MANDELSTAM Osip Emilievich (1891-1938), poet. The family of Mandelstam came to St. Petersburg in 1897 (before that, from 1894 lived in Pavlovsk of St. Petersburg Province); some addresses are 17 Ofitserskaya Street (today Dekabristov Street), then - closer to Tenishevsky School, where Mandelstam studied in 1900-07, 49 Liteiny Avenue, 15 Liteiny Avenue, etc. From 1909 Mandelstam attended Ivanov's Wednesday meetings, from 1911 he was a student of Historical -Philological Faculty of Petersburg University (didn't graduate), his works were published in journals Apollon and Giperborey, one of the prominent figures of Brodyachaya Sobaka (Stray Dog) Literary and Artistic Cabaret. Initially a symbolist, Mandelstam quickly became a member of the Guild of Poets and joined the Acmeism movement (see Mandelstam's manifesto The Morning Of Acmeism), published his first collections of poems The Stone (1913, second edition - 1915), the core of which poems about the architectural masterpieces of Western Europe and St. Petersburg form (The Admiralty, Free it ran out into the square..., Palace Square, also Petersburg Stanzas, Tsarskoe Selo). In 1918-20 Mandelstam travelled a lot around Russia, the winter of 1920-21 he spent in St. Petersburg (lived in the House of Arts), wrote a number of poems, that were included in his second collection Tristia (1922, in the original version - The Second Book, 1923). In the 1920s Mandelstam turned to genres of autobiography and essay (The Din Of Time, 1925; The Egyptian Stamp, 1928; Journey to Armenia, 1933; etc.), wrote a number of poetic philosophical articles (collection About Poetry, 1928; Conversation about Dante, 1933), did some translating. From the early 1920s lived mainly in Moscow and in the South of Russia, paid short visits to Leningrad; in 1924-25 he lived at 49 Herzen Street (today Bolshaya Morskaya), in 1925 - in the sanatorium in Detskoe Selo (the wife of Mandelstam, N.Y. Mandelstam, suffered from tuberculosis), from late 1930 to early 1931 he lived at 31 Eighth Line of Vasilievsky Island, with his brother, E.E. Mandelstam (memorial plaque in memory of the poem written here "I have returned to my city..."). Two literary evenings, Mandelstam held during his visit to Leningrad in 1933, remained in the memory of his contemporaries. After some sharp political poems had received publicity in May 1934, he was arrested and spent three years in exile in Voronezh. In the autumn of 1937 he visited Leningrad for the last time. In May 1938 he was again arrested, died in the holding centre not far from Vladivostok.
References: Я вернулся в мой город: Петербург Мандельштама. Л., 1991; Лекманов О. А. Жизнь О. Мандельштама. СПб., 2003.
T. M. Dvinyatina.
