Chicherin House
Encyclopedia
Chichrerin House was a historical landmark
building located at Nevsky Prospekt
15 (between Bolshaya Morskaya Street and Moika River
embankment) in Saint Petersburg
, Russia
. It is also known as Kosikovsky House, Elisseeff House and Barrikada cinema theater.
and Bolshaya Morskaya Street was the site used to build Mytnyi Dvor , a project by Georg Johann Mattarnovy
and Nicolaus Friedrich Harbel. This building had a two-story gallery and a tower overlooking the Moyka, and it was commonly called Gostiny Dvor (not to be confused with the modern Gostiny Dvor
in Saint Petersburg that was built later, in 1757). It was destroyed in a fire in 1736.
After the fire, the site remained empty until 1755, when architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli
constructed a single-story wooden temporary Winter Palace to be a residence for Empress Elizabeth Petrovna while the new permanent Winter Palace
was being built. The palace spanned the entire space from the Moyka River to Malaya and Morskaya streets, occupied today by Chicherin House at Nevsky 15 and Chaplin's House at Nevsky 13.
The history of the palace is linked to the history of the first Russian theater. When famous actor Fyodor Volkov
was invited to come from Yaroslavl
to Saint Petersburg in 1757, he became the director of the Imperial Theater. Performances were held in the palace, in a specially prepared hall.
Empress Elizabeth lived in this palace until her death there on December 25, 1761.
By 1767 the wooden palace had deteriorated so badly that it had to be demolished. Empress Catherine II gave the vacant land to Nikolai Ivanovich Chicherin as a gift. Nikolai Chicherin was a brother of Denis Ivanovich Chicherin, who was commander of the military unit in which Gregory and Alexey Orlov
served. The Orlov brothers helped Catherine rise to the power in a coup. After she became empress, Denis Chicherin was appointed governor of Siberia
, and Nikolai Chicherin was appointed chief police general of Saint Petersburg.
Chicherin ordered a house to be built on the site and a four-story building was constructed in 1768-1771. It is not known for certain who the architect was. It has been suggested that it could have been Vallin de la Mothe
, Yury Felten
, Alexander Kokorinov
or Andrey Kvasov
. The nearby Green Bridge
across the Moyka river was renamed Police Bridge due to its proximity to the police chief's home.
The architecture, in rigorous neoclassical style, is a rare example of the corner of a building forming a semicircular arc. The facade on one street flows smoothly into the facade on the intersecting street, in a united ensemble.
Chicherin's family lived in the third floor. The first floor featured various shops including a bookstore. All the other apartments were for rent. One of the tenants in 1780-1783 was Giacomo Quarenghi
.
In 1778, Saint Petersburg's second music club opened in Chicherin House, where weekly concerts and masquerades were performed. Attendees included Alexander Radishchev
, Denis Fonvizin
, Ivan Starov
and Fedot Shubin
. The club was unable to operate at a profit and was closed in 1792.
. Young Speransky impressed Kurakin with help on one business letter, so he was immediately offered a job as prince's scribe. That was were spectacular career of Speransky started. In 1800-1806 the owner of the house was merchant Abram Peretz, prominent financist, ship building contractor and salt supplier.
led this project. The facade of the new section featured twelve columns to commemorate victory in the War of 1812
over Napoleon. In this part of the building, on the first floor frenchman Pierre Talon open restaurant Talon. Alexander Pushkin used to visit this restaurant, and in his novel in verse Evgeny Onegin he also sent there Onegin himself:
Talon was closed in 1825. At the same time, Alexander Pluchart had established Pluchart's Publishing House and bookstore at Kosikovsky House. That's where Nikolai Gogol
's Revisor and Russian translation of Goethe's Faust
were first printed. The editorial office of Pavel Svinyin
's journal Otechestvennye Zapiski
was also located at the building.
stayed at his place in 1825. In 1820th, Vincenco Madenri had a sculpture workshop in the Kosikovsky house. This where malachite
was used for the first time for interior work.
In 1828 Russian writer, composer and diplomat Alexander Griboedov rented an apartment in Kosikovsky house. From here he left to Russian consulate in Tehran
, where he was killed by a mob during riots.
brothers - two sons of the merchant Elisseeff - the founder of the Elisseeff Trading House. From 1858 to 1870 the building was reconstructed under the project of Nikolai Grebenka. The shape of windows facing Nevsky Prospekt was partially changed, and new section was built on the Moyka side of the building.
The Elisseeff brothers were patrons of the arts, and collectors. All Auguste Rodin
's sculptures which are in the Hermitage Museum
collection were first collected by the Elisseeff family. In 1860 the Elisseeffs opened a 'Salon' in the house, which existed until 1914. Honorable members of the assembly included Pyotr Vyazemsky
, Faddei Bulgarin
and others. Here, the writers such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ivan Turgenev
and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
read their works. In 1886 the Elisseeff House hosted the premiere of Modest Mussorgsky
's opera Khovanshchina
.
In January 1862, count Grigory Kushelev-Bezborodko founded a chess club in the Elisseeff House. Club members included Nikolai Chernyshevsky
and Dmitri Mendeleev
. However, the police started to get reports, that club members engage in political discussions about constitution and revolution, Chernyshevsky makes speeches, and there is no playing chess. In March of the same year police closed the club.
, most members of the Elisseeff family fled from Russia. They, however, did not believe that the new rule would last long, so they left everything behind them. The legend has it that they hid most of their treasures in the walls of the house. These treasures were never found.
In 1919-1923, Maxim Gorky
established House of Arts in the former Elisseeff House. Following fashionable then modernism
, it was abbreviated as DISK (from Russian Dom Iskustv - House of Arts). At times of Russian Civil War
and post war devastation, apartments were provided artists, writers, poets and composers such as Viktor Shklovsky
, Osip Mandelstam
, Alexander Grin
(who wrote the novel Scarlet Sails
here), Olga Forsh
(who wrote the novel Palace and Prison here). Korney Chukovsky
, Mikhail Zoshchenko
, Robert Rozhdestvensky
, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin
worked here. House of Arts hosted poet studio led by Nikolay Gumilyov
. This is where he was arrested on August 3, 1921 and later executed. During these difficult years the book printing was very limited, and House of Arts plays important role in the cultural life of the city through Literature Evenings. These were gathering where Alexander Blok
, Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Mayakovsky
, Andrei Bely
, Anna Achmatova, Fyodor Sologub
and Herbert Wells participated and read their works. Olga Forsh described the life in House of Arts in her novel Crazy Ship.
, then a student at Leningrad Conservatory, worked as a pianist accompanying the silent film
s. However, he didn't last long at this job. He was fired as he was distracting the audience from the films with his piano playing.
Barrikada remained open even during the Siege of Leningrad
. It was screening war documentaries and pre-war movies. The fact that the cinema stayed open during the siege became an important symbol for the city, as well as a source of information.
Barrikada operated until the late 1980s. By then the deteriorated condition of the building forced its closure. In 1998 the money for repairs were found and the theatre was open again.
JSC “Taleon” contributes in the renaissance of Saint – Petersburg’s cultural view, rebuilding and recovering of the Chicherin’s house, which belongs to cultural and historical heritage of the city. Nowadays rich history of the Palace is gently preserved. It continues its existence, not losing the close correlation with the Great Russian History.
Landmarks of Saint Petersburg
The appearance of St. Petersburg is achieved through a variety of architectural details including long, straight boulevards, vast spaces, gardens and parks, decorative wrought-iron fences, monuments and decorative sculptures. The Neva River itself, together with its many canals and their granite...
building located at Nevsky Prospekt
Nevsky Prospekt
Nevsky Avenue |Prospekt]]) is the main street in the city of St. Petersburg, Russia. Planned by Peter the Great as beginning of the road to Novgorod and Moscow, the avenue runs from the Admiralty to the Moscow Railway Station and, after making a turn at Vosstaniya Square, to the Alexander...
15 (between Bolshaya Morskaya Street and Moika River
Moika River
The Moyka River is a small river which encircles the central portion of Saint Petersburg, effectively making it an island. The river, originally known as Mya, derives its name from the Ingrian word for "slush, mire"...
embankment) in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. It is also known as Kosikovsky House, Elisseeff House and Barrikada cinema theater.
Preceding buildings
In 1716-1720, the area between the Moika RiverMoika River
The Moyka River is a small river which encircles the central portion of Saint Petersburg, effectively making it an island. The river, originally known as Mya, derives its name from the Ingrian word for "slush, mire"...
and Bolshaya Morskaya Street was the site used to build Mytnyi Dvor , a project by Georg Johann Mattarnovy
Georg Johann Mattarnovy
Georg Johann Mattarnovi was a German Baroque architect and sculptor, notable for his work in Saint Petersburg.The birthplace of Mattarnovi is unknown, but most probably it was Prussia. His year of birth is also unknown. He was a sculptor, and a disciple and assistant of German architect Andreas...
and Nicolaus Friedrich Harbel. This building had a two-story gallery and a tower overlooking the Moyka, and it was commonly called Gostiny Dvor (not to be confused with the modern Gostiny Dvor
Gostiny Dvor
Great Gostiny Dvor is a vast department store on Nevsky Avenue in St Petersburg.This Gostiny Dvor is not only the city's oldest shopping centre, but also one of the first shopping arcades in the world...
in Saint Petersburg that was built later, in 1757). It was destroyed in a fire in 1736.
After the fire, the site remained empty until 1755, when architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli
Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli
Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli was an Italian architect naturalized Russian. He developed an easily recognizable style of Late Baroque, both sumptuous and majestic...
constructed a single-story wooden temporary Winter Palace to be a residence for Empress Elizabeth Petrovna while the new permanent Winter Palace
Winter Palace
The Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, was, from 1732 to 1917, the official residence of the Russian monarchs. Situated between the Palace Embankment and the Palace Square, adjacent to the site of Peter the Great's original Winter Palace, the present and fourth Winter Palace was built and...
was being built. The palace spanned the entire space from the Moyka River to Malaya and Morskaya streets, occupied today by Chicherin House at Nevsky 15 and Chaplin's House at Nevsky 13.
The history of the palace is linked to the history of the first Russian theater. When famous actor Fyodor Volkov
Fyodor Volkov
Fyodor Grigorievich Volkov was a Russian actor and founder of the first permanent Russian theater.The stepson of merchant Polushkin from Kostroma, Fyodor Volkov received a versatile education. He established the very first public theater in Yaroslavl in 1750, which would later bring fame to the...
was invited to come from Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historical part of the city, a World Heritage Site, is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl Rivers. It is one of the Golden Ring cities, a group of historic cities...
to Saint Petersburg in 1757, he became the director of the Imperial Theater. Performances were held in the palace, in a specially prepared hall.
Empress Elizabeth lived in this palace until her death there on December 25, 1761.
Chicherin House
Orlov
Orlov is the name of a Russian noble family which produced several distinguished statesmen, diplomatists and soldiers. The family first gained distinction in the person of four Orlov brothers, of whom the senior was Catherine the Great's paramour, and the two junior were notable military...
served. The Orlov brothers helped Catherine rise to the power in a coup. After she became empress, Denis Chicherin was appointed governor of Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, and Nikolai Chicherin was appointed chief police general of Saint Petersburg.
Chicherin ordered a house to be built on the site and a four-story building was constructed in 1768-1771. It is not known for certain who the architect was. It has been suggested that it could have been Vallin de la Mothe
Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe
thumb|St. Petersburg's [[Imperial Academy of Arts]]Jean-Baptiste Michel Vallin de la Mothe was a French architect whose major career was spent in St...
, Yury Felten
Yury Felten
Yury Matveyevich Felten was a court architect to Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia.Yuri Felten was born Georg Veldten, into a family of German immigrants in Russia. His father worked for the Russian Academy of Sciences...
, Alexander Kokorinov
Alexander Kokorinov
Alexander Filippovich Kokorinov was a Russian architect and educator, one of the founders, the first builder, director and rector of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Peterburg. Kokorinov has been house architect of the Razumovsky family and Ivan Shuvalov, the first President of the Academy...
or Andrey Kvasov
Andrey Kvasov
Andrey Vasilievich Kvasov was a notable Baroque architect who worked in Russia and Ukraine. Very little is known about his life, and its dates are still uncertain. Only a handful of his buildings, though much altered, still stand....
. The nearby Green Bridge
Green Bridge (Saint Petersburg)
Green Bridge is a bridge across Moika River in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It was the first cast iron bridge in the city....
across the Moyka river was renamed Police Bridge due to its proximity to the police chief's home.
The architecture, in rigorous neoclassical style, is a rare example of the corner of a building forming a semicircular arc. The facade on one street flows smoothly into the facade on the intersecting street, in a united ensemble.
Chicherin's family lived in the third floor. The first floor featured various shops including a bookstore. All the other apartments were for rent. One of the tenants in 1780-1783 was Giacomo Quarenghi
Giacomo Quarenghi
Giacomo Quarenghi was the foremost and most prolific practitioner of Palladian architecture in Imperial Russia, particularly in Saint Petersburg.- Career in Italy :...
.
In 1778, Saint Petersburg's second music club opened in Chicherin House, where weekly concerts and masquerades were performed. Attendees included Alexander Radishchev
Alexander Radishchev
Alexander Nikolayevich Radishchev was a Russian author and social critic who was arrested and exiled under Catherine the Great. He brought the tradition of radicalism in Russian literature to prominence with the publication in 1790 of his Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow...
, Denis Fonvizin
Denis Fonvizin
Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin was a playwright of the Russian Enlightenment, whose plays are still staged today. His main works are two satirical comedies which mock contemporary Russian gentry.-Life:...
, Ivan Starov
Ivan Starov
Ivan Yegorovich Starov was a Russian architect from St. Petersburg who devised the master plans for Yaroslavl, Voronezh, Pskov, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, and many other towns in Russia and Ukraine...
and Fedot Shubin
Fedot Shubin
Fedot Ivanovich Shubin is widely regarded as the greatest sculptor of 18th-century Russia.A peasant's son, Shubin was born in a Pomor village near Kholmogory and, inspired by the example of his neighbour Mikhail Lomonosov, he walked all the way to St Petersburg at the age of 18...
. The club was unable to operate at a profit and was closed in 1792.
Kurakin House
In 1792, Chicherin's children sold the property to prince Alexei Kurakin who lived there since 1792. One of the tenants in the Kurakin's house was Mikhail SperanskyMikhail Speransky
Count Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky was probably the greatest of Russian reformers during the reign of Alexander I of Russia. He was a close advisor to Tsar Alexander I of Russia and later to Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, he is sometimes called the father of Russian liberalism.-Early life and...
. Young Speransky impressed Kurakin with help on one business letter, so he was immediately offered a job as prince's scribe. That was were spectacular career of Speransky started. In 1800-1806 the owner of the house was merchant Abram Peretz, prominent financist, ship building contractor and salt supplier.
Kosikovsky House
From 1806, the ownership passed to merchant Kosikovsky. In 1814-1816 new section of the house was built alongside Bolshaya Morskaya street. Architect Vasily StasovVasily Stasov
Vasily Petrovich Stasov was a Russian architect.-Biography:Stasov was born in Moscow....
led this project. The facade of the new section featured twelve columns to commemorate victory in the War of 1812
French invasion of Russia
The French invasion of Russia of 1812 was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. It reduced the French and allied invasion forces to a tiny fraction of their initial strength and triggered a major shift in European politics as it dramatically weakened French hegemony in Europe...
over Napoleon. In this part of the building, on the first floor frenchman Pierre Talon open restaurant Talon. Alexander Pushkin used to visit this restaurant, and in his novel in verse Evgeny Onegin he also sent there Onegin himself:
Talon was closed in 1825. At the same time, Alexander Pluchart had established Pluchart's Publishing House and bookstore at Kosikovsky House. That's where Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Ukrainian-born Russian dramatist and novelist.Considered by his contemporaries one of the preeminent figures of the natural school of Russian literary realism, later critics have found in Gogol's work a fundamentally romantic sensibility, with strains of Surrealism...
's Revisor and Russian translation of Goethe's Faust
Goethe's Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in two parts: and . Although written as a closet drama, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages...
were first printed. The editorial office of Pavel Svinyin
Pavel Svinyin
Pavel Petrovich Svinyin or Svinin was a prolific Russian writer, painter, and editor known as a "Russian Munchausen" for many exaggerated accounts of his travels....
's journal Otechestvennye Zapiski
Otechestvennye Zapiski
Otechestvennye Zapiski was a Russian literary magazine published in St Petersburg on a monthly basis between 1818 and 1884. The journal served liberal-minded readers, known as the intelligentsia...
was also located at the building.
Wilhelm Küchelbecker
Wilhelm Küchelbecker was a Russian Romantic poet and Decembrist....
stayed at his place in 1825. In 1820th, Vincenco Madenri had a sculpture workshop in the Kosikovsky house. This where malachite
Malachite
Malachite is a copper carbonate mineral, with the formula Cu2CO32. This green-colored mineral crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, and most often forms botryoidal, fibrous, or stalagmitic masses. Individual crystals are rare but do occur as slender to acicular prisms...
was used for the first time for interior work.
In 1828 Russian writer, composer and diplomat Alexander Griboedov rented an apartment in Kosikovsky house. From here he left to Russian consulate in Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
, where he was killed by a mob during riots.
Elisseeff House
In 1858 the property was acquired by the ElisseeffEliseyev Emporium (Saint Petersburg)
Elisseeff Emporium in St. Petersburg is a large retail and entertainment complex constructed in 1902-1903 for the Elisseeff Brothers. Located at 56 Nevsky Prospekt, the complex consists of three buildings, although the corner one is the structure that is referred to as Elisseeff’s store or shop...
brothers - two sons of the merchant Elisseeff - the founder of the Elisseeff Trading House. From 1858 to 1870 the building was reconstructed under the project of Nikolai Grebenka. The shape of windows facing Nevsky Prospekt was partially changed, and new section was built on the Moyka side of the building.
The Elisseeff brothers were patrons of the arts, and collectors. All Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin
François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
's sculptures which are in the Hermitage Museum
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...
collection were first collected by the Elisseeff family. In 1860 the Elisseeffs opened a 'Salon' in the house, which existed until 1914. Honorable members of the assembly included Pyotr Vyazemsky
Pyotr Vyazemsky
Prince Pyotr Andreyevich Vyazemsky or Petr Andreevich Viazemsky was a leading personality of the Golden Age of Russian poetry.- Biography :...
, Faddei Bulgarin
Faddei Bulgarin
Faddey Venediktovich Bulgarin , was a Polish-born Russian writer and journalist whose self-imposed mission was to popularize the authoritarian policies of Alexander I and Nicholas I.-Life and career:...
and others. Here, the writers such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...
and Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin , better known by his pseudonym Shchedrin , was a major Russian satirist of the 19th century. At one time, after the death of the poet Nikolai Nekrasov, he acted as editor of the well-known Russian magazine, the Otechestvenniye Zapiski, until it was banned by...
read their works. In 1886 the Elisseeff House hosted the premiere of Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
's opera Khovanshchina
Khovanshchina
Khovanshchina is an opera in five acts by Modest Mussorgsky. The work was written between 1872 and 1880 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The composer wrote the libretto based on historical sources...
.
In January 1862, count Grigory Kushelev-Bezborodko founded a chess club in the Elisseeff House. Club members included Nikolai Chernyshevsky
Nikolai Chernyshevsky
Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky was a Russian revolutionary democrat, materialist philosopher, critic, and socialist...
and Dmitri Mendeleev
Dmitri Mendeleev
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev , was a Russian chemist and inventor. He is credited as being the creator of the first version of the periodic table of elements...
. However, the police started to get reports, that club members engage in political discussions about constitution and revolution, Chernyshevsky makes speeches, and there is no playing chess. In March of the same year police closed the club.
House of Arts
After 1917 October RevolutionOctober Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, most members of the Elisseeff family fled from Russia. They, however, did not believe that the new rule would last long, so they left everything behind them. The legend has it that they hid most of their treasures in the walls of the house. These treasures were never found.
In 1919-1923, Maxim Gorky
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
established House of Arts in the former Elisseeff House. Following fashionable then modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
, it was abbreviated as DISK (from Russian Dom Iskustv - House of Arts). At times of Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
and post war devastation, apartments were provided artists, writers, poets and composers such as Viktor Shklovsky
Viktor Shklovsky
Viktor Borisovich Shklovsky was a Russian and Soviet critic, writer, and pamphleteer.-Life:...
, Osip Mandelstam
Osip Mandelstam
Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam was a Russian poet and essayist who lived in Russia during and after its revolution and the rise of the Soviet Union. He was one of the foremost members of the Acmeist school of poets...
, Alexander Grin
Alexander Grin
Alexander Grin was a Russian writer, notable for his romantic novels and short stories, mostly set in an unnamed fantasy land with a European or Latin American flavor...
(who wrote the novel Scarlet Sails
Scarlet Sails
Scarlet Sails may refer to:* A 1923 adventure novel by Alexander Grin *Scarlet Sails , a Soviet film starring Vasily Lanovoy and Anastasiya Vertinskaya...
here), Olga Forsh
Olga Forsh
-Early life:Forsh was born in the fortress at Gunib, in Dagestan, the daughter of a major general in the Russian Imperial Army. Her father met her mother, Nina Shakhetdinova, an Azerbaijanian, while he was stationed in the Caucasus. Nina died when Olga was very young...
(who wrote the novel Palace and Prison here). Korney Chukovsky
Korney Chukovsky
Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky was one of the most popular children's poets in the Russian language. His poems, Doctor Aybolit , The Giant Roach , The Crocodile , and Wash'em'clean have been favourites with many generations of Russophone children...
, Mikhail Zoshchenko
Mikhail Zoshchenko
-Biography:Zoshchenko was born in 1895, in Poltava, but spent most of his life in St. Petersburg / Leningrad. His Ukrainian father was a mosaicist responsible for the exterior decoration of the Suvorov Museum in Saint Petersburg. The future writer attended the Faculty of Law at the Saint Petersburg...
, Robert Rozhdestvensky
Robert Rozhdestvensky
Robert Ivanovich Rozhdestvensky was a Soviet poet who in the broke with the Social Realism in 1950s–1960s and, along with such poets as Andrey Voznesensky, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, and Bella Akhmadulina, pioneered a newer, fresher, and freer poetry in the Soviet Union.-Life:Robert Rozhdestvensky...
, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin
Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin, was an important Russian and Soviet painter and writer.-Early years:...
worked here. House of Arts hosted poet studio led by Nikolay Gumilyov
Nikolay Gumilyov
Nikolay Stepanovich Gumilev was an influential Russian poet who founded the acmeism movement.-Early life and poems:Nikolai was born in the town of Kronstadt on Kotlin Island, into the family of Stepan Yakovlevich Gumilev , a naval physician, and Anna Ivanovna L'vova . His childhood nickname was...
. This is where he was arrested on August 3, 1921 and later executed. During these difficult years the book printing was very limited, and House of Arts plays important role in the cultural life of the city through Literature Evenings. These were gathering where Alexander Blok
Alexander Blok
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was a Russian lyrical poet.-Life and career:Blok was born in Saint Petersburg, into a sophisticated and intellectual family. Some of his relatives were literary men, his father being a law professor in Warsaw, and his maternal grandfather the rector of Saint Petersburg...
, Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet poet and playwright, among the foremost representatives of early-20th century Russian Futurism.- Early life :...
, Andrei Bely
Andrei Bely
Andrei Bely was the pseudonym of Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev , a Russian novelist, poet, theorist, and literary critic. His novel Petersburg was regarded by Vladimir Nabokov as one of the four greatest novels of the 20th century.-Biography:...
, Anna Achmatova, Fyodor Sologub
Fyodor Sologub
Fyodor Sologub was a Russian Symbolist poet, novelist, playwright and essayist. He was the first writer to introduce the morbid, pessimistic elements characteristic of European fin de siècle literature and philosophy into Russian prose.-Early life:...
and Herbert Wells participated and read their works. Olga Forsh described the life in House of Arts in her novel Crazy Ship.
Barrikada
In 1923, the cinema theater Light ribbon was opened in the building. In 1931 it was renamed as Barrikada. During the 1920s, the young Dmitri ShostakovichDmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
, then a student at Leningrad Conservatory, worked as a pianist accompanying the silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
s. However, he didn't last long at this job. He was fired as he was distracting the audience from the films with his piano playing.
Barrikada remained open even during the Siege of Leningrad
Siege of Leningrad
The Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade was a prolonged military operation resulting from the failure of the German Army Group North to capture Leningrad, now known as Saint Petersburg, in the Eastern Front theatre of World War II. It started on 8 September 1941, when the last...
. It was screening war documentaries and pre-war movies. The fact that the cinema stayed open during the siege became an important symbol for the city, as well as a source of information.
Barrikada operated until the late 1980s. By then the deteriorated condition of the building forced its closure. In 1998 the money for repairs were found and the theatre was open again.
JSC “Taleon” contributes in the renaissance of Saint – Petersburg’s cultural view, rebuilding and recovering of the Chicherin’s house, which belongs to cultural and historical heritage of the city. Nowadays rich history of the Palace is gently preserved. It continues its existence, not losing the close correlation with the Great Russian History.