AKHMATOVA Anna Andreevna (nee Gorenko) (1889-1966), poet, Honorary Doctor of Oxford University (1965). She spent her childhood (until 1905) in Tsarskoe Selo (the corner of Shirokaya Street and Bezymyanny Lane, the house and the lane have not been preserved, today Vokzalnaya Square), studied at Mariinskaya School (17 Leontievskaya Street, memorial plaque), at Kiev High Women’s Courses (1908-10). After marriage (in 1910-18 she married N.S. Gumilev) she settled in Tsarskoe Selo again, and had been living mainly there until 1916 (Malaya Street, the house has not been preserved, today lot of house 57); in 1914-17 she lived also in Petersburg (17 Tuchkov Lane). In 1911 she joined the Poets' Guild and became the major representative of the acmeism trend; collections of verses Evening (1912), Rosary (1914), The White Flock (1917), Plantain (1921), Anno Domini MCMXXI (1922) were reprinted many times. Akhmatova herself was a bright figure of St. Petersburg (Petrograd) literaterary life, frequent sitter of painters, and addressee of many poetic dedications. Akhmatova was one of the authors and the brightest examples of Petersburg text of Russian literature (V.N. Toporov). St. Petersburg of the early 20th century and Tsarskoe Selo were not only background but also a constant hero of Akhmatova's lyrics (In Tsarskoe Selo, Verses about Petersburg, A Statue from Tsarskoe Selo, Leningrad in the March of 1941, Ode of Tsarskoe Selo, Pushkin's Town, and others); many of her memorial notes are devoted to them. The image of St. Petersburg - Leningrad changed in Akhmatova's works in due course: a number of significant details shading subjacent novel themes of the early lyrics; horrible reality of the terror of the 1930s and the Siege (Requiem, verses of Wind of War cycle); historical descriptions and histriosophic insights of the 1940-60s (key role of the city in Poem Without a Hero). Many addresses of Akhmatova are at Fontanka River Embankment: № 18, autumn 1921 to autumn 1923; № 2, 1924; № 34 (south wing of Fontanny Dom, - see Sheremetev Palace, from 1989 - Memorial Museum of A.A. Akhmatova; memorial plaque) - 1918-20, 1926-52 (with intervals), or close to Fontanka: the spring of 1921 - 7 Sergeevskaya Street (today Tchaikovskogo Street); 1919-25 (periodically) 5 Millionnaya Street (servant's corps of the Marble Palace). In 1941-44 Akhmatova was in evacuation in Tashkent. In 1946 she became (together with M.M. Zoshchenko) an object of shattering criticism in a resolution of Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party about Zvezda and Leningrad journals, was excluded from the Union of Writers. In 1952-61 she lived at 4 Krasnoy Konnitsy Street (today Kavalergardskaya); then at 34 Lenina Street. After the War she spent a lot of time in Moscow and Komarovo at a summer cottage of the Literature Foundation (the so called “Booth” at 3/5 Osipenko Street). She was awarded Etna Taormina International Literature Prize (Italy, 1964). She died in Domodedovo, near Moscow. She was buried at Komarovskoe Cemetery. There is a monument of Akhmatova in the yard of gymnasium № 209 (8 Vosstaniya Street). Former Vokzalnaya Street in Pushkin was renamed to Akhmatovskaya Street for her 100 anniversary.

References: Топоров В. Н. Петербург и петербургский текст русской литературы: (Введение в тему) // Топоров В. Н. Миф. Ритуал. Символ. Образ: Исслед. в области мифопоэтического: Избранное. М., 1995. С. 259-367; Попова Н. И., Рубинчик О. Е. Анна Ахматова и Фонтанный дом. СПб., 2000; Бунатян Г. Г. Город муз: Лит. памят. места г. Пушкина. СПб., 2001. С. 347-365; Вербловская И. С. Горькой любовью любимый: Петербург Анны Ахматовой. 2-е изд., испр. и доп. СПб., 2003.

T. M. Dvinyatina.

ALEXANDER II (1818-1881, St. Petersburg), Emperor (since 1855). He was a son of Emperor Nicholas I and Empress Alexandra Fedorovna. Tsarevitch (from 1831), General of Infantry (1847), Honorary Member of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1826). His first marriage was to the Princess of Hesse and Rhine, who took the name of Maria Alexandrovna; his second (morganatic) marriage to Princess E.M. Dolgorukova (1880), who received the title of Princess Yuryevskaya. He was a member of the Committee for the Neva Bridge Construction (1841), and the head of the Committee of the St. Petersburg - Moscow Railway Construction (1842). From 1849, he commanded the Guard and Grenadier Corps, was the head of the Main Military Schools (until 1860), and Trustee of the Chesme Military Hospital. In the 1860-70s, he carried out various reforms, such as peasant (abolishment serfdom, 1861), judicial (1864), land (1865), city (see City reform 1870), and military (the 1860-70s) reforms, all of which came to be known in Russian history as the Great Reforms of Alexander II. Many people had considerable influence on state affairs and government throughout different periods of his reign, including his brother Grand Prince Konstantin Nikolaevich, aunt Grand Princess Elena Pavlovna, P.D. Kiselev, Y.I. Rostovtsev, P.A. Valuev, D.A. Milyutin, A.M. Gorchakov, P.A. Shuvalov (see the Shuvalovs), and M.T. Loris-Melikov. In 1866-81, members of secret revolutionary societies made a number of attempts on Alexander II's life, some of them in St. Petersburg. In 1866, D.V. Karakozov shot at the Tsar through the ironwork of the Summer Garden (a chapel was built on the place of attempt; not preserved), in 1879, A.K. Solovyev made an attempt on Palace Square; in 1880, S.N. Khalturin planted an explosive in the Winter Palace. On 1 March 1881, Alexander II was fatally wounded on the Catherine Canal Embankment (today Griboedova Canal) as a result of a terrorist attack by members of the group Narodnaya Volya (People's Will), and died several hours later in the Winter Palace. He was buried in the SS. Peter&Paul Cathedral. The Holy Resurrection Cathedral was built on site of the assassination. Before taking the crown, Alexander II lived in Anichkov Palace, then in the Winter Palace. In summertime he preferred the Tsarskoe Selo (particularly the Zubov Wing of the Catherine Palace), and the Farmer Palace in Alexandria. He owned Petrovsky Island, Anichkov Palace, a cottage, a personal dacha in Peterhof (1843), the Ropsha grange in the Peterhof District, and the city of Gatchina.

References: Александр II и его эпоха: К 140-летию со дня восшествия на престол: Тез. докл. конф. СПб., 1995; Захарова Л. Г. Александр II // Романовы: Ист. портреты, 1762-1917. М., 1997. Кн. 2. С. 404-490; Толмачев Е. П. Александр II и его время: В 2 кн. М., 1998; Александр II и Царское Село: Кат. выст. / Гос. музей-заповедник "Царское Село". СПб., 2000.

Y. A. Kuzmin.

ANNENSKY Innokenty Fedorovich (1856-1909, St. Petersburg), poet, playwright, translator, critic, and teacher promoted to Actual Civil Counsellor in 1896. He graduated from the department of history and philosophy of Petersburg University with a major in literature in 1879. He served in the Ministry of Public Education until his dying day. He was the director of the Eighth Petersburg Gymnasium at 8 Ninth Line of Vasilievsky Island in 1893-96 and director of Nicholas Gymnasium at 12 Naberezhnaya Street, Tsarskoe Selo, where he also lived from 1896 to 1905. Among his students were N. S. Gumilev, D. I. Kokovtsev, and N. N. Punin. He started to appear in print with his reviews, critical essays, and educational articles from the early 1880s. He published his first collected verses, Quiet Songs, under the name of Nic. T-o in 1904 and the second collected verses, Cypress Casket, published after his death in 1910. He was the first to translate Euripides’ tragedies into Russian completely in verse. Ancient Greek motifs affected Annensky’s own dramas including Famira-kifared, Laodamia, etc. He wrote collected critical essays Book of Reflections in 1906 and a Second Book of Reflections in 1909. He was one of the founders of Apollon journal in 1909 and a member of the Society of Literature Enthusiasts founded by the magazine editors. Annensky played a key role in Russian literature of the 1910s, his works having a major impact on Gumilev, A. A. Akhmatova, O. E. Mandelstam, B. L. Pasternak, G. V. Adamovich, et al. He last lived at 11 Zakharzhevskaya Street in Tsarskoe Selo, the house is not preserved. He died of a heart failure on the stairs of the Tsarskoe Selo Station (today, Vitebsky Railway Station). Buried at Kazanskoe Cemetery, Tsarskoe Selo.

References: Лавров А. В., Тименчик Р. Д. Иннокентий Анненский в неизданных воспоминаниях // Памятники культуры: Новые открытия: Ежегодник, 1981. Л., 1983. С. 61-146; Федоров А. В. Иннокентий Анненский: Личность и творчество. Л., 1984; Бунатян Г. Г. Город муз: Лит. памят. места г. Пушкина. СПб., 2001. С. 221-245.

Т. М. Dvinyatina.

ASAFYEV Boris Vladimirovich (penname Igor Glebov) (1884, St. Petersburg - 1949), music theorist, composer, People"s Artist of the USSR (1946), member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1946). Asafyev graduated from the Faculty of History and Philosophy of St. Petersburg University (1908) and the Conservatory (1910). In 1910 he accepted an appointment as concertmaster of the Mariinsky Theatre Ballet, and concurrently wrote critical reviews for Music Journal and a number of other periodicals. In 1919-30 Asafyev worked in the Institute of the History of Arts, and co-operated with the Bolshoy Drama Theatre and Old St. Petersburg Society. In 1925 Asafyev was awarded professorship and began teaching at the Conservatory. One of the leading music theorists, he approached music art within a philosophic and socio-cultural context. In the 1930-50s he was also a celebrated composer, creating 28 ballets, 11 operas, 4 symphonies, numerous chamber music pieces and music for theatre performances. The State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre performances of The Flames of Paris (1932) and The Fountain of Bakhchisaray (1934) won broad recognition. Besides, the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre gave performances of his ballets Lost Illusion (1935), Partisans" Days (1937), and Christmas Eve (1938). Maly Opera and Ballet Theatre (see Mussorgsky Opera and Ballet Theatre) staged The Prisoner of the Caucasus (1938) and Ashik-Kerib (1940). In 1941-43 during the siege of Leningrad Asafyev wrote an essay series entitled Thoughts and Contemplations.” The chapter of the series entitled On Russian Painting was published in Leningrad and Moscow in 1966. In 1943 he moved to Moscow and in 1948 was elected Chairman of the Composers’ Union of the USSR. Asafyev was awarded the Stalin Prize (1943, 1948). He was born in the house at 139 Nevsky Prospect, and lived at 147 Nevsky Prospect, in 1914-17 - at 10 Mokhovaya Street, in 1922 - at 25 Konyushennaya Street, in 1933-43 - at 6 Truda Square (memorial plaque).

References: Орлова Е. М. Б. В. Асафьев: Путь исследователя и публициста. Л., 1964.

A. L. Porfiryeva.

Bauer (Baur, Baor, Bawer, Bawr) Fiodor Vilimovich (Friedrich-Wilhelm) (1734–1783, SPb), military engineer, hydraulic engineering technologist, cartographer. He was an Swede by birth, he worked for Russia from 1769. Quartermaster-General (1769), Engineer-General (1780). Bauer was born in the county Ganau (Germany), he served on the army of Gessen, in Prussia, he took part in the Seven Years Warу and in Russco-Turkish War during the campaign of 1770-1771. From 1771 Bauer worked in St Petresburg, he was the Head of the General Staff and the author of its reforming. Several fortress, harbors in Kronstadt and Riga, and other constructions were built to the designs of Bauer. He designed and built several large hydraulic engineering constructions including the Mytishchi water supply system in Moscow, that was the central water supply system, first in Russia ( the work was began in 1779 and the work was finished in 1804), the Taitsy water supply system for providing Tsarskoyey Selo by water (the work was began in 1772), and the first heavy showerseverage system in St Petersburg. Bauer was the head of the Commission for the Constructing at the Fontanka River and the Catherine Canal (now the Griboyedov Canal) , the constructing of their granite embankments and descents were began under the heading of Bauer. The project of the canal between the River Msta and the River Volkhov was worked out by Bauer in 1782. He was the author of several works on the topographical descriptions of regions. Bauer lived in his own house in St Petersburg at the corner of the Big Neva River and the Fontanka River ("near the Laundress Bridge" ) (ite present address is 36 Kutuzov Embankment). The marble plaque was installed in the Grotto "Monk" in the Babolov Park in Tsarskoye Selo with the inscription in Russian and Latin " Tsarskoye Selo was provided with clean water, Tsarskoye Selo had not the clean water before, by the work of General von Bauer during the happy reign of Catherine II ".

BELYAEV Alexander Romanovich (1884-1942, Pushkin Leningrad Region), writer. He studied in Smolensky Holy Seminary and in Demidov Law Lyceum in Yaroslavl. From 1915 he was seriously ill. After changing many professions he devoted himself to writing by the end 1920s. He lived in Leningrad and in Tsarskoe Selo (Pushkin) in the 1930s. He worked in the Leningrad and Pushkin Periodical and at Leningrad Radio. Belyaev's creativity contributed greatly in the development of Soviet science fiction. Belyaev's works are charged with a certain ideological straightness (among the most popular are: Professor Dowell's Head, a story, 1925 and a novel with the same name, 1937; The Amphibian, 1928, etc.) but at the same time are marked by a certain dynamics of the story and brightness of images. He was the author of essays on Russian science, stories for children, and theoretical works on science fiction. He died of hunger in his bed during the German occupation. He lived at 19 Konyushennaya Street in Pushkin in 1938-42 (the house has not been preserved, there is a memorial plaque on the present-day house), and also in the House of Creativity at Proletarskaya Street (today 6 Tserkovnaya Street). He was buried in Kazanskoe Cemetery in Pushkin.

References: Ляпунов Б. В. Александр Беляев: Критико-биогр. очерк. М., 1967; Беляева С. А. Воспоминания об отце // Аврора. 1982. № 9. С. 137-145; Бунатян Г. Г. Город муз: Лит. памят. места г. Пушкина. СПб., 2001. С. 337-346.

D. N. Cherdakov.

BENOIS Alexander Nikolaevich (1870, St. Petersburg – 1960), painter, graphic artist, stage designer, art historian and critic. Son of N. L. Benois. He studied in K. I. May’s Gymnasium in 1885-90 and at the Faculty of Law in Petersburg University in 1890-94. He also studied painting under his brother Albert N. Benois. He worked in France from 1896 to1898 and 1905 to 1907. He was one of the major founders and ideologists of the association and magazine, World of Art. He founded and edited Russia’s Art Treasures, a monthly magazine, in 1901-03 and wrote for Starye Gody in 1907-1913. He also contributed to Rech Newspaper by keeping a weekly critical column, Belles Letters, in 1908-17. He was the author of the following books: The History of the Russian Painting in the 19th Century written in St. Petersburg in 1902, ten issues of The Russian Painting School written in St. Petersburg in 1904-06, and four volumes of The History of Painting of All Times and Peoples, written in St. Petersburg in 1912-17, the latter published incompletely. In his paintings, he derived inspiration from history and folklore drawing on stories from the 18th and the first quarter of the 19th centuries. He created a series of gouaches devoted to Russian history, where the bygone culture of the nobility was ironically idealised, such as Parade under Pavel I painted in 1907 and Peter the Great Walking in the Summer Garden painted in 1910, both exhibited in the State Russian Museum. He also painted landscapes of St. Petersburg and suburbs, as well as Versailles, Bretagne, Crimea, southern France, Italy, and Switzerland. He initiated, together with other members of the World of Art, a new Russian school of iconography, his most prominent works including illustrations for Alexander Pushkin’s Queen of Spades in 1899 and 1910, Bronze Horseman in 1903-22, and Captain’s Daughter in 1904 and 1919. He designed the scenery of Armida’s Pavilion composed by N. N. Cherepnin and directed by M. M. Fokine in the Mariinsky Theatre in 1907. He was the chief designer of S. P. Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1909 and the art director of the Moscow Art Theatre in 1913-15. He took part in working out a state program for protecting monuments of art and history in 1917 and worked as a curator and the head of the State Hermitage’s picture gallery in 1918-26. He painted scenes for Petrograd’s theatres, including Peter Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades for the Mariinsky Theatre in 1919-20, C. Goldoni’s Servant of Two Masters for the Bolshoy Drama Theatre in 1921, etc. He settled in France in 1926 to work as the chief designer of Ida Rubinstein’s company and cooperate with Paris theatres and La Scala, Milan, in 1947-56. He wrote his memoirs and created a wide panorama of literary, artistic, and theatrical life in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg. He lived in his father’s house at 15 Glinki Street, 56 First Line of Vasilievsky Island in 1905-07, 31 Admiralteysky Canal Embankment in 1908-14, and 38 First Line of Vasilievsky Island in 1915-17. See also Benois Family Museum.

Works: My Reminiscences written in five books, the second supplemented edition published in Moscow in 1990; My Diary: 1916-1917-1918, published in Moscow in 2003.

Reference: Александр Бенуа размышляет... М., 1968; Эткинд М. Г. Александр Николаевич Бенуа, 1870-1960. Л.; М., 1960; Его же. А. Н. Бенуа и русская художественная культура конца XIX - начала ХХ века. Л., 1989.

O. L. Leikind, D. Y. Severyukhin.

BILIBIN Ivan Yakovlevich (1876-1942), graphic artist, stage designer, Ph.D. (Arts History) 1939. He studied in the Drawing School of the Society for Encouragement of the Arts in 1895-98, Princess M. K. Tenisheva’s Studio School in 1898-1900, and the Academy of Arts in 1900-04. He graduated from Petersburg University with a major in law in 1900. He was a member of the World of Art Association from 1900. Involved in satirical graphics in 1905-06, he published his cartoons in Adskaya Pochta and Zhupel magazines. A professional illustrator of fairy tales and epics, he did illustrations in an ornamental style based on the pastiche of the Russian folk art. He was also renowned as a stage designer who sketched the scenery and costumes for N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov’s Tale of Tsar Saltan for the Kirov Opera and Ballet Theatre in 1937. He was a teacher in the Drawing School of the Society for Encouragement of Arts in 1907-17. He lived abroad in 1920-36 and returned in 1936 to become the chief of the graphic art studio of the Academy of Arts. He died during the siege and was buried in the common grave of professors of the Academy of Arts near Smolenskoe Cemetery. He lived at 70 Zagorodny Avenue till 1900, 11 Mytninskaya Embankment in 1900-13, 43 Tenth Line of Vasilievsky Island in 1913-15, 12 Grechesky Avenue in 1915-17, 20 Plutalova Street in 1936-37 (the house has not been preserved), and 25 Gulyarnaya Street (today, Lizy Chaykinoy Street) in 1937-42 (memorial plaque).

Reference: Иван Яковлевич Билибин: Ст., письма, воспоминания о художнике / Сост. С. В. Голынец. Л., 1970; Иван Яковлевич Билибин, 1876-1942: [Альбом] / Авт.-сост. Т. Ф. Верижникова. СПб., 2002.

V. I. Dedyulin.

BONCH-BRUEVICH Mikhail Alexandrovich (1888-1940, Leningrad), radio technician, Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1931). Graduated from the Nikolaevsky Engineering School (1909) and the Military Electrotechnical School in Petrograd (1915), where he later lectured. In 1916-18, he organised the first-time manufacture of Russian electrical tubes. From 1918, worked in Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow. Under his guidance, the world's first Komintern high-power radio station was constructed in Moscow in 1922, as well as a high-powered generator-tube with a water cooling system. From 1932, he lived in Leningrad, working as a professor at the Leningrad Institute for Communications Systems Engineers (named after Bonch-Bruevich in 1940; today called the St. Petersburg Telecommunication University), and as acting director of Scientific Research Institute No. Nine. From 1934, he lived at the House of Specialists at 61 Lesnoy Avenue. Buried at the Bogoslovskoe Cemetery.

References: Арнаутов Л. И., Карпов Я. К. Прорыв в грядущее: Страницы жизни М. А. Бонч-Бруевича, пионера сов. радиотехники. М., 1986.

V. V. Cheparukhin.

CATHERINE I (nee Marta Skavronskaya) (1684-1727, St. Petersburg), Empress (crowned in 1721), the second wife of Tsar Peter the Great (from 1712), mother of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. After the death of her husband (1725) she was enthroned by A.D. Menshikov, who was the real ruler of Russia during her reign. Catherine I's only remarkable accomplishment in St. Petersburg was the opening of the Academy of Sciences (1725). From 1710, she had owned the Sarskaya Grange (Tsarskoe Selo), where a small stone palace was built for her in 1717-23, called Ekaterinhof from 1711. In St. Petersburg, she owned Peter the Great's Summer Palace located at the Fontanka River (on site of the present-day Mikhailovsky Castle). She was buried at the SS. Peter&Paul Cathedral.

References: Арсеньев К. И. Царствование Екатерины I. СПб., 1856; Анисимов Е. В. Россия без Петра, 1725-1740. СПб., 1994.

G. V. Kalashnikov.

27/05/1794-14/04/1856
Chaadayev was born in Moscow. Lieutenant Colonel Yakov Petrovich Chaadayev was his father, Princess Natalya Mikhailovna Shcherbatova was his mother. He had the home education and learned in the Moscow University (1808-1812). In 1812 Chaadayev began to serve as a second ensign of the Semenovsky Life-Guard Regiment. In 1825 he resigned with the rank of a captain.
Chaadayev was a member of the Society of Prosperity and the Northen Society (from 1821).
His Majesty Emperor ordered to keep without attention.
He died in Moscow and was buried in the Donskoy Monastery.
Memorial places :the late of the 1810s - 1823, the Demutov Inn (40 The Moika River Embankment; 27 Bolshaya Konyushennaya ), he lived here
1812-1815, the officers barracks of the Semenovsky Life-Guard Regiment (50 Zagorodny Prospekt; 54 Zagorodny Prospekt; 2 Ruzovskaya Street ), he served here
1816-1821, the barracks of the Life -Guard Hussar Regiment (Pushkin Town, 40-46 Parkovaya Street ), he served here.

CHEKHONIN Sergey Vasilievich (1878-1936), painter and graphic artist. He did his studies at the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts (1896-97) and at Princess M.K. Tenisheva's school under I.E. Repin (1897-1900). He created refined graphic compositions based on decorative and ornamental stylisation of Russian Empire motifs; under the Soviet government these compositions also took up revolutionary symbols and slogans, developing into the so-called Soviet Empire style. He contributed to St. Petersburg publishing houses Enlightenment, Dog Brier, Creation etc. In 1905-07 he issued a number of sharp political caricatures (in Zritel journal and Satirikon journal), and published Maski satirical journal (1906). Over the next seven years, from 1907 to 1914, he worked on the details of ornamental decoration of interiors (panels and friezes) in Goldvein and Vaulin ceramic workshop located in Kikerino near St. Petersburg (was not preserved on the whole). From 1913, Chekhonin took part in the exhibitions of the World of Art, being a member from 1912. In 1917, he was admitted to the Artistic Board of the Department of Fine Arts of People's Commissariat for Education. During his term he made up the project designs of the coat of arms of Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the seal of the Council of People's Commissars, drafts of bank notes and silver coins, as well as graphic portraits of Soviet leaders, in particular, V.I. Lenin and G.E. Zinovyev. He also took part in the staging of street festivities. In 1918-23 and 1925-27, he held the office of creative director at State Porcelain Factory (see Lomonosovsky Porcelain Factory). Chekhonin developed the first samples of "propagandistic" porcelain and china (for example, a plate Blessed Be Free Labour, dishes The Coat of Arms of Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic with Flowers, Famine). In 1928, he settled in France, where he worked in the field of artistic industry and stage set design. He died in the town of Loerrach in Germany. While in St. Petersburg, he lived at 72 Ninth Line of Vasilievsky Island (1910), 23/73 Maly Avenue of Vasilievsky Island (1911-13), and 43 Twelfth Line of Vasilievsky Island (1913-28).

References: Пунин Н. Н., Эфрос А. М. С. Чехонин. М.; Пг., 1924; Голынец С. В. Сергей Чехонин: Серп и Молот и Тараканище // Вопр. искусствознания. 1994. № 1. С. 285-299.

O. L. Leikind, D.Y. Severyukhin.

CHERKASOV Nikolay Konstantinovich (1903, St. Petersburg - 1966, Leningrad), actor, People's Artist of the USSR (1947). Graduated from the Leningrad Dramatics School in 1926. In 1919-21, worked as a mime at the Petrograd Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, and in 1922-25, an artist at the Petrograd Studio of Young Ballet (among his parts is Don Quixote in L.F. Minkus's ballet of the same name). Caught the public's attention in productions by the Dramatics School as a brilliant character actor and dynamically expressive comedy actor mainly inclined toward eccentric transformation (Sir Andrew in W. Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Rabourdin in The heirs of Rabourdin by E. Zola, Pat in the mock dance Pat, Patachon and Charlie Chaplin, which he performed for many years on various stages, and which was filmed). The same qualities characterised Cherkasov's work at the Leningrad Young Spectators' Theatre (1926-29; Don Quixote in A.Y. Brustein and B.V. Zon's play of the same name; father Moor in The Robbers by F. Schiller; Zvezdintsev in The Fruits of Culture by N. Tolstoy), at the travelling Kosmoglaz Theatre of New Operetta (1927-28), throughout Leningrad and Moscow music-halls, circuses in the Moscow and Volga region (1929-30), and as part of the Leningrad Travelling Comedy Theatre (1931-33). In 1934-65, he acted at the Leningrad Academic Drama Theatre (see Alexandrinsky Theatre), where he brilliantly created the comic characters of Varlaam in Alexander Pushkin's Boris Godunov (1934 and 1949), Osip in The Inspector General by N.V. Gogol (1936 and 1952), and Bulanov in The Forest by A.N. Ostrovsky (1936). Other significant roles included Peter the Great in A.N. Tolstoy's play Peter I (1938), Don Quixote in Don Quixote (1941) and Khludov in Flight (1958) by M.A. Bulgakov, Ivan the Terrible in Great Prince by V.A. Solovyev (1945), and Baron in The Miserly Knight by Alexander Pushkin (1962). Found success as a clown, abandoned this specialisation, and began rotating between characters of "historical" and "socially heroic" natures (Dronov in Everything Remains for the People by S.I. Aleshin; for the theatre in 1959, on film in 1963). He began appearing in films in 1927, playing over 40 parts, including Kolka Loshak in Hectic Days (1935), Paganel in Captain Grant's Children (1936), Professor Polezhaev in Baltic Deputy and Prince Alexey in Peter the First (1937), Alexander Nevsky in Alexander Nevsky (1938), Ivan the Terrible in Ivan the Terrible (1945), and Don Quixote in Don Quixote (1957). From 1948, and for the rest of his life, he was the chairman of the Leningrad Department of the All-Union Theatre Society. A major part of Cherkasov's works and recollections about him are collected in the book Nikolay Cherkasov (Moscow, 1976). He won the Stalin Prize (1941, 1946, 1950, and 1951), the Lenin Prize (1964), a prize at the Moscow Film Festival in Stratford, Canada (1958), and the Grand Prix of the International Exhibition in Paris (1937). He lived at 27 Kronverkskaya Street (memorial plaque installed) from 1944 until 1966. Buried at Necropolis of Artists. A new street in the Vyborgsky District was named after Cherkasov in 1970.

Reference: Герасимов Ю. К., Скверчинская Ж. Г. Черкасов. М., 1976.

A. A. Kirillov.

DANINI Silvio Amvrosievich (1867-1942, Leningrad), architect. Descendent of an Italian family. He lived in St. Petersburg from 1886, graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1892. From 1896, he was the architect of the palace administration of Tsarskoe Selo. From 1911, he was architect of the imperial court. His buildings in Tsarskoye Selo are typical for Neo-Romantic trend of the modernist style with stylized motives of medieval architecture, such as the Palace electric power station (9, 11 Malaya Street, 1896), mansions of A.V. Kokorev (53, 55 Moskovskaya Street, 1901-04) and of V.V. Gudovich (18 Parkovaya Street, 1905), the emperor's stables (4 Akademichesky Avenue, 1906-07), Drozhzhina Orphanage (14 Pavlovskoe Highway, 1907-11) etc. In 1900s, Danini decorated a number of interiors of Alexandrovsky Palace, he built and reconstructed park structures, expanded a complex of the Court Hospital (7 Gospitalnaya Street, 1908-14). His main works in St. Petersburg were: the apartment building of A. Y. Tami and S.M. Deutschman (currently, 20 Pravdy Street, 1903-04), the early Art Nouveau; the real school and gymnasium of G.K. Stemberg (10 Zvenigorodskaya Street, 1912-13), an example of Neoclassicism. He is buried at Volkovskoe Lutheran Cemetery.

References: Бертаццони В. Судьба мантуанского рода Данини в России. СПб., 1996.

Б. М. Кириков.

DERZHAVIN Gavriil Romanovich (1743-1816), poet and statesman, Full Privy Counsellor (1800). Received his primary education at the Kazan Gymnasium. Lived in St. Petersburg. From 1762, though intermittently. Entering the service as a soldier for the Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment, Derzhavin rose to the highest State offices. He Empress Catherine II's Personal Secretary (1791-93), Senator (from 1793), President of the Collegium of Commerce (1794, 1800), Minister of Justice, and a member of the State Assembly (1802-03). He retired in 1803. Derzhavin was first published in the St. Petersburg press in 1773, and acquired a literary reputation in the late 1770s, becoming a member of the Lvov and Derzhavin literary circle, as well as a permanent contributor to the Sankt Peterburgsky Vestnik. Many of Derzhavin's famous poems were written in St. Petersburg, such as On Prince Meschersky's Death (1779), Ode to Felicia (1783; published without the author's knowledge in the St. Petersburg journal Sobesednik Lyubiteley Rossiyskogo Slova, bringing Derzhavin fame as the first Russian poet, as well as Imperial patronage), God (1784), and Waterfall (1791-94). Derzhavin's poetic works represent an original, national version of the ode. He merges the St. Petersburg reality with Horace's ethical ideal (Picnics, 1777); his poetry reflects both the city's architectural splendour and its natural environs (Vision of Murza, 1783-84; A Walk in Tsarskoe Selo, 1791), and aspects of court life (Description of a Festival... at Prince G.A. Potemkin-Tavrichesky's, 1791). One of the main sources of information on Derzhavin's life is his Notes... (1812-13, published in 1860), where he describes a lot of St. Petersburg events, including the Palace Coup of 1762, in which he took part. He was elected a Fellow of the Russian Academy on the day of its foundation on 21 October 1783. In St. Petersburg he lived throughout the city's cultural centres. In 1790-91, he lived at 112 Fontanka River Embankment (a stone wing, which belonged to the Russian Academy); in 1791-1816, he owned a house at 118 Fontanka River Embankment (the building was completed according to a project designed by architect N.A. Lvov; a memorial plaque was installed on the building and at Derzhavin former study). From 1811, the sittings of the Discussion Club for Russian Language Lovers were held in the hall of that house. Derzhavin's residence was frequented by I.I. Dmitriev, N.M. Karamzin, M.M. Kheraskov, I.A. Krylov, N.I. Gnedich, D.S. Bortnyansky, D.G. Levitsky, and V.L. Borovikovsky. A memorial bust of Derzhavin was placed in the building yard in 1994 (sculptor M.T. Litovchenko-Anikushina, architect F.A. Gepner). In May 2003, the G.R. Derzhavin Museum of Russian Philology was opened in the building. The lane next to the building was called Derzhavinsky in 1979. Derzhavin's plaster image is a part of the monument to Catherine II.

References: Глинка Н. И. Державин в Петербурге. Л., 1985.

V. A. Kuznetsov, D.N. Cherdakov.