслуженный артист РСФСР лауреат Сталинских премий Константин Михайлович Сергеев. Л., 1951; Прохорова В. В. Константин Сергеев. Л., 1974.

G. I. Dobrovolskaya.

VAGANOVA Agrippina Yakovlevna (1879, St. Petersburg - 1951, Leningrad), ballet-dancer, pedagogue, choreographer, People's Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1954). Upon graduating from the Petersburg Drama School, where she had studied under P.A. Gerdt, she danced at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1897-1916. Gave brilliant variations on many ballet performances, and played the roles of Queen of Water (The Little Humpbacked Horse), and Lady of Dryads (Don Quixote, both by A.A. Gorsky). By the end of her career - having acted the leading parts in M.I. Petipa and L.I. Ivanov's Swan Lake, Gorsky's The Little Humpbacked Horse, Giselle by Petipa - she achieved the title of ballerina. In 1920, Vaganova started teaching at the Russian Ballet School under the guidance of A.L. Volynsky; from 1921, she was a teacher of the Petrograd (Leningrad) Choreographic School (see Academy of Russian Ballet). She integrated her stage experience with her predecessor's lessons and created her own teaching method (expounded on in her book Basic Principles of Classical Ballet, Leningrad; Moscow., 1934; several editions), which put emphasis on newer developments and technique in classical dance. Among her students were M.T. Semenova, G.S. Ulanova, O.G. Iordan, T.M. Vecheslova, N.M. Dudinskaya, F.I. Balabina, A.Y. Shelest, N.A. Petrova, N.A. Kurgapkina, O.N. Moiseeva, I.G. Hensler, A.E. Osipenko, and I.A. Kolpakova. The Choreographic School was named after Vaganova in 1957. In 1931-1937, Vaganova was an art director for the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre's ballet troupe, where she choreographed Petipa and Ivanov's ballet Swan Lake (1933) and J. Perrot's Esmeralda (1935). She was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1946. In 1937-51, Vaganova lived at 4 Dzerzhinskogo Street (today Gorokhovaya Street, memorial plaque installed). Buried at Literatorskie Mostky.

References: Богданов-Березовский В. М. А. Я. Ваганова. М.; Л., 1950; Агриппина Яковлевна Ваганова: Статьи. Воспоминания. Материалы. Л.; М., 1958; Красовская В. М. Ваганова. Л., 1989.

G. N. Dobrovolskaya.

Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy with his family moved into the house of Vuich located in 6 Proletarskaya Street (now it is Tserkovnaya (Church) Street). In this house Tolstoy worked on the novels "Pyotr I" (Peter the First"), "Chernoye zoloto" ("the Black Gold"), the trilogy of novels "Khozhdeniye po mukam", consisting of "Sestry" (“Sisters”), "Vosemnadtsaty god" (“The Year 1918”), and "Khmuroe utro" (“A Gloomy Morning”), wrote the story "Gobelen Marii-Antuanetti" ("The Tapestry of Marie-Antoinette"), the tale "Zolotoy Klyuchik" ("The Golden key"), the libretto for Yu. Shaporin's opera "Dekabristi" ("Decembrists"), started the work on "Oborona Tsaritsina" ("The Defence of Tsaritsin"). He lived and worked here untill his departure to Moscow in 1938.

The house of A.N. Tolstoy, the centre of the cultural life of Detskoye Selo of the 1930s, was visited by writers V.A. Rozhdestvensky, V.M. Inber, V.Ya. Shishkiv, O.D. Forsh, I.A. Andronikov, L.V. Nikulin, B.A. Lavrenev, M.M. Zoshchenko, the literary critic P.Ye. Shchegolev, artists G.S. Ulanova, Ye.I. Time, V.I. Kachalov, N.V. Pevtsov, M.F. Monakhov, the painter K.S. Petrov-Vodkin, composers Yu.A. Shaporin, V.M. Bogdanov-Berezovsky, D.D. Shostakovich, conductors A.V. Gauk, A.Sh. Melik-Pashayev, scientists A.F. Ioffe, A.M. Bonch-Bruyevich, L.D. Landau.

During 1933-1934 A.N. Tolstoy was a deputy of the Detskoye Selo District Soviet, his articles were often published on pages of the district newspaper "Bolshevistskoye slovo" ("Bolsheviks' Word").

Repairing excavators was mastered in the Stream Locomotive Repair Base named after Uritsky (PPRMZ) under the direction of the talented engineer Vladimir Ivanovich Shkvokhin, who became the director of plants "Remputmash" of the Ministry of Transport. Andronnikov Irakly Luarsabovich
Bogdanov-Berezovsky Valerian Mikhailovich
Bonch-Bruevich Mikhail Alexandrovich
Forsh Olga Dmitrievna
Gauk Alexander Vasilievich
Inber Vera Mikhailovna
Ioffe Abram Fedorovich
Kachalov (the real surname is Shverubovich), Vasily Ivanovich
Landau Lev Davydovich
Lavrenev Boris Andreevich
Melik-Pashayev, Aleksandr Shamilyevich
Monakhov Nikolay Fedorovich
Nikulin Lev Veniaminovich
Petrov-Vodkin Kuzma Sergeevich
Pevtsov Illarion Nikolaevich
Rozhdestvensky Vsevolod Alexandrovich
Shaporin Yury Alexandrovich
Shchegolev Pavel Eliseevich
Shishkov Alexander Semenovich
Shkvokhin, Vladimir Ivanovich
Shostakovich Dmitry Dmitrievich
Time Elizaveta Ivanovna
Tolstoy Alexey Nikolaevich
Ulanova Galina Sergeevna
Zoschenko Mikhail Mikhailovich
Tserkovnaya Street/Pushkin, town, house 6