Nabokov House is the house 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...

 with the modern street number of 47 Great Morskaya Street (Bol'shaia morskaia ulitsa), 190000. It was in this mansion that Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...

 was born in 1899. Currently, the first floor of the house contains the Nabokov Museum.

History of the House

It is a medium to large townhouse, built in the 19th century, in the Neo-Renaissance

Neo-Renaissance

Renaissance Revival is an all-encompassing designation that covers many 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Grecian nor Gothic but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range of classicizing Italian modes...

 style. Between 1897 and the October Revolution

October 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...

 the house was the property of the Nabokovs, who had obtained it as a dowry of Elena Rukavishnikova (Vladimir Nabokov's mother). Vladimir Vladimirovich lived in the house until November 1917. The house is meticulously described in his autobiography The Other Shores and Speak, Memory

Speak, Memory

Speak, Memory is an autobiographical memoir by writer Vladimir Nabokov.-Scope:The book is dedicated to his wife, Véra, and covers his life from 1903 until his emigration to America in 1940. The first twelve chapters describe Nabokov's remembrance of his youth in an aristocratic family living in...

. For Vladimir the house remained the only house in the world. Subsequently, even when he grew rich, he never acquired any other house and preferred to live in hotels.

Nabokov Museum

Since April 1998 the first floor of the house (the family floor in Nabokov's time) is occupied by the Nabokov Museum and the upper two stories (the parents' floor and the children's floor) are occupied by the offices of the newspaper Nevskoe Vremya. In the museum space are the Phone room, Dining room, Library, Committee Room (where most of the meetings of the Constitutional Democratic party

Constitutional Democratic party

The Constitutional Democratic Party was a liberal political party in the Russian Empire. Party members were called Kadets, from the abbreviation K-D of the party name...

 were held) and the Kitchen.

Very little has remained from the Nabokov's family life in the house. Time and history spared nothing, except the interiors of several rooms on the first and second floors of the building and the old stained glass window above the flight of stairs leading to the third floor.

Nabokov memorabilia, including Vladimir Nabokov's personal effects (index cards, pencils, eyeglasses, scrabble game) as well as books and other objects connected to his life and art, form the core of the museum's collection. The museum is dedicated to fostering Nabokov's memory and his artistic legacy and cultural values, both within Russia and internationally. The museum not only houses exhibits related to Nabokov's life and milieu and provides a research library for Nabokov scholars but also holds many events and activities inspired by Nabokov: readings of works by Nabokov and those he admired, (such as Chekhov

Anton Chekhov

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...

 and Joyce

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...

), lectures, international or single-nation conferences ("Nabokov and Russia", "Nabokov and England", "Nabokov and France", "Nabokov and Germany", "Nabokov and the United States"), an annual international Nabokov summer school, and exhibitions and installations related to Nabokov. Its activities have the regular support of leading Nabokov scholars from around the world.

Friends of the Nabokov Museum (FNM)

The museum is supported by the American nonprofit organization Friends of the Nabokov Museum (FNM). The FNM can be contacted at friendsofnabokov@sbcglobal.net. Donations can be made online at the museum's website or mailed to Friends of the Nabokov Museum, Inc., P.O. Box 41146, San Jose, CA 95160.

Museum info

• 190000, St.Petersburg # 47 Bol'shaya Morskaya

The museum is open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., and closed Monday.